Programnotes Haydn Military
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PROGRAM ONE HUNDRED TWENTy-THIRD SEASON Chicago Symphony Orchestra Riccardo Muti Music Director Pierre Boulez Helen Regenstein Conductor Emeritus Yo-Yo Ma Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant Global Sponsor of the CSO Thursday, February 13, 2014, at 8:00 Tuesday, February 18, 2014, at 7:30 Nicholas McGegan Conductor Vivica Genaux Mezzo-soprano Handel Concerto grosso in G Major, Op. 6, No. 1 A tempo giusto— Allegro Adagio Allegro Allegro FOUR ARIAS Vivaldi Alma oppressa da sorte crudele FROM La fida ninfa Porpora Oh volesser gli Dei . Dolci, freschi aurette FROM Polifemo Porpora Or la nube procellosa Broschi Qual guerriero in campo armato FROM Idaspe VIVIca GENAUX INTERMISSION J.C. Bach Symphony in G Minor, Op. 6, No. 6 Allegro Andante più tosto adagio Allegro molto Haydn Symphony No. 100 in G Major (Military) Adagio—Allegro Allegretto Moderato Presto These are the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s first performances of all the works on this program except Haydn’s Military Symphony. CSO Tuesday series concerts are sponsored by United Airlines. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is grateful to 93XRT, RedEye, and Metromix for their generous support as media sponsors of the Classic Encounter Series. This program is partially supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts. COMMENTS by Phillip Huscher George Frideric Handel Born February 23, 1685, Halle, Saxony, Germany. Died April 14, 1759, London, England. Concerto grosso in G Major, Op. 6, No. 1 Unlike his contemporaries borrowed from works he had written in Italy), Bach (born just nineteen but also real spectacle as well, including, in one days later), Vivaldi, and aria, the release of a fl ock of sparrows that set the Telemann, Handel has audience buzzing. Opera after opera, hit after hit never gone out of fashion. followed. But by the late 1730s, Handel realized His oratorio Messiah has that the London public was losing interest in helped to keep his name Italian opera. In 1738, he decided to conclude alive, of course. But other his career as an opera composer; Serse, with its pieces, such as the hit Largo, was supposed to be his last opera. It majestic aria “Ombra mai wasn’t quite, as it turned out, but Handel had fu,” from the opera Serse (better known to decisively shifted his attention to oratorio and amateur pianists and greatest-hits record produc- instrumental music. ers as Handel’s Largo), the lively set of pieces he wrote to accompany an evening of fi reworks, and n October 29, 1739, the London his engaging suites of Water Music, also have been Daily Post advertised twelve “Grand widely performed, even in times when baroque Concertos” by Handel which would music was neither well known nor appreciated. Obe printed on “good Paper” and delivered to Handel was among the most popular compos- subscribers in April. One hundred subscribers ers of his day, and, particularly after he visited replied, enough to fund the undertaking, and the London in 1710 and then moved there for following spring, Handel’s op. 6 was released, good in 1712, he commanded a huge following quickly becoming one of his most popular and was in great demand both as a composer works. Handel was not only prolifi c; he was fast. and a performer—he excelled on organ and Apparently he composed the entire set—twelve harpsichord—for the rest of his life. (After he concertos, each with four to six movements, for became a British subject in 1727, he started a combined total of sixty-two movements—in a spelling his name George Frideric Handel rather single month. (And, despite Handel’s reputation than the Georg Friederich Händel which appears as an avid recycler, who was particularly apt to on his birth certifi cate.) reuse older material on a tight deadline, most of Raised in northern Germany, where he the music in this collection appears to be entirely received a thorough music education (and became new.) Th e set was consciously modeled on the a friend of Telemann), and later trained in the op. 6 collection of concerti grossi by Arcangelo operatic business in Italy, Handel arrived in Corelli, which had become a hit with London London an unusually cosmopolitan composer. audiences after its publication in 1714. Handel’s Determined to make a name for himself with concertos are even scored for Corelli’s preferred London’s opera-going public, he succeeded solo ensemble (the concertino) of two violins and with his fi rst attempt, Rinaldo, which not only cello set against an orchestra entirely of strings. included much dazzling music (some of it (Handel later added oboes to selected concertos, COMPOSED FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES APPROXIMATE October 1739 These are the fi rst CSO performances. PERFORMANCE TIME 12 minutes FIRST PERFORMANCE INSTRUMENTATION date unknown concertino (two violins and cello); two oboes, strings, and continuo 2 including the first one that is performed this adagio that is a kind of grand opera aria week; they essentially double the orchestral without words. The concerto begins with violins.) Like Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, the stately music that apparently was originally set as a whole is not only a brilliant distillation planned as the overture to the opera Imeneo. of the various kinds of music of its day, but it It is followed directly by a vigorous alle- shows its composer at the peak of his powers. gro characterized by the lively and often unpredictable interplay between concertino ach of Handel’s twelve concertos and full ensemble. After the central adagio, has its own form. The first one, Handel places a rapid fugal movement and, E in G major, centers on a dignified to conclude, a brilliant dancelike finale. FOUR ARIAS Antonio Vivaldi Born March 4, 1678, Venice, Italy. Died July 28, 1741, Venice, Italy. Alma oppressa da sorte crudele FROM La fida ninfa FIRST PERFORMANCE January 6, 1732; Verona, Italy Nicola Porpora Born August 17, 1686, Naples, Italy. Died March 3, 1768, Naples, Italy. Oh volesser gli Dei . Dolci, freschi aurette FROM Polifemo FIRST PERFORMANCE February 1, 1735; London, England Or la nube procellosa, added to Johann Hasse’s Artaserse FIRST PERFORMANCE 1734, London Riccardo Broschi Born ca. 1698, Naples, Italy. Died 1756, Madrid, Spain. Qual guerriero in campo armato FROM Idaspe FIRST PERFORMANCE 1730; Venice, Italy 3 here have been several so-called golden his patron. He quickly became not only the most ages of singing, but there has been no era admired of all the Italian castrato singers—that to rival the early years of the eighteenth long-ago abandoned century.T Th is was a time when singers developed tradition which, through astounding technical skills that have rarely been the art of surgery on matched since, and composers vied to write their prepubescent boys, allows fi nest music to accommodate and challenge the them to continue to sing great stars’ abilities. Th e public simply could not easily and brilliantly get enough of it. Th e most celebrated singers, in the female range as like the legendary castrato Farinelli, were adult men—but the idolized in a way that has rarely been matched greatest opera sensation in later times—arguably only by Paganini, the in Europe. Beginning virtuoso violinist, and Liszt, the titan of the in 1729, Farinelli turned Antonio Vivaldi keyboard—until such widespread popularity, down several off ers to audience pandemonium, and full-scale celebrity appear in England— treatment became the province of pop superstars. including one from All four of the arias performed at this concert Handel—but in 1734, he were composed around 1730—the very heart of fi nally added that great this great virtuoso era. Of the many composers music center to his list writing opera at the time, Antonio Vivaldi is the of conquests. Farinelli one whose music is still most highly regarded retired from the stage today. He was certainly the most original, in 1737 and moved to popular, and infl uential Italian composer of his Madrid, at the request time. Today, Vivaldi’s fame rests mainly on his of the queen, who hoped many concertos, especially Th e Four Seasons, that his singing could Nicola Porpora but Vivaldi thought of himself primarily as an cure the depression of opera composer. He was one of the most prolifi c Philip V. Every night composers of opera in his time; his output is even until the king’s death in 1746, Farinelli sere- larger than Handel’s. La fi da ninfa was written naded him with arias—three to nine, according for the opening of Verona’s Teatro Filarmonico to various accounts, and reputedly always in January of 1732. Its remarkably fl orid aria, including the same two arias by Johann Hasse. “Alma oppressa,” composed for the soprano (Reports on the king’s improvement also vary.) Giovanna Gasparini, shows Vivaldi’s genius for Farinelli, who was himself used to being treated placing an almost-instrumental kind of virtuoso like royalty, was now a “royal servant” to the vocal line—often propelled by long, unbroken king, and he lived out his days in luxury. strings of rapid-fi re sixteenth notes—completely J.J. Quantz, who was celebrated as the fi n- at the service of dramatic expression. est fl ute player in Europe and was the author of an important performance treatise, fi rst he greatest star of the day was Farinelli, heard Farinelli in the 1720s: “His intonation among the earliest of music’s one-name was pure, his trill beautiful, his breath control sensations; the remaining three arias extraordinary, and his throat very agile, so that onT this program were all identifi ed with him.