Byron Schenkman Friends Season Three 2015-2016 SEATTLE CHAMBER MUSIC 2016 SEASON SOCIETY JAMES EHNES Artistic Director WINTER FESTIVAL // JANUARY 22-31 BOX OFFICE SUMMER FESTIVAL // JULY 5-30 Tickets (206) 283-8808 Starting at seattlechambermusic.org ILLSLEY BALL NORDSTROM RECITAL HALL at Benaroya Hall $16 PSP_ad.pdf 1 7/31/15 8:48 AM C M Y CM MY WELCOME HOME CY Real estate brokerage with a heart CMY K Philip Patterson 206.954.3859 buyandsellseattle.com Delivering unrushed, client-centered service to investors and homeowners since 1989. Seattle Magazine 5-Star customer service agent again for 2015. Lake & Company Special thanks to the third season to our series founders, Welcome Robert DeLine & Alan J. Knue of Byron Schenkman & Friends at Benaroya Hall! This season and Carol Salisbury, and to all our donors, we are focusing on some of the greatest composers of the volunteers, and patrons! 18th and early 19th centuries, from Handel and Haydn to Special thanks also to Tom Lewandowski for all his Beethoven and Schubert, with Bach, Mozart, and Telemann in generous support and assistance. between. As we explore this wonderful repertoire we invite you to discover some unfamiliar gems and to experience familiar masterpieces of chamber music in a new light. Enjoy! Byron Schenkman & Friends is an Associated Program of Shunpike. Cover, Back Cover & Welcome page photos by Will Austin page 3 Sunday September27 Handel & Haydn 2015 Harpsichord Concertos Byron Schenkman George Frideric Handel: Keyboard Concerto in B-flat, op. 4, no. 2 harpsichord A tempo ordinario, e staccato – Allegro – Ingrid Matthews & Adagio, e staccato – Allegro, ma non presto Laurel Wells violins Joseph Haydn: Keyboard Concerto in F, H.XVIII:3 Allegro – Largo cantabile – Presto Jason Fisher viola Intermission Nathan Whittaker cello Handel: Sonata in A Major, op. 1, no. 3, for violin and continuo Andante – Allegro – Adagio – Allegro Haydn: Trio in C Major, H.XV:21, for keyboard, violin, and cello Adagio pastorale – Vivace assai – Molto andante – Presto Handel: Keyboard Concerto in F, op. 4, no. 4 Allegro – Andante – Adagio – Allegro page 4 program notes By Byron Schenkman George Frideric Handel and The concerto for one solo Most of Haydn’s chamber music Joseph Haydn were two of the instrument supported by a full with keyboard is geared toward most famous musicians of the 18th ensemble was a new form in the that same amateur market. Many century and are rare examples of early 18th century. Antonio Vivaldi pieces we now label sonatas, trios, composers who were celebrated composed hundreds of these and concertos were originally during their own lifetimes and concertos, most often for solo called divertimenti – diversions have remained famous ever since. violin but also for other solo string or light entertainments – again Although their music often and wind instruments. Handel was for keyboard with or without appeared side by side in the late among the first to give the solo accompanying instruments. The 18th and early 19th centuries, they part to the keyboard which for concerto in F is one of Haydn’s are not usually paired on modern over a hundred years had almost few larger scale works in this form concert programs. We think of always been the accompanist in and is much like some of Mozart’s Handel as Baroque and Haydn any ensemble. This was practical keyboard concertos. Unlike as Classical and tend to program on Handel’s part. First of all Mozart, who adopted the new accordingly. It is as if we imagine a Handel was a great keyboard fortepiano early on in his career, curtain coming down around 1750 player who used these concertos Haydn kept the harpsichord as his and reopening on a completely to showcase his own virtuosity, principal instrument through most different scene. Yet Handel was often between acts of his oratorio of his life. The harpsichord seems a thoroughly modern composer performances. And secondly an ideal instrument for the vocal at the end of the Baroque era, there was a growing market for quality of Haydn’s music as well as while Haydn grew up on Baroque challenging keyboard music which its wit and sparkle. The use of the music and then late in his career could be enjoyed by accomplished harpsichord also links Haydn back was greatly influenced by Handel’s amateurs. Handel’s concertos to the Baroque world we associate music – long after our imaginary were published in versions with with Handel. scene change. and without accompanying instruments, to allow for flexibility of performance depending on available instruments and players. page 5 Sunday November Telemann Paris 1 Quartets 2015 Joshua Romatowski Michel Blavet: Sonata in G, op. 2, no.1, for flute and continuo flute Adagio – Allegro – Arias I and II (L’Henriette) – Presto Ingrid Matthews violin Antoine and Jean-Baptiste Forqueray: Chaconne in G (La Buisson) for bass viol and continuo Elisabeth Reed bass viol Georg Philipp Telemann: Quartet in E Minor from Byron Schenkman Nouveaux Quatuors for flute, violin, bass viol, and continuo harpsichord Prélude – Gay – Vite – Gracieusement – Distrait – Modéré Intermission Jean-Pierre Guignon: Sonata in G Minor, op. 1, no. 12, for violin and continuo Vivace – Allegro ma poco – Largo staccato – Tambourin: Presto – Allegro Telemann: Quartet in D from Nouveaux Quatuors for flute, violin, bass viol, and continuo Vivement – Tendrement – Vite – Gaiment – Modérement – Vite page 6 program notes By Byron Schenkman Georg Philipp Telemann was one He was admired by Voltaire and 1741 Louis XV granted him French of the most fashionable composers was also offered a post at the citizenship and the title of Royal of the early 18th century, always up Prussian court of Frederick the Great Maître des Ménétriers. As such he on the latest trends. French music but declined the position to remain oversaw the singers, dancers, and was all the rage and he had already in Paris. instrumentalists at court, just as the written lots of music in French Italian violinist Lully (Lulli) had style before he finally visited France A 1738 article in the Mercure de done in the previous century. in 1737. In Paris he met three of France complained that the music the greatest instrumentalists of the Antoine Forqueray wrote for bass When Telemann arrived in Paris time: the flutist Blavet, the violinist viol was so difficult that only he and he was already one of the most Guignon, and the bass viol player his son Jean-Baptiste could perform celebrated composers in Europe. Jean-Baptiste Forqueray. Telemann’s it with grace. After his father’s death, His music was widely-published in Nouveaux Quatuors, now better Jean-Baptiste Forqueray arranged both authorized and unauthorized known as his Paris Quartets, were and published a collection of his versions. The Paris Quartets stand first performed by those three father’s works for bass viol and out as some of his best music and virtuoso players with Telemann continuo, along with some of his some of the best chamber music of himself at the harpsichord. own original compositions. These the period. At a time when most are the only works that survive by chamber music consisted of fairly Michel Blavet became principal these two extraordinary musicians. lightweight music for one or two flutist at the court of Louis XV in instruments with continuo, these 1738, the same year Telemann’s Jean-Pierre Guignon was an Italian are large-scale works which explore Paris Quartets were published. Blavet violinist who arrived in Paris in a wide range of instrumental color, had been a regular performer at the 1725 as Giovanni Pietro Ghignone. form, and virtuosity. Concert Spirituel, one of the first He became a member of the public concert series anywhere. Chapelle Royale in 1733 and in page 7 Sunday December Anna Magdalena 27 Bach Notebook 2015 Linda Tsatsanis Johann Sebastian Bach: Suite in C Major, BWV 1009, for cello solo soprano Prélude – Allemande – Courante – Sarabande – Nathan Whittaker Bourées I and II – Gigue cello Johann Sebastian Bach: Choral Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten Byron Schenkman Christian Petzold: Menuets in G Major and Minor harpsichord François Couperin: Rondeau Les Bergeries Johann Sebastian Bach: Suite in G Major, BWV 816, for harpsichord (French Suite no. 5) Allemande – Courante – Sarabande – Gavotte – Bourée – Loure – Gigue Intermission Johann Sebastian Bach: Aria So oft ich meine Tobackspfeife Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: Polonaise in G Minor Attrib. Johann Sebastian Bach: Aria di Giovannini Johann Sebastian Bach: Suite in C Minor, BWV 813, for harpsichord (French Suite no. 2) Allemande – Courante – Sarabande – Air – Menuet – Gigue Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel: Aria Bist du bei mir Anonymous: Aria Warum betrübst du dich Johann Sebastian Bach: Recitative Ich habe genug and Aria Schlummert ein page 8 program notes By Byron Schenkman Before the invention of recorded notebooks for his second wife notebooks, beginning with a chorale sound, the only way to hear music Anna Magdalena contain some of prelude, some popular keyboard in one’s home was either to perform his own large-scale works in their dances, and a rondeau by one of the it oneself or to hire someone to entirety, some small sketches of most famous French composers of perform it. Without anything like works he later expanded, and many the time. Bach’s copy of this piece iPads or Xerox machines the only short works by other composers by Couperin gives us some insight way to acquire sheet music was either of the time. Some of the entries into Bach’s own notation. What to buy it (if a print were available) or were copied by Bach himself Couperin painstakingly notates with to copy it by hand. Copying was also and some were copied by others dotted notes and ties to indicate a way of studying the music.