PROGRAM NOTES: SEPTEMBER 19, 2020

Program notes by Robert Markow

TELEMANN: CONCERTO FOR FLUTE AND IN F, TWV 52:F1 (1681-1767)

I. Largo II. [Allegro] III. [Grave] IV. Allegro

Telemann was the most renowned and successful German composer of his day, eclipsing even Bach in prestige. He lived a long life of 86 years, during which he composed an almost unbelievable amount of music – more than Bach and Handel combined. He spent the last 46 years of his life in Hamburg running the musical life of the city’s five churches and teaching. Concertos for flute abound. Concertos for bassoon are far less common. Double concertos for flute and bassoon together are great rarities. The few that exist were composed either in the 18th century (Telemann, Sebastian Bodinus) or in recent times (Ezra Laderman, David Fontanesi, Jenni Brandon). Telemann’s contribution to this scanty repertory is constructed along the lines of the church sonata: four movements alternating slow and fast. The concerto proves that the lowest member of the woodwind family is just as agile and nimble as the highest member.

VIVALDI: IN D, OP. 10, NO. 3 (R.428) ̶ The Goldfinch (1678-1741)

I. Allegro II. Cantabile III. Allegro

During his lifetime ̶ about that of Telemann and Handel ̶ Vivaldi’s name was known far and wide across Europe. He may have been the best known and most admired Venetian composer of all time. Vivaldi was prolific even by the standards of a prolific age. He is remembered today principally for his instrumental music, and especially for the staggering number of violin concertos he wrote ̶ over 200, which represent but a fraction of the total for all instruments: over 500, including for mandolin, viola d’amore, flute, piccolo, , recorder, bassoon, cello, horn, and . The flute concertos alone number more than thirty. It has been postulated that Vivaldi was stimulated to write specifically for the flute in a solo capacity by his meeting with the master German flutist Johann Joachim Quantz when the latter visited Venice in 1726. Vivaldi exploited the inherent capabilities of the flute by writing music replete with trills, rapid scales and arpeggiated passages. The six concertos of Op. 10 lay claim to being the first flute concertos ever published (Amsterdam, c. 1730). The nickname for the third of these, Il gardellino (The Goldfinch), is only marginally appropriate, for ornithologists will have a hard time associating the flute’s fluttering and warbling specifically with the calls of the goldfinch. But there is no doubting the fact that birdsong is amply portrayed by the solo flute, and sometimes by strings as well.

VIVALDI: BASSOON CONCERTO IN A MINOR, RV 497

I. Allegro molto II. Andante molto III. Allegro

Many concert-goers know that Vivaldi wrote an enormous number of violin concertos (well over two hundred). But how many know that next in line for sheer numbers is the bassoon?– nearly forty of them, and probably the first to be written for this instrument. There are four in A minor alone (the key of the work on this program). Mario Lord, writing for the web site early-music.com, describes this concerto, composed probably in the mid 1730s, as “a work characterized by contrast. The writing displays a profound understanding of the technical capacity of the instrument as well as its expressive potential which Vivaldi exploits in both the bass and tenor registers. In all of the concertos, Vivaldi does not hesitate to assign to the bassoon compositional idioms normally reserved for string instruments such as arpeggios, rapid scales, and register leaps.”

TELEMANN: CONCERTO FOR TWO FLUTES IN E MINOR, TWV 52:e1

I. Largo II. Allegro III. Largo IV. Presto

Concertos for two flutes were fairly common in the eighteenth century. However, the one on this program, composed about 1712, is believed to be the only such work originally composed for one recorder and one transverse flute (both wooden instruments in Telemann’s day).Like the Telemann concerto that opened this concert, the four-movement layout resembles that of the church sonata (slow-fast-slow-fast). Of particular interest is the lovely third movement, followed by a quick finale that recalls the musette (a lively, seventeenth-century dance with a drone bass and a nimble melody above it.

HANDEL: WATER MUSIC SUITE NO. 3 IN G MAJOR, HWV 350 (1685-1759)

Sarabande – Minuet ̶ Sarabande Rigaudon Minuet Gigue

There is historical documentation that music by Handel was played for at least one royal excursion on the Thames River (July 17, 1717), and there were probably several others as well. Just what music was performed on that date is not known. Of the twenty-two separate pieces that make up the three suites of the complete Water Music, it is uncertain what was composed when, and no autographs exist for verification. The fact that the Water Music consists of three distinct suites, each with its own instrumentation and tonal center, strongly suggests that the music was composed for separate occasions, or, at the very least, to be played at different times on the aforementioned evening. The Third Suite is conspicuously more restrained, refined and intimate than the first two suites. In the third, woodwinds (flutes and ) come to the fore, and the tonal center is G (major and minor).