sign in sign up
<<
Home , Arcangelo Corelli, Concerto grosso, Giuseppe Sammartini

Program notes for November 2011

Arcangelo Corelli pied and well paid. The combina- instruments and full orchestra. Grosso in F major, Op. 6 tion of steady income and discrimi- The third-place Grave again favors No. 2 nating listeners allowed Corelli the descending lines and hints broadly in , Op. 6 luxury of honing his works via fre- at minor mode, giving way to the No. 4 quent performances, so he never concluding Allegro, a perky romp in committed a piece to publication binary (two-part) form. was born in hastily or carelessly. Corelli was an , near , on Feb- exemplar of the ‘pure’ musician— Concerto No. 4 in D Major opens ruary 17, 1653 and died in Rome i.e., dedicated to the highest stan- with a short curtain-raising Adagio, on January 8, 1713 after a remark- dards of playing and composition, then launches into a dazzling Al- ably successful career as violinist even if those ideals mandated a legro that stirs discreet contrapun- and . He was arguably sharply limited output. tal imitation into a mostly chordal the most influential composer of soup. The Adagio movement that the era, his meticulously Corelli’s last published collection, follows is vintage Corelli, a gravely honed works serving as standards the Opus 6 Concerti Grossi— beautiful processional in B minor, of musical excellence throughout works for a few solo instruments its occasional flashes of dissonance Europe. His twelve Opus 6 concer- backed up by a larger ensemble— adding a discreet touch of drama. tos were published in occupied him from 1708 onwards, A triple-meter Vivace partakes of in 1714, one year after his death. after his retirement from public lively dance rhythms, sounding performances. Both on for all the world like a quickstep Life has never been easy for free- this program honor the da minuet or—to look forward a bit— lance musicians, but conditions chiesa (“church” sonata) tradition a Viennese waltz. The energetic Al- in Rome during Corelli’s lifetime of four movements in alternating legro finale has a surprise in store: were especially precarious. The slow-fast tempi, often featuring after spending most of its time in opera houses and theaters, usually rich contrapuntal textures. whirling compound duple meter, reliable venues for steady employ- it treats us to a virtuoso coda in ment, were closed more often Concerto No. 2 in F Major opens sturdy common time. than not, victims of ecclestiastical with a multi-sectional movement prudence in the face of politi- made up of three elements: a Giovanni Lorenzo Gregori cal turmoil and natural disasters. Vivace characterized by alternating Concerto Grosso in A minor, Op. 2 Musical activity was largely private solo and orchestral textures, an Al- No. 6 and confined to those patrons rich legro that sets up close imitations enough to afford it. between the melody instruments, Giovanni Gregori lived his life in and an intervening Adagio in mi- the Republic of Lucca, from his But Corelli never had anything to nor mode that allows for a bit of birth in 1663 to his death in Janu- complain about. From the time respite. A Largo andante ends the ary of 1745. Primarily a violinist, he he emerged from Bologna, where movement with a steady, gentle was also a distinguished teacher of he had been admitted to the elite descent over harmonies that hint theory and published several Accademia Filarmonica at age 17, at minor mode while remaining influential textbooks. Corelli was employed by the well- firmly in the major. heeled and influential. Two cardi- Gregori’s Opus 2 concertos are the nals (Ottoboni and Pamphili) and The second movement Allegro first to call themselves grossi—i.e., one queen (Christina of Sweden) starts in an etched fugal style that for substantial ensembles with saw to it that the patrician violinist gives way to a more freely-formed doubled string parts. The A minor and composer stayed fully occu- series of alternations between is short and uncomplicat-

1 Program notes for November 2011

ed, two fast movements flanking Italophiles. Like his contemporary Concerto for Strings in D minor, RV an intriguingly Vivaldian center- , Geminiani 128 piece that supports an ornate solo spent a comfortable and success- melody with march-like repeated ful expatriate career in England. Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was born chords in the accompaniment. Ap- Unlike Handel, Geminiani focused on March 4, 1678 in Venice, where parently Gregori knew his Corelli, primarily on teaching, an activity he was ordained as a priest in given the concerto’s ending with a for which he appears to have been 1703. He spent much of his musi- repeated phrase, one of the great supremely well-suited. cal career at the Pio Ospedale della master’s calling cards. Pietà, an orphanage for musically Geminiani’s Opus 3 concertos talented girls, for whom the wrote were amongst his most successful the bulk of his 500-plus concertos, Concerto Grosso in D minor, Op. 3 works, written over the course of but he was also a prolific composer No. 4 the 1720s and published in 1733. of operas, sacred music, and cham- Burney praised them in no un- ber music. He died on July 28, 1741 Francesco Geminiani was born in certain terms, claiming that they in Vienna, where he had gone to Lucca, in December 1687; the “established his character, and seek employment in the service of exact date isn’t known but Decem- placed him at the head of all the Emperor Charles VI. ber 3 is a good guess. He died in masters then living.” Part of that Dublin, Ireland on September 17, high esteem stems from Gemini- Vivaldi’s fluent inventiveness has 1762. He was an important figure ani’s adherence to Corellian mod- sometimes worked against him. in playing, and a strikingly els, then considered by the English Eighteenth-century critics filed original if not prolific composer. as the ne plus ultra of musical art. charges of carelessness, eccentric- The Opus 3 concertos were pub- But these are no slavish imitations. ity, frivolity, and coarseness. Even lished in London by Walsh in 1733, Geminiani’s own voice is heard now the dust hasn’t altogether then revised by the composer in strongly throughout, particularly settled; until recently it was still 1755. in the rich harmonic language that considered sporting for commenta- characterizes his mature works. tors to crack wise about Vivaldi’s Francesco Geminiani seems to Concerto No. 4 in D Minor opens writing the same concerto 500 have been a better violinist in with stately dotted rhythms that times. But sage folk have always theory than in actual practice. He evoke the four-movement Corel- viewed the Red Priest of Venice was good enough to be accepted lian , followed by a differently—J.S. Bach, for example, as a pupil by both Corelli and freely fugal passage in triple meter who learned concerto writing Alessandro Scarlatti, top-drawer marked Allegro assai. A brief Largo, by transcribing parts of Vivaldi’s masters indeed. But if we are to notable for its daring harmonies, L’estro armonico for solo clavier. believe eighteenth-century histo- serves as a quasi-trio before the It is to Vivaldi that we owe the es- rian , Geminiani was Allegro assai is repeated da capo. tablishment of the ritornello form thoroughly outclassed by Italy’s Solo violin interjections enliven the that allows instrumental music to high-voltage string players, as a roly-poly Allegro finale, a gigue in break free of confining two-part particularly humiliating sojourn in all but name. structures and make the Baroque Naples made clear. So he settled in concerto, with its signature lob- England, where technical standards and-volley between soloist and en- were lower and where his associa- Concerto for Alto Recorder in F semble, possible. It is also Vivaldi tion with Corelli ensured a warm major, “La tempeste di mare,” RV who is turning out to be amongst reception from Britain’s many 433 the most challenging and enigmat-

2 Program notes for November 2011

ic of the Baroque. As in the melody. Soon enough a Cooke of London. newly-rediscovered Vivaldi works scintillating Allegro brings matters emerge from their long silence, our to a close, sounding almost Hande- There’s something exasperating awareness of his sheer scope and lian with its sturdy repeated-note about Alessandro Scarlatti. His tal- astonishing fertility broadens. figures providing counterpoint to ent and skill should have allowed propulsive scalar melodies. him a career as comfortable as that Vivaldi had a decided flair for tone of his contemporary Arcangelo painting, as his ever-popular The Corelli. He was lauded, honored, Four Seasons demonstrates so Concerto for Soprano Recorder in respected, and performed. But he vividly with its depictions of hunt- F major kept falling off his pedestal. After ing, thunderstorms, and frost. In a solid start in Rome he settled in the first movement of the Con- Giuseppe Sammartini, elder broth- Naples, where he was appointed certo for Alto Recorder in F Major, er of composer Giovanni Battista, to the faculty of the Conservatorio Vivaldi evokes the hurly-burly of a was born in on January 6, Santa Maria di Loreto on March 1, sea tempest via a combination of 1695 and died in London in late 1689 then fired for irresponsible fast scales (winds), string tremolos November, 1750. A brilliant oboist, behavior on July 15. Although he (flurries), and zippy triplet fig- he left behind a fine body of cham- was aware that Rome was inhos- ures (more winds.) But the eye of ber and orchestral music. pitable to opera composers—the the storm provides respite in the pope had forbidden theatrical central Largo, as dotted rhythms in Sammartini was yet another of productions—impulsively he the ensemble support an undulat- those expatriate musicians who moved back there anyway in 1702 ing melody in the solo. It’s diffi- found fame and fortune in Eng- and accumulated charges of unreli- cult to determine just by listening land. From his first securely docu- ability as he bounced from job to whether the concluding Presto mented appearance in London in job. During an unsuccessful stint in represents a return of the storm (it 1729 to his death in 1750, he was Venice he let himself get dragged isn’t particularly stormy) or offers London’s leading oboist and a fre- into petty theatrical squabbles and a dance-like celebration for hav- quent member of Handel’s orches- wound up the target of a vicious ing survived the tempest. Given tras. The Concerto in F major is by and revealing satire. By age fifty he the delightful F Major burbles that far his best-known work, and for was back in Naples and, it would conclude the movement, the latter good reason: it is a lyrical delight, seem, cured of his self-destructive interpretation seems the more especially in its central Siciliano, an behavior. But he never had enough likely. imaginatively-harmonized pasto- money to get by. Ten days before rale that offers the soloist abun- his death he begged the Neapoli- Any number of Vivaldi’s concer- dant opportunities for expressivity. tan viceroy for assistance, appar- tos eschew soloists, leaving the ently in vain. musical proceedings entirely to Alessandro Scarlatti the ensemble, such as Concerto Concerto Grosso No. 4 in G Minor Scarlatti’s professional life might for Strings in D Minor RV 128. The have been messy, but his music opening Allegro non molto extracts Alessandro Scarlatti was born in was not. His instrumental output is a surprising amount of music out Palermo, Sicily on May 2, 1660 and minuscule compared to his many of the merest trifle of a motive, died in Naples on October 22, 1725 operas, cantatas, and oratorios, the first three notes of the scale. A after a distinguished but somewhat but it has much to offer the dis- terse Largo intensifies rather than uneven career. His “Six concertos cerning listener. Concerto Grosso relaxes, as surging lower strings in seven parts” were published No. 4 in G Minor bears no sign of underpin sharply dotted rhythms posthumously in 1740 by Benjamin theatrical frivolity; it evokes Corelli, 3 Program notes for November 2011

both in its stately mood and in its meticulous fit-and-finish. The opening Allegro ma non troppo is a stern fugal affair that primly avoids decorative folderol, followed by a lament-like Largo that floats a sus- tained lyric line over a steady rising bass line. Even the ultra-short concluding Allegro avoids anything unseemly; more ceremonious than celebratory, its dance rhythm is formal and stylized.

— Scott Foglesong, Scholar-in- Residence

4