AMSTERDAM LOEKI STARDUST QUARTET Daniel Briiggen Bertho Driever Paul Leenhouts Karel Von Steenhoven
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UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY AMSTERDAM LOEKI STARDUST QUARTET Daniel Briiggen Bertho Driever Paul Leenhouts Karel von Steenhoven Monday Evening, February 11, 1991, at 8:00 Rackham Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan PROGRAM From the Baldwine Commonplace Book (England, 1581-1606): Four-part piece by John Baldwine (? - 1615) Four-part piece by Luca Marenzio (1553/4-1599) Canto Fermo Primo del Primo Tuono ........... Giovanni Maria Trabaci (1575-1647) Canzon Francesa Terza ........................ Trabaci Ricercar del quarto tono ............... Giovanni Battista Conforti (Italy, 16th Century) Canzon Decima detta la Paulini .............. Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643) Capriccio V sopra la Bassa Fiamenga ................. Frescobaldi Canzon la Lusignuola .................... Tarquinio Merula (1594-1655) Three Motets from II primo libra de Motetti a quattro voce pari (1584) ................... .Claudio Merulo Dum Illuscescente Beati (1533-1604) Iste Est Joannes O Gloriosa Domina INTERMISSION Fantasia on the Hexachord ................ Alfonso Ferrabosco II (1575-1628) Suite No. 1 in D minor .................... Matthew Locke Fantasia Courante (1621-1677) Ayre Sarabande From The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080: ........... Johann Sebastian Bach Contrapunctus IV (1685-1750) Contrapunctus IX Quartet in C major ................... Johann Christian Bach Allegro Rondo grazioso (1735-1782) The Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet is represented by Hillyer International, Inc., New York City. The Quartet records for L'Oiseau Lyre ( Polygram, London). Twenty-second Concert of the 112th Season Twenty-eighth Annual Chamber Art Series Program Notes ost instrumental works writ court, changing employment as conditions ten between 1550 and 1650 altered. Some even received invitations to were based on vocal compo work abroad, as did a number of Italians who sitions, such as arrangements fulfilled important positions at the Chapel of polyphonic French songs, Royal in England. The organist Giovanni theM Canzone Francese. Eventually, these can- Maria Trabaci was an exception, remaining zonas took on their own identity, separate and working in Naples under the Spanish from the vocal forms. Besides the canzona, house of Aragon. instrumental works such as the ricercar, ca- priccio, and fantasia grew in popularity. Most lfonso Ferrabosco II, second of them are based on contrapunctal imitation generation of an Italian family and variation in rhythm and proportion. In of musicians at the Royal the fantasia, the form takes second place to Court of England, was music extemporization and imagination, rather than master to Prince Henry and following a standard structure. KingA Charles I. Compositions based on scale The Royal Manuscript, from which the fragments, often used as a ground, enjoyed first two compositions derive, was copied in considerable popularity in the sixteenth cen a very fine hand during the years 1581 to 1606 tury. In his Fantasia of the Hexachord, the by John Baldwine. It contains numerous scale formula descends chromatically each vocal and instrumental works by 24 different time it returns, creating hitherto uncommon composers. Tonight's first four-part piece, tonalities. composed by Baldwine himself, has a cantus Matthew Locke was one of the most firmus written in unusual 5/4 time in the bass talented and vocal proponents of English line. (Cantus firmus is a preexistent melody music in the seventeenth century. He was used as the basis of a new polyphonic compo appointed Composer-in-ordinary to King sition; cantus firmus dominated the music of Charles II after the Restoration, but shortly the fourteenth- and fifteenth centuries, par afterwards fell out of favor as musical tastes ticularly sacred vocal music.) The first piece began to change. The English tradition of also features changing proportions and con polyphonic compositions for consort was tinuous syncopation between parts. The sec being challenged by foreign elements flooding ond work from this exceptional collection is England. The court was enamoured of the by the Italian master of the madrigal Luca French style, and many Italian performers and Marenzio. (Headings of these pieces as they composers helped popularize the violin and appear in the Baldwine Commonplace Book: the trio sonata. Locke steadfastly refused to 4:voc:iohn:baldwine:-; luca marensio:4 voc:-.) bow to popular taste and claimed that he "never saw any Forain Instrumental Compo irolamo Frescobaldi is no sition [a few French Courants excepted] worth doubt the best known of the an Englishman's Transcribing." Italian composers represented in the first half of this program. ohann Sebastian Bach composed The It is still worth noting, how Art of Fugue during the last years of his ever,G that the musical culture of his time was life and was only partially able to over to a very large extent shaped and sustained see the first publication shortly before by less famous masters. Composers and musi his death. The main body of his im cians traveled extensively during the second pressive musical testament consists of half of the sixteenth century, particularly 14 fugues, all based on the same subject, in within the triangle of musical centers Jwhich Bach exploits the widest possible vari Milan, Venice and Rome. Tarquinio Merula ety of contrapunctal devices. The score, in was organist in his home town of Cremona; which each part has its own stave, bears no Claudio Merulo was employed as organist at indication of any instrumentation. Because of St. Mark's in Venice and later in Parma; and this, earlier generations considered the work Giovanni Battista Conforti was a gambist at merely a textbook for scholars. It is only in the Court of Rome. Most of these musicians the present century that it has revealed its would have been attached to a church or treasures to performers and audiences alike. Johann Christian Bach was the youn director and music master to the family of gest son of J. S. Bach. He was a student of King George III. He obtained a reputation as Martini in Bologna, Italy, and became organ a composer of symphonies and chamber music ist at the Milan cathedral. He later moved to and did much to increase the popularity of England, hence his nickname as the the pianoforte, which was still in the early "London" or "English Bach." He dominated stages of development in England at that the English musical scene just as Handel had time. The Quartet in C major was originally done before him, becoming opera and concert written for string quartet. About the Artists sixteenth-century piece at the Musica Anti- qua Competition in Bruges, the ensemble has made numerous radio and television broad casts, performed in most European countries, and undertaken concert tours in Indonesia, Australia, Japan, and the United States. Its U.S. debut was in 1987 with appearances in Chicago and at the Boston Early Music Fes tival. In addition to their concerts, the four musicians teach at diverse workshops for in terpretation of early and modern recorder music. The Quartet has worked with instru ment makers throughout the world and has built up a unique collection of 50 Renaissance and Baroque recorders, ranging from the eight-inch Exilent to the Great Bass Recorder measuring over six feet. The Quartet also works closely with several modern composers in Holland, such as Frans Geysen and Daan Manneke, and for the last few years has published a series of new recorder music in association with Moeck, under the title "The ombining their unique talents to Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet Presents . .." bring a fresh and unconven In the recording field, the Quartet has tional approach to recorder released two recordings on Decca's L'Oiseau- music, Karel van Steenhoven, Lyre label: "Virtuoso Recorder Music" (1984) Daniel Bruggen, Bertho and "Baroque Recorder Music" (1987), both Driever,C and Paul Leenhouts formed the Am of which received the prestigious Edison sterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet in 1978 while Award. The jury stated in its report: "It is the they were students at Amsterdam's Sweelinck intense musical quality, complete sincerity, Conservatory. From the start, they have ex and evident pleasure in performance that plored and extended the instrument's range immediately holds one's attention to the with music from the Renaissance and Baroque music itself." Two new recordings, "Extra eras to modern compositions, including their Time" and "Sixteenth-Century Consort own works and arrangements of others. One Music," are being released on London Re of their goals is to present the wide range of cords early this year. techniques and sonorities within the frame The Quartet chose its whimsical name work of a recorder consort. from one of its early arrangements: the "Loeki The Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet the Leeuw" (Loeki the Lion) jingle featured has won worldwide recognition as a serious in Dutch TV commericals. ensemble of unparalleled virtuosity. Since The Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quar 1981, when it received acclaim for its prize- tet now makes its first appearance in Ann winning (albeit unorthodox) rendering of a Arbor with this program of early music. Daniel Briiggen was born in Haarlem, Born in Wageningen, Holland, in Holland, in 1958, and studied recorder with 1953, Bertho Driever studied with Carla Kees Boeke at the Sweelinck Conservatory, Mahler and Jerome Minis in Arnhem, going receiving his soloist diploma in 1983. He on to study under Walter van Hauwe at the teaches extensively and gives concerts and Sweelinck Conservatory. He