The three works featured in the upcoming Victoria Baroque Players concert “Exultant Spring” June 4th 7:30pm were written within a sixteen-year period on the cusp of the change from the Baroque to the Classical styles, and share in an uplifting and exultant spirit, particularly suited to this time of year as the summer season comes into fullness.

Die Tageszeiten was composed by the seventy-five-year-old Georg Philipp Telemann outside of his regular duties, to be performed at a concert October 20th 1757 at the "Drillhaus" in Hamburg. Lying somewhere between an Oratorio and Cantata, it shares its programmatic intent of describing Nature’s times and seasons with Vivaldi's Four Seasons written thirty years prior, and Haydn's Die Jahreszeiten from half a century later. The was purpose-written by Friedrich Wilhelm Zachariae (1726-1777) who said of Telemann, ‘no one but you, father of the holy art of music, whose splendid song even one of Gaul's admires, can delight the choirs of angels’. Though not liturgical, the text is devotional, describing and praising the presence of the Divine in Nature. Each cantata is written for a different voice with an obbligato instrument; the textures and timbres mellow as the day progresses. Morning pairs the bright sounds of a soprano and trumpet (played on horn in tonight's concert), Midday combines mezzo soprano and solo viola da gamba, Evening matches with a pair of flutes, and Night couples the low sounds of bass and bassoon. The form of each of the four cantatas is aria-accompagnato-aria and finishes with a joyous chorus. The musical language of the broad and noble vocal lines is very much close to that of Haydn.

Exsultate Jubilate was composed by the 17-year-old in Milan, for the Venanzio Rauzzini, who was singing the part of Cecilio in Mozart’s Lucio . The motet specifically showcased Rauzzini’s wide range and virtuosic agility. It was premiered January 17th 1773 at the Theatines' Church in Milan while the opera was still running (single-voice liturgical motets, sung by the opera stars of the day, were quite common at the time). The motet resembles the Italian opera overture in its fast-slow-fast structure, and is very operatic in style. Mozart's effortless compositional mastery is already evident in this work, showing his own distinct voice within the Italian style. Mozart revised his motet six years later for a performance on Trinity Sunday in Salzburg replacing the oboes with a pair of flutes, which is the instrumentation we are using tonight.

Little is known about Michel Corrette’s life, though he was an extremely prolific composer. His works span nearly 75 years, providing an extraordinarily wide view of music in 18th century France. Recycling other composers’ musical material was a common practice in the Baroque period, and Vivaldi's concertos in particular inspired composers across Europe in this regard: Bach alone transcribed nine of Vivialdi’s violin concertos for keyboard. Corrette wrote his Laudate Dominum forty years after Vivaldi's Four Seasons were published, basing it on "Spring", the first of the concertos, and imaginatively reworking the well-known masterpiece into a grand-scale motet. The text is Psalm 148, which, though it has no references to spring or the seasons per se, has a joyful text with many references to weather, flora, and fauna, making it a natural match with Vivaldi's joyous and colourful concerto. Corrette composed several sections of fresh musical material, and added three vocal soloists, a five- part choir, woodwinds and horns to Vivaldi’s score. The instrumentation is closer to that of a classical orchestra, and gives the Italian musical material a distinct French flavour. The opening movement, consisting entirely of Corrette’s writing, is for solo soprano and is very French in texture and style, with a light treble instrumentation of a pair of flutes and violins. Next comes a newly-composed ‘musical sunrise’, which bursts into the well-known Vivaldian tune shared between the choir and full orchestra; the solo violin parts become obbligato lines intermingled with equally elaborate vocal solos. In the slow movement "Montes et omnes colles" the original solo violin line is given to a solo doubled by flutes, the choir joining half-way through the movement. The last movement starts in pastoral style with strings and solo soprano, with the familiar catchy tune introduced by solo oboe, as the music gradually builds to the re-worked last movement of the violin concert. -Soile Stratkauskas