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VIVALDI - HANDEL Introduction Silete venti, HWV 242 George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) It is a great pleasure to have recorded these 1 Sinfonia e Recitativo [5.23] 2 Andante ma larghetto [7.21] glorious sacred works after performing them 3 Accompagnato [0.36] before an audience so many times. To make 4 Andante, Allergo [9.53] a recording with such a wonderful orchestra 5 Presto [3.14] and in the pearly acoustic of All Hallows’ Church, Gospel Oak was a joy. I hope you Gloria, HWV deest George Frideric Handel will share these feelings when you hear the result. 6 Gloria in excelsis Deo [2.28] 7 Et in terra pax [2.48] 8 Laudamus te, benedicimus te [2.18] Special thanks to my dearest parents, Nigel 9 Domine Deus, rex coelestis [1.14] and our wonderful children for their constant 0 Qui tollis peccata mundi [3.26] love and support. q Quoniam tu solus sanctus [3.38] Grace Davidson, 2018 Salve Regina, HWV 241 George Frideric Handel w Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiae [3.01] e Ad te clamamus exsules filii Evae [2.45] r Eia, ergo, advocate nostra [3.33] t O Clemens, O pie [1.34] Nulla in mundo pax sincera, RV630 Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) y Nulla in mundo pax sincera [6.09] u Blando colore oculos mundus decepit [1.13] i Spirat anguis [3.21] o Alleluia [2.13] Total timings: [76.11] GRACE DAVIDSON SOPRANO • ACADEMY OF ANCIENT MUSIC JOSePH CROUCH ARTISTIC LEADER www.signumrecords.com Silente Venti and it was perhaps composed with an eye to the upper hand of athleticism over the players, wild in places, but unmistakably Handel’. his return trip to Italy in 1729. The text throwing in a high B at the end of the race. What is also clear is that it shares an equally Silete Venti HWV 242 was composed in blurs the conventional distinctions between unmistakable flavour of Italy in many aspects London during the 1720s, some of its musical descriptions of divine love and a somewhat Gloria of its writing. This it shares with such similarly- material being shared with the Oratorio Esther, carnal slant to some of the exhortations to influenced works by the composer such as a Chandos Anthem and one of the Bb Organ the Saviour. Furthermore, there is a more The discovery of Georg Frideric Handel’s Gloria ‘Dixit Dominus’ – extrovert exuberance in Concertos. The instrumentation is economical athletic and dramatic slant to the vocal style in 2001, unnoticed for so many years in the the florid coloratura of the vocal line, with a pair of oboes and a bassoon added to than his more conservative output, a little library of the Royal Academy of Music in London, confident interplay with the obbligato violins the usual strings but the forces are employed as we have come to expect from solo vocal is a salutary tale. It continues to be referred and particular harmonic devices which tug imaginatively, the interweaving of lines, with writing by Vivaldi and Monteverdi. to quaintly in the HWV classification asdeest at a the heart in their emotional power. There and without the voice, ranking among the (Latin for ‘doesn’t exist’), even after its is one fingerprint which has become known finest of Handel’s offerings. The Sinfonia is The initial calming of the winds is a remarkable emergence into the artistic daylight. In this as a Neapolitan in harmonic terms: the first in French Overture style, proceeding into a unfurling of the tension of the stormy writing age of easy information, it is still possible inversion of the flattened super-tonic, a triple-metre section with the depiction of of the opening, reducing the energy of the that, if somebody allows an original manuscript signature which many will associate with turbulent winds being silenced by the entry music in a manner which suggests future to be passed down and put in a drawer, Vivaldi, but which makes itself felt as recently of the voice – hence the title of the motet. depictions of nature by Haydn. The aria Dulcis there’s a chance that it will not arouse any as in the music of Italian films of the 20th Such power in the gift of a singer, and the Amor is a soothing dialogue between voice interest for a considerable time. Probably Century. There is also the use of separated, effect is arresting. Indeed this introduction and instruments – classic, noble Handel in commissioned by Francesco Maria Ruspoli dry string chords – termed secco like the white to the voice appears to have the orchestra brilliant word-setting. An accompanied recitative for service in his estate chapel at Vignanello, wine, in both the Et in terra pax and the Cum submit and become breathless – rests are O fortunata separates this from the second, this Cantata for solo soprano, two violins Sancto Spiritu, which would have been quite used in a most adventurous, rhetorical Andante-allegro-andante aria Date serta, whose and basso continuo was bound as part of a foreign to British audiences of the era and manner for the period of composition and, rapid central section, again in a contrasting volume of Handel’s arias, not in the composers which are more reminiscent of the programmatic like the rather flowery poetry, possesses triple time, gives the listener a taste of the hand, in the possession of a William Savage picture-painting in Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons an Italian, heart-on-sleeve expressiveness. joy of the Alleluia as the winds rouse (1729-1789) apparently passing to his pupil, than as a mere instrumental accompaniment This is far from a routine example of themselves once more. It might be the use Robert Stevens who seems to have bequeathed to a sacred work. word-setting. The stamina and flexibility of a walking bass in both of the arias the volume to the RAM in 1837. The Principal demanded by Handel suggest that this which lends such an unmistakably Handelian of the Academy at the time of discovery, Six titled musical sections subdivide in effect substantial solo Latin motet was intended dignity to the music. The final paean of just Professor Curtis Price expressed the opinion into eight parts, following the text of the Gloria for an accomplished star of stage or oratorio one word Alleluia allows the voice to have that the work is ‘fresh, exuberant and a little from the Mass. Some of this material can be - 4 - - 5 - found, reworked, in Laudate Pueri and the of Santa Maria in Montesanto, Vignanello. composer for these sentiments. A pulsing, which must have seemed most romantic in a Utrecht Jubilate. The opening Gloria is an Significantly, this was exactly one month before paired-note bass-line possesses something of sacred work. Cascading canonic texture among exuberant paean of joy with two outriding Dixit Dominus was first heard and the sharing the heartbeat, the inverted violin interjections the violins and the voice are as the falling violins offering a musical companionship of expressive styles and athletic, Italianate with their repeated common notes at the top tears in the valley (also the soprano’s reminiscent of Monteverdi. Et in terra combines flavour is immediately evident. This text, of the phrases suggesting the merciful Mother lowest note) and the desolation is echoed by jabbing, string accompaniment with languishing among the most familiar in the Roman Church of Christ, while the soprano takes on the role the dwindling writing of the violins who merge suspensions. Laudamus features a descending since it was written in the 11th Century of the voice of the person praying. Those very into a unison, lonely, final note. triad which might even suggest a bowing or (probably by the monk, Hermann von words, Mater misericordiae, are set with an a genuflexion to God. Gratias offers grace Reichenau) is one of the four Antiphons to Our anguished, chromatic pulling apart in tandem All is far from constant gloom as the Eia Ergo and gracefulness in triple metre while Lady, this one being used from the Saturday with the violins who adopt an almost vocal bursts into a section which is little short of a Domine Deus is supported by the basso before Trinity Sunday until the Friday before role. Ad te clamamus moves into triple concertante movement with every combination continuo alone, with a sense of prowling in the the first Sunday of Advent. Besides concluding metre, yet the layout of the composer’s of joyful interaction for solo organ, cello, the bass line’s chromatic progression. Qui tollis the recitation of the Rosary, it was, and still is, manuscript reveals a much broader sweep to violins and the voice. How we are fortunate allows the violins back into the picture with the final utterance of monastic communities the span of the music as he divides the material that George Frideric saw the need clearly to graded antiphony, the voice retreating into a at Compline before the Great Silence of the on the page not in groups of three but in a impress his patrons in a style which would supporting role. Quoniam, and Cum Sancto night. This might have had a significance broader sweep of twelve beats to a bar. I have been entirely within their culture, but make extreme demands of the singer in in the way that Handel scores the music. It acknowledge that this is no doubt to save ink, maybe exceeding their expectations. Again moto perpetuo passagework which points seems that he was not merely marrying words but the impression on the paper can influence Handel surprises us, using economical but to Handel’s capacity for fresh ideas and and music without an in-depth consideration the musician’s approach, whether or not virtuosic forces, and doubtlessly enjoying his techniques, in an athletic offering for which of the words, previously unfamiliar to him, but the listeners are in the know.