Byron Schenkman Friends season five 2017-2018 2017-2018 season Welcome to the fifth season ofByron Schenkman & Friends! 2017 has been a challenging year for many of us. I am very grateful for the power of music to bring us together in community, for healing and for joy. This season our repertoire ranges from early 17th- century canzonas by Girolamo Frescobaldi and Claudia Francesca Rusca to masterpieces of 19th-century Romanticism by Robert and Clara Schumann, with Corelli, Vivaldi, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and more in between. May this wonderful music nourish our minds, hearts, and souls, giving us the strength to continue moving joyfully forward! byron schenkman, artistic director page 3 Byron Schenkman & Friends announces a new CD R The Art of the Harpsichord Byron Schenkman on eight historical harpsichords in the National Music Museum Available at www.byronschenkman.com Photo: Tony Jones, National Music Museum contents Oct 15 Bach Double Harpsichord Concertos program & notes ..................................... 6-7 Nov 12 Schumann: The Poet Speaks program & notes ..................................... 8-9 Dec 28 An Evening of Viennese Classics program & notes ................................... 12-13 BISCHOFBERGER Feb 18 Handel: From theWar of Love VIOLINS program & notes ................................... 14-15 Mar 18 Beethoven: Kreutzer and Pathétique Sonatas Professional Repairs, program & notes ...................................18-19 Appraisals, & Sales April 22 Vivaldi and the High Baroque 1314 E. John St. program & notes .................................. 20-21 Seattle, WA 206-324-3119 musician bios ............................................................ 22-26 www.bviolinsltd.com page 4 Thank you for joining us for this Fifth Byron Schenkman & Friends Season of Byron Schenkman & Friends! Your support makes all 2017-2018 this wonderful and inspirational music possible. We depend on Artistic Director our generous donors, our loyal and growing audience, our talented Byron Schenkman musicians, and reliable volunteers to make this all happen. General Manager Margy Crosby As BS&F becomes a 501(c)(3) entity on its own, we have Graphic Design established a Board of Directors as you can see to the Rebecca Richards-Diop right. We thank these community members for their confidence in our mission as we move into our future. Board of Directors Rob DeLine Whatever part you take in this adventure, we could President not do it without you. Thank You! Tom Lewandowski Vice President margy crosby, general manager Maria Coldwell Treasurer Peggy Monroe Secretary Deborah Bogin Cohen Special thanks… Flora Lee Donna McCampbell To our Series Founders, Robert DeLine and Carol Salisbury. Wyatt Smith Valerie Yockey To Tom Lewandowski for all his generous support and assistance. Office Address: To Shunpike helping 1211 E Denny Way, #179 Seattle, WA 98122-2516 Byron Schenkman & Friends Phone: 206-659-1644 Byron Schenkman & Friends is an Associated Program of Shunpike. reach its Fifth Season. [email protected] page 5 October Bach Double 15 Harpsichord Concertos 2017 Ignacio Prego & Byron Schenkman u Harpsichords Ingrid Matthews & Laurel Wells u V iolins Jason Fisher u Viola Nathan Whittaker u Cello Curtis Daily u Bass Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750): Concerto in C Minor, BWV 1060, for two harpsichords and strings Allegro u Adagio u Allegro Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583 – 1643): Canzon VI à 4 (Rome, 1628) Girolamo Frescobaldi: Canzon II à 4 sopra Romanesca (Rome, 1628) Claudia Francesca Rusca (1593 – 1676): Canzon I à 4 La Borromea (Milan, 1630) Rupert Ignaz Mayr (1646 – 1712): Suite in B-flat for strings and continuo from Pythagorische Schmids-Fuencklein (Augsburg, 1692) Passacaglia u Gavotte u Menuet u Rondeau intermission Georg Philipp Telemann (1681 – 1767): Sonata à 4 in F, TWV 43:F1, for strings and continuo Adagio u Allegro u Adagio u Allegro Johann Sebastian Bach: Concerto in C Minor, BWV 1062, for two harpsichords and strings (Allegro) u Andante u Allegro assai page 6 notes on the program By Byron Schenkman J.S. Bach drew on many kinds of music for adaptations of vocal pieces. The Canzon II à 4 is built inspiration, from hundred-year-old organ works by on the Romanesca, a popular ground bass (repeating Girolamo Frescobaldi to the latest Italian concertos chord pattern). However, like Bach, Frescobaldi takes and French suites – and everything in between. The a simple form and turns it into something more universality of Bach’s work results at least in part from sophisticated and contrapuntally complex. his assimilation of such diverse types of music. Many women published music in the 16th and 17th Bach’s double harpsichord concertos were obviously centuries. Some were professional musicians such inspired by contemporary Italian models. However as Francesca Caccini, the highest paid musician at their complex counterpoint also points back to the Florentine court; some were members of the Frescobaldi and to 17th-century German composers. aristocracy, such as the outstanding cantata composer Bach made many transcriptions of Italian concertos Barbara Strozzi; and many were nuns, including and even adapted one of Vivaldi’s four-violin Claudia Francesca Rusca and Isabella Leonarda concertos into a work for four harpsichords. Bach’s (whose music appears in our February program). original concertos take those Italian models as a jumping-off-point for a new type of concerto on a For most of the 17th century, German composers much larger scale. Often Bach made alternate versions looked to Italian music for inspiration. Then with the of his own works such as BWV 1060, adapted from rise in power of Louis XIV French music began to a concerto for violin and oboe, and BWV 1062, sweep the continent, especially suites of dances from adapted from the famous D Minor concerto for operas by Lully. Mayr’s suites are typical of late 17th- two violins. century German imitations of that French style. Early Baroque instrumental music developed In addition to Italian concertos, J.S. Bach transcribed out of a tradition of instrumentalists performing at least one concerto by his good friend Georg polyphonic vocal music, either as written or with Philipp Telemann, godfather to his son Carl Phillip elaborate embellishments. Frescobaldi was one of Emanuel and one of the most famous composers of several early 17th-century composers who published the day. You may notice some similarity between the Canzoni da Sonar (“songs to be played”), newly slow movements of Telemann’s Sonata in F and composed instrumental pieces written as if they were BWV 1062. page 7 November Schumann: 12 The Poet Speaks 2017 Ross Hauck u Tenor Susan Gulkis Assadi u V iola Byron Schenkman u Piano Robert Schumann (1810-1856): Clara Schumann, née Wieck Chorale, op. 68, no. 4 (1819-1896): Scenes from Childhood, op. 15, for piano Nocturne in F Major, op. 6, no. 2, for piano Of foreign lands and people Robert Schumann: Curious story Poet’s Love, op. 48, for tenor and piano Blind man’s buff Pleading child Perfect happiness Important event Dreaming By the fireside Knight of the rocking horse Almost too serious Frightening Child falling asleep The poet speaks Fairy Tale Pictures, op. 113, for viola and piano Not fast Lively Quick Slowly, with melancholic expression intermission page 8 notes on the program By Byron Schenkman Robert Schumann, child of a publisher, grew up The relationship between Robert Schumann and surrounded by books. Schumann set out to become Clara Wieck is probably the most famous romance a writer before he was drawn irresistibly to music, in the history of Western music. Wieck was a child and his music is often closely connected to poetry prodigy who grew up to be one of the great pianists or Romantic prose. Schumann was extraordinarily of her century and the first to champion the music of sensitive and struggled with mental illness throughout both Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms. She his life, eventually attempting suicide and then published some wonderful music of her own but gave committing himself to an asylum out of fear of up composing based on her false belief, according to harming his wife and children. an entry in her journal, that women had never been composers and that it would be arrogant to think One of Schumann’s obsessions seems to have been a she could be the first. The Nocturne in F is from a longing for innocence. He loved children and wrote collection published when she was just seventeen many beautiful pieces for children to play, most years old. famously the Album for the Young, op. 68, from which our opening chorale is taken. On the other hand his A Poet’s Love, op. 48, is the quintessential Romantic Scenes from Childhood, op. 15, is a series of nostalgic song cycle. Although inspired by the great cycles of reminiscences intended for adults. Schumann only Franz Schubert, Schumann’s settings of sixteen poems added titles to these short pieces after the fact as by Heinrich Heine sound distinctly more modern, subtle hints for interpretation. with tonal ambiguity and extended piano solos. Whereas the individual songs in a Schubert cycle can The Fairy Tale Pictures for viola and piano, op. 113, easily stand alone, many of these songs by Schumann have no titles other than their tempo indications. sound like mere fragments until they are stitched However notes in Schumann’s journal inform us that together to create the perfect whole. This potentially the first two pieces depict scenes from Rapunzel, depressing series of poems is given great beauty and the third from Rumpelstiltskin, and the fourth from depth through Schumann’s masterful setting. Sleeping Beauty. page 9 2017-18 SEASON International Series SUN. 8 OCT. 2017 Diabolus in Musica TUES. 19 DEC. AND THURS. 21 DEC. 2017 Seattle Baroque Venetian Women: Vivaldi’s Orchestra Gloria and Magnificat Alexander Weimann, Music Director SUN. 25 FEB. 2018 SAT. 11 NOV. 2017 Rachel Barton Pine Forces of Nature THURS. 12 APR.