Baroque Masters Prog Notes

Baroque Masters Programme Notes Corelli Concerto grosso op. 6, no. 2 Corelli’s Twelve Concerti Grossi, Opus 6 were completed and compiled in the last years of the composer’s life, and the manuscript willed to his closest friend and assistant, Matteo Fornari. Eighteen months after Corelli’s death, Fornari had them published and their anxiously awaited appearance was applauded throughout Europe. It is not surprising that the publications created such a stir: the twelve concertos are the only published orchestral works of Corelli, and represent a summation of his work as orchestral leader and composer. They are scored for string orchestra, at least as published in 1714. It is known that Corelli’s orchestra often included winds and/or brass on festive occasions, and it is quite possible that he might have performed some of these same concerti grossi with added instruments. In that spirit, Elisa Citterio has arranged the second concerto for oboes, bassoon, and strings, the winds participating in the lively dialogue between a small group of soloists and the full orchestra. Bach Concerto in A Minor The violin was one of Bach’s favoured solo instruments: he turned to the violin as a counterpart to the solo voice in countless arias in his sacred works, and of course composed the remarkable sonatas and partitas for unaccompanied violin, works that remain at the very core of the violin repertoire three centuries later. Although primarily a keyboard player, Bach was also a capable violinist and violist, and he understood fully that the violin could be played on the one hand with great energy and virtuosity, and on the other with the most sublime and tender expression. This is witnessed in the contrasting movements of his two concertos for solo violin, which have long been favourites of violinists and audiences alike. Muffat Florilegium Georg Muffat studied music from age ten to sixteen in Paris during the heyday of Jean- Baptiste Lully. After law school in Bavaria and forays to Vienna and Prague, he settled in Salzburg in 1678 as cathedral organist and chamber musician. He was granted leave to spend a year in Rome, where he was introduced to the concerti grossi of Corelli. Modern performers are indebted to him, not only for the wealth of compositions he published, but also for the lengthy prefaces to these publications. Written in four languages (French, Latin, German, and Italian), they offer very detailed descriptions of the styles and techniques employed by musicians in France under Lully, and in Italy under Corelli. His two volumes of Lully-style suites, entitled Florilegium Primum and Secundum (First and Second Bouquets), are models of the French style he encountered as a youth in Paris. He favoured fanciful titles, and the festive music of the fourth suite from Book 2 celebrates a “splendid nuptial,” attended apparently by peasants (including some from Poitiers) and cavaliers, and certainly with much dancing. Locatelli Concerto grosso “Il pianto d’Arianna” Pietro Antonio Locatelli was born in Bergamo and studied in Rome. He performed concert tours as a solo violinist throughout Italy and Germany before settling permanently in Amsterdam in 1729. His compositions consist primarily of violin sonatas and concerti grossi. One of the most remarkable of the latter is “Il pianto d’Arianna,” a work that more closely resembles a cantata than a concerto, in which a solo violin is given the role of the tormented Ariadne. In the tenth epistolary poem of Ovid’s Heroides, Ariadne laments her abandonment by Theseus on the island of Naxos. Ottavio Rinuccini wrote an opera libretto based on the poem, set by Monteverdi in Mantua in 1608. The music for the opera is lost, but for the remarkable “Il lamento d’Arianna.” This in turn inspired many composers to set laments on this and similar texts, and Monteverdi’s original setting or those of his successors may have been in Locatelli’s mind when he wrote his instrumental version. Locatelli goes so far as to include recitatives for the solo violinist, but leaves the text to the player’s and listeners’ imaginations. Vivaldi Concerto for 2 oboes and 2 violins Most of Vivaldi’s concertos feature his own instrument, the violin, but the constant demand for new and novel concertos inspired Vivaldi to turn to more unusual instruments upon occasion. He and fellow Venetian Tomasso Albinoni were among the first composers in Europe to write concertos for the relative newcomer, the oboe. It is thought that Vivaldi’s interest in the instrument may have been inspired at least in part by a visit by four musicians from the Dresden court who accompanied the prince- elector of Saxony on an extended visit to Venice in 1716. Vivaldi was impressed with the abilities of these musicians, and by their accounts of the impressive skills of the Dresden court orchestra, with its legendary wind players. Whether the Concerto for 2 oboes and 2 violins was among those he wrote for Dresden, or whether he intended it for the Pietà orchestra in Venice, is not known. Fasch Suite in D Minor Johann Friedrich Fasch had studied at the Thomasschule in Leipzig and with Graupner in Darmstadt before taking up the post of Kapellmeister at the Anhalt court in Zerbst. His reputation as a composer was widespread, and his works were performed by Telemann in Hamburg, Bach in Leipzig, C.P.E. Bach in Berlin, and Pisendel in Dresden. Although himself an organist and violinist, Fasch had a particular penchant for wind instruments. The Dresden wind players who inspired Vivaldi were also a great source of inspiration to the innovative Fasch, and although he was never employed at the Saxon court, he wrote several works for its orchestra. Throughout his life Fasch sent copies of his compositions to his former teacher Graupner in Darmstadt. Graupner was a careful copyist and archivist, and the library in Darmstadt inherited his collection of scores and parts, which includes the Fasch suite that concludes this week’s programme. .

Load more