John H. Skirball Center for Performing Arts !e 18th Century Neapolitan Masters Foundation for the European Tradition Sunday April 13, 2008 5:00 pm Presented by Neapolitan Music Society and Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, NYU Our Mission !e Neapolitan Music Society comprises a dedicated group of musicians, composers, academics, and international community leaders deeply committed to promoting the Neapolitan School of Music and its place in music history through performance, research and education. Music, like all art forms, has evolved throughout history. Few musicians and music lovers today are familiar with one of its richest chapters, centered in elcome to the Neapolitan Musical Society Dear Fellow Patron of the Arts, Naples during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. !e Neapolitan At the time of the American Revolution, Naples was the center of the !e contribution our Italian ancestors made to the arts weaves a rich and School, supported by four ancient musical world. When !omas Jefferson made a catalog of his personal music colorful story. One chapter I find particularly inspirational is that of the conservatories, produced some of the collection in 1783, it featured names like Piccini, Hasse and Pergolesi, all Neapolitan composers who lived and worked in Naples, Italy during the greatest masters of the era including important composers trained in the famous music conservatories of Naples. seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Domenico Scarlatti, Niccolò Jommelli, Gian Francesco de Majo, Leonardo Almost two centuries later, when I was but a nine-year-old boy, my music !ese innovative maestros introduced new elements to the classical form, Leo and dozens more. Sought after teacher gave me a book of lessons from that early period in Naples. He even adopting a unique notation system to communicate their progressive throughout Europe, these masters were said “study this material well and you will come to understand the great ideas with performers of the day. While their musical contributions had the toast of the eighteenth-century Neapolitan tradition.” I was fortunate to have such a wise maestro, and later a profound and lasting impact on the evolution of classical form, their musical world, yet few are known today I was able to study at the Naples Conservatory itself. In its library I saw how scoring methods were not widely adopted, and eventually these brilliant and their works are rarely performed. much of this tradition remains in manuscript, never having been printed or compositions were dropped from the performance repertoire in favor performed in modern times. those written in more familiar notation. As a result, the works so lovingly Music that exists only on paper cannot, composed by Neapolitan masters were relegated to library archives without performance, inspire the My own music career was centered first in Europe as a conductor. When across Europe. heart and nourish the soul. Literally I came to the United States in 1992, I decided to devote my efforts to thousands of symphonies, operas and resurrecting the music and masters of the eighteenth-century Neapolitan Fortunately, the non-profit Neapolitan Music Society (NMS) and Maestro other works by eighteenth-century School. Since that time I have helped bring to the attention of American (M°) Gioacchino Longobardi have worked tirelessly to break over two- Neapolitan masters sit silently in audiences this important but almost unknown chapter of music history. hundred years of silence by reintroducing these forgotten Italian treasures. music libraries throughout Europe, !is evening’s performance by the Neapolitan Symphony Orchestra marks lovingly preserved but mute. !e Friends, music lovers, professional musicians and music historians have the world premiere NMS event. Several program selections are being Neapolitan Music Society was formed joined with me to establish the Neapolitan Music Society. We seek to bring performed in America for the very first time. to breathe new life into these forgotten to the attention of audiences worldwide a once famous repertory of music masterpieces, to give voice once again to that contains hundreds of masterpieces still waiting to be rediscovered. I’m delighted to join you in supporting this historically significant event these beautiful compositions. thanks to M° Gioacchino Longobardi. Please join us in learning more about this most marvelous golden age of !e Society seeks to deepen public classical music. Learn what attracted !omas Jefferson to the masterworks Sincerely Yours, appreciation and understanding of of these great Italian composers and what still charms and inspires Matilda Cuomo the Neapolitan School through a audiences today. combination of performance, research, education and preservation. !rough President, these efforts the Society hopes to expand Maestro Gioacchino Longobardi Gioacchino Longobardi the musical horizons of all music lovers. We invite you to join us in rediscovering the treasures of the Neapolitan masters. Program Neapolitan Symphony Orchestra !is program is proudly presented by the Neapolitan Music Society and co-presented by the Skirball Center, New York Violins Viola University and Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimó at NYU. Introduction by Professor Robert Gjerdingen of Northwestern University, followed by !e Neapolitan Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Mº Gioacchino Longobardi. Alberto Vitolo, Concertmaster Shmuel Katz, Principal Elizabeth Silver, Asst. Concertmaster Stephanie Baer Francesco Durante (1684-1755) Concerto in F Minor Kelly Hall-Tompkins, Principal 2nd Olivia Koppell Lorra Baylis Beth Meyers Leonardo Leo (1685-1744) Tecum Principium (U.S. Premiere) Rebecca Cherry Kevin Roy Conrad Harris Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) Salve Regina Ann Leathers Cello Roy Lewis Nicola Fiorenza (c.1700-1764) Adagio e Fuga (U.S. Premiere) Kristina Musser Adam Grabois, Principal Laura Oatts Lanny Paykin Johan Adolf Hasse (1699-1783) Alma Redemptoris Mater (U.S. Premiere) Carol Pool Deborah Sepe Mary Jo Stilp !eo Zimmerman Johan Adolf Hasse (1699-1783) Pallido il Sole (U.S. Premiere) Dorothy Strahl Bass All works elaborated by Mº Gioacchino Longobardi. Richard Fredrickson, Principal Jeff Levine Francesco Durante Leonardo Leo Domenico Scarlatti Nicola Fiorenza Johan Adolf Hasse Francesco Durante was born in Leonardo Leo was born in 1694 in Born in Napoli in 1685, Scarlatti Known as “Maestro iroso” Known as “iL Sassone” (German Frattamaggiore, Napoli in 1684. San Vito degli Schiavoni, then part soon proved to be a musical prodigy. (wroughtful Maestro), Nicola composer) Johan Adolf Hasse was He entered the Conservatorio dei of the Kingdom of Napoli. He After settling in Roma with his father, Fiorenza was a violinist at born in Bergedorf, Germany in 1699. Poveri di Gesú Cristo at an early age, studied at the Conservatorio della he began studying with preeminent Conservatorio di Santa Maria di For decades he was the most admired where he studied under Gaetano Pietà dei Turchini under Francesco Italian musicians Pasquini and Loreto, from which he was dismissed composer of opera seria in Italy and Greco and later, Alessandro Scarlatti. Provenzale and Nicola Fago. From Gasparini. He also met !omas circa 1762 after complaints that he Germany. His finest operas, written Following the death of Leonardo 1720 until his death, he steadily Roseingrave, who became Scarlatti’s mistreated his students. He was later between 1730 and 1760, represent a Leo in 1744, Durante was appointed produced commissioned work for enthusiastic champion, publishing appointed head violinist of the Royal neo-classical style perfectly matched primo maestro of the Conservatorio operas in Naples, Rome, Venice, the first edition of Scarlatti’s Essercizi Chapel, succeeding Domenico de to Pietro Metastasio’s text, from di Sant’Onofrio a Capuana, where his Bologna, Turin and Milan. One of per gravicembalo (1738-9). Although Matteis. Although Fiorenza is often which he drew much inspiration. students included Sacchini, Piccinni his greatest musical contributions a composer of vocal music, his fame labeled a “minor” figure, he deserves His elegantly crafted Bel Canto and Paisiello. While not a prolific was an attempt to reform religious squarely rests on the hundreds of more credit for his influential (beautiful singing) elevated lyrical composer, his music exhibits great music in Naples. He became keyboard sonatas through which he development of the concerto and melodies to heights that relegated skill and invention with a dramatic principal organist of the vice-regal explored new virtuoso techniques, symphonic forms that emerged from lesser elements to subordinate status. flair. Durante died in Naples at the chapel after Alessandro Scarlatti’s such as hand-crossing, rapidly Southern Italy in the early eighteenth Until Frederick the Great’s death age of 71 and is buried in the church death in 1725. Leo succeeded repeated notes, wide leaps and other century. Fiorenza produced nine in 1786, Hasse’s operas and sacred of San Lorenzo. Leonardo Vinci at the royal chapel in innovations. In 1738 he became concertos and several symphonies works were regularly performed in 1730, becoming vice-maestro in 1737 Knight of the Order of Santiago. He during his more prolific years from Berlin, but less frequently in Italy. and “Maestro di cappella” shortly died in Madrid in 1757. 1726-1728. He died in Napoli He died in Venice in 1783. before his death. circa 1764. Bios Gioacchino Longobardi Giuseppe Devastato Tiziana Pizzi Alberto Vitolo Robert Gjerdingen Conductor