34th SEASON A Celebration of Baroque Dance London Handel Players with Mary Collins and Steven Player October 27 September 2018 Alix Goolden Hall 2018-19 Concert Season “My heart trembles” Jeszcze Marcinie: Renaissance Cantatas by Handel Polish Keyboard 17 November 2018 Saturday 8pm 24 February 2019 Sunday 3pm Alix Goolden Hall St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church Byron Schenkman and Friends Corina Marti harpsichord (SWITZERLAND) (SEATTLE) Reginald Mobley countertenor (MIAMI) Quartets of Haydn, Beethoven, and Schubert A Festive Baroque 9 March 2019 Saturday 8pm Christmas Alix Goolden Hall 22 December 2018 Saturday 8pm Chiaroscuro String Quartet Alix Goolden Hall (EUROPE) Victoria Baroque Players (VICTORIA) Jeanne Lamon violin and direction Victoria’s Requiem (TORONTO) and Penitential Motets co-presented by Rebecca Genge soprano (TORONTO) 23 March 2019 Saturday 8pm Kris Kwapis trumpet (SEATTLE) Christ Church Cathedral Choir of Clare College Cambridge (UK) J.S. Bach: The Circle of Creation Gate to the East 26 January 2019 Saturday 8pm 6 April 2019 Saturday 8pm Alix Goolden Hall Alix Goolden Hall Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra Constantinople (MONTREAL) (TORONTO) Marco Beasley tenor (ITALY) Elisa Citterio violin and direction Kiya Tabassian setar and direction A Celebration of Baroque Dance London Handel Players Adrian Butterfield violin Katherine Sharman cello Rachel Brown flute and recorder Silas Wollston harpsichord Mary Collins and Steven Player dancers Pavane des Saisons (from Idylle sur la Paix LWV 68) J.B. Lully (1632 – 1687) La Bourgogne (choreography by Pécour) Anon Courante - Bourée - Sarabande - Passepied Suite in D major (from Pièces en Trio pour les flutes, violon, et dessus de viole) M. Marais (1656 – 1728) Prélude - Gigue - Simphonie lentement Marche pour la Cérémonie des Turcs (from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme LWV 43) Lully Premier Air pour les Espagnols (from L’Europe Galante) Loure A. Campra (1660 – 1744) Chaconne d’Arlequin (from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme LWV 43) Lully Suite in G major: Prélude; Chaconne Rondeau J.H. D’Anglebert (1635 –1691) (from Pièces de Clavecin - 1689) Passacaille (from Persée LWV 60) Lully Rigaudon Les Vandangeuses (from Les Ages) Campra La Biscayenne Tambourin Anon Les Caractères de la Dance J.F. Rebel (1666 – 1747) Prélude - Courante - Menuet - Bourée - Chaconne - Sarabande - Gigue - Rigaudon - Passepied - Gavotte - Sonate - Loure - Musette - Sonate INTERMISSION Overture and March, Queen Caroline (from Scipione HWV 20) J.F. Handel (1685 – 1759) Rigaudon (set by L’Abbé) Mer hahn en neue Oberkeet (from Peasant Cantata BWV 212 ) J.S. Bach (1685 – 1750) Allegro - Andante - Allegro - Adagio - Allegro - Presto Cello Suite No.3 in C major BWV 1009 Bach Prélude - Courante - Sarabande - Gigue Terpsicore (Prologue to Il Pastor Fido HWV8b) Minuet - Gigue Handel Partita in A minor for solo flute BWV 1013 Bach Allemande - Corrente - Sarabande - Bourée angloise La Folia, Violin Sonata Op.5 No.12 in D Min A. Corelli (1653 – 1713) Programme Notes On September 1, 1715, just before his 77th birthday, Louis passion called the sarabande, with the tension resolved in XIV died at Versailles, ending his 72-year reign – the the playful joy of the passepied. longest of any European monarch. The famous French viol player Marin Marais wrote The arts flourished greatly in France during this some exquisite chamber music and this suite is from a set ‘grand siècle’. Through lavish theatrical productions and notable for being the first published trio sonatas to specify an extravagant social life, Louis established his cultural the flute, in 1692. A typically livelyGigue is framed by two supremacy, his might, and his majesty, silencing unrest at expansive movements, a Prélude and a Simphonie lentement. home whilst pursuing military interests abroad. The harpsichord suites of Jean Henri D’Anglebert One of his first acts upon his accession to the throne represent one of the pinnacles of French harpsichord music. in 1661 at the age of 18, was to create the Académie de Published in 1689, just two years before the composer’s Dance, followed by the Académie de Musique in 1669. He death, they build on the tradition of Chambonnières employed vast numbers of musicians, singers, and dancers. and Couperin. The pieces combine a melodic simplicity Chief among them was Jean-Baptiste Lully who, though with an exceptional rhythmic subtlety and precision in born Italian, became the driving force in the development ornamentation. D’Anglebert’s table of ornaments, the most of French opera and ballet. sophisticated of its age, formed the basis of Bach’s, and Louis’ passion for dance inspired a pan-European provided the model for others, including Rameau. These fascination with the various French dances and there ornaments, some of which are unique to D’Anglebert, was scarcely a court in Europe without a French dancing epitomise the refinement, elegance, and extravagance of master. At Louis’ behest, Pierre Beauchamps devised a the French school. system of notating the dance steps and patterns and these Between these two instrumental items are two dances were published in 1700 in an extensive manual by Raoul from the theatre rather than the ballroom: the fiery Loure Auger Feuillet. This method caught on quickly and dance by André Campra is danced by a wicked sorceress after treatises and choreographies were published in France, which the rogue character of Harlequin enters and pokes England, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Portugal. fun at the Chaconne. The rediscovery of these dances leads us to a new Pécour’s choreography of the Passacaille for the 1703 and understanding of dance music and a fresh perspective on 1710 revivals of Lully’s opera Persée displays the rhetorical the compositions of the great composers of the baroque nature of dance, as described in 1589 by Thoinot Arbeau era, since so much of the music is dance-based. The in his treatise Orchésographie. It is a beautiful depiction subtlety and complexity of footwork and rhythm exhibited of the meeting of two characters and their developing in French court dance generated a virtuosic style in which relationship. the dancer became another line of the music – dancer and Two instrumentally-performed, rustic dances follow: musician coexisted as a complete ensemble. a rigaudon (also known as rigadon, rigadoon) by Campra, Tonight's programme includes most of the important Les Vandangeuses, depicting merry grape harvesters dances of the period and a number of them will be and an anonymous tambourin, La Biscayenne. Simple performed to original notated choreography. The first half harmonies and drones capture the raw, earthy energy of contains French music whilst the second comprises music the peasant dances which were incorporated into theatrical from England, Germany, and Italy. productions in stark contrast to the sophisticated elegance La Belle Danse, as this style was designated, imbued of the courtly dances. individual dances with specificcaractères to differentiate In Les Caractères de la Dance, Jean-Féry Rebel them. In La Bourgogne was a set of dances choreographed by incorporated most of the French dances of the time and Louis Pécour for the Dauphine, the Duchess of Bourgogne provided a platform for the inestimable talents of the in 1700, including the courante, a dance of majestic display première danseuse of the Paris Opéra, Françoise Prévost. She which was Louis XIV’s favourite. Following this is a bourée was noted for her ‘protean’ charms and Rebel’s piece leads expressing simple pleasure, then a dance of smouldering the audience through a sequence of narratives introducing 4 different caractères along the way. Prévost trained two Corrente and Gigue are both joyfully energetic whilst the students who went on to make Les Caractères their own: underlying passion of this Sarabande is relatively relaxed Marie Camargo (‘La Cupis’) was acclaimed for her virtuosic and intimate. technique and entrechats while Marie Sallé, who came to Il Pastor Fido (1712) was the second opera Handel work in London with George Frederic Handel and Auguste wrote for London. After the huge success of Rinaldo Noverre, favoured the newer style of natural acting. Like (1711), Handel seems to have misjudged his audience the other two principal dancers, Sallé danced Les Caractères with this production though it contains beautiful music. as a solo but she premiered it in London in 1734, Marie Sallé’s stay in London in the mid-1730s offered dancing the piece as a duet with her brother. Tonight’s him the opportunity to revive it in an adapted form and performance is based upon this version. Les Caractères was he added a special celebration of the dance, Terpsicore, published in 1715 and was a core repertoire piece at the as a prologue. No original choreography survives from Paris Opéra for 30 years. these performances, but the dancers have based their The 1728 duet Queen Caroline was set by Anthony realisation on the notations of original choreography for L’Abbé, King George II’s royal dancing master and theatrical similar dances. choreographer, to the popular March from Handel’s In the 18th century, many considered that it was Scipione (1726). It reflects the composer’s popularity with impossible to write for solo wind instruments since they both the royal family and London audiences. could not produce harmony. However, with skillful use of Queen Caroline was George II’s consort and, like arpeggios, Bach created a masterpiece for the solo flute in Handel, was a native German. She was a respected amateur the Partita with a strong harmonic structure. Nevertheless, musician and an influential patron of the arts. The dance, this work raises many questions. The opening Allemande, a rigaudon, is an elegant expression of pleasure typical in written as a moto perpetuo, leaves no comfortable places for style of the robust, less flighty Hanoverian monarchy. the flute player to breathe, and concludes with an ascent to Johann Sebastian Bach was hugely prolific in the field of the highest note ever written for the flute at that time.