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Home , Baroque dance, Courante, Gigue, London Handel Festival, Passepied, Rigaudon

34th SEASON

A Celebration of 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

London Handel Players Adrian Butterfieldviolin 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 - Bourée - - Suite in D major (from Pièces en Trio pour les flutes, violon, et dessus de viole) M. Marais (1656 – 1728) Prélude - - 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) 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 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 - - Sonate - Loure - Musette - Sonate

INTERMISSION

Overture and March, Queen Caroline (from 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 (Prologue to HWV8b) - Gigue Handel Partita in A minor for solo flute BWV 1013 Bach - Corrente - Sarabande - Bourée angloise

La , 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 player 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 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 fieryLoure 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, , 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 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 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 was hugely prolific in the field of the highest note ever written for the flute at that time. The instrumental dance pieces. The dance teacher in Lüneburg, Corrente is also unusual because it is a fast variation of the where Bach went to school, had worked alongside Lully in typical Italian corrente while the closing Paris in his formative years. We can be sure that Bach had Bourée Angloise turns the standard bourée melody and a fundamental understanding of the many different styles rhythm upside down and back to front. All of Bach’s of dance. Whilst his instrumental suites offer examples on movements are much longer and highly developed than a monumental scale, he never lost touch with the earthy most dance choreography, yet the underlying forms and roots displayed in the rustic peasant dances which open the characters are still apparent. Peasant cantata, BWV 212. Corelli’s La Folia is the last of his famous Op.5 set Bach’s six all begin with a prelude of 12 solo violin sonatas published in 1700 and is a set followed by several dances. The prelude establishes the of variations on a popular theme which conjures up the key and overall mood and the dances take on that spirit passion of both the sarabande and the chaconne. The without losing their individual character.C-major for the proud gestures and forceful stamping of the dancers’ steps cello involves much natural resonance from the open highlight the Spanish background of this work and draws strings and Bach’s utilises this to the full in the Prélude. The our evening to a wild and rousing conclusion!

5 The Artists

The London Handel Players Telemann and Handel. Recent recordings include a two- Praised by the New York Times for their “soulful depth” and disc set of JS Bach’s flute sonatas interspersed with some their “consummate skill and musicianship”, The London flute arias from his cantatas sung by Elizabeth Cragg, Handel Players captivate audiences across the world with Charles Daniels and Peter Harvey and a flute arrangement their performances and recordings. Making their debut at of one of the harpsichord concertos which was released in Handel’s own parish church, St George’s Hanover Square, January 2016. as part of the London Handel Festival in 2000, the Players appear regularly at the leading venues and festivals in the “Piers Burton-Page welcomed the London Handel UK, Europe and North America, performing baroque Players’ Somm account of Handel’s Op.5 as “well-nigh chamber music and concertos and collaborating with the perfect” (September 2005), a view from which I would world’s leading singers. not dissent regarding the current issue...these three With a New York debut at the Frick Museum in outstandingly gifted players are at the peak of their 2012, concerts have included performances at Carnegie collective form...” Hall, Wigmore Hall, Kings Lynn Festival, Internationale Julian Haylock, International Record Review Händel-Festpiele Göttingen, Varazdin Baroque Evenings, (Handel Violin Sonatas) Spitalfields Festival, Newbury Spring Festival, Halle International Handel Festival, Brighton Early Music “I find all the performances well-nigh perfect...the Festival, East Cork Early Music Festival and in Canada music is absolutely gorgeous”. (including numerous appearances in Victoira), Spain, International Record Review Ireland, Germany and Croatia. The past season saw the London Handel Players return to Canada for the "Performances that are perfection itself, with a Beyond Festival in Ottawa. Committed educators at dazzling beauty of tone and of phrasing, a breadth of every level and holding professorships in early music at colours and a range of dynamics...more than that, this London’s Conservatoires, The London Handel Players give recording is full of the most delicious music you could masterclasses and workshops at every level. ask to hear, and the players give every indication of Individually, The London Handel Players pursue loving every note they play” busy solo, directing and conducting careers and are Pan, Journal of the British Flute Society leading professors in the field of early music at the Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music and the "Adrian Butterfield, violinist and director, urges his Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Their numerous players along with a powerful demonstration of tasteful recordings, both individually and collectively, have virtuosity, superbly revealed in the First Sonata, and received high critical acclaim. They have recorded four discs what follows is a marvellous exhibition of collective of Handel; his two sets of trio sonatas Op.2 and Op.5, his instrumental excellence. As performances, these want complete works for solo violin and a disc entitled ‘Handel for nothing in terms of technical brilliance and musical at Home’ which includes a flute concerto and arrangements integrity, and the recorded balance is singularly of famous arias. They have also recorded Geminiani’s satisfying...It all adds up to a hugely absorbing and complete Op.1 sonatas. Adrian Butterfield has made fascinating aural picture not just of a composer’s work the world premiere complete recordings of Leclair’s but of an entire period in musical history." first two books of violin sonatas and Rachel Brown has Marc Rochester, International Record Review recorded sonatas and concertos by CPE Bach, Quantz, (Geminiani Sonatas Op.1)

6 Steven Player composers of the baroque era. She has worked with dance, Player’s interest in Renaissance and Baroque dance was theatre, and TV companies as an adviser, choreographer, sparked in the 1980’s when he met and studied with Mary dancer, and actress. A faculty member of Aestas Musica Collins, later performing in her ensemble Danserye in a in Croatia, the Austria Barokakademie and, for almost UK tour with George Weigand and the Extempore String three decades, The Ringve International Summer Course Ensemble. in Norway, she regularly collaborates with many of the Since then he has combined his abilities as dancer, world’s leading exponents of early music. musician, and actor, performing worldwide with many She also teaches at the Royal Academy of Music and well-known ensembles including, Tragicommedia, The Royal College of Music in London. Her work has been Harp Consort, Los Otros, Apollo’s Fire, The Newberry the focus of several documentaries on Early Dance and Consort and Baroksolistene (The Alehouse Boys). its music. Her resource book for teachers, The Art that All Player has toured throughout the USA, most recently Other Arts Do Approve, was on the UK’s Recommended participating with The Alehouse Boys in an “Alehouse Reading List. Her article, with co-author Joanna Jarvis, Session” at The National Cathedral, Washington. He “The Great Leap” traces the evolving relationship between has just completed a second sojourn with The Newberry dance and costume in the 18th century. Consort in their Elizabethan Jigs project based on Reviving original choreography and gesture for Shakespeare’s clown Will Kemp, first performed in 2016. historical performance, Collins’ notable productions The focus of Player’s work is to encourage the include the Bourgeois Gentilhomme at the National Theatre reacquaintance of music and dance from the 16th, 17th, and of Croatia in Zagreb (awarded the Croatian Grand Prix 18th centuries. He is delighted to collaborate with Mary Award 2009/10) and the London Handel Festival’s ‘Il Collins and The London Handel Players in discovering Pastor Fido’ in 2010. Credits include works by Cavalieri, and performing the lost connections in the music of Bach, Monteverdi, Blow, Purcell, Charpentier, Rebel, Rameau, Handel and others, “cleaning away the varnish of the last Lampe, and Gluck. 150 years”. Collins was principal dancer in the 2013 production of Lully’s Les Arts Reunis in Sao Paolo, Brazil and currently Mary Collins works with the Irish Baroque Orchestra in Dublin. Past Collins is an Early Dance specialist whose research and concert tours with the London Handel Players included teaching approach has inspired musicians to look afresh the York Early Music Festival, Tilford Bach Festival, at the dance music that is at the heart of the baroque Gregynogg Early Music Festival, and the East Cork Early repertoire bringing, in turn, a fresh perspective on the great Music Festival.

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The programme, notes, and artist biographies are available on the EMSI website prior to each concert

EMSI wishes to thank…

The EMSI Volunteer Guild Alix Goolden volunteers Caroline Mitic, graphic designer for EMSI David Strand, maintainer of the EMSI website

www.earlymusicsocietyoftheislands.ca

7 Supporting the Society

Make a Donation help the Fund grow. These operating grants will both assist The Early Music Society of the Islands relies on in presenting artists who would otherwise be unaffordable individual donations, memberships, and grants to and ensure the long-term sustainability of the Society. sustain its operations each year. Your donation will help Tax receipts will be provided. to present concerts featuring internationally-renowned artists and to promote interest and appreciation of Early You can contribute directly to this Fund in three ways: Music in the community. MAIL By sending a cheque to: Ways to Donate Early Music Endowment Fund, Victoria Foundation, ONLINE To make a secure online donation Suite #109–645, Fort Street Victoria, BC V8W 1G2 by Visa, MasterCard or AmEx, visit: www.earlymusicsocietyoftheislands.ca ONLINE Donate online by Visa, MasterCard, Amex at the Victoria Foundation’s Web site: MAIL Please send cheque payable to EMSI to: http://www.victoriafoundation.bc.ca/web/give/ways Click EMSI Donations c/o McPherson Box Office, on “give now” to go to CanadaHelps, select “Donate #3 Centennial Square, Victoria BC V8W 1P5 Now” and choose “Early Music Endowment Fund” from the drop-down list. THROUGH UNITED WAY OR EMPLOYEE CAMPAIGNS If your employer participates in BEQUESTS OR GIFTS OF SECURITIES the United Way or other employee campaigns, Bequests or gifts of life insurance or securities may you can support the Early Music Society of the Islands be arranged through the Victoria Foundation. by writing in the gift on your pledge For more information, visit www.victoriafoundation.bc.ca card. Our charitable registration number is or phone the Foundation at (250) 381–5532. 11889-0367-RR0001. Sponsorships To discuss donation options, please contact BUSINESS SPONSORS The Society welcomes business Rondallyn Perras, Fundraising Director sponsorships and will provide appropriate public [email protected] acknowledgement of such support. Tax receipts are issued for all donations of $10 and over. CONCERT SPONSORS James Young, Artistic Director [email protected] would be Donate for the Future pleased to offer guidance and information relating to gifts The Early Music Endowment Fund is owned and to support a specific concert. managed on our behalf by the Victoria Foundation. Each year, part of the investment income is given as Please contact us at: a grant to EMSI and the balance is re-invested to [email protected]

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