Clapella Istropolitana Richard adlinger The word Baroque now seems to have won general acceptance as a term denoting a period in Western music dating from the end of the sixteenth century to the middle of the eighteenth century. This span of 150 years includes a wide variety of music, although certain technical features exist throughout, and certain forms, particularity of instru- mental music, have their development during these years. Borrowed from art historians, the word Baroque was once pejorative, implying the bizarre. As a description of music of the eighteenth century, at least, it has entirely lost this meaning. The Baroque Hits included on the present release are taken principally from works written towards the end of the Baroque period, the age of Bach and Handel, who were both born in 1685, of Telemann, four years older, who outlived them both, and of Vivaldi, who won fame in Venice during the same period. Johann Sebastian Bach was a member of a prolac family of musicians. He was train- ed in the craft of his father, his uncles and his brothers, and won an early reputation for himself as an organist and as an authority on the building of organs. Initial appoint- ments as organist, finally in the Grand Duchy ot Weimar, led to promotion to the posi- tion of Court Director of Music to Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Coethen in 1717. It was during his six years at Coethen that Bach wrote much of his instrumental music. His later career, from 1723 until his death in 1750, was spent in Leipzig, where he was Kantor at the Choir School of St. Thomas, responsible for the training of the choir and the provision of music for the five city churches. It was at Coethen, however, that Bach wrote his violin concertos including a Concerto in D for two violins, the slow movement of which is included here. The second and third of the four orchestral Suites were probably written in Leipzig. From the Second Suite, for flute and strings, comes the playful Badinerie, while the Air from the Third Suite may be better known by the title Air on the G String, from a late nineteenth century violin arrangement by the violinist August Wilhelmj. George Frideric Handel was born in Halle, the son of a court surgeon, and after some time at university, a privilege Bach had never enjoyed, worked at the opera in Hamburg. From there he travelled to Italy and quickly began to gain acceptance as a composer of opera. It was in this capacity, as a composer of Italian opera, that this German ~nusic~an found himself in London in 1710. He was to remain in England for the rest of his life, dominating English music in his own time and for generations to come. The four excerpts from the music of Handel included here start with a movement from the Water Music, written for an excursion on the River Thames by King George I and his courtiers. Handel had briefly been in the employment of King George in Han- over before that monarch's accession in the English throne. The composer had moved to London with a limited leave of absence. which he had long outstayed when the death of Queen Anne led to King George's move to London. There seems, however, no truth in the old story that the King and his former musician were recoociled by the Water Music. There was. no doubt, a tacit understanding that Handel's earlier defection from Hanover was to be ignored. The Royal Fireworks Music was written many years later to celebrate the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which brought to an end the War of the Austrian Succession. The occasion was a magnificent one, with a crowd of 12,000 watching the rehearsal, and the music played in London's Vauxhall Gardens by a band of 100 musicians, as reports -.---nllrvpd tfaydel had not always enjoyed unqualified success. By the 1730s Italian opera had begon to lose its popularity, and his new opera Serse (Xerxes) achieved only five per- formances when it was staged in 1738. The aria Ombra mai fu won later fame as "Handel's Largo" in spite of the original dire'ction Larghetto it has become one of the best known ot ~ahdel'scompositions, rivalllngln thls respect the so-called Harmonious Blacksmith. The final Handel escerpt is taken from the last of the set of twelve Concerti Grossi, Opus 6, written in 1739. These concertos, in imitation of the ever-popular work of Corelli, contrast a group of three - two violins and bass instrument - with the rest of the string orchestra. Arcangelo Corelli, to whom Handel was here indebted, was born in 1653. His career had been spent largely in Rome, where he was held in the greatest respect as a violinist, a teacher and a composer . He had met Handel in the early years of the century, when it seemed that Handel, the German visitor to Italy, was too French in style for Corelli. The work of Corelli had considerable influence over the course of instrumental composition. He himself left sets of solo and trio sonatas and twelve concerti grossi, of vvhich the eighth is generally known as the Christmas Concerto. The association with the festival, for which the work was written, is expressed largely in the final movement, included here, in which a gentle shepherd dance recalls the shepherds in the fields near Bethlehem. In the Republic of Venice Alessandro Marcello, a movement from whose D minor Oboe Concerto is included here, was a relatively unimportant figure, like Albinoni, whose style is so ably copied by Relno Giazorto in the popular Adagio. Of greater contemporary and posthumous importance was Antonio Vivaldi, a priest, known in Venice as il perte IOSSO worn the co~our01 n~snalr. VIV~I~Ispent mucn or nls working 11te In ttle employ- ment of one of the four famous musical orphanages, the Ospedale della Pieta, where girls might receive a remarkably thorough training in the art. For the Pieta Vivaldi wrote concerto after concerto to display the talents of pupils and teachers. The set of concertos known as The Pour Seasons is among the better known of the five hundred or so works he wrote in this form, and was among the small number of works actually published in the composer's life-time, when they formed part of a set of twelve. The Four Seasons, for solo violin and strings, include, in the published version, sonnets that explain the apparent programme of each work. Spring depicts the appearance of the birds, the gentle breeze and sudden storms, thunder and lightning, after which the birds resume their song. Autumn ends with huntsmen in pursuit of game, cornering their prey, which resigns itself to death. To relegate Georg Philipp Telemann to a footnote is unjust. In his day Telemann was considered superior to Bach. He was certainly a composer of great facility and great versatility, presiding over music in Hamburg for 46 years, until his death in 1767, when he was succeeded by his godson, Carl Philipp Emannel Bach, second surviving son of Johann Sebastian Bach by his first wife. The G major Viola Concerto, of which the third movement is included here . is a work well known to viola players, who suffer from far too small a possible repertoire. It is a thoroughly characteristic example of Telemann's easy style of composition. Capella lstropolitana (slovak Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra) The Capella Istropolitana is a chamber orchcs- tra formed by leading members of the Slovak Philharmol~ic Orchestra, Bratis- lava. Founded in 1983, the cham- ber orchestra allows the play- ers, many of them experienced soloists, to play as chamber music- ians. Much of the work of the orchestra has been concentrotcd on the recording Capella lstropolitana (Slovak Pliill~armonicChamber Orchestra) Richard Edlinger The Austrian conductor Richard Edlinger was born in Bregenz in 1958 and directed his f~st concerts at the age of seventeen. He completed his studies at the Vienna Academy in conducting and composition in 1982, by which time he had already acquired considerable pro- fessional experience. He was the youngest finalist in the,l983 Guido Cantelli Conductors Competition at La Scala, Milan. Since 1986 Richard Edlinger has been Artistic Director of the Capella Istropolitana, an orches- tra with which he has under- taken regular tours in Europe. Richard Edlinger 8.550014 THE BEST OF BAROQUE MUSIC ESGF eii$4 gee$ oeE; I. 5. BACH: Air on G String (554) g ALBIWONI: "Ginom - A-io in C Minor" 1Jm J. S. BAM:bdhwie from "Ruite Na 2" C1:23) g AILlan Bmnner, Flute $%') ca Violin g& El 1.8. BAIX: bond Movement from VIVA% AhF poho. "Concerto iu B4.t 8 "Conterm for 2 Vldlns, BWV 1043" (7 :W fm 2 Trumpeta (3:Zl) GPz Anna and QuW Hdblimg, Violins KPma Rmko, KsdLuspi Tmmm HmDEL: Pinale Im"Flmworks CORBLU: ~satmalsfrmn '.~rmm!o gmwo, Mudc" (2: 11) Na 8, Op. 6, 'Chrlatme Conprtd " "06) !g g A. MARCELLO: Ad90 from "Oh Anna and Quido Hdb!ln& Vlolln~ Fo p Concerto In C Mlnor' (4A3) LMtKnntn, Cello Jcasf CPjka Oboe VNALDI: fmm "Autumn" - " lhe f s~~~~F~j:k~9)~mrS~~M-W) F 5 underJaYolrw, Vidin Jozd Wka, 0%e TBLBWANN: Andante horn Tmc@l~po_r f i"' VIVALW: Akpfrom"C0nwrm No. 1, Vlda" (4:30) (3:23) La&h Kydnk, Vlda % w" 5 fin$&ov Vidin fl HANDEL: All- hom "Cmcmtom, Po $ Anna and Quldo ~dblin&Vldins No. 12" (2:22) t Recorded st the Concert Hall of the Slovak Cow Photo: Pilgrim Church at Stohhaurn, n Philharmonic Orchestra, In March 1986 of Tourkt I' Produrn: Leos Komamk [Courtesy German %naL 0 ffi I f Eqhewa: Jozef Hanak.