Download jeannette sorrell, conductor and harpsichord

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
2014-2015 Subscription Series
March 20 and 22, 2015
JEANNETTE SORRELL, CONDUCTOR AND HARPSICHORD
ANNE MARTINDALE W ILLIAMS, CELLO
CYNTHIA KOLEDO DEALMEIDA, OBOE
DAVID T. PREMO, CELLO
JEFFREY T. TURNER, CONTRABASS
JENNIFER E. ROSS, VIOLIN
JOHN B. MOORE, CONTRABASS
LORNA MCGHEE, FLUTE
NOAH BENDIX-BALGLEY, VIOLIN
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
Sinfonia from Cantata BWV 42,
“Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbaths”
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
Suite (Ouverture) No. 2 for Flute, Strings and Continuo
in B minor, BWV 1067
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
ANTONIO VIVALDI
Ouverture
Rondeau
Sarabande
Bourrée I and II
Polonaise and Double
Menuet
Badinerie
Ms. McGhee
Concerto for Two Cellos, Strings and Continuo
in G Minor, R. 531 (P. 411)
I.
II.
III.
Allegro
Largo
Allegro
Ms. Williams
Mr. Premo
Intermission
WILHELM FRIEDEMANN BACH Fantasia for Harpsichord in D minor, F(alck) 19
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
following without pause …
Finale (Allegro) from Sonata in D minor for Harpsichord,
BWV 964
(after Sonata No. 2 for Unaccompanied Violin
in A minor, BWV 1003)
March 20-22, 2015, page 2
GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN
Grillen-Symphonie, TWV 50:1
I.
II.
III.
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
Concerto for Oboe, Violin, Strings and Continuo
in C minor, BWV 1060R
I.
II.
III.
ANTONIO VIVALDI
ARR. SORRELL
Etwas lebhaft
Tändelnd
Presto
Allegro
Adagio
Allegro
Ms. DeAlmeida
Mr. Bendix-Balgley
Concerto for Two Violins, “La Follia”
(after the Sonata for Two Violins and Continuo
in D minor, Op. 1, No. 12 [R. 63])
Ms. Ross
Mr. Bendix-Balgley
March 20-22, 2015, page 1
PROGRAM NOTES BY DR. RICHARD E. RODDA
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
Born 21 March 1685 in Eisenach, Germany; died 28 July 1750 in Leipzig
Sinfonia from Cantata No. 42, Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbaths (“And in the
Evening of That Very Sabbath”) (1725)
PREMIERE OF WORK: Leipzig, 8 April 1725; Thomaskirche; Johann Sebastian Bach, director
THESE PERFORMANCES MARK THE PSO PREMIERE
APPROXIMATE DURATION: 7 minutes
INSTRUMENTATION: two oboes, bassoon, strings and continuo
The cantata Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbaths (No. 42 in Wolfgang Schmieder’s standard
catalog of Bach’s works — Bach Werke Verzeichnis), which takes as its subject Christ’s appearance in
the midst of his disciples on the evening of the Resurrection, was composed in 1725 for the first Sunday
after Easter, which fell on April 8th that year. The cantata is prefaced by a splendid Sinfonia whose
majestic breadth, richness of scoring and expressive cogency would not have been out of place in the
Brandenburg Concertos.
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
Suite (Ouverture) No. 2 for Flute, Strings and Continuo in B minor, BWV 1067 (ca.
1738-1739 ?)
PREMIERE OF WORK: unknown
PSO PREMIERE: 18 January 1946; Syria Mosque; Fritz Reiner, conductor; Sebastian Caratelli, soloist
APPROXIMATE DURATION: 19 minutes
INSTRUMENTATION: flute, strings and continuo
Though the exact date of the Orchestral Suite No. 2 is uncertain, the years during which it could
have been composed circumscribe the most productive phase of Bach’s career. The set of orchestral
parts in Bach’s hand that serves as the principal source for the work has been dated through the
evidence of the paper’s watermark to 1738 or 1739, though this is apparently a performance copy for his
Leipzig Collegium Musicum concerts that he extracted from an earlier manuscript score that is no longer
extant. The eminent American musicologist Martin Bernstein conjectured that the Suite was written in the
early 1730s for Pierre Gabriel Buffardin, first flutist at the court of the Elector of Saxony and King of
Poland in Dresden, to which Bach was then actively seeking an appointment as composer. It has also
been suggested that the Suite may have been composed soon after Bach arrived in Leipzig in 1723,
when he fitted many of his cantatas with elaborate flute parts, or even as early as the period between
1717 to 1723, when he was director of music at Cöthen. Bach had met Buffardin in 1716 in Dresden
through his (Bach’s) older brother Johann Jacob, who was a student of the flutist, and it is possible that
the Second Suite was composed for him sometime thereafter at Cöthen, a fertile period that also
witnessed the production of the three other Orchestral Suites, the Brandenburg Concertos, the Violin
Concertos and much of Bach’s chamber music. The Suite would have made the perfect vehicle for
Buffardin, who was renowned for his breath control, nimble technique and limpid tone.
The Suite in B minor, is an inventive hybrid of dance and concerto forms in which the wind
instrument is treated as both a reinforcing tone color for the first violin and as a virtuosic soloist. The
work begins with a grandiose Overture based on the type devised by Lully — a slow, pompous opening
section leading without pause to a spirited fugal passage in faster tempo. The majestic character of the
opening section (though not its music) returns to round out the Overture’s form. The delicate Rondeau is
based on an old French form in which the opening motive is heard three times, refrain-like. When the
Sarabande emigrated to Spain from its birthplace in Mexico in the 16th century, it was so wild in its
March 20-22, 2015, page 2
motions and so lascivious in its implications that Cervantes ridiculed it and Philip II suppressed it. The
dance became considerably more tame when it was taken over into French and English music in the
17th century, and it was included as a regular movement of the instrumental suite by Froberger around
1650, when it had achieved the dignified manner in which it was known to Bach. The Bourrée was a
French folk dance adopted by the court as early as the 16th century. The Polonaise seems to have
originated in connection with Polish court ceremonies, and had become a separate instrumental genre by
about 1700. The Menuet was originally a quick peasant dance from southwestern France, but it became
more stately by Bach’s time. The closing Badinerie, whose name derives from the same etymological
root as “badinage,” is a dancing showpiece of woodwind virtuosity.
ANTONIO VIVALDI
Born 4 March 1678 in Venice; died 28 July 1741 in Vienna
Concerto for Two Cellos, Strings and Continuo in G minor, R. 531 (P. 411)
PREMIERE OF WORK: unknown
PSO PREMIERE: 3 March 2003; Katz Performing Arts Center; Andres Cardenes, conductor
APPROXIMATE DURATION: 10 minutes
INSTRUMENTATION: strings and continuo
Vivaldi obtained his first official post in September 1703 at the Pio Ospedale della Pietà, one of four
institutions in Venice devoted to the care of orphaned, abandoned and poor girls. As part of its training,
the school devoted much effort to the musical education of its wards, and there was an elaborate
organization of administrators, teachers and associates who oversaw the activities of the students. Part
of his duties as violin teacher required Vivaldi to compose at least two new concertos as well as other
instrumental pieces each month for the regular public concerts given by the Ospedale. The featured
performers in these works were occasionally members of the faculty, but usually they were the more
advanced students — the difficulty of Vivaldi’s music is ample testimony to their skill.
For his students and colleagues and on commission, Vivaldi wrote some three dozen concertos for
cello: 27 for solo cello, one for two cellos, three for violin and cello, two for two violins and cello, one for
violin and two cellos, and two for pairs of violins and cellos. The G minor Concerto for Two Cellos follows
the three-movement structure (fast–slow–fast) characteristic of the late Baroque version of the form: an
opening ritornello movement in which solo passages for the tandem cellos alternate with tutti sections for
the full ensemble; a melodious Largo in a plaintive mood; and a vigorous finale that here takes on an
almost tempestuous quality.
WILHELM FRIEDEMANN BACH
Born 22 November 1710 in Weimar; died 1 July 1784 in Berlin
Fantasia for Harpsichord in D minor, F(alck) 19 (ca. 1770)
Members of the Bach family, beginning with Johannes and Veit at the close of the 16th century,
served the courts and churches of north Germany for over two centuries. Though the familial line is
properly considered to have reached its apogee with Johann Sebastian (1685-1750), four of his sons, all
trained by him, also became prominent musicians during the mid-18th-century transition from Baroque to
Classicism. The eldest, Wilhelm Friedemann, displayed a substantial talent as both organist and
composer, but he seems to have lived uncomfortably under his eminent father’s shadow, drifting through
various jobs and vacillating in his works between his father’s waning idiom and the not-yet-matured
Classical style. By the 1770s, when Friedemann Bach had come to realize that he could never match his
father’s mastery of the most rigorous Baroque forms, he devoted himself to his career as a virtuoso
performer and largely confined his creative ambitions to such improvisation-based styles as the keyboard
fantasia. The Fantasia in D minor (F. 19) is made from a flurry of restless, broken chords and a slow,
somber strain in sharply dotted rhythms.
March 20-22, 2015, page 3
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
Finale (Allegro) from Sonata in D minor for Harpsichord, BWV 964 (after Sonata No. 2
for Unaccompanied Violin in A minor, BWV 1003) (before 1720)
Bach composed the three sonatas and three partitas for unaccompanied violin before 1720, the date
on the manuscript, while he was director of music at the court of Anhalt-Cöthen, north of Leipzig. Though
there is not a letter, preface, contemporary account or shred of any other documentary evidence extant
to shed light on the genesis and purpose of these pieces, the technical demands they impose on the
player indicate that they were intended for a virtuoso performer: Johann Georg Pisendel, a student of
Vivaldi, Jean Baptiste Volumier, leader of the Dresden court orchestra, and Joseph Spiess,
concertmaster of the Cöthen orchestra, have been advanced as possible candidates. At some unknown
date thereafter, Bach arranged the Sonata in A minor (BWV 1003) for solo harpsichord in a version
transposed to D minor. The closing Allegro, in two parts (each repeated), is a moto-perpetuo unfolding of
briskly moving melodic material.
GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN
Born 14 March 1681 in Magdeburg, Germany; died 25 June 1767 in Hamburg
Grillen-Symphonie (“Whimsical/Cricket Symphony”), TWV 50:1 (ca. 1765)
PREMIERE OF WORK: unknown
THESE PERFORMANCES PARK THE PSO PREMIERE
APPROXIMATE DURATION: 9 minutes
INSTRUMENTATION: piccolo, flute, oboe, clarinet, strings and continuo
Jeannette Sorrel provided the following imaginative commentary on the delightful Grillen-Symphonie
in the notes for her Koch recording with Apollo’s Fire, The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra: “Telemann
displayed an adventurous approach to instrumentation with the curious Grillen-Symphonie. A lively
controversy rages as to just what Telemann meant by the title. The word ‘Grillen’ means ‘crickets’ in
modern German usage, but was often used in the 18th century to mean ‘whims.’ Thus, while Telemann
probably intended a ‘Whimsical Symphony,’ he may have been punning, and it is possible that we also
have a ‘Cricket Symphony’ on our hands. One thing is certain: if this is a depiction of crickets, it is a
pretty whimsical one. It appears that the crickets along the river Elbe may have come in a wide variety of
sizes, as evoked by an orchestra ranging from piccolo all the way down to two contrabasses. The use of
contrabasses in a soloistic role was certainly whimsical, and indeed, revolutionary on Telemann’s part.
The extraordinary complement of winds is also quite striking for an 18th-century work. One can see the
contrabasses and orchestra as Mama and Papa Cricket with their brood: the first movement is a merry
family gathering; the second is a kind of flirtatious ballet of cricketettes; and the finale is a rowdy cricketparty with a bit of Polish dancing. In any case, the piece is a delightful romp through Telemann’s
whimsical world, with or without insects.”
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
Concerto for Oboe, Violin, Strings and Continuo in C minor, BWV 1060R (1736)
PREMIERE OF WORK: unknown
PSO PREMIERE: 28 October 1955; Syria Mosque; William Steinberg, conductor; Arthur Krilov & Chaim
Taub, soloists
APPROXIMATE DURATION: 14 minutes
INSTRUMENTATION: strings and continuo
March 20-22, 2015, page 4
Bach wrote most of his violin music as part of his duties as Kapellmeister at the court of AnhaltCöthen from 1717 to 1723. The original manuscript of the C minor Concerto for Oboe and Violin (BWV
1060R) written at Cöthen is lost, but the music survived in a version from 1737 for Two Harpsichords
(BWV 1060) that Bach made for the Leipzig Collegium Musicum he was then directing. The original was
reconstructed (the “R” in the catalog listing) in 1970 for the New Bach Edition. The structure of the
opening movement follows the ritornello form customary for Baroque concertos: a returning orchestral
refrain separated by episodes for the soloists. This is music of austere countenance but vigorous
rhythmic energy that embodies the Baroque ideal of touching sentiment allied with visceral stimulation.
The lovely second movement, supported by a delicate pizzicato accompaniment in the strings,
resembles an operatic duet in its flowing lyricism and thematic interchanges between the soloists. The
finale returns the bracing vitality of the first movement.
ANTONIO VIVALDI
Concerto for Two Violins, “La Follia” (after Sonata for Two Violins and Basso Continuo
in D minor, Op. 1, No. 12 [R. 63])
Arranged by Jeannette Sorrell
PREMIERE OF WORK: unknown
THESE PERFORMANCES MARK THE PSO PREMIERE
APPROXIMATE DURATION: 9 minutes
INSTRUMENTATION: strings and continuo
In September 1703, Vivaldi was appointed violin teacher and composer at the Ospedale della Pietà,
an institution in Venice which housed and educated female “orphans” (mostly bastard daughters of the
city’s better classes), and was especially noted for the musical training given to its wards. (Vivaldi’s
church, on the Riva degli Schiavoni, just beyond the Piazza San Marco, may still be visited, but the
orphanage building itself is long gone.) To announce his creative ambitions to the wider musical world,
Vivaldi chose the then-standard method for a young composer of issuing a set of twelve trio sonatas
modeled on the esteemed works of the Roman master Arcangelo Corelli. (It was once conjectured that
Vivaldi had gone to Rome to study with Corelli himself, but it seems more likely that he simply learned
Corelli’s music from its several Venetian editions.) Vivaldi’s Op. 1 was published sometime between
1703 and 1705 by the Venetian firm of Giuseppe Sala. The last number of Vivaldi’s Op. 1 Trio Sonatas,
like that of Corelli’s Op. 5, is a set of variations on the ancient harmonic pattern known as La Follia di
Spagna (“The Folly of Spain”), which had served as the scaffolding for works in variation form since at
least the late 15th century and was later treated by J.S. and C.P.E. Bach, Cherubini, Liszt, Nielsen,
Rachmaninoff and others. Vivaldi’s work consists of the brief Follia theme (eight measures, repeated)
followed by a string of nineteen variations that weave an increasingly elaborate embroidery — three
times interrupted by slow-tempo insertions — around the harmonic skeleton of the subject. The work’s
arrangement as a Concerto for Two Violins is by Jeannette Sorrell.
— Dr. Richard E. Rodda