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PROGRAMME
Claudio Merulo (1533-1604)
Toccata Prima
Andrea Gabrieli (1533-1585)
Canzon alla Francese ‘Qui la dira’
Michelangelo Rossi (1602-1656)
Toccata Settima
Giovanni Gabrieli (1557-1612)
Ricercar in tones VII and VIII
Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643)
Toccata Quinta
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621)
Variations on Mein junges Leben hat ein End
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Prelude in E flat major BWV 552
INTERVAL
François Couperin (1668-1733)
Movements from Messe pour les Convents
Premier Couplet du Kyrie
Fugue sur la Trompette 2e Couplet du Kyrie
Recit de Chromhorne (Christe)
5e et dernier Couplet du Kyrie
Plein jeu Premier Couplet du Gloria
Petitte fugue sur le Chromhorne
Duo sur les Tierces
Chromhorne sur la Taille
Dialogue sur la Voix humaine
Dialogue sur les grands jeux
Jean Francois Dandrieu (1682-1738)
Offertoire: Premier livre de Pieces d’Orgue
François Couperin
Premier Couplet du Sanctus
Jacob Froberger (1616-1667)
Elevation: Toccata elevatione
François Couperin
Agnus Dei: Plein jeu
Dialogue sur les grands jeux
Johann Sebastian Bach
Fugue in E flat major BWV 552
PROGRAMME NOTES
The first part of tonight’s programme focuses on five Italian composers
who in their own individual and innovative ways, led the field and
influenced contemporary and post-contemporary musical styles
throughout the whole of Europe and beyond.
Both Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli, and Merulo were organists at the
Basilica di San Marco in Venice at various times during the 16th century.
Andrea Gabrieli was second organist to Claudio Merulo, and later
became first organist when Merulo departed in 1584 All three developed
the Toccata, but it was Merulo who led the field with harmonic and
rhythmic ingenuity that was far ahead of his time. His style became
known as ‘stylus phantasticus.’
Girolamo Frescobaldi, organist of St Peter’s in Rome from 1609,
expanded the genre further by introducing chromaticism and rhythmic
innovation that outshone his contemporaries.
Michelangelo Rossi, although chiefly recognised as a violinist,
bequeathed a volume of keyboard works, published in 1640, that
illustrates experimental harmonic intricacies with daring chromatic
harmony that he may well have learned in Rome from his teacher,
Frescobaldi.
Froberger also studied with Frescobaldi and this connection with the
Italian tradition assisted in shaping the music of the South German
organ school, by cultivating Italianate idioms most notably in his
toccatas.
Unlike Froberger, Sweelinck forged a new path; his music reaching a
pinnacle in contrapuntal complexity and refinement before Bach
establishing the North German Organ school. The variations heard
tonight are based on a tune with words that possibly reflect an older
person’s reminiscences of bygone youthfulness: the variations, follow a
gentle theme, suggest adolescent agility.
The history of the organ Mass in which choir and organ alternates with
plainchant, (alternatim) dates back to around the fourteenth century;
fragments of which evolved from the earliest known source – the Faenza
Codex of c.1400.
Both Merulo and Andrea Gabrieli wrote three organ masses,
undoubtedly influencing French composers who also contributed works
in a similar style. Bach also wrote an Organ Mass catalogued as the
Clavierubung, part III, beginning and ending with the great Prelude and
Fugue in E flat major.
I have compiled a programme that incorporates the diverse styles of
Couperin, Froberger, Dandrieu and Bach.
Richard Lester has been at the centre of early keyboard music for fifty years
with a professional career that began in 1966. His teacher, George Malcolm
generously promoted his debut recital at the Wigmore Hall, and from that
followed concerts including the Royal Festival Hall Purcell Room, masterclasses and recitals at Dartington International Summer School, Bruges
Festival and the Bath International Festival together with broadcasts for BBC
radio and television. As a Fellow of the London College of Music, he has given
many organ recitals in King’s College, Cambridge, St Paul’s Cathedral,
Westminster Cathedral, Ely Cathedral, Coventry, and in 2013 he was invited to
perform in St Mark’s, Venice, and Bergamo Cathedral. His vast discography for
Nimbus Records is acclaimed world-wide and includes: the complete keyboard
sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti; the majority of Girolamo Frescobaldi’s
keyboard works on original instruments, organ masses by Girolamo
Cavazzoni, Andrea Gabrieli and Claudio Merulo; and sonatas by Carlos Seixas,
Antonio Soler, Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. His recording of
Frescobaldi’s works was awarded the outstanding accolade in International
Record Review and a place in the Penguin Guide to the 1000 Finest Classical
Music Recordings. He has also recently compiled and edited a volume of
Italian Renaissance keyboard works which includes a DVD on early fingering
and ornamentation plus a CD demonstrating works by composers associated
with St Mark’s in Venice (also published and available from Nimbus). ’