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Brilliant Baroque – November 8 & 9, 2013 Concerto grosso in A minor, Op. 6, No. 4, HWV 322 George Frideric Handel 1685-1759 During the eighteenth century it was common practice to interpolate instrumental interludes into plays, operas and dramatic oratorios, especially those deemed too short for a full evening’s entertainment – what constituted a proper evening’s entertainment being of Wagnerian proportions. These interludes were often movements from other works or improvised for the occasion. George Frideric Handel had routinely included such interludes during the intermissions of his operas, but by the 1734-35 season in London, with the public not yet familiar with his new creation, the oratorio, he had to find an additional novelty to fill a half-empty hall. In February, 1735, taking advantage of his reputation as an outstanding improviser at the organ, he inserted a full-fledged organ concerto – the first of this genre – into the intermission of his oratorio Alexander’s Feast at Covent Garden. This Concerto was followed by five more, published together in 1738 as Op. 4. But the public’s demand for novelty did not abate, and during five weeks in the fall of 1739 Handel composed twelve additional concerti grossi for the intermissions in the coming oratorio winter season, taking only about two days to pen each of them. He considered these concerti of great importance and, hoping to repeat the huge commercial success of Arcangelo Corelli’s 12 Concerti Grossi Op. 6, published his own dozen in 1740 with the same opus number and calling them “Grand Concertos” to indicate their large scale and importance. Handel frequently dipped into previous compositions when it suited his taste and probably his schedule. Most of his earlier concerti grossi contained generous amounts of recycled material, but in Opus 6 most of the material is new. The concerti, including No. 4, are mostly in the French style with four movements, alternating slow and fast. Some, like No. 1 and 3, had additional movements. The more modern order of movements, developed by Antonio Vivaldi and practiced by Bach, followed a three-movement fast-slow-fast arrangement. The stately first movement, marked Larghetto affetuoso, is clearly in the style of Corelli, whom Handel had befriended in Italy and admired greatly. He commented, however, that the older composer liked nothing better than to save money and look at pictures he had not paid for. The sprightly allegro movements that followed Handel’s slow introductions were often fugues, as is the case here. The third movement, which was ultimately dropped for about 100 years in the concerto genre, is another slow movement; it is short and not well developed, suggesting that Handel regarded it merely as a transition into the final Allegro. Harp Concerto in B-flat major, Op. 4, No. 6 George Frideric Handel 1685-1759 Necessity is not always the mother of invention. Two of Western music's greatest and most prolific composers, Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel, were among its most egregious self-plagiarists. Both composers, overworked with commissions, deadlines and extra-musical duties, readily recycled their own music apparently with nary a prick of conscience. The history of the Harp Concerto in its various transformations is a fascinating case in point. It began its career – although we don't know whether in exactly the same form as we know it now – in February 1735 as an insertion in the dramatic oratorio Alexander’s Feast. Composed to a text by renowned poet John Dryden, the libretto was deemed too short, having only two acts instead of the three audiences expected. Handel was, therefore, obliged to provide musical "filler," including an epilogue (taken from an earlier Ode to St. Cecilia); an “orchestral concerto” and a complete cantata to be played during the intermission; an organ concerto at the end of the ode; and the Harp Concerto, appropriately before the recitative: Timotheus placed on high Amid the tuneful quire With flying fingers touche’d the lyre: The trembling notes ascend the sky And heavenly joys inspire. And so a tradition was born, and the first set of six such concertos was published in 1738 as “Concertos for the Harpsicord [sic] or Organ” with the note under Handel’s name: “Publish’d by Mr. Walsh from my own Copy Corrected by my self and to Him only I have given my Right therein.” But No. 6 of the set, while published as an organ concerto, was actually the original Harp Concerto from 1735, its identity unmasked because it contained notes that were above the range of the Covent Garden organ. Publishing pieces in sets of six was the fashion of the time throughout Europe, and it is not difficult to envision the overworked Handel dipping into his ready but still unpublished materials for a typical – if somewhat careless – recycling job. In contrast to the other concertos in the set, which are in the traditional sonata da chiesa (church sonata) form of four movements, arranged slow-fast-slow-fast, No. 6 is in three movements, fast-slow-fast, conforming to the style of the Italian concerto of the high Baroque – more in keeping with the instrumental concertos of Vivaldi and Bach, rather than Handel’s own concerti grossi. Today, with no restraints on the range of the organ, this odd-man-out Concerto is performed regularly on both instruments. The first movement opens with the ritornello, or refrain, played by the orchestra, or ripieno. Throughout the movement, it is the soloist who elaborates on the theme, digressing into new motives and keys until returning to a final statement of the ritornello to conclude the movement. In the Italian concerto, the central slow movement typically belonged almost exclusively to the soloist, giving him or her an opportunity to improvise and embellish within the protracted harmonic rhythm of the accompaniment. The Larghetto begins with a brief tutti (everyone) ritornello that is little more than a simple chord progression. The orchestra then provides only occasional simple harmonic underpinnings for the harp along the way and at the important cadences. The Larghetto concludes on an unresolved cadence, allowing the soloist to improvise a transitional passage leading without pause into the final Allegro moderato. This movement involves a closer dialogue between soloist and orchestra than the first movement. Introduction and Allegro for Flute, Harp, Clarinet and String Quartet Maurice Ravel 1875-1937 Rivalries can be fruitful. In 1904, the French firm of Pleyel commissioned Claude Debussy to write a composition demonstrating the superiority of its chromatic harp, an instrument without pedals but with two rows of strings slanted across each other to provide the full chromatic scale. The result was the Danse sacrée et danse profane, which Debussy later arranged for full orchestra and for two pianos. The rival firm of Erard, makers of the pedal harp, were not to be outdone. They commissioned Maurice Ravel to write a showpiece to demonstrate the pedal harp’s superiority. Ravel enjoyed this kind of technical challenge. In order to show the versatility of the pedal harp, he used very rapid pedaling and every one of the pedal positions in this short composition. According to Ravel, “eight days of furious labor and three sleepless nights finally brought it to completion. For better or for worse.” The result was a virtuoso concert piece for the harp, a miniature concerto for harp and chamber ensemble whose role was to highlight the sound and brilliance of the Erard’s creation. The Introduction and Allegro share the same themes, which Ravel cleverly transforms in tempo and combines both into a single melody and also contrapuntally. Nor is there a clear distinction between the two sections, since the Allegro slows down considerably in places. The dreamy opening theme in the winds is echoed by the strings before the harp enters with sweeping glissandi. It continues as a dialogue between the harp and the other instruments. The Allegro theme gives the impression of being incomplete, unresolved, and comes to completion and a resolution only in the final moments of the work. The composition was finished in 1905 and premiered in February, 1907. For what it’s worth, Ravel did not think much of the work and ignored it in his Autobiographical Sketches. Symphony No. 98 in B-flat major Franz Joseph Haydn 1732-1809 On New Year’s Day 1791, Franz Joseph Haydn sailed across the English Channel on the first of two extended trips to London at the invitation of the impresario Johann Peter Salomon. The violinist, conductor and concertmaster of his own orchestra, Salomon had been writing to Haydn for some time in an attempt to get him to come to London, but to no avail. When Haydn’s lifelong patron, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, died and the family disbanded the orchestra, the composer was suddenly a free agent. Capitalizing on the situation, Salomon personally went to Vienna to “fetch” Haydn with a princely lure of £1200. Haydn bit. He composed numerous works for performance at Salomon’s concerts, primarily his last twelve symphonies (Nos. 93-104, known today as the “London” or “Salomon” symphonies). These performances, like most concerts of the time, went on for hours and were a mixed bag, including vocal, chamber and orchestral pieces. For the decade of the 1790s, their star attraction was Haydn’s music. Although the symphonies are now the best known of Haydn’s creative output in and for England, he actually produced an enormous amount of music for other forces including an opera, keyboard sonatas, string quartets piano trios and other miscellaneous works. By the time of his second visit in 1794 he was so popular that he performed his music for the royal family, actually “converting” King George III from his Handel monomania. The Queen offered him a summer cottage in Windsor as an inducement for him to remain in England and although tempted, Haydn graciously refused the offer, instead buying a house outside of Vienna where the mysterious Frau Haydn complained that she would live out her life as a widow. Paradoxically, one of Haydn’s signatures is his unpredictability. He was forever tweaking musical conventions, thereby always remaining fresh – and often extremely innovative. Composed for the 1792, Symphony No. 98 offers up a number of surprises. The first occurs in the first movement, where the introduction contains a three-note motive that becomes the theme of the following Allegro. The entire movement is based on this motive; and there is no second theme group as in conventional sonata-allegro form. In fact, except for the Minuet, the movements are all monothematic. The opening five notes of the Adagio present another surprise; whether they were meant as an allusion to the anthem “God Save the King” is not an ironclad fact. But apparently Haydn had heard the melody played by a wind band “in the street during a wild snowstorm” while he was putting the finishing touches on the Symphony. As in the first movement, Haydn devotes the entire Adagio to this theme, emphasizing the opening notes in the passionate middle section. One of the surefire ways to distinguish Haydn from Mozart is through their minuets. Mozart’s were elegant court dances, while Haydn’s were heavy peasant stomps, although the trio is more subdued. The Finale is once again monothematic; the little upbeat figure at the beginning becomes the focus of the entire movement. The development offers an extended solo for the first violin and a chance to start the recapitulation as a solo as well, not an uncommon practice for Haydn, when as Esterházy court composer he wanted to showcase one of his musicians. It was the custom in Haydn’s time for the conductor to lead the orchestra from a harpsichord or, later, a fortepiano. Haydn probably played only simple chords on the keyboard to fill in the harmony, often foregoing it to leave his hands free to direct the orchestra. But in this symphony only, Haydn inserted a final couple of surprises in the coda of the finale: a slowing of tempo and a switch to a little waltz; and at the end eleven bars of a solo keyboard part, a music-box riff marked “Cembalo solo.” Program notes by: Joseph & Elizabeth Kahn [email protected] www.wordprosmusic.com