Download Programme Notes - Victoria Baroque Players

The three works featured in the upcoming Victoria Baroque Players concert “Exultant Spring” June 4th 7:30pm
were written within a sixteen-year period on the cusp of the change from the Baroque to the Classical styles,
and share in an uplifting and exultant spirit, particularly suited to this time of year as the summer season
comes into fullness.
Die Tageszeiten was composed by the seventy-five-year-old Georg Philipp Telemann outside of his regular
duties, to be performed at a concert October 20th 1757 at the "Drillhaus" in Hamburg. Lying somewhere
between an Oratorio and Cantata, it shares its programmatic intent of describing Nature’s times and seasons
with Vivaldi's Four Seasons written thirty years prior, and Haydn's Die Jahreszeiten from half a century later.
The libretto was purpose-written by Friedrich Wilhelm Zachariae (1726-1777) who said of Telemann, ‘no one
but you, father of the holy art of music, whose splendid song even one of Gaul's admires, can delight the choirs
of angels’. Though not liturgical, the text is devotional, describing and praising the presence of the Divine in
Nature. Each cantata is written for a different voice with an obbligato instrument; the textures and timbres
mellow as the day progresses. Morning pairs the bright sounds of a soprano and trumpet (played on horn in
tonight's concert), Midday combines mezzo soprano and solo viola da gamba, Evening matches tenor with a
pair of flutes, and Night couples the low sounds of bass and bassoon. The form of each of the four cantatas is
aria-accompagnato-aria and finishes with a joyous chorus. The musical language of the broad and noble vocal
lines is very much close to that of Haydn.
Exsultate Jubilate was composed by the 17-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Milan, for the castrato
Venanzio Rauzzini, who was singing the part of Cecilio in Mozart’s opera Lucio Silla. The motet specifically
showcased Rauzzini’s wide range and virtuosic agility. It was premiered January 17th 1773 at the Theatines'
Church in Milan while the opera was still running (single-voice liturgical motets, sung by the opera stars of the
day, were quite common at the time). The motet resembles the Italian opera overture in its fast-slow-fast
structure, and is very operatic in style. Mozart's effortless compositional mastery is already evident in this work,
showing his own distinct voice within the Italian style. Mozart revised his motet six years later for a
performance on Trinity Sunday in Salzburg replacing the oboes with a pair of flutes, which is the
instrumentation we are using tonight.
Little is known about Michel Corrette’s life, though he was an extremely prolific composer. His works span
nearly 75 years, providing an extraordinarily wide view of music in 18th century France. Recycling other
composers’ musical material was a common practice in the Baroque period, and Vivaldi's concertos in
particular inspired composers across Europe in this regard: Bach alone transcribed nine of Vivialdi’s violin
concertos for keyboard. Corrette wrote his Laudate Dominum forty years after Vivaldi's Four Seasons were
published, basing it on "Spring", the first of the concertos, and imaginatively reworking the well-known
masterpiece into a grand-scale motet.
The text is Psalm 148, which, though it has no references to spring or the seasons per se, has a joyful text with
many references to weather, flora, and fauna, making it a natural match with Vivaldi's joyous and colourful
concerto. Corrette composed several sections of fresh musical material, and added three vocal soloists, a fivepart choir, woodwinds and horns to Vivaldi’s score. The instrumentation is closer to that of a classical
orchestra, and gives the Italian musical material a distinct French flavour. The opening movement, consisting
entirely of Corrette’s writing, is for solo soprano and is very French in texture and style, with a light treble
instrumentation of a pair of flutes and violins. Next comes a newly-composed ‘musical sunrise’, which bursts
into the well-known Vivaldian tune shared between the choir and full orchestra; the solo violin parts become
obbligato lines intermingled with equally elaborate vocal solos. In the slow movement "Montes et omnes colles"
the original solo violin line is given to a solo countertenor doubled by flutes, the choir joining half-way through
the movement. The last movement starts in pastoral style with strings and solo soprano, with the familiar
catchy tune introduced by solo oboe, as the music gradually builds to the re-worked last movement of the violin
concert. -Soile Stratkauskas