Download Program Notes - The Friends of Chamber Music

the william t. kemper international chamber music series
Akademie für Alte
Musik Berlin
saturday, march 18 • 8 pm • carlsen center
a co-partnership with the jccc performing arts series
Foreign Affairs
TELEMANN (1681-1757) Ouverture in B-flat Major, “Les Nations” TWV 55:B5
Ouverture
Menuet I; Menuet 2: Doucement
Les Turcs
Les Suisses: Grave; Viste
Les Moscovites: Grave; Viste
Les Portugais anciens: Grave; Les Portugais modernes (Viste)
Les Boiteux
Les Coureurs
HANDEL (1685-1759)
Suite from Almira, HWV 1
Ouverture
Chaconne
Courante
Sarabanda
Bourée
Menuet
Rigaudon
Rondeau
Ritornello
—Intermission—
VIVALDI (1678-1741)
Concerto in D Minor for 2 Oboes, RV 535
Largo; Allegro
Largo
Allegro molto
BACH (1685-1750)
Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G Major, BWV 1049
Allegro
Andante
Presto
REBEL (1666-1747) Les Caractères de la danse: Fantaisie
Prélude; Courante; Menuet; Bourrée; Chaconne; Sarabande;
Gigue; Rigaudon; Passepied; Gavotte; Sonate; Loure;
Musette; Sonate
(performed without pause)
This evening’s program is called Foreign Affairs: Characters
of the Baroque. Surveying music by French, German, and
Italian masters, the repertoire comprises the familiar
and the foreign in 18th-century musical culture. The
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin has graciously provided
the following introductory overview to the music they
perform.
The 18th century was an age of great travel and the
discovery of other cultures. The arts illuminate the hitherto
unknown, transport information, and characterize the
foreign. Music not only captures the sounds and rhythms
of regions from far away, it also captures one’s own culture
which is carried out into the world, sometimes even with
ironic mutations. The opening work of tonight’s program by
Telemann is an excellent example of such imaginative travel:
character sketches with rhythmically Westernized evocations
of culture and temperament, both imagined and real.
Using his Western European music language, Handel
explores the Moors of the Orient. Vivaldi and Bach represent
the opposite poles of Northern and Southern European
perspectives, while Rebel’s joyous and popular compilation of
various dances is both an original and a unique composition.
A dance fantasy, Rebel’s suite epitomizes the French style that
was spreading rapidly through Europe at the beginning of the
new century.
– Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Georg Philipp Telemann, c.1754
Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel
Ouverture in B-flat Major,
“Les Nations” TWV 55:B5
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1757)
Posterity views Bach and Handel as titans of
the Baroque era. During their lifetimes, however,
Telemann all but eclipsed them both. He was regarded
as the finest German composer of his day and was
unquestionably the most successful commercially.
Telemann’s career followed a dizzying path, starting
with the Leipzig Opera which he directed one
year after he matriculated at Leipzig University.
Subsequent appointments included his appointment
as organist at Leipzig’s Neue Kirche, Kapellmeister to
the court of Count Erdmann II of Promnitz at Sorau,
Kapellmeister in Eisenach (Bach’s home town),
director of music in Frankfurt, and Kapellmeister
at Gotha. In all these places, he wrote staggering
amounts of sacred and secular music.
Telemann’s longest and most significant
professional position was in the northern city of
Hamburg. From 1721 until his death, he was the
guiding light of Hamburg’s musical life. His official
title was Kantor of the Johanneum. In that capacity,
he directed musical activity for the city’s five
principal churches as well as civic musical events for
ceremonies, holidays, and festive occasions. He also
oversaw weekly public concerts by the Collegium
Musicum and, from 1722 to 1738, served as music
director of the Hamburg Opera. With a finger in every
conceivable musical pie, Telemann was Hamburg’s de
facto concert manager for an extraordinary tenure of
46 years.
Telemann composed more than 200
Ouverturen – multi-movement instrumental suites,
mostly modeled after French tastes. The chronology
of the suites is uncertain, because few of Telemann’s
manuscripts bear any dates. The Ouverture TWV 55:B5
was probably written before 1723.
It falls into a sub-category of those multimovement works in which Telemann named
individual movements after various countries or
nationalities. Precedents existed in Jean-Baptiste
Lully’s comédie-ballet Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1670)
and André Campra’s opéra-ballet L’Europe galante
(1697), as well as German works by Georg Muffat and
Johann Heinrich Schmelzer.
Telemann assigned descriptive subtitles to
some of his “international” suites. This one is known
as “The Nations” (Völker Ouverture in German), but the
label is not Telemann’s. He did label the individual
movements, however, hinting at the character of the
music – or the composer’s perception of the character
of those nationalities. Such samplings of international
➤
2016-17 season
75
styles were popular in Germany in the early 18th
century. Telemann’s overall organization in such works
is consistent: A French overture followed by a pair of
minuets, three ‘national’ movements, and a concluding
dance or two not associated with any one particular
country.
Les Nations opens with a textbook-perfect French
overture: a slow introduction with dotted rhythms,
moving to a brisker central allegro set in a fugal texture
before a brief return to the slower chordal material
which closes the movement. Of his internal movements,
‘Les Suisses’ and ‘Les Boiteux’ are notable for being
in G Minor rather than B-flat Major. Normally, all
movements of a suite would be in the same key.
Les Moscovites plays games with cross-rhythms,
and slips by in a scant 45 seconds. Another noteworthy
feature of this suite is its two fanciful closing
movements. Les Boiteux (The Lame Ones) is followed
by Les Coureurs (the runners, or the fleet of foot), to
contrast with the lame.
Telemann scored Les Nations for strings and
continuo.
Suite from Almira, HWV 1
Georg Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Handel was a cosmopolitan and an international
figure among Baroque composers. He was remarkably
well traveled, especially in comparison to his best
known German contemporaries, Telemann and Bach. By
the time he was 21, Handel had been invited to Italy by
a Medici prince where spent four years in Florence and
Rome, mastering the Italian style of opera and sacred
music.
After returning to Germany, he was appointed
Kapellmeister in the Electoral Court of Hannover,
a position that allowed him considerable latitude,
permitting him to travel. He journeyed to England
in 1710, spending much of the next three years
there. Eventually he settled permanently in London,
performing as an organist and composing Italian opera.
Later in life, he turned to sacred oratorios, reinventing
himself to adapt to the tastes of his adopted homeland,
which preferred oratorios to operas. While opera was
not a popular art form in England throughout his career,
Handel demonstrated a remarkable gift to absorb new
styles or fashions, making them his own.
That gift surfaced early. Most listeners are
unaware that Handel was already active as a composer
in Hamburg during his teenage years where he played
violin for the opera house. At the time, Hamburg was
the most successful opera center in all of Europe. Handel
later recalled that he had “composed like the Devil”
during this period. Almira was his first opera, produced
in late 1704 or early January 1705. He was nineteen.
The opera is a Singspiel, a German genre that
intersperses musical set pieces with spoken dialogue
(like Mozart’s The Magic Flute). Handel used a libretto
by Friedrich Christian Feustking based on a Venetian
version from 1691 by Giulio Pancieri. One may infer a
good deal about the plot from Almira’s full title: Der in
Kronen erlangte Glückwechsel, oder: Almira, Königin von
Kastilien (The Vicissitudes of Royalty, or: Almira, Queen
of Castile).
Dance music plays a major role in Almira’s first
and third acts. Act I includes a coronation scene and
a ballet that is presented to the Spanish Court. Act III
comprises a set of international dances called “The
Masque of the Continents,” (another manifestation of
the German fashion for such surveys during the early
18th century).
Almira is important because it is Handel’s
only complete opera from these early years to have
substantially survived. There is no autograph; however,
Georg Philipp Telemann revived Almira in 1732 in
Hamburg. Most modern performances are based on
Telemann’s 1732 version. Handel was influenced by
Reinhard Keiser, the most successful composer of
German opera during this period. Nevertheless, clear
marks of Handel’s developing musical persona are
present - along with his thorough understanding of
French and Italian styles. That he was able to compose
such accomplished instrumental music at such a tender
age is a thrilling portent of his mature genius.
The Suite is scored for two oboes, strings, and
continuo.
Concerto in D minor for
Two Oboes, strings, and continuo, RV 535
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
No composer is more closely associated with the
Baroque concerto than Antonio Vivaldi. This prolific
Italian composed more than 450 concerti during his
lengthy career. Almost 90% of the surviving concerti
feature individual soloists; however, Vivaldi also
composed works that featured pairs or even trios of
instruments set against the larger ensemble.
For most of the years between 1703 and
1740, Vivaldi served as a combination music-master,
composer-in-residence, and conductor at the Seminario
musicale dell’Ospedale della Pietà in Venice. This
institution was a combination girls’ orphanage, school,
convent, and conservatory. Vivaldi wrote most of
his instrumental compositions for the talented girls
under his tutelage at the Ospedale. Judging from the
astonishing variety of solo instruments featured in
these works, Vivaldi’s students excelled on virtually
every instrument that was in common use during the
early 18th century.
Though his music is not so contrapuntally
complex as that of his younger German contemporary,
J.S. Bach, Vivaldi brought the Italian instrumental
concerto to a new level of refinement and
sophistication. The piece on this evening’s program
is one of three that Vivaldi wrote for two solo oboists
plus string orchestra and basso continuo. The solo
oboes dominate, either paired in parallel thirds or in
dialogue, always as equal partners. They exchange
some figuration with the violins, but the oboes mostly
dominate the material.
Most of Vivaldi’s concerti are in three
movements arranged in fast-slow-fast order. This
one breaks from that tradition, opening with a Largo
section before proceeding to an Allegro suggesting a
four-movement layout consistent with the Baroque
sonata da chiesa (church sonata). All of the movements
are in D minor throughout the concerto, underscoring
its serious demeanor. Sequences, echo effects, and
lively dialogues between the soloists and the orchestra
abound in the two Allegro movements. In the second
movement, marked Largo, lovely suspensions – pitches
used in a strong metric position against the movement
of another voice, creating a temporary dissonance –
adds to the music’s expressivity. The finale opens with
a bold unison statement in the orchestra. This brisk
conclusion shows how a minor mode can be lively,
energetic, and upbeat.
The score calls for two oboes, strings, and
continuo.
Brandenburg Concerto
No. 4 in G Major, BWV 1049
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Of the six concertos that Bach dedicated
to Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg, the
Fourth is the best example of a true concerto grosso. Its
small group, the concertante, consists of a violin and
two recorders. The larger group, called the ripieno, or
the accompanying group, is made up of strings and
basso continuo. A lively dialogue between soloists and
ripieno develops the simple motivic material in a most
ingenious manner. Bach’s uncanny sense of variation
and balance makes all three movements a delight.
Bach used the term flauti d’echo (echo flutes)
in his autograph. Perhaps because they draw melodic
reinforcement from each other, the flutes tend to
dominate over the solo violin in the first movement,
with the exception of one brilliant violin passage in
The Bradenburg Concertos
The town of Cöthen is approximately
60 miles north of Weimar and west of Leipzig.
During the early 18th century, it was the
political center of the wealthy house of
Anhalt-Cöthen (pronounced AHN-halt KURten). Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen (16941728) was a great music lover who played the
viola da gamba, violin, and harpsichord; he
also sang bass. Upon reaching his maturity
in 1715, he set about improving his court
orchestra. When Johann Sebastian Bach
joined Leopold’s staff as Kapellmeister in
late 1717, the young prince employed 18
musicians. That may sound modest to us, but
Cöthen’s orchestra was then one of the largest
and finest in northern Europe.
Early in 1719, the prince sent Bach to
Berlin, probably to negotiate the purchase of
a new harpsichord. Scholars believe that Bach
encountered Margrave Christian Ludwig of
Brandenburg on that journey. The Margrave,
uncle to the the Prussian King Friedrich
Wilhelm I, evidently collected concertos, for
there were nearly 200 in his private library at
his death. After hearing Bach play, he asked
him to compose some concertos to add to his
library.
At this early stage in his career, Bach
was known primarily as a performer. He had,
thus far, composed almost exclusively for solo
instruments and for small ensembles. The six
concertos he sent to Christian Ludwig in 1721
may have been his first instrumental works
scored for larger numbers. Though he never
had the works performed in his own court,
Christian Ludwig earned himself a measure of
immortality through Bach’s dedication.
The letters “BWV” stand for Bach
Werke Verzeichnis, or “Catalogue of Bach’s
Works,” by Wolfgang Schmieder (1901-1990),
a German music librarian who first undertook
an exhaustive bibliographical study of Bach’s
compositions and compiled a comprehensive
thematic catalogue identifying every known
work. Each of the Brandenburg Concertos has
a different BWV number. Sometimes these
numbers are referred to as a “Schmieder
listing,” after the catalogue’s author.
➤
– L.S. ©2016
2016-17 season
77
32nd notes. It is the lovely E minor Andante, however,
that presents us with the best sense of expressive
echoes, with the flutes providing intimate asides after
each phrase. Listening to this movement, we can
understand more easily how Baroque audiences were
moved to tears by the affective power of music.
The slow movement concludes on an indecisive
cadence, harmonically analogous to the mysterious
two chords separating the outer movements of the
Third Brandenburg (both cadences are in the ancient
Phrygian mode). This time, however, the chords are
more clearly transitional and the ensemble proceeds
attacca (without pause) to the finale. A long, imitative
tutti (full ensemble) section opens the last movement.
The violin is the first soloist of the concertante group
to enter, and, indeed, it takes the lead for most of the
movement: this is the solo violin’s opportunity to shine.
Bach’s dazzling violin cadenza reminds us–if we needed
reminding–what superb players he had available to him
in Cöthen.
The Fourth Brandenburg is scored for two
recorders, strings, and continuo.
Les Caractères de la danse: Fantaisie
Jean-Féry Rebel (1666-1747)
The Rebels (pronounced Ruh-BELL) were one
of Baroque France’s great musical dynasties. Beginning
with Jean-Féry’s father Jean (1636-1692), members
of the family served among the king’s musicians and
in the royal opera for more than a century. This was
France’s golden age. Music flourished under Louis XIV
and Louis XV, who between them reigned from 1643
to 1774. Jean-Féry’s sister Anne-Renée was a singer in
Jean-Baptiste Lully’s operas and married the composer
Michel Richard de Lalande. Rebel’s son François (17011775) was a violinist, theorbist, conductor, composer,
and opera director who would succeed his father in the
prestigious 24 Violons du Roy.
Jean-Féry Rebel was trained as a violinist and
harpsichordist. Jean-Baptiste Lully, the King’s powerful
master of music, taught Rebel violin and composition
when Rebel was in his teens. Beginning in August 1705,
Rebel was a member of the Vingt-quatre (24) Violons
du Roy, eventually becoming the ensemble’s batteur
de mesure (conductor/leader) in 1715, and chamber
composer to the king.
Unlike most of his contemporaries, Rebel did
not gravitate to opera. His sole opera was not a success;
however, his secular music was enormously successful.
He wrote a considerable amount of chamber music,
and, significantly, was one of the first composers of
sonatas in France. However, it was with dance music
that Rebel was most in his element. Dances at the
French court were enormously popular. Louis XIV, in
particular, enjoyed dancing and often performed as a
dancer in operas composed for his court. Consequently,
French operas were filled with many dances that
could considerably extend the length of the opera.
Rebel was a pioneer in writing symphonies that were
choreographed. These works were independent of stage
works like operas.
In Les caractères de la danse, Rebel effectively
devised a new form that embraced all the popular court
dances of the day. Jean-Baptiste Lully had introduced
this concept in Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1670). Rebel’s
pastiche presents the dances without pause so as to
constitute one extended composition. The subtitle
Fantaisie reflects the caprice of his unusual structure.
After the opening Prélude, the individual dances
unfold rapidly; the Courante is only 8 measures, and the
longest movement in the collection - the Chaconne - is
only 36 bars. It is easy to hear when one dance ends and
the other begins, since the shift to each new dance calls
for a meter change, and often a key change. Toward the
end, Rebel incorporates two brief Sonates, unusual early
instances of this form in French music.
The most celebrated dancers in Louis XV’s court
performed Les caractères de la danse, including Françoise
Prévost (for whom it was probably written) and Marie
Sallé. Marie-Anne Cupis de Camargo, later known
throughout Europe as La Camargo, made her début at
the Paris Opéra in Les caractères in 1726.
Rebel’s score survives in reduced form
only, with only a few of the dances specifying
instrumentation. Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
performs it with two oboes, strings, and continuo.
Program notes by Laurie Shulman © 2016
Akademie für
Alte Musik Berlin
“From the delightfully sprightly Allegro of the Overture, the Berlin
period band gave a predictably enjoyable, accomplished performance:
polished, rhythmically spirited and supple.” (Gramophone)
Founded in 1982, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin began
as a courageous display of musical sovereignty against the East
German socialist regime. Now, over thirty years later, it is
lauded as one of Europe’s greatest musical success stories. The
ensemble, which performs regularly in Europe’s leading musical
centers, tours worldwide with concerts in Asia and North and
South America.
Since the reopening of the Berlin Konzerthaus in 1984,
the Akademie has enjoyed its own sold-out concert series in
Germany’s capital, and since 1994 has been a regular guest at
the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden and at the Innsbruck
Festival of Early Music. Starting with the 2012-13 season, the
Akademie has presented its own concert series at Munich’s
Prinzregententheater. The Akademie appears at Wigmore Hall
in London, the Palais de Beaux Arts in Brussels, the Theatre des
Champs‐Elysees in Paris, Tonhalle in Zurich, Musikverein in
Vienna, and other major concert halls in Europe.
In more than 100 concerts each year, ranging from
small chamber works to large-scale symphonic pieces, the
Akademie performs under the artistic leadership of its concertmasters Midori Seiler, Stephan Mai, Bernhard Forck, and Georg
Kallweit.
Numerous guest conductors and soloists have worked
with the Akademie. For over 25 years, its partnership with
Belgian countertenor and conductor René Jacobs has produced
many celebrated opera and oratorio productions. Most recent
of these is the release of the recording of Mozart’s The Magic
Flute, which the BBC hailed as “spine tingling.” The Akademie
has extended its artistic boundaries to work together with the
modern dance company Sasha Waltz & Guests for innovative
productions of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Medea. With
its visually dramatic, staged concert of 4 Elements - 4 Seasons, the
Akademie demonstrates yet again its international reputation
for being creative program innovators.
The ensemble has received numerous awards for its recordings, including the Cannes Festival Award, French Diapason
d’or, Dutch Edison Award, British Gramophone Award, Telemann Prize, and a Grammy Award nomination. The ensemble
records exclusively for Harmonia Mundi. In 2014 the Akademie
became the first ensemble to be awarded the prestigious Bach
Medal by the city of Leipzig.
The Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin is represented by
International Arts Foundation, In., 121 West 27th Street, Suite 703, New York, NY 10001.
➤
2016-17 season
79