2024/2025 Debut Season

Program notes by Martin Pearlman

Handel, Concerto grosso

            In the fall of 1739, immediately after finishing his Ode for St. Cecilia's Day, Handel began composing twelve concerti grossi.  His publisher, John Walsh, had invited him to compose the concertos along the lines of those of Corelli, which he had earlier published to great success.  Such a set by Handel, he felt, should sell very well.

            Handel worked on his concertos in a white heat of inspiration, completing the entire set within the astonishing space of one month. The dates of completion written at the ends of the concertos range from September 29 to October 30, an average of one concerto every 2-1/2 to 3 days.  Much in these concertos reflects the Corellian model that Walsh had hoped for:  a trio of two solo violins and a cello contrasting with the larger ensemble, as well as some of the same dance movements and types of counterpoint that we hear in Corelli.  But Handel's forms are often on a grander scale and more varied than his model. 

            Although it was published as the eleventh of the set, this concerto was actually the twelfth and last to be composed.  With Walsh pressuring him to finish and the composer himself under pressure to prepare for the upcoming concert season, Handel decided to adapt most of this concerto from a pre-existing work, the Organ Concerto in A Major which he had first performed earlier in that same year.  The organ version and the orchestral concerto are essentially the same music, the differences being mainly in small adaptations for the new medium, refinements of rhythmic details, and new inner voices for violas.  Only the second movement Allegro of this concerto grosso is newly composed, and that music was later used by Handel as the model for a new organ concerto.  Although this is an extreme example of Handel's borrowing from other works, it was not uncommon for him to borrow from his own earlier music or even from works of other composers.  However, the Handelian magic generally transformed his "borrowings" into music that was fresh and often greater than the original.

Purcell, Three Parts on a Ground

            The word "ground" in the title of this work refers to the short, simple bass line that repeats throughout the piece.  It creates a foundation over which the three violins spin out a series of brilliant variations.  This is an early work of Purcell, thought to have been written around 1680, before his more famous theatrical dramas, but it already shows his genius in working with a ground bass, a technique for which he is justly famous.  The harmony also shows his early taste for introducing occasional "blue notes," surprisingly spicy but beautiful dissonances. 

            In 1695, about a decade and a half after this work, Purcell died at the early age of 36.  He was at the height of his powers, and English music did not fully recover from the loss.  There was no native composer of comparable stature to take his place.  As a result, many of the leading composers in England during the coming century would be foreign born, bringing with them the latest in Italian styles.  Among them were Handel and Bach's youngest son, Johann Christian.

Vivaldi

            For a good part of his career, Vivaldi taught at the Ospedale della Pietà, a girls orphanage in Venice that was famous for the high quality of its music.  Some of the girls became virtuosos on their instruments, and people came from all over Italy and beyond to hear their performances.  The exact date of this concerto is not known, but it is likely that it would have been written for one of the girls at the Pietà.

            The sopranino recorder, a smaller and higher instrument than the soprano recorder, was one of a family of instruments of different sizes that were seen during the Baroque.  When this concerto is played today by an orchestra of modern instruments, the soloist typically plays a piccolo.  However, the little sopranino recorder that we hear tonight is the instrument for which Vivaldi originally composed it.

Recorder music:  Jacob van Eyck and Jacob van Noort

            Jacob van Eyck and Jacob van Noort both lived during the "Golden Age" of Holland in the mid-1600's.  Having recently gained its independence, The Netherlands became a world center for trade and enjoyed a rich cultural life.  It was the time of Rembrandt and Vermeer. 

            Born into a noble family, Jacob van Eyck was blind from birth.  After moving to the city of Utrecht, he became well known as a carillon player in the church towers above the city.  His expertise in the science of tuning and the construction of bells led to his being appointed Director of the Bell Works for Utrecht.  Down on the ground at the base of the church towers, however, he is said to have played the recorder to entertain people in the churchyards.  Judging from the music that has come down to us, he was clearly a virtuoso player.

            The unaccompanied recorder piece that we hear this evening, Engels Nachtegaeltje (The Little English Nightingale), comes from a two-volume collection of van Eyck's music titled Der fluyten lust-hof (The Flute's Pleasure Garden).  Like his other works in the collection, it is a set of variations on a popular tune.  In all likelihood, he would have improvised the variations and, at some point because of his blindness, would have dictated them to an assistant who could prepare them for publication.  For this work, Aldo Abreu is playing a soprano recorder, a high recorder that is a bit larger and lower in range than the sopranino heard in the Vivaldi concerto.

            Jacob van Noort held the prestigious post of organist at the Oude Kerk (Old Church) in Amsterdam.  His piece that we hear this evening, Den Nachtegael (The Nightingale) is, like that of van Eyck, a set of variations on a tune.  It comes from a collection of music by various composers called 'T Uitnement Kabinet (The Cabinet of Delights).  For this work, Mr. Abreu is playing the smallest and highest instrument in the recorder family, the garklein ("very small") recorder.

Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 5

            In 1721, Bach presented a manuscript collection of six concertos to the Margrave of Brandenburg, offering them as an example of  "the little talents which Heaven has given me for Music."  There is no evidence that the Margrave ever had any of the concertos performed or that he even acknowledged the gift, but having composed them over a period of years, Bach would undoubtedly have performed them at Cöthen during the time that he directed the ensemble at the Prince's court.  

            For a modern audience, used to a long tradition of harpsichord and piano concertos, it may be difficult to recapture the sense of novelty that listeners must have experienced when this concerto was first performed.  The three soloists in the Fifth Brandenburg Concerto are flute, violin and harpsichord.  While the flute and violin were frequent concerto soloists, this is thought to be the very first harpsichord concerto, an idea which may have been inspired by Bach's recent purchase of a new harpsichord in Berlin.  Previously keyboard instruments had been accompanists in orchestras, whereas here, not only is the harpsichord elevated to soloist, but it gradually becomes the dominant soloist in the first movement, as it plays its famous solo cadenza for an extraordinary sixty-five measures.  It is clearly a showpiece that Bach must have written for himself to play.

            The second movement is for the three soloists alone.  The trio of soloists then continue playing alone at the beginning of the third movement, until they are eventually joined by one section after another of the larger ensemble.  Such a transparent beginning establishes a light character that is quite different from that of the first movement.  Here the rhythms dance like a gigue.