55020-B.pdf

ALBINONI . BACH . BOYCE . CHARPENTIER . CORELLI . FUX . HANDEL

enormous rise in the popularity of Baroque music—that

is, broadly speaking, the repertoire composed between

1600 and 1750. Vivaldi’s Four Seasons has become a ‘chart-

buster’, the Pachelbel Canon and ‘Albinoni’s Adagio ’ have

individual name slots on the CD shelves (where did you

discover this disc?), Bach’s ‘Air on the G string’ provides a

soothing backdrop for a famous TV commercial, and

Charpentier’s Te Deum spawned the Eurovision theme tune!

The renewed interest in this repertoire has been further

enhanced by the use of eighteenth-century instruments,

recreating the performance practices of the past in a way

which many listeners find both invigorating and refreshing.

Furthermore, the structure of many of these compositions,

with a strong foundation on the bass line, regular pulse and

repeated rhythmic patterns (and, of course, memorable

melodies), has much in common with the popular music of

the twentieth century, and the freedom of gesture and

ornamentation often brings us close to the world of jazz.

This is especially true of such musical forms as the

rondeau —a piece with a recurring tune—and the ground

bass, passacaglia and chaconne , which feature prominently

on this disc. Naturally the selection here represents a personal

choice of ‘Baroque pops’, some already well known, others still

to be discovered. All of the items here (except the second) are

presented in recordings made especially for this compilation.

As you can imagine, this was something of a logistical night-

mare, but the layout of the programme has been designed with

the listener in mind and the varied sequence has been

specifically grouped for continuous listening (if you wish).

1 M ARC -A NTOINE C HARPENTIER ( c 1645 –1704)

Prelude (Rondeau) to Te Deum in D, H146

Charpentier composed an enormous amount of church music,

imaginatively scored and with unusually interesting parts for

middle voices. Four settings of the Te Deum have survived.

This one probably dates from the early 1690s and is scored for

trumpets and drums with four-part strings (violin, two violas

and bass) doubled by woodwind. The Rondeau theme (made

popular as the Eurovision theme tune) is interspersed with two

short, contrasting couplets which normally lead directly into

the first choral movement.

2 J OHANN S EBASTIAN B ACH (1685 –1750)

Air from Orchestral Suite No 3 in G, BWV1068

soloist ROY GOODMAN

Unlike the beautiful dedication manuscript of the Brandenburg

Concertos, no autograph score survives of the Orchestral

Suites. For this work the most reliable source is a set of parts

dating from 1730/1, probably prepared for performance by the

Leipzig Collegium Musicum in their Friday evening series at the

Zimmermann Coffee House. The parts were copied by Bach,

his son Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Krebs, and it seems

clear that this Air (and the concertato passages in the first

movement) was intended to be played by a solo violin. The

nickname ‘Air on the G string’ derives from an arrangement for

violin and piano by the German violinist August Wilhelmj

(1845 –1908) in 1871. He transposed the music down a tone

so that the melody can be played entirely on the lowest (G)

string. (This track is taken from the complete recording of

Bach’s four Orchestral Suites available on CDD22002.)

3 J OHANN P ACHELBEL (1653 –1706)

Canon and Gigue in D for three violins

Pachelbel was an organist and also a leading composer of

Protestant church music. Only a handful of his chamber works

have survived. The most important are the six Suites for two

violins and continuo in which he explored the technique of

scordatura (re-tuning the strings to different notes for special

effects). This Canon has achieved immense popularity, albeit

often in overblown arrangements for massed strings. The three

violin parts are in strict counterpoint, each playing exactly the

same music at two-bar intervals over 28 repetitions of the

bass ostinato. There are just five instruments in this

O VER THE LAST THIRTY YEARS OR SO there has been an

recording—three violins, organ and theorbo, without bowed

cello or bass—all that Pachelbel would have required. The

Gigue forms a lively conclusion, the folk-fiddling style of the

imitative violin writing providing a complete contrast to the

more learned style of the Canon .

4 G EORGE F RIDERIC H ANDEL (1685 –1759)

The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba from Solomon

This busy Sinfonia for two oboes and strings opens the third

Act of Handel’s oratorio Solomon (1748) and heralds the

arrival of King Solomon’s eagerly awaited guest. In an earlier

three-movement version of the piece it closes with a brief

Adagio , which we have used as a link into track 5.

5 G EORGE F RIDERIC H ANDEL

Andante from Violin Concerto in B flat, HWV288

soloist ROY GOODMAN

This is the first movement of Handel’s unjustly neglected

Sonata a 5 —his only violin concerto, probably composed in

Italy in 1707 with none other than Arcangelo Corelli as soloist.

It begins with one of Handel’s most winning melodies, played

in dialogue between soloist and tutti . This was obviously a

favourite movement of Handel himself, since he reworked it in

his oratorio Belshazzar and as an oboe concerto.

6 G EORGE F RIDERIC H ANDEL Allegro ma non troppo

from Concerto a due cori No 2 in F, HWV333

Handel wrote three Concerti a due cori ( c 1747) although many

movements are based on earlier works. This fifth movement

from the second Concerto is a set of lively variations on a

ground bass which appears twenty-five times in different keys

and disguises. This material had been used previously in the

Birthday Ode for Queen Anne (1713) and also the revised

version of the oratorio Esther (1732). It is scored for four

horns, four oboes and two bassoons (divided into two ‘choirs’)

with strings and continuo. A cadential Adagio leads directly

into track 7.

7 G EORGE F RIDERIC H ANDEL

Allegro in F from the Water Music , HWV348

Handel wrote the Water Music for performance on a barge

during a Royal procession on the river Thames on 17 July 1717.

This movement (affectionately known as ‘10F’ or ‘11F’

depending on the edition) is more often played in its D major

version with trumpets. The version here with horns (doubled up

to four players) is more imaginative, with virtuosic writing for

the first violins in the contrasting middle section.

8 W ILLIAM B OYCE (1711–1779)

Gavot (Rondeau) from Symphony No 4 in F

In 1757 William Boyce was sworn in as Master of the King’s

Musick, taking over from Maurice Greene who had died two

years earlier. In 1760 he published a set of eight Symphonies

which have since enjoyed great popularity. Only the first two

were recent compositions, however, the others dating from up

to twenty-five years earlier. The fourth Symphony is full of

galant touches and was originally used as the overture to The

Shepherd’s Lottery (1751). It is in the form of a rondeau with

two contrasting couplets which are repeated. Boyce is buried

in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral in London, underneath the

dome.

9 M ATTHEW L OCKE (?1621–1677)

Curtain Tune from The Tempest

This extraordinary movement precedes the opening of Act 1 of

Thomas Shadwell’s adaptation of The Tempest which was

sumptuously staged at the Duke’s Theatre, Dorset Garden, in

London in 1674. Matthew Locke contributed eleven four-part

instrumental movements as incidental music, including this

one depicting a placid sea developing into the tempestuous

storm that is raging as the action begins. There are several

clear and unique instructions in the part books—‘soft’ …

‘violent’ … ‘soft’ … ‘lowd’ … ‘soft and slow by degrees’—

in addition to requiring low B flats from the cellos, confirming

the use of larger basses de violon tuned a tone lower than

normal cellos. This recording was made with four basses de

violon and without double-bass.

bl H ENRY P URCELL (1659 –1695)

Rondeau from The Fairy Queen , Z629

Purcell wrote six ‘operatic’ works, although his attributed

setting of The Tempest (c1695) is thought to be by Weldon.

Dioclesian (1690), King Arthur (1691) and The Fairy Queen

(1692) all received their first performances in the same theatre

as Locke’s Tempest .

bm H ENRY P URCELL Rondeau from Abdelazer , Z570

Purcell wrote incidental music for over forty plays. Abdelazer,

or The Moor’s Revenge (text by Aphra Behn) for which Purcell

composed one song and a suite of instrumental movements,

was performed in 1695. It forms one of the thirteen suites of

Ayres for the Theatre , the publication of which Purcell per-

sonally supervised, although they were printed posthumously

in 1697. This famous Rondeau was used by Benjamin Britten

in 1946 as the theme for his Young Person’s Guide to the

Orchestra . Like Handel, Purcell is buried in Westminster Abbey.

bn J EREMIAH C LARKE ( c 1674 –1707)

Rondeau ‘The Prince of Denmark’s March’

This famous trumpet tune, popularly known as the ‘Trumpet

Voluntary’, survives in A Choice Collection of Ayres for the

Harpsichord (1700) and in a suite of pieces for wind instru-

ments, from which the present version is transcribed. Sir Henry

Wood arranged this celebrated piece for trumpet, organ and

drums but wrongly ascribed it to Purcell (a nineteenth-century

organ arrangement had been attributed to him also). Many

harpsichord pieces were written in imitation of the trumpet but

this work may well have first appeared as a piece for trumpet

and wind band. Like Boyce, Clarke is buried in St Paul’s

Cathedral in the New Crypt.

bo D OMENICO G ALLO ( fl mid-18th century)

Moderato from Trio Sonata No 1 in G

This charming movement is one of three which Stravinsky used

in his ballet Pulcinella (1920). At that time the work was

thought to be by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710 –1736).

In fact there have been many Pergolesi ‘forgeries’—notably

the six wonderful Concerti Armonici (1740) by Count van

Wassenaer. A set of twelve Trio Sonatas was published by

Robert Bremner in 1780 and attributed to Pergolesi, but their

authenticity was already doubted in the eighteenth century

by such critics as Burney and Hawkins, and a manuscript

source at Burghley House, Stamford, clearly attributes this

composition to Domenico Gallo.

bp A RCANGELO C ORELLI (1653 –1713)

Allegro from Concerto Grosso in D, Op 6 No 4

It was indeed fortunate for Corelli that around the year 1700

there was a remarkable boom in the publishing of music.

Although only six sets of his works were published (and almost

nothing else has survived), the dissemination of these

compositions throughout Europe made him the most rich and

famous composer of his day. Nevertheless the quality of

Opp 1–6 (four sets of twelve Trio Sonatas, one set of twelve

solo Violin Sonatas and the Opus 6 set of twelve Concerti

Grossi ) is quite outstanding and were deservedly imitated by

numerous aspiring admirers. Forty-five editions of Opus 5 had

been printed by 1800! The first printed edition of Opus 6

appeared in Amsterdam in 1714, and yet it is likely that their

composition took place much earlier. Georg Muffat (see

track 20) imitated Corelli’s concerto style as early as 1682

after a visit to Rome, and we know that Corelli had composed

a ‘Christmas’ Concerto for Ottoboni in 1690. The present

movement is really a Gigue and some of Corelli’s regular four-

square rhythms have been changed here to fit the ‘humpty-

dumpty’ pattern. A complete recording of the twelve Opus 6

Concerti Grossi by The Brandenburg Consort is available on

Hyperion CDD22011.

bq T OMASO A LBINONI (1671–1751)

Adagio from Oboe Concerto in D minor, Op 9 No 2

soloist KATHARINA ARFKEN

It is ironic that such a prolific composer, and one with a great

gift for beautiful melody and rich harmony, should have

become world-famous for something he did NOT write! This

wonderful movement for oboe should be known as the ‘Albinoni

Adagio ’ rather than the Adagio for organ composed in the

twentieth century by Albinoni’s biographer Remo Giazotto.

There are twelve Concertos (as usual!) in Opus 9—four each

for solo oboe, two oboes and solo violin—which was

published in Amsterdam in 1722.

br A NTONIO V IVALDI (1678 –1741) Largo from

Concerto in D minor for viola d’amore and lute, RV540

soloists ROY GOODMAN, NIGEL NORTH

This serene movement, scored for the two soloists and one

single line of violins, comes from a concerto which Vivaldi

wrote specifically for a concert at the Pietà in Venice on 21

March 1740 for the Crown Prince of Saxony-Poland. It is likely

that the d’amore soloist was Anna Maria, one of Vivaldi’s most

famous and versatile students. He included her initials in the

title, styled ‘per viola d’AMore’.

bs J EAN -P HILIPPE R AMEAU (1683 –1764)

Menuet tendre en rondeau from Dardanus

Rameau wrote about thirty major dramatic stage works which

are now slowly beginning to find their way into the repertory.

His orchestration was always colourful and inventive and his

musical style highly individual. This tender Minuet is scored for

flute doubling the violins (which occasionally divide) with two

viola parts providing the harmony. The musical tragedy

Dardanus was first performed in 1739 (though later revised)

and contains some wonderful dance music.

bt J EAN -P HILIPPE R AMEAU Rondeau from Les Indes Galantes

Les Indes Galantes (first performed complete in 1736)

consists of a Prologue and four Entrées , the last of which, ‘Les

Sauvages’, includes this peace-pipe ‘Danse du Grand Calumet

de la Paix’, danced by the Indians. The scoring is as for track

17 except that oboes here replace the flute.

bu J OHANN J OSEPH F UX (1660 –1741)

Rondeau in C for violino piccolo, bassoon and strings

soloists ROY GOODMAN, SALLY JACKSON

Fux was primarily a composer of church music and a great

theorist, yet he composed nearly twenty operas. This delightful

Rondeau is to be found in manuscript in the Dresden State

Library, which kindly provided parts for this recording. The tutti

Rondeau theme provides a framework for ten variations for the

solo bassoon and violino piccolo (a smaller violin, tuned a

minor third higher than usual).

cl G EORG M UFFAT (1653 –1704)

Chaconne from Concerto Grosso No 12 in G

Born in the same year as Corelli, Muffat had the unprece-

dented privilege to study with the great Italian master in Rome

and earlier with Lully in Paris. This combination of musical

styles, together with an understanding of two very different

(but disciplined) types of string playing, gives Muffat’s music

a distinctive and cosmopolitan flavour (in fact he was born in

France of Scottish descent and worked largely in Austria). The

Chaconne movement is a reworking (Passau 1701) of the last

Sonata a 5 from Armonico Tributo (1682) which can be heard

complete on Helios CDH55191.

cm G EORG P HILIPP T ELEMANN (1681–1767)

Largo from Concerto for recorder and flute in E

soloists REBECCA MILES, LISA BEZNOSIUK

Telemann’s accolade from the twentieth century was to receive

an entry in the Guinness Book of Records as the most prolific

composer of all time! Two centuries ago he was certainly

considered to be a far greater composer than J S Bach, and

although there must have been a certain rivalry between them

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: