Musica Pacifica
Concerto in D minor, RV 481 -- Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
for bassoon, strings, and continuo
Allegro - Larghetto - Allegro molto
Trio in G minor -- George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
for 2 violins and continuo
Andante - Allegro - Largo - Allegro
Sonata in C Major, K. 513 -- Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)
for solo harpsichord
Pastorale-allegro molto-presto
Concerto in F major -- Giuseppe Sammartini (1695-1750)
for soprano recorder, strings, and continuo
Allegro - [Siciliano] - Allegro assai
INTERMISSION
Trio in A minor, RV 86 -- Vivaldi
for recorder, bassoon, and continuo
Largo - Allegro - Largo cantabile - Allegro molto
Concerto in A major, D 91 -- Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770)
for violin, strings, and continuo
Allegro - Adagio - Presto
Concerto in F major -- Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
for recorder, bassoon, strings, and continuo
Largo - [Allegro] - [Grave] - Allegro
Program Notes
The 18th-century musical appetite was nothing if not catholic, and the pot-pourri of concerti and chamber works heard in tonight's program offers a view into the rich musical scope of 18th-century concert life. Variety was the quality music-loving audiences prized above all others, and both solo and chamber music were treasured as much as the concerti for large and diverse orchestral forces. Variety could even exist within a single piece, since compositional form did not necessarily dictate the musical affect. Even the most extroverted of concerti might contain moments of great intimacy, and the virtuosity of a single one of Domenico Scarlatti's keyboard sonatas could easily vie with the flashiest of concerto moments. Audiences in the 18th century regarded this kind of musical multifariousness as an essential aspect of a well-rounded musical program. (DM)
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) composed hundreds of concerti, the majority of them being intended for performance by the students in the “Ospedale della Pieta,” the home for orphans and bastards where he was the principal music teacher. The orchestra was a very accomplished one—people flocked from all over Europe to hear it perform. Surely one of the students in this all-female orchestra was a bassoon virtuoso, given that Vivaldi composed at least 37 solo concerti for bassoon. He may well have written a few of the concerti for the solo bassoonist in the Dresden Court Orchestra, also one of the most famous orchestras of the period. It is known that he did compose for this orchestra, but there is no documentation about the bassoonist that he had in mind for the many concerti.
In discussing Vivaldi’s musical output, one is more likely to speak in terms of colors, atmosphere, and images. His harmonic vocabulary is often quite simple, sometimes even breaking the “rules” of harmonic progression. (We tend today to regard the harmonic progressions found in Bach to be a sort of guideline for establishing “rules.”) He succeeded, however, in creating some of the most atmospheric music of the time. Even J. S. Bach was intrigued with Vivaldi, and transcribed and arranged several of Vivaldi’s works.
The Concerto in D minor for bassoon, strings, and continuo opens with an Allegro that could almost have been marked Furioso. The orchestral ritornelli , as well as the sometimes bizarre solos of the bassoon seem, almost to suggest a sort of furtive chase, while the soothing Larghetto provides the bassoonist the opportunity to display the lyric qualities of the instrument. As is true in most of Vivaldi’s bassoon concerti, the solo episodes are of two greatly contrasting character: virtuoso passages with many leaps (a specialty of the bassoon with its large range) often accompanied only by the continuo and punctuated by the tutti orchestra, and slower, floating passages more in the bassoon’s high register, very often accompanied only by the upper strings. (MMc)
The provenance of not a few of Handel's trio sonatas is unknown; in 1722, six trio sonatas from opus 2 were published along with "three separate sonatas composed at about the same time or perhaps somewhat later" (Halle Handel Edition). Tonight's trio sonata is one of those three works. G minor appears to have been a favorite key for Handel in this genre (perhaps because of its suitability for the oboe?), and also seems to have inspired in him a certain keen searching melancholy in the slow movements and urgent vigor in the quick ones. The sonatas are Corellian in structure (slow-fast-slow-fast), and owe much to Handel's familiarity with that master's work, and to the Italian style in general. That said, he has put his unmistakable stamp on the form; the movements are generally longer than Corelli's, and there is that freewheeling sense of liberty and adventure peculiar to Handel, particularly in the fast movements. It is an interesting exercise to contrast these sonatas with the trios of Bach. Bach's counterpoint manifests the perfection of cosmic clockwork - the beauty of it lies as much in the Chinese-puzzle inevitability of its motific interactions as in the qualities of the themes themselves. With Handel, nothing is predictable, at least after the obligatory imitative entrances. He is happy to introduce new motivic elements well into the body of the piece; this lends the proceedings the air of a spirited conversation between lively and passionate minds, but never interferes with the broader formal outlines. His handling of the basso continuo in this sonata is more conventional than in some other trios, largely providing steady rhythmic motion and helping to point out and define the key structural arrival points. (EB)
Scarlatti's Sonata in C major, K. 513 reflects the biography of the composer, who spent his earlier years in Naples and his maturity as court composer to Queen Maria Barbara of Spain. The first section begins with a pastorale--a cradle song associated in Southern Italy with the Christmas season, here marked by piquant Scarlattian modulations. It spins into a lively peasant dance, also in 6/8 meter, that features obvious references to rustic instruments: bagpipes, fifes, drums, and even a hurdy-gurdy. The second half evokes Spanish popular music. With its brilliant and idiomatic keyboard figuration, it surely pleased Scarlatti's royal patron, an outstanding virtuoso herself. (CS)
Giuseppe Sammartini was a native of Milan who emigrated to England around 1728 or 1729; in his lifetime, he was known primarily as an oboist. The contemporary chronicler Hawkins praised him as "the greatest [oboist] the world has ever known," and many of the oboe solos in Handel's operas were written especially for him. As a member of various London opera orchestras, he would also have played the flute and recorder, for the obbligato parts in special arias. Although Sammartini was one of the leading composers of concertos and sonatas in England between 1730 and 1750, most of his concertos and overtures were published only posthumously; they did, however, become extremely popular and were performed well into the 19th century.
Concertos for small recorders were all the rage in London from about 1715, and were performed in the public concerts and in the "entertainments" given during the intermissions of plays. The Concerto in F major for soprano recorder (known in England as the "fifth flute") was presumably written for the composer himself to play, in the 1730s. The opening Allegro is in da capo form, that overlays the ritornello form popularized by Vivaldi; but here the ritornellos are much lighter, made up of short, galant-style phrases over a simple, static bass line. The recorder breaks into the opening ritornello unexpectedly with a cadenza-like passage, before rejoining the orchestra with further motivic material. The two extensive solo sections that follow are characterized by imaginative figuration and deft chromatic touches. The slow movement is a poignant Siciliano reminiscent of an Italian opera aria: orchestral opening and closing sections frame a lyrical and rhythmically unpredictable melody line, again with appealing chromaticism, in an almost empfindsam (sensibility) style. The final Allegro assai in 6/8 time at first appears to be a kind of gigue, but this impression is soon dispelled by the syncopations and complexities of rhythm that appear. Again, the soloist briefly interrupts the opening ritornello, before launching into a flurry of virtuosity that makes use of all the tricks in the book: brilliant trills, rapid triplet passages, and leaping arpeggiation, again with Sammartini's piquant touches of chromaticism. (JL)
Vivaldi's Trio in A minor is one of the very few works from the Baroque period that combine recorder and bassoon as solo instruments. The combination also occurs in the slow movements of two of the chamber concerti and in the "Double Concerto" by Telemann, heard later in tonight's program. This texture necessitates a bass line that is quite simple, since it is practically in the same range as the lower solo line. In three of the movements, the recorder and bassoon share identical thematic material, engaging in a true conversation. The third movement is a cantabile air for solo recorder over an arpeggiated, accompanimental figure in the bassoon, while the continuo provides regular, repeated rhythmic impulses. Perhaps Vivaldi intended to conjure up the image of the "gondola aria" from contemporary Italian cantatas and operas; in such arias, the singer sings pensively to himself (recorder), accompanied by the gentle lap and bubbling of the waves (bassoon), and regular strokes of the oar (continuo), moving the boat along. (JL)
In the wake of the nearly single-handed invention of the solo concerto by Antonio Vivaldi, many other composers embarked on their own personal explorations of the new form, variously broadening its formal outlines, expanding its textural possibilities, and generally imprinting upon it their unique sensibilities. While Tartini, among the Baroque composers, arguably made the most unusual impression upon it, his Concerto in A major, D 91 hews largely to Vivaldi's model: orchestral ritornellos alternate with figurative solo passagework in the two outer fast movements, and a short central "aria" for solo violin features brief introductory and closing orchestral ritornellos, with minimal accompaniment of the solo (violins only). The piece is not, however, simply a sort of homage to Vivaldi; Tartini's wonderful ability to personalize figuration, to turn ornament into an integral part of melody, is much in evidence. His focus on expressive and virtuosic melody is underscored by simple harmonies and minimal accompanimental writing. Indeed, most of the solo passages are accompanied only by the basso continuo, almost creating the impression that the concerto has crossbred with a solo sonata. In the Presto, the final ritornello is abruptly broken off, and the words "a Capriccio" are written in the score; clearly the soloist is expected to improvise a cadenza, following which the ritornello resumes where it left off, as though nothing had happened. This cadenza has little of the formal grandeur of the later classical cadenza; it is not set up with the complicity and encouragement of the orchestra; rather, the piece is briefly and unexpectedly hijacked by the soloist. Those interested in Vivaldi's "modular" style of ritornello construction, in which thematic elements are often shuffled, deleted, or abbreviated, may notice many analogs in the outer movements. (EB)
One of the most prolific composers of the Baroque, Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), was a skilled player of several wind instruments. In every genre, from solo and trio sonata to concerti and suites, as well as in vocal and choral works, he assigned the wind instruments important roles. He likely had some excellent wind players in his Collegium Musicum in Hamburg. Baroque wind players must be grateful to Telemann for creating a very significant part of their repertoire.
The Concerto in F Major for recorder and bassoon is the only known Baroque concerto for these two instruments. It certainly attests to the fact that Telemann knew very well the capabilities of the solo instruments: the recorder writing is mostly in the high register, where it is most brilliant, and the bassoon part encompasses two octaves, nearly its entire range. Both quick movements give the soloists every opportunity for display of virtuosity and the last movement has a few very humorous moments, giving the bassoon very large register skips. Perhaps the elegiac third movement, in the contrasting key of a minor, best allows the two wind players to show their abilities as “singers.” Between the orchestral introduction and the closing statement of the orchestra, the recorder and bassoon are given expressive melodic lines, sometimes together in thirds or sixths, and sometimes alternating. (MMc)
notes by Musica Pacifica; individual attributions indicated by writers' initials
Ensemble and Performer Biographies
Judith Linsenberg, recorder, has been acclaimed for her “virtuosity,” expressivity,” “fearless playing,” and “masterly control with risk-taking spontaneity.” She has performed throughout the United States and Europe, including solo appearances at the Hollywood Bowl and Lincoln Center; and has been featured with such leading ensembles as the San Francisco Symphony, the SF Opera Center, Philharmonia Baroque, American Bach Soloists, the Los Angeles Opera, the LA, Portland, and Seattle Baroque Orchestras, the Oregon and Carmel Bach Festivals, Musica Angelica (LA), and the LA Chamber Orchestra. She has premiered several works for the recorder, including the US premiere in 2002 of a recently rediscovered Vivaldi recorder concerto. She has recorded for Dorian, Virgin/Veritas, Harmonia Mundi, Koch, Reference Recordings, Musical Heritage Society, and Hanssler Classics. A Fulbright scholar to Austria, Ms. Linsenberg was awarded the Soloist Diploma with Highest Honors from the Vienna Academy of Music. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Princeton University and holds a doctorate in early music from Stanford University. She has been a visiting professor at the Vienna Conservatory and Indiana University’s Early Music Institute in Bloomington, and has taught at Stanford, the SF Conservatory, and early music workshops throughout the US.
Elizabeth Blumenstock, violin, whose performances have been called “magical,” “rapturous,” and “riveting,” is one of the country’s leading baroque violinists. Often soloist, concertmaster, or leader with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, Los Angeles-based Musica Angelica, the Chicago Opera Theater, and the Italian ensemble, Il Complesso Barocco, she is also a founding member of several of California’s finest period instrument ensembles, including American Baroque, the Artaria Quartet, and the Arcadian Academy, in addition to Musica Pacifica. With over 75 recordings to her credit, she has recorded for Dorian, Harmonia Mundi, Virgin Classics, BMG, Reference Recordings, EMI, Koch International, and others. Ms. Blumenstock has appeared with period orchestras and chamber ensembles throughout the United States and abroad and has performed at the Boston and Berkeley Early Music Festivals, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Los Angeles Opera, and the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, among others. She is instructor of baroque violin at the University of Southern California and U.C. Berkeley and has taught at Oberlin’s Baroque Performance Institute and the International Baroque Institute at Longy. She also conducts residencies in Baroque style for early music ensembles at universities across the country.
Lisa Weiss performs as a concertmaster and soloist with Philharmonia Baroque, American Bach Soloists, and the Arcadian Academy. She is a frequent guest artist with early music chamber groups as well as the contemporary ensembles Earplay and the Empyrean Ensemble, and she recently performed several concerts of Bach cantatas in Weimar, Germany with the Bach Ensemble and Joshua Rifkin. Her first love has always been the string quartet repertoire, and she was the first person in the U.S. to receive an M.M. in chamber music.
Tekla Cunningham, violinist and violist, performs with the American Bach Soloists, Apollo’s Fire in Cleveland, Musica Angelica in Los Angeles, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the San Francisco Bach Choir, Santa Fe Pro Musica, and also plays at the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival. Ms. Cunningham has appeared as a guest artist with the Del Sol String Quartet in San Francisco, and has toured with the Artaria Quartet. Since founding the Novello Quartet in 2003, the quartet has performed all of Haydn’s op. 50 string quartets. This summer, the Novello Quartet appears at the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival and will also appear on the San Francisco Early Music Society’s 2004-5 concert series with a program of quartets by Förster, Haydn, Boccherini and Mozart dedicated to King Frederick Wilhelm II of Prussia. Other chamber music activities include performances at some of America’s finest early music series with La Monica, an ensemble dedicated to music of the 17th century. Ms. Cunningham studied history, German literature, and music at Johns Hopkins University and Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, MD. She continued her musical studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna, Austria, and graduated with a master’s degree from the Conservatory of Music in San Francisco, where she studied with Ian Swenson.
David Morris, ‘cello/viola da gamba, has performed with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, the Los Angeles, Seattle and Portland Baroque Orchestras, the Israeli baroque orchestra Tizmoret Salomone and the Mark Morris Dance Group. He is the Dean of Students at The Crowden School in Berkeley and has conducted the Crowden School Orchestra on concert tours of Europe and the U.K. He is the founder and musical director of the Bay Area Baroque opera ensemble Teatro Bacchino, and has been a guest instructor in performance practice at The San Francisco Conservatory, UC Berkeley and Mills College. He received his BA and MA in Music from U.C. Berkeley and was the recipient of the University’s Eisner Prize for excellence in the performing arts. He has recorded for Harmonia Mundi, Dorian, New Albion, and New World Records.
David Daniel Bowes, violist, began his musical studies in Ohio at age 5 on piano, and at 7 took up the violin. At age 17 he received a five-year full scholarship for study on both instruments as a double major in performance and education. He refined this course of study to a viola major with a minor in piano accompaniment. Love of travel and adventure took him four times to the Aspen Music Festival as a Fellowship violist, and to NYC, where he studied at the Manhattan School of Music with Lillian Fuchs, and to London, where he studied with Kato Havas. In 1982 he was invited to become a member of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and from this point on has concentrated on early music performance practice. He joined the American Bach Soloists in 1992. Not wishing to neglect his interest in symphonic literature, he was Acting Principal Viola for the San Jose Symphony, and served with the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Opera, and further afield with the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra. He made his solo debut in 1981 with violinist Margaret Tyson Klein, in a performance of the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante, and continues to work with gifted young people in San Francisco.
William Skeen, cello, is currently on the faculty of the University of Southern California’s Early Music Department, a position held since 2001. Mr. Skeen was formerly on the faculty of the the University of San Diego, teaching modern cello. Currently, William resides in the Bay Area where he often appears with the American Bach soloists and is a member of Philharmonia Baroque and the Stockton Symphony. Mr Skeen has been cellist and violist da gamba at the Carmel Bach Festival since 1999. He is co-founder/co-director of La Monica, a period-instrument sextet devoted to Italian and German repertoire of the seventeenth century. With La Monica, William has presented acclaimed concerts in many of the country’s top early music series including Pittsburgh’s Renaissance and Baroque Society, NYC’s Music Before 1800 Series, and Houston Early Music. Mr Skeen is also a member of El Mundo, Los Peregrinos (a new-tango ensemble), Trio Galanterie (with Elizabeth Blumenstock and John Schneiderman), and Just Strings, a new-music ensemble exploring microtonal repertoire by Harry Partch, Lou Harrison, and many other composers. Mr. Skeen has served as principal cello with Seattle Baroque, Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra, Musica Angelica, San Diego Opera, and Chicago Opera Theater.
Charles Sherman, harpsichord, has had a distinguished career as both a soloist and an ensemble player and has been called a “fluent virtuoso” by the Los Angeles Times. As a member of the Aulos Ensemble (NY) for many years, he toured regularly throughout North America and overseas, and recorded extensively. Recently, he has performed as continuo player and soloist with such acclaimed ensembles as Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and American Baroque (SF), the Philadelphia Orchestra, Musica Angelica (LA), Handel & Haydn Society and Emmanuel Music (Boston), St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble and Concert Royal (NY), and at well-known music festivals, including Marlboro, Saratoga, the New England Bach Festival, the Boston and Berkeley Early Music Festivals, and Aston Magna. Mr. Sherman holds degrees in History and Musicology from The University of Chicago and in Harpsichord Performance from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Albert Fuller. He is recognized as one of today’s leading exponents of the art of basso continuo realization and frequently teaches master classes on Baroque accompaniment. His recordings appear on the Dorian, Musical Heritage Society, Koch International, and BMG labels.
Bassoonist Michael McCraw, cited in the newest edition of “Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians” as one of the most important early bassoon players and pedagogues of our time, began his career in New York City as a member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and as one of the pioneers in the field of baroque performance with original instruments. From 1979 he lived in Cologne, Germany, playing with such ensembles as Musica Antiqua Koeln, Concentus musicus Wien, London Baroque, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, and Camerata Koeln. Mr. McCraw moved to Toronto in 1991 to take up the position of principal bassoonist with the Tafelmusik Orchestra, a position he held through 2002. Also a gifted teacher, he has taught at festivals and workshops all over the world and was on the faculty at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto as well as the University of Toronto. He is now, since August 2004, director of the Early Music Institute at Indiana University. His recordings number more than 140, including a highly acclaimed CD of Vivaldi bassoon concerti with the Seattle Baroque Orchestra. American Record Guide names this recording “number one for Vivaldi bassoon, with no reservations. ”Mr. McCraw continues to free-lance in North America and Europe and is also musical director of the baroque double reed workshop in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Led by artistic directors Judith Linsenberg and Elizabeth Blumenstock, Musica Pacifica has been performing, touring, and recording since 1990. Mining a rich vein of Baroque literature for mixed wind/string ensemble, the group performs the spirited chamber concerti of Vivaldi and Telemann, colorful dance suites from the courts and opera houses of France, and the more intimate solo, duo, and trio sonatas from European countries as diverse as Scotland, Poland, Spain, and England. Musica Pacifica has been described by the press as “some of the finest baroque musicians in America” (American Record Guide) and “among the best in the world” (Alte Musik Aktuell). At home in the San Francisco Bay area, the artists are members of Philharmonia Baroque, and they appear with many other prominent early music ensembles nationally and abroad.
Musica Pacifica’s stylish, high-energy, and virtuoso performances have consistently received enthusiastic reviews from critics and audiences alike. These qualities have led to appearances on such prestigious chamber and early music concert series as Music Before 1800 (NY), Tage Alter Musik (Regensburg), the Shrine to Music Museum (Vermillion, SD), the Cleveland Art Museum, the Pittsburgh Renaissance and Baroque Society, the Seattle Early Music Guild, the Los Angeles County Museum, and the Cambridge Early Music Society (MA). They have twice been a featured ensemble at the Berkeley Early Music Festival, and their appearance there in 1998 was cited in Early Music (UK) as “perhaps the standout of the entire festival.” They have performed at festivals in Germany and Austria and have been heard on German National radio as well as on National Public Radio’s Performance Today and Harmonia. Performances in the 2002-2003 season include the Frick Collection (NY), Milwaukee’s Early Music Now, and the Houston Early Music Society, among many others.
Musica Pacifica’s five CD releases--Bach Trio Sonatasand a 2-CD set of Marais, Pieces en trio on Virgin/Veritas; Alessandro Scarlatti Concerti da camera, Mancini Concerti da camera, and Telemann Chamber Cantatas and Trio Sonatas, on Dorian--have received international acclaim, including the highest ratings in several CD magazines and each one being chosen as “CD of the Month” by the early music journal Alte Musik Aktuell (Regensburg). Musica Pacifica was the first North American ensemble to receive a 5-star rating from the European Goldberg magazine (Vol. 3, Spring 1998), for the Marais set. Their Telemann CD, described by Early Music America Magazine as “superbly elegant . . . exemplifying the finest in historical performance today;” won Chamber Music America and WQXR’s 2003 Record Award honoring the best chamber music recordings of the year. The Mancini recording was cited as a “Noteworthy Disc” in the 2000 International Antonio Vivaldi Awards for Italian Early Music in Venice--the only CD that year by a North American ensemble to receive the honor. Their new recording, Vivaldi, La Notte:Concerti per strumenti diversi, was released by Dorian in May 2003. Musica Pacifica is represented by Joanne Rile Artists Management, www.rilearts.com.