Music of Johann Sebastian Bach

Transcription

1 The Atlanta Baroque Orchestra John Hsu, Artistic Director & Conductor Music of Johann Sebastian Bach Sunday 30 March :00 p.m. Peachtree Road United Methodist Church 3180 Peachtree Road NW Atlanta, Georgia

2 Music of Johann Sebastian Bach ( ) made possible by the sponsorship of an anonymous donor and Janie R. Hicks Concerto in D minor, BWV 1043 For Two Violins, Strings, and Basso continuo Spiritoso-Allegro-Spiritoso Rondo: Allegro moderato e grazioso Pastorale: Andante sostenuto Valerie Arsenault & Martha Perry, solo violins Brandenburg Concerto no. 5 in D major, BWV 1050 For Flute, Violin, Harpsichord Concertato, & Strings Allegro Affettuoso Allegro Gesa Kordes, violin; Catherine Bull, flute; Daniel Pyle, harpsichord intermission Cantata no. 82 Ich habe genug For Bass, Oboe, Strings, and Basso continuo Richard Lalli, baritone; George Riordan, oboe Brandenburg Concerto no. 3 in G, BWV 1048 For Three Violins, Three Violas, Three Violoncelli, Violone & Harpsichord (allegro) Adagio Allegro THE ATLANTA BAROQUE ORCHESTRA John Hsu, Artistic Director & Conductor Violin Viola Harpsichord Karen Clarke Melissa Brewer Daniel Pyle Gesa Kordes Martha Perry Shawn Pagliarini Ruth Johnsen Flute Stephen Redfield Catherine Bull Valerie Arsenault Violoncello Ute Marks Stephanie Vial Oboe Eckhart Richter George Riordan Martha Bishop Violone Joshua Lee

3 "Ich habe genug"!bwv Aria Ich habe genug, Ich habe den Heiland, das Hoffen der Frommen, Auf meine begierigen Arme genommen; Ich habe genug! Ich hab ihn erblickt, Mein Glaube hat Jesum ans Herze gedrückt; Nun wünsch ich, noch heute mit Freuden Von hinnen zu scheiden. 2. Recitative Ich habe genug. Mein Trost ist nur allein, Daß Jesus mein und ich sein eigen möchte sein. Im Glauben halt ich ihn, Da seh ich auch mit Simeon Die Freude jenes Lebens schon. Laßt uns mit diesem Manne ziehn! Ach! möchte mich von meines Leibes Ketten Der Herr erretten; Ach! wäre doch mein Abschied hier, Mit Freuden sagt ich, Welt, zu dir: Ich habe genug. 3. Aria Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen, Fallet sanft und selig zu! Welt, ich bleibe nicht mehr hier, Hab ich doch kein Teil an dir, Das der Seele könnte taugen. Hier muß ich das Elend bauen, Aber dort, dort werd ich schauen Süßen Friede, stille Ruh. 4. Recitative Mein Gott! wenn kömmt das schöne: Nun! Da ich im Friede fahren werde Und in dem Sande kühler Erde Und dort bei dir im Schoße ruhn? Der Abschied ist gemacht, Welt, gute Nacht! 5. Aria Ich freue mich auf meinen Tod, Ach, hätt' er sich schon eingefunden. Da entkomm ich aller Not, Die mich noch auf der Welt gebunden. I have enough, I have received the Savior, hope of the righteous, into my eager arms; I have enough! I have seen Him, my faith has pressed Jesus to my heart; now I wish today with joy to depart from here. I have enough. My only comfort is this: that Jesus might be mine and I His. I cling to Him in faith and, like Simeon, already see the joy of that other life. Let us join this man! Ah! if only the Lord would deliver me from the chains of my body; ah! if only my departure were here then with joy I would say to the world: I have enough. Slumber now, you weary eyes, close gently and peacefully! World, I stay here no longer I own no part of you that could benefit my soul. Here I heap up misery; but there, there I will see sweet peace, quiet rest. My God! when comes that glorious 'now' when I will journey into peace and in the cool soil of earth there rest in Your lap? My farewells are made; world, good night! I delight in my death, ah, if it were already here! Then I would escape from all the suffering that still binds me to the earth.

4 The Atlanta Baroque Orchestra was founded under the leadership of Lyle Nordstrom, along with founding-members Catherine Bull, Jeanne Johnson, Daniel Pyle, and Eckhart Richter, who felt the need for a permanent, professional, historical-instrument orchestra in the Southeast. The unique, transparent sheen of early instruments, coupled with their capability of a delightful variety of articulations, allows voices and instruments to blend into a unified, yet clear, sound that is very difficult to achieve with modern instruments. Since its founding in 1997, the ABO has been applauded for its freshness and verve, and for its delightful, convincing performances of a wide range of earlier works. The Orchestra received initial generous support from the Atlanta Early Music Alliance and a variety of individuals, and has also depended on donations of time and money from the musicians themselves. The ABO is a not-for-profit corporation based in Atlanta, and is 501(c)3 (tax-exempt). Contributions, which are tax-deductible, are greatly appreciated and are central to the survival of a venture such as this. If you would like to support the ABO and its future programming, please send checks made out to The Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, 303 Augusta Avenue SE, Atlanta, GA There is also a great opportunity for friends of the arts in the community to serve on the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra board. Please visit our website at for more information on the ABO. John Hsu is the Old Dominion Foundation Professor of Music Emeritus at Cornell University, where he taught for 50 years ( ). He was the founder and conductor of the erstwhile Apollo Ensemble (a period instrument chamber orchestra) and a renowned virtuoso player of the viola da gamba and baryton. As both a conductor and an instrumentalist, he has been awarded grants by The Fund for U.S. Artists at International Festivals and Exhibitions, a public/private partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts, the United States Information Agency, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the Pew Charitable Trusts. He has performed throughout North America and Europe, and made awardwinning recordings. Among them are his CD of Haydn Baryton Trios (with violist David Miller and cellist Fortunato Arico), which was chosen Winner in the Music Retailers Association's Annual Award for Excellence in London, 1989; and his CD Symphonies for the Esterhazy Court by Joseph Haydn (with the Apollo Ensemble), which was nominated for the 1996 International Cannes Classical Music Award. In recognition of his edition of the complete instrumental works of Marin Marais ( ), the most important composer of music for the viola da gamba, and for his performances and recordings of French baroque music for the viola da gamba, the French government conferred on him the knighthood Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres in May of He is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, which awarded him the Honorary Doctor of Music degree in 1971, and the Outstanding Alumni Award in He is also Artistic Director Emeritus of the Aston Magna Foundation for Music and the Humanities, the pioneering musical organization in the historical performance movement in this country, founded by Albert Fuller in Richard Lalli is Professor of Music (Adjunct) at Yale Univeristy, where he has taught since He has recently been named Artistic Director of the Yale Baroque Opera Project, which is funded by the Mellon Foundation and introduces undergraduates to aesthetic, stylistic and performative aspects of seventeenth-century Italian opera. For the past six years he conducted the Yale Collegium Musicum, an ensemble devoted to early music and started by Paul Hindemith in the 1940s; the Collegium regularly performs works from manuscript in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in New Haven. Mr. Lalli also performs around the world as a singer. He has given solo recitals at Wigmore Hall, the Spoleto Festival USA, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, Merkin Hall in New York, Salle Cortot, and the United States Embassy in Paris. During the Schubert bicentenary year the baritone presented the three Schubert cycles at Yale Univeristy, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and in Paris. He has been particularly active in the performance of chamber music, appearing with the Boston Camerata, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Orpheus chamber Orchestra, the Brentano String Quartet, the Folger Consort, and with the new-music ensemble Sequitur. As a pianist he has participated in chamber music programs in Weill Recital Hall, Town Hall, and in Paris, London, Stockholm, Basel, Edinburgh, and Budapest. In recent seasons Lalli has premiered works of Gary Fagin, Yehudi Wyner, Kathryn ALexander, Tom Cipullo, Christopher Berg, RIchard Wilson, Lewis Spratlan, Francine Trester, Ricky Ian

5 Gordon, Richard Pearson Thomas, Eric Zivian, Braxton Blake, Daron Hagen, Juliana Hall, Matthew Suttor, and John Halle. Mr. Lalli was recently awarded the top teaching prize in the humanities at Yale University, and his recording of Yehudi Wyner's The Mirror was nominated for a Grammy Award in Program Notes For many years, many Bach-scholars, starting with his first modern biobgrapher Philipp Spitta, associated his different genres of composition with specific phases in the history of his employment. Thus, most of the organ works were assumed to have been composed when he was organist of the ducal chapel in Weimar ( ), the orchestral works (concertos and overtures) and chamber music while he was Kapellmeister at the ducal court of Anhalt-Cöthen ( ), and the cantatas and other sacred choral works during his tenure as Thomas-Cantor in Leipzig ( ). Real life is rarely so orderly, and the history of Bach s composition is no exception. The D-minor Concerto for Two Violins is a case in point. The few concertos by Bach that survive (only 19, including the six Brandenburg concertos but not including four which are transcriptions for harpsichord of violin-concertos a small number by comparison with his 200 cantatas) come down to us in copies that were made in the 1730 s, fifteen or more years after Bach left Cöthen, but when he was directing the concerts of the Leipzig Collegium Musicum. Furthermore, this concerto for two violins was probably composed originally during the Weimar years: for the last half of his tenure there, Bach bore the additional title of Konzertmeister which required the production of occasional cantatas and concertos. The D-minor concerto shows signs of having been composed shortly after Bach had the opportunity to study first-hand the concertos of Vivaldi, which became possible in 1714 when his student Duke Johann Ernst of Weimar brought him a copy of the newly-published L Estro armonico, Vivaldi s Opus 3, from Amsterdam. The history of the Six Concertos for Several Instruments (as Bach entitled the collection we call the Brandenburg Concertos) is similarly complex. These are known primarily from a finely-copied score and set of parts which Bach sent to the Margrave of Brandenburg in 1721, perhaps as a kind of job-application (the previous year he had competed for a prestigious organ-position in the city of Hamburg, so we know he was looking). But he did not compose all of them at that time. Some were revisions works from the Weimar years, like the First, Third, and Sixth; and the others (Second, Fourth, and Fifth) came from earlier during his employment in Cöthen. We know that the Third Concerto dates from Weimar because a copy made by one of Bach s students in Leipzig from a score that Bach must have kept in his possession bears a note to that effect, undoubtedly copied from the master s score, or else recording one of his verbal comments. The Third is a highly complex and marvelous piece in having a nine-part string ensemble three violins, three violas, and three cellos over the continuo-bass (violone and harpsichord). At times the three three-part ensembles play in dialogue with each other, and at times one part in each plays a solo which is passed to the corresponding part of the other ensemble. It has also the unusual feature of a second movement which consists of only two chords. Some performers insist that Bach intended for nothing more than the two chords to be played, just as they are (they argue that Bach took great care in the other concertos in the set to write out everything just as he intended it to be heard); others believe that it is to be filled in by an improvised cadenza by one of the leaders in the orchestra. The Fifth Brandenburg, on the other hand, is undoubtedly the last of the six to be composed. It uses the most modern instrumentation of the group: it is the first piece by Bach to use the transverse flute instead of

6 its vertical cousin (the recorder), and it is the first concerto by any composer for a keyboard soloist. At first the harpsichord seems just a part of the solo-ensemble of flute, violin, and harpsichord; but as the first movement progresses, the keyboard dominates the textures more and more until all the other instruments fade away and leave the keyboard with a tremendous cadenza. The second movement uses only the three soloists, with the harpsichord sometimes acting as the basso-continuo in a trio-sonata, but sometimes contributing a fourth voice (violin, flute, plus a third melody played by the harpsichordist s right hand, over the fourth part, a bass line played by the left hand). It seems almost certain that Bach composed this piece in 1719, when he delivered back to Cöthen a new harpsichord of two manuals just completed by the Berlin-based builder Michael Mietke, as a test and a celebration of the new instrument. Cantata no. 82, Ich habe genug, was composed in 1727 for the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary (2 February). It is based on a passage from the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke, relating an incident when Mary and Joseph took the infant Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem to present him to the Lord in accordance with the Law of Moses. They met there an old man named Simeon who had been told in a prophecy that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah. When he saw the baby Jesus, Simeon recognized that the prophecy was fulfilled in him, and he sang the song that has since become known as the Nunc dimittis ( Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. ). The cantata leads us through Simeon s reactions and, by extension, our own upon seeing the Redeemer, through a series of three arias separated by two recitatives: the first aria centers on Simeon s weariness, the second is a kind of lullaby for himself, and the last a dance-like rejoicing. Unlike almost all of Bach s cantatas, this one does not use any Lutheran hymn-tune, neither as a cantus-firmus in any movement nor a harmonized chorale as the final movement. Daniel Pyle

7 Embellish A Melody! Bach Club ($ ) Handel Club ($ ) An anonymous donor Donald N. Broughton & Susan L. Olson An anonymous donor Dr. & Mrs. William P. Marks, Jr. An anonymous donor Dr. George Riordan & Karen Clarke Cathy Callaway Adams Dr. & Mrs. David Bright Telemann Club ($ ) Peter & Pat DeWitt Tom & Joan Althouse Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta John & Linda Austin Janie R. Hicks Mr. & Mrs. Roger S. Austin Martha J. R. Hsu Beth Bell & Stephen Morris Douglas A. Leonard Mr. & Mrs. Roy B. Bogue William E. Pearson III Stratton H. Bull Lois Z. Pyle Susan K. Card Dr. & Mrs. Eckhart Richter Moncure and Sandy Crowder Donald E. Snyder Jeffrey & Martha Freeman Larry Thorpe & Dr. Barbara Williams Dr. Alan Goodman Susan Wagner Dymples E. Hammer Suzanne W. Howe Vivaldi Club ($ ) Mr. & Mrs. Allan R. Jones Anne P. Halliwell Virginia Ware Killorin Dr. & Mrs. Ephraim R. McLean Hans & Christa Krause Daniel Pyle & Catherine Bull Rich & Caroline Nuckolls Mary Roth Riordan Rebecca M. Pyle Hans & JoAnn Schwantje Season Sponsors ($2,500 or more) Anonymous Donor Anonymous Donor Peter & Pat DeWitt Janie R. Hicks William E. Pearson III Lois Z. Pyle Donald Snyder Larry Thorpe & Dr. Barbara Williams The Atlanta Baroque Orchestra would like to thank the following persons and establishments For contributing their time, talents, and energy in regard to the details of ABO concerts. Atlanta Early Music Alliance (AEMA) Janice Joyce & Chris Robinson Janie Hicks Peter and Pat DeWitt Peachtree Road United Methodist Church: Scott Atchison and Camilla Cruikshank Eckhart & Rosemary Richter Russell Williamson Valerie Prebys Arsenault Sid & Linda Stapleton Susan Wagner Linda Bernard & RyeType Design Cathy Adams & The Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta The ABO would also like to acknowledge the several thousand dollars worth of rehearsal time that has been graciously given to the orchestra by its members. These concerts could not be given without their enthusiasm and support. President: Eckhart Richter Vice President: William E. Pearson III Vice President for Development: Janie Hicks Secretary: Susan Wagner Treasurer: Peter DeWitt Resident Director: Daniel Pyle ABO Board of Directors Cathy Adams Dr. Alan Goodman Janice Joyce Ephraim McLean Melanie Punter Larry Thorpe

8 Come Hear our last Concert of the season! 11 May 2008, 3:00 pm Classical Chamber Music for Strings and Winds Haydn: String Quartet op. 77 no. 2; Feld-Parthie in F Mozart: Divertimenti nos. 12 & 13 for Wind Sextet sponsored by Peter & Patricia DeWitt Visit our new web-site at These concerts are made possible in part by a gift from Pro-Mozart Society of Atlanta Presents Jennifer Stumm, viola Sunday 6 April 2008, 7:00 pm Northside Drive Baptist Church (chapel) 3600 Northside Drive NW