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Main Concert Series at Unity Church - 4 | The Sonata Project - 2:Sonatas from the High Baroque:
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 Concert Details |
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Alexander Weimann 18th-century double-manual harpsichord
Marc Destrubé violin
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Friday, January 8, 2010 | |
| Pre-Concert Introduction at 7:15 | Concert at 8:00 pm | ||
| Unity Church | ||
| 5840 Oak Street (at West 42nd Avenue) | directions |
for information on Ticket Prices and Seating Plans.
Tickets for each concert at $33 (students & seniors $3 discount) are also available by phone from the office of Early Music Vancouver, and also from Sikora’s Classical Records, from Kestrel Books, or from Tickets Tonight (surcharges apply): 604 684-2787 or www.ticketstonight.ca.
Rush Seats for Students with valid ID on sale for $10, at the door only, from 7:00 pm on the evening of the concert.
This concert is included in our “Bring a Youth for Free” programme.
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Special Offer for Dinner at Shaughnessy Restaurant at VanDusen Garden: |
| Programme |
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The Sonata Project 2:
Sonatas from the High Baroque: Johann Sebastian Bach
J.S. Bach (1685 – 1750):
Sonata in C minor for violin and obbligato harpsichord, BWV 1017 (Cöthen, c 1720)
Siciliano: Largo
Allegro
Adagio
Allegro
Sonata in G Major for violin and obbligato harpsichord, BWV 1019 (Cöthen, c 1720)
Allegro
Largo
Allegro
Adagio
Allegro
i n t e r v a l
Suite in A Major for harpsichord and violin, BWV 1025,
after the Sonata 47 in A major by Silvius Leopold Weiss (Leipzig, c 1740)
Fantasia
Entrée
Courante
Rondeau
Sarabande
Menuett
Allegro
– programme subject to changes
| Programme Notes |
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This series of four concerts rather arbitrarily traces the violin sonata from its origins in the early 17th century through to the later 19th century, with an attempt, also somewhat arbitrary, to match choice of instruments and performing practice to the music being played.
Sonata is a term that originally simply described a sounding piece, from sonare, to sound, rather than a sung one (a cantata). Later on it came to mean a piece for a small instrumental ensemble e.g. a trio sonata, and still later the term was also applied to a particular form in music – sonata form – which became one of the most common musical forms and was used and continues to be used in instrumental music of all shapes and sizes. The first movements of many classical and romantic symphonies, string quartets, and indeed instrumental sonatas are in sonata form.
The earliest sonatas were short instrumental pieces, often comprising several movements (movement in this case in the literal sense of changing tempo, not separate stand-alone sections as in later music), and many early sonatas didn’t specify instrumentation but only number of players, or, in the case of a solo sonata (meaning for one instrument and continuo) would be titled ‘a soprano solo’, meaning to be played by any treble instrument, usually recorder, cornetto or violin. Likewise, the continuo instruments were rarely specified, although some scores specify ‘a violone o organo’, meaning with a bowed bass instrument or keyboard.
In the first programme on this series, we heard some of the earliest music written specifically for violin with keyboard, and traced the development of the sonata through baroque Italy, Germany and France, including a sonata by Mondonville who, like Bach in the sonatas we hear tonight, gave the harpsichord an ‘obliged’ part for both hands rather than leaving the keyboardist to realize a continuo line. Unlike Bach, he gave the violin a somewhat secondary role; this idea of the new primary role of the keyboard continued well through the 18th century, as indicated somewhat absurdly by the fact that Beethoven’s Op. 12 sonatas were first published as Sonate per il clavicembalo o forte piano con un violino. By the time of the composition of the sonatas of Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms the instruments’ equal roles were obvious.
Bach’s music for obbligato harpsichord and violin
The six sonatas for harpsichord and violin, BWV 1014 – 1019, represent one of J.S. Bach’s most important compositional innovations: the transformation of the baroque solo sonata and trio sonata, the two most prevalent chamber music forms of the baroque, into what became known later as the ‘duo sonata’, music for two equal instruments (instead of a solo instrument with an accompanying basso continuo). In fact what Bach really did is write trio sonatas for two instruments i.e. the upper voice of the harpsichord part replaced the second ‘solo’ voice of the trio. (In case this has already confused you, trio sonatas are often performed by four people, with a second instrument, usually cello or viola da gamba, doubling the bass line played by the left hand of the harpsichordist).
The importance of Bach’s sonatas for violin and harpsichord, not only for their innovative aspect, is underscored by the note which Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach wrote to accompany a parcel of music which he sent in 1774 to his father’s biographer Johann Forkel: “"The six clavier trios are among the best works by my beloved father. They still sound excellent and give me much pleasure, even though over 50 years have passed." In Forkel’s listing of Bach’s works, he placed these sonatas (and he calls them trios although they are for two instruments) at the top of the list of chamber music and harpsichord concertos, noting that they were composed in Cöthen and could be “considered as Bach’s first masterpieces in this field”. Writes Albert Schweitzer of these sonatas: “Bach’s sonatas, like Beethoven’s, depict soul-states and inner experiences, but with force in the place of passion. Whether he is sunk in sorrow or in mystical dreams, Bach always recovers himself in a compact fugal finale”.
Although the sonata in c minor, BWV 1017, follows the typical four movement slow-fast-slow-fast pattern of the baroque sonata, it begins with something quite surprising, and very beautiful: a mournful Siciliano which closely resembles in both rhythm and character the later aria, Erbarme dich, from Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. The other slow movement is also most unusual and suggests a much later musical style, with its triplet figure in the harpsichord, against a serene dotted figure in the violin (should they match?). In one manuscript Bach even gives the violin and the two harpsichord parts different time signatures! The second movement is one of the most dense and intense; the final movement may be what led one rather verbose commentator to write: “The second element of the sonatas is a fugue whose strict polyphony exacts the utmost in violin consistency and occasionally almost overtaxes the capabilities of the instrument with the logic of polyphonic line play”. Perhaps the above-mentioned Forkel said it better, and certainly more simply: “The violin part requires a master”.
The G major sonata, BWV 1019, broke sharply with the traditional mould, beginning with a bright allegro very much in Bach’s concerto style, not surprising as his time in Cöthen, free of church duties, was also the time of the composition of the Brandenburg concertos and the two well-known violin concertos, as well as that for two violins, along with many other instrumental works. This sonata, after a number of reworkings including one with six movements, only reached its final version later in Leipzig, two of the movements from the earlier version being transformed into movements of a solo harpsichord suite. The final version has a wonderful symmetrical form, with the central place belonging to a magical movement for solo harpsichord; was Bach wanting to emphasize the harpsichord’s transformation from accompanying continuo instrument to prominent partner?
The Suite in A major, BWV 1025, intrigued Bach scholars for many years. Although it exists in Bach’s hand and that of his sons, it remained a stylistic anomaly in his chamber music output, and appears rarely on concert programmes. It was not until 1991 that a lutenist studying at the Schola Cantorum in Basel observed that the harpsichord part almost exactly matched a suite by Bach’s contemporary and lute virtuoso, Sylvius Leopld Weiss, considered the finest lutenist of all time and also a prolific composer - he wrote some 600 pieces for his instrument. At this point one can only guess at the genesis of this unusual piece, but it is known that Weiss paid a visit to Leipzig in 1739, along with Bach’s son Wilhelm Friedemann, and that during the visit “extra special” music was heard in the Bach household. “We heard some very fine music when my cousin from Dresden came to stay for four weeks, together with the famous lute-player Mr. Weiss”, wrote Bach’s nephew and secretary Johann Elias Bach. Weiss, who was considered almost the equal of Bach in improvisation skills, is said to have challenged Bach to an improvisation contest. Is it possible that this Suite in A Major was the result of that meeting, Bach perhaps showing off his skill by adding an improvised violin part to Weiss’ suite, which he later noted down, adding an introductory Fantazia of his own? Even more curiously, the end of this Fantasia morphs into an excerpt from a different suite by Weiss… Whatever its history, this suite by Weiss and Bach remains a beautiful and very effective piece which is, like so much of Bach’s music, a great deal more than the sum of its parts.
| The Artists |
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Alexander Weimann 18th-century double-manual harpsichord
Alexander Weimann is one of the most sought-after ensemble directors, soloists, and chamber music partners of his generation. He has traveled the world as a member of the ensemble Tragicomedia; as a frequent guest of ensembles such as Les Boréades, Cantus Cölln, Freiburger Barockorchester, Tafelmusik, and the Gesualdo Consort; and as musical director of Les Voix Baroques and Le Nouvel Opéra.
During the 2008 season he led the Portland Baroque Orchestra in Handel's Messiah, conducted the Pacific Baroque Orchestra on a tour of Canada and the USA, and performed Bach's Harpsichord Concertos as soloist with Les Violons du Roy. Both the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra regularly invite him to play as soloist.
After working as an assistant conductor at the Amsterdam, Basel, and Hamburg opera houses, he directed his own productions of Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona with the Freiburger Barockorchester; Pepusch's Beggar's Opera at the Palace Theatre in Gotha; Handel's Orlando Furioso at the Teamtheater in Munich; Telemann's Passion oratorio Seliges Erwägen at the Europäischen Wochen (European weeks) festival at Passau; the parody opera Capriole d' Amore at the 2004 Händelfestspielen in Halle; Caldara's Clodoveo (in 2005) and the multipart opera event Mozart à Milano (in 2006), both of which were Canadian-German co-productions mounted at festivals in Montreal and Vancouver, and at the Sanssouci Palace Theatre in Berlin; and, for the Vancouver Early Music Festival, Handel's Resurrection (in 2007), and Rameau's Pygmalion (in 2008).
Weimann can be heard on some 100 CDs and, frequently, on the radio in many countries. He made his North American recording debut with the ensemble Tragicomedia on the CD Capritio (Harmonia Mundi USA), and won worldwide acclaim from both the public and critics for his 2001 release of Handel's Gloria (on the Canadian label Atma Classique).
Volume 1 of his recordings of the complete keyboard works by Alessandro Scarlatti appeared in May 2005. Critics around the world unanimously praised it, and in the following year it was nominated for an Opus prize as the best Canadian early-music recording. Volumes 2 and 3 of the complete Scarlatti works will be released shortly. In 2007, his recording of Buxtehude's Membra Jesu with the Montreal-based ensemble Les Voix Baroques won an Opus prize, and was nominated for a Juno Classic Award. In 2007 he directed Caldara's oratorio Clodoveo, and both conducted and performed as fortepiano soloist with the German ensemble Echo du Danube in the first recording of concertos by Wagenseil. In 2008 he added to his solo outings by recording Bach's Clavierübung II. He also released a CD of Handel oratorios with the celebrated soprano Karina Gauvin.
Weimann was born in 1965 in Munich, where he studied the organ, church music, musicology (his M.A. thesis was on Bach's recitatives), theatre, medieval Latin, and jazz piano. He was supported by the Bavarian Radio Council, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and a Cusanuswerk grant for the highly talented. In addition to his studies, he has attended numerous master classes in harpsichord and historical performance. To ground himself further in the roots of western music, he became intensively involved, over the course of several years, with Gregorian chant. In 1997, his group Le Nuove Musiche won first prize at the Premio Bonporti music competition in Rovereto. From 1990 to 1995, Weimann taught music theory, improvisation, and jazz at the Munich Musikhochschule. Since 1998, he has been giving master classes in harpsichord and historical performance practice at institutions such as Lunds University in Malmö and the Bremen Musikhochschule, and also at North American universities such as Berkeley (University of California), Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, McGill in Montreal, and Mount Allison in New Brunswick. Since 2007 he has been conducted the opera production at the Amherst Early Music Festival. For several years, he has been teaching early music performance practice to voice and instrumental students at the Université de Montréal, as well as conducting the Baroque opera that is produced there once every two years (the 2007 production was of Monteverdi's Poppea). Singers of note, such as those with the Atélier Lyrique Montréal and other opera studios, seek his services as a vocal coach.
Recently, Alexander Weimann has returned to jazz; he has played piano on several CDs, and in a video clip for CBC Showcase. After some years in Berlin, he now spends as much time as possible with his family — which so far includes two children as well as several pets — in his adopted home, Montreal, and is active in both his kitchen and his garden.
Marc Destrubé violin
A native of Victoria, Marc Destrubé is equally at home as a soloist, chamber musician, concertmaster or director/conductor of orchestras and divides his time between performances of the standard repertoire, particularly music of the 20th century, on modern instruments, and performing baroque and classical music on period instruments.
He has appeared as soloist and guest director with symphony orchestras in Victoria, Windsor and Halifax as well as with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Lyra Baroque and Portland Baroque Orchestra, and he led the Belgian ensemble Anima Eterna in acclaimed recordings of the complete Mozart Piano Concerti with Jos van Immerseel. A founding member of the Tafelmusik Orchestra, he has appeared with many of the leading period-instrument orchestras in North America and Europe including as guest concertmaster of the Academy of Ancient Music and of the Hanover Band.
He is first violinist with the Axelrod String Quartet, quartet-in-residence at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., where the quartet plays on the museum’s exceptional collection of Stradivari and Amati instruments. He has also performed and recorded with L’Archibudelli (Vera Beths, Jurgen Küssmaul, Anner Bijlsma) and is a member of the Turning Point Ensemble in Vancouver specializing in 20th century music and new music.
As a concertmaster he has played under Sir Simon Rattle, Kent Nagano, Helmuth Rilling, Christopher Hogwood, Philippe Herreweghe, Gustav Leonhardt and Frans Brüggen. He is co-concertmaster of Brüggen’s Orchestra of the 18th Century with whom he has toured the major concert halls and festivals of Europe, North America, Japan and Australia, and most recently directing the orchestra for two concerts at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. He was concertmaster of the CBC Radio Orchestra from 1996 to 2002, and of the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra.
He was artistic director of the Pacific Baroque Orchestra from its founding in 1991 until 2007, and was responsible for commissioning works for the orchestra from a number of Vancouver-based composers, as well as instigating other innovative projects such as a program of French baroque and First Nations dance and music. He has also directed several Modern Baroque Opera productions, including the premiere of Peter Hannan’s 120 Songs for the Marquis de Sade .
A highly-respected teacher, he gives annual classes at international academies in Mateus (Portugal) and Vancouver. He has also been an invited teacher at the Paris, Moscow and Utrecht Conservatoires and at Indiana University and the Macphail School, and has presented children’s concerts at the Cité de la Musique (Paris).
His recording of Haydn Violin Concertos on the ATMA label has been praised by the Strad Magazine (London) for the “stylish solo playing..., individual yet unselfconscious” and by Whole Note Magazine (Toronto) for its “bold and daring solo playing”. He has also recorded for Sony, EMI, Teldec, Channel Classics, Hänssler, Globe and CBC Records as well as being broadcast regularly on the CBC.
He lives in West Vancouver with his wife and two children.