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Haydn and His WorldChamber music from the early classical era
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Joseph Haydn playing quartets (Anonymous, ca. 1790), detail
 Concert Details and Ticket Information |
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Friday evening, 27 January 2012 |  in cooperation with
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| Pre-Concert Introduction at 7:15 | Concert at 8:00 pm | |||||
| Christ Church Cathedral | |||||
| 690 Burrard at West Georgia, downtown Vancouver | directions | |||||
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Sunday matinée, 29 January 2012 | iin cooperation with the  |
Kay Meek Series proudly sponsored by  |
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| Pre-Concert Introduction at 2:15 | Concert at 3:00 pm | |||||
| Kay Meek Centre - Studio Theatre | |||||
| 1700 Mathers Avenue. West Vancouver | directions | |||||
Friday evening performance at Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver:
for information on Ticket Prices and Seating Plans.
Tickets for this performance at $35 (students & seniors $3 discount) can be ordered on-line via our secure connection.
These ticket prices include 12% HST.They can also be ordered by phone (604 732-1610) from the office of Early Music Vancouver. Tickets are also available at Sikora’s Classical Records.
Rush Seats for Students with valid ID on sale for $10, at the door only, from 7:00 pm on the evening of the performance.
This concert is included in our “Bring a Youth for Free” programme.
< click on this logo for Chirst Church Cathedral’s listing of this Early Music Vancouver concert
Sunday matinée performance at the Kay Meek Studio Theatre in West Vancouver:
Tickets for this concert at $35 (adult) or $32 (student/senior), are only available from the Kay Meek Centre Box Office: 604 913-3634 or www.kaymeekcentre.com.
Rush Seats for Students with valid ID on sale for $10, at the door only, from 2:00 pm on the afternoon of the concert.
This concert is included in our “Bring a Youth for Free” programme.
Marc Destrubé introduces this programme at the West Vancouver Memorial Library,
as part of the Kay Meek Centre lecture series “Offstage” sponsored by Pacific Arbour Retirement Communities
Monday, January 23 at 10:30 am - admission free
Welsh Hall, West Vancouver Memorial Library (1950 Marine Drive):
Marc Destrubé: “Uncovering the hidden gems of Haydn”
Clyde Mitchell, hostKay Meek Centre is on the road and in the community: once again we have partnered with West Vancouver Memorial Library to bring you an informal series of talks and demonstrations. This free event will be approximately 50 minutes and will include an opportunity to ask questions and meet the speakers.
For more information please call the Kay Meek Centre box office at 604-913-3634.
| Programme |
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Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809):
Divertimento in G Major
for flute, violin and cello, Hob. IV:7 (1784)
Allegro
Adagio
Finale: Allegro
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827):
Serenade in D Major
for flute, violin and viola, Op.25 (1796)
Entrata: Allegro
Tempo ordinario di un minuetto
Allegro molto
Andante con variazioni
Allegro scherzando e vivace
Adagio - Allegro vivace disinvolto
i n t e r v a l
Franz Joseph Haydn:
Divertimento in C Major
for flute, violin and cello, Hob. IV:1 (1784)
Allegro moderato
Andante
Finale: Presto
Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805):
Tercettino in A Major
for violin, viola and cello, Op.47, No.1 (1793)
Allegretto moderato
Tempo di Minuetto. Amoroso
W.A. Mozart (1756-1791):
Quartet in D Major
for flute, violin, viola and cello, K.285 (1778)
Allegro
Adagio
Rondeau: Allegretto
– programme subject to changes
| Programme Notes |
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Joseph Haydn spent the early part of his career in the employ of the Esterházy family, mostly at their estate in Eisenstadt, and producing music for performance at court. Largely isolated from other composers and musical trends, he was, as he said, “forced to become original”. We now know him as the ‘father’ of the symphony and the string quartet, as well as having had an important role in the development of the piano trio and of sonata form. His influence on later composers cannot be underestimated: aside from his direct influence on his younger friend Mozart and his pupil Beethoven, he was perhaps the first composer to acknowledge (albeit only late in life when fame and fortune allowed it) that his music might last, and that secular music could have a function beyond mere entertainment. Eighteenth century music’s intention was to speak to the listener, to delight, surprise and amuse.
In fact, while we know Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven primarily for their great and serious works, these composers also wrote a great deal of music of a lighter nature, variously called divertimenti, serenades, or notturni (or Nachtmusik).
Following its original Italian meaning, ‘divertimento’ is generally understood, first, to denote a work primarily designed for the entertainment of the listeners and the players, without excluding the possibility of high artistic achievement, such as is found in divertimentos by Haydn, Boccherini and Mozart. Second, a divertimento could serve as background music for some social gathering such as a conversazione or a banquet. H.C. Koch (1802) defined the divertimento as follows: it normally had solo instrumentation; it was neither polyphonic nor extensively developed like the sonata; it was intended to please the ear rather than express different shades of emotion; historically it stood between the parthia and the quartet or quintet. This meaning seems to have crystallized about 1780; before then the term was more variously applied, but almost exclusively to music for solo instruments. Historically, then, it denoted ‘a solo work’ rather than ‘a diverting work’. [Grove Music Online]
In fact one of Mozart’s most complex and difficult chamber music works is his Eb Major Divertimento for string trio.
Haydn wrote over 200 divertimentos, of which 126 were for a trio of baryton (a bowed instrument of the viol family, with sympathetic plucked metal strings), viola and cello. His set of Divertimenti for flute, violin and cello are in part based on some of these baryton trios as well as on arias and other music from his opera “Il mondo della luna” (“The World on the Moon”). They are his first pieces of chamber music to specifically require the flute. They were published at a time when Haydn’s situation as a composer had developed significantly: in 1779 a change in his contract allowed him to publish works without the authorization of his employer, and this led him to write in “a new and completely special way” (as he announced with the publication of his Opus 33 string quartets in 1781).
“Boccherini is the wife of Haydn”, wrote the violinist Puppo, giving us the sense of a composer who used musical materials and forms similar to Haydn’s, but with added ‘perfume’. Boccherini, a native of Lucca in Italy, was a virtuoso cellist and he greatly expanded the range of composition for the cello. After spending time in Paris, he spent the larger part of his life in the employ of the Spanish court, and much of his music is imbued with a Spanish flavour. A prolific composer, he wrote over seventy string trios (most for two violins and cello). The Op. 47 set were composed in 1793 as a gift to King Frederick William of Prussia, an amateur cellist. Something in the nature of his music, the way in which ‘atmosphere’ plays an essential part in the soundscape, demands the particular quality of the instruments of his time to bring out its essential character, and it is perhaps for this reason that his music until recently did not receive the attention it deserves.
Mozart wrote the first two of his three flute quartets during a winter spent in Mannheim. The motivation was purely financial: he was commissioned by a rich amateur flute player by the name of Ferdinand De Jean, a surgeon with the Dutch East India Company. The first of the three, in D Major, was completed on Christmas Day in 1777, and despite his claim to his father that he found the task distasteful, writing for an instrument he could not stand, it is one of his most charming chamber works. The slow movement, with plucked strings accompanying a troubadour-like flute melody, is particularly captivating. Beethoven borrowed from the first movement for his Duo for clarinet and bassoon of 1792.
Beethoven too seems to have avoided writing for the flute, and his Op. 25 Serenade is his only substantial chamber work for the instrument. Although it was common at that time to play string quartets with a flute replacing the first violin, Beethoven wrote for the unusual and combination of flute, violin and viola, perhaps to accentuate the light-hearted aspect of the piece. This serenade is one of the last 18th century divertimento-like works, as changing musical attitudes and social conditions led to its disappearance as a form, only to reappear in the 20th century with important works by Bartok and Stravinsky among others. The last movement of Beethoven’s Serenade contains directions which sum up the character of many divertimenti: Allegro vivace e disinvolto, literally Cheerful lively and casual.
| The Artists |
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Soile Stratkauskas classical flute
Finnish-born flautist Soile Stratkauskas (née Pylkkönen) found her passion in the pure and eloquent sound of the wooden flute. As a soloist, orchestral and chamber musician, her performance on early flutes ranges from Bach to Tchaikovsky. Soile started her flute studies at the Conservatory of Joensuu, Finland. Already as a high school student, Soile played regularly with the Joensuu City Orchestra. She completed her education in the UK, first at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and then at the Royal Academy of Music, where she studied early flutes with Lisa Beznosiuk and gained her Master’s Degree with distinction. To deepen her knowledge of Classical and Romantic performance practice Soile took part in the Jeune Orchestre Atlantique/Advanced Study Programme in Saintes, France, with Rachel Brown as her instrumental tutor.
Soile has played with many prominent period instrument orchestras in the UK, including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Gabrieli Consort & Players and has toured Europe with these groups. With her chamber ensemble ‘The Four Temperaments‘ she was awarded the Leverhulme Chamber Music Junior Fellowship in 2007-2008 and has performed in various festivals including the London Handel Festival, Saintes Festival in France and Musica Antigua in Barcelona. Soile is also passionate about bringing early music to her home region, North Karelia in Finland, where she has performed as a soloist and with her group ’Les Ombres’ supported by grants from the Finnish Cultural Fund, and in January 2010 gave a masterclass on historical performance practice at the Conservatory of Joensuu.
Soile has recently moved to Canada and is now based in Victoria, with her husband David, who is the Music Director at St John the Divine Church. She is quickly establishing herself in the West Coast early music scene, and her appearances include a concert with soprano Nancy Argenta, as part of the Early Music Society of the Islands concert series, and a recital at the University of British Columbia with harpsichordist Christopher Bagan. Soile is also the founder of the new period instrument ensemble, Victoria Baroque Players. When not playing her flute, Soile can be found hiking, biking, swimming and singing.
Marc Destrubé violin
Canadian violinist Marc Destrubé is equally at home as a soloist, chamber musician, concertmaster or director of orchestras and divides his time between performances of the standard repertoire 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. He is first violinist with the Axelrod String Quartet, quartet-in-residence at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., a member of the Turning Point Ensemble in Vancouver specializing in 20th century music and new music, and first violinist of the newly-formed string quartet Microcosmos. He is also co-concertmaster of the Orchestra of the 18th Century (Amsterdam) with whom he has toured the major concert halls and festivals of Europe, North America, Japan, China and Australia, including as soloist and leader. He was artistic director of the Pacific Baroque Orchestra from its founding in 1991 until 2007. He is a frequent guest on the Early Music Vancouver concert series.
A highly-respected teacher, he gives annual classes at international academies in Vancouver and Oberlin and has been an invited teacher at the Paris, Moscow and Utrecht Conservatoires, Indiana University, Case Western University, the University of Victoria and the Macphail School. He lives in Vancouver.
Steve Creswell viola
Steve Creswell inclines towards the more imaginative slopes of the classical spectrum: early/historical performance music, and contemporary music. His youthful studies took him to Indiana University and the Curtis Institute, in Philadelphia. Mr. Creswell has had the privilege of working with many great musicians, including Anner Bylsma, Mstislav Rostropovich, Gustav Leonhardt, Abraham Skernick, and the Guarneri and Juilliard Quartets. He currently performs with the Northwest Sinfonietta, Seattle New Music Ensemble, and the baroque orchestras of Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver, B.C.
Steve Creswell teaches as Adjunct Professor of Violin at Seattle University, is a member of the Annas Bay Musicians group, and frequently acts as concertmaster for the Seattle Choral Company and Seattle Pro Musica. In the past summers, he has performed chamber music at Cascade Early Music Festival in Leavenworth with flutist Jeffrey Cohan, historical guitarist Oleg Timofeyev, gamba player Susie Napper, and lutenist/leader Stephen Stubbs. This season in Seattle, Mr. Creswell will present several contemporary music recitals, in addition to resuming his Walk to Bach series after a two children hiatus.
Joanna Blendulf cello
Joanna Blendulf, baroque cellist, has performed as soloist and continuo player in leading period-instrument ensembles throughout the United States. Ms. Blendulf holds performance degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Indiana University, where she studied with Stanley Ritchie, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi and Alan Harris. In 1998, she was awarded the prestigious Performer's Certificate for her accomplishments on baroque cello from Indiana University. Ms. Blendulf was a principal cellist of The New World Symphony under Michael Tilson-Thomas and has also performed with the Atlanta Symphony. She is currently performing with the Portland and Indianapolis Baroque Orchestras and American Bach Soloists and has also been a member of Apollo's Fire Baroque Orchestra, the New York Collegium and Musica Angelica. Ms. Blendulf is also an active chamber musician, touring with American Baroque, Mirable, Musica Pacifica, Reconstruction, and the Streicher Trio. She was named runner-up in the 2000 Early Music America/Dorian Competition for her recording of the complete cello sonatas of Jean Zewalt Triemer. Ms. Blendulf's summer engagements have included performances at the Bloomington, Boston, Berkeley Early Music Festivals, the Aspen Music Festival as well as the Carmel Bach Festival.