American Bach Soloists 2014 Festival & Academy Program Booklet

2014

Jeffrey Thomas Artistic Director

July 11 – 20, 2014 at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Rediscover the avant-garde artists of 19th-century France with a selection of intimately scaled Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, whose charm and fluency invite close scrutiny. This celebration of fleeting moments and personal places includes still lifes, portraits, and landscapes

by Manet, Monet, Renoir, Gauguin, Morisot, Degas, Pissarro, and Van Gogh.

F i n A l W e e k S ! C lo S e S AU G U ST 3 This exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Director’s Circle: William K. Bowes, Jr. Foundation.

President’s Circle: Bank of America, Clare C. McEvoy Charitable Remainder Unitrust and Jay D. McEvoy Trust, and Diane B. Wilsey. Conservator’s Circle: Mrs. George F. Jewett. Benefactor’s Circle: Christie’s, The Estate of Harriet E. Lang, Shirley Liebhaber, Anne G. McWilliams, The Selz Foundation, Inc., and The Wurzel Trust. Patron’s Circle: Sonja and Bill Davidow, Rajnikant and Helen Desai, Mr. and Mrs. William Hamilton, Greta R. Pofcher, Mary Barbara and Andrea Schultz, and David A. Wollenberg. Community Partners: Ghirardelli Chocolate Company and La Boulange.

MARCH 29—AUGUST 3, 2014

Director’s Circle

Lincoln Park • legionofhonor.org

President’s Circle

Media Sponsors

Berthe Morisot, The Artist’s Sister at a Window (detail), 1869. Oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection

Welcome from the Music Director What was Bach’s Inspiration?

Luckily, we know a great deal about Bach’s professional life, and his personal life, as well. This is not always the case with many composers from the Baroque era and, even though much Bachiana is rather anecdotal, a wealth of preserved communications in the form of letters and dedicatory prefaces reveal many of Bach’s professional and artistic ambitions.

Bach’s enterprising determination to more than satisfy the requirements of all of his various work environments certainly inspired the plentiful abundance of his output.

While the actual quantity of compositions by Bach is not particularly exceptional compared to others from the era—for example, although Bach composed some 300 sacred cantatas, his slightly senior colleague, Georg Philipp Telemann, composed more than a thousand—a significant part of the motivation behind some of Bach’s prolificacy (by modern day standards) was his pursuit of better opportunities, better working conditions, and a better income that would support his large family and establish for them a nest egg that would serve as a future legacy. Sadly, this last goal was never fully realized. Although a few of Bach’s sons went on to successful careers, Bach’s second wife, Anna Magdalena, was left to care for two daughters and one stepdaughter: She survived Bach by ten years, but died a pauper, having existed mainly on charity.

JEFFREY THOMAS

Artistic & Music Director

Considering Bach’s artistic inspiration, devotees of all sorts have been intrigued by the challenges of defining—or rather, generalizing—Bach’s modus operandi. Was Bach an artisan (i.e. a craftsman) or a creative genius? Was his music the culmination of a tradition or did it represent innovation? A fascinating perspective from which we can try to discover the inner motivations for Bach’s approach to composition and compositional styles was suggested by one of his biographers, Albert Schweitzer, who defined Bach as an “objective” artist­—one whose impulse is “to express again what he already finds in existence, but to express it definitely, in unique perfection”—rather than a “subjective” artist whose “work is almost independent of the epoch in which they live.” In other words, and continuing with Schweitzer’s words, Bach felt “no inner compulsion to open out new paths.” Rather he sought to perfect the techniques of his predecessors and colleagues.

It was that intense admiration and reverence that he felt for his forbears—even his veneration of them—that inspired Bach most of all. He was born to a family that, for many generations, had been considered as a sort of royalty. A more recent biographer, Christoph Wolff, points out that in Thuringia, the area of Germany in which they lived, “the family name Bach had become nearly synonymous with musician.” Their music and virtuosity was held in such high esteem that Bach, as a young boy, felt the same admiration for his older family members, and even for his own siblings. Later in life, he would frequently perform works by them for services held at his various places of employment, and his appreciation for, and utilization of older styles and techniques of composition such as stile antico (literally, “ancient style”) would find their way into many of his compositions. Additionally, he frequently and quite ravenously turned to examples of contemporary styles, as found in the works of Vivaldi and others, as inspiration for his desire to polish and perfect the craft of his ancestors to which he devoted his life with a passion that we simply cannot imagine.

I am glad that you are here to join us as we imagine ourselves joining Bach in front of a looking glass, seeing the reflection of his heritage and of the inestimable value of his work ethic and contributions to our world that have inspired us so greatly in return.

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Contents

San Francisco’s Summer Bach Festival • Festival Sponsors • Anonymous (2) Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation The E. Nakamichi Foundation Welcome from the Music Director About the Festival Festival Schedule A Message from the Executive Director Academy Founders & Sponsors About American Bach Soloists Board of Directors, Advisory Council, Founders, & Staff American Bach Soloists & American Bach Choir Rosters ABS Academy Participants Artist & Academy Faculty Biographies 2014/15 - Our 26th Season American Bach Soloists Discography ABS Gala: A Red Carpet Evening ABS Gift Shop Become an American Bach Soloists Donor Contributors & Acknowledgments

1 4 5 7 9 10 11 13 14 15 20 22 40 50 59 60

• Concert Programs • Bach’s Inspiration I 23 Bach’s Inspiration II 31 Bach’s Mass in B Minor 38 Academy-in-Action Concerts 44 Handel’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato 45 Distinguished Artist Series: Mary Wilson, soprano 53

AMERICAN BACH SOLOISTS 44 Page Street, Suite 403 • San Francisco CA 94102-5975 americanbach.org • info@americanbach.org Tel: (415) 621-7900 • Fax: (415) 621-7920 @americanbach

americanbach

americanbachsoloists

The American Bach Soloists are Artists-in-Residence at St. Stephen’s Church, Belvedere.

Program Notes by Jeffrey Thomas, except where indicated otherwise. © 2014 American Bach Soloists. All rights reserved.

Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

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About the Festival Festival Events

Academy Events

Tracing the influences of Italian, French, and North German composers on Johann Sebastian Bach’s music, the 2014 American Bach Soloists Festival & Academy will feature works by Vivaldi, Pergolesi, Buxtehude, and Bach’s forebears.

The American Bach Soloists Academy— the educational component of the ABS Summer Bach Festival—offers advanced conservatory-level students and emerging professionals unique opportunities to study and perform Baroque music in a multi-disciplinary learning environment.

Musical delights and discoveries will fill the days and nights of the 2014 Festival.

From celebrated masterworks for full orchestra, choir, and vocal soloists to intimate instrumental works, there will be something for everyone to enjoy.

Masterworks Series

Jeffrey Thomas directs the American Bach Soloists, the American Bach Choir, and the Academy Orchestra and Soloists in annual performances of Bach’s Mass in B Minor, large-scale instrumental and vocal works, and concerts of Baroque oratorio and opera.

Distinguished Artist Series

These concerts feature performances by acclaimed early music specialists.

Within the framework of a solo recital, instrumentalists and singers will present works with orchestral accompaniment in programs built around themes of cultures, places, or events in history.

View the Schedule & Reserve Tickets Online americanbach.org/tickets

Academy-In-Action

Academy participants are featured exclusively in three evenings of Academyin-Action Concerts offering chamber vocal and instrumental works by Baroque masters.

Public Colloquia

Annual engaging forums for performers and audience members alike explore a variety of topics centered on historical, artistic, and practical considerations of performing Baroque music today. (Free)

Lecture Series

Join the members of the American Bach Soloists Academy for a series of enlightening and informative public lectures presented by the Academy faculty on a wide range of subjects centered on Festival themes. (Free)

Master Class Series

The ABS Academy opens its doors to the public to witness the artistic transformations that make Master Classes so tremendously exciting as performers and their master teachers share their knowledge and insights. (Free)

Call the Festival Box Office (415) 621-7900

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Festival Schedule Friday July 11 2014

Wednesday July 16 2014

5:00 p.m. Opening Night Dinner

3:00 p.m. Master Class Series Violin & Viola (Free)

8:00 p.m. Bach’s Inspiration - Part I The first of two different programs of works by composers who inspired Bach including Johann Christoph Bach, Dieterich Buxtehude, Johann Kuhnau, Frederick the Great, and Alessandro Marcello. Also on the program is Johann Sebastian Bach’s transcription of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater.

Saturday July 12 2014 2:30 p.m. Public Colloquium: Baroque Instruments and Performers, Then and Now: Creating a New Fusion of Styles and Tastes Join Academy faculty and participants as they explore the national styles of instrument building and performance practice that made the Baroque era an always-evolving melting pot of musical flavors and cultures. Three 45-minute sessions of lively discussions will address the ultimate artistic decisions and rationalizations that must be made by modern-day performers as they seek to combine scholarship with our own contemporary concert circumstances and expectations. (Free) 8:00 p.m. Bach’s Inspiration - Part II The second of two different programs of works by composers who inspired Bach including Nicolaus Bruhns, Dieterich Buxtehude, Georg Melchior Hoffmann, and Johann Adam Reincken. Also on the program is Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major and the trio sonata from The Musical Offering.

Sunday July 13 2014 7:00 p.m. Bach’s Mass in B Minor The composition that many call the greatest musical work of all time will be performed by the ABS Academy Orchestra, the American Bach Choir, and soloists from the Academy, conducted by ABS Music Director Jeffrey Thomas.

5:00 p.m. Lecture Series: Robert Mealy The Presence of the Past: Bach’s Relations to his Musical Ancestors (Free) 8:00 p.m. Academy-in-Action Concert Performances by members of the 2014 Academy of chamber works including Telemann’s Völker Ouverture in B-flat Major and works by Bach, Buxtehude, Erlebach, Handel, and Telemann.

Thursday July 17 2014 3:00 p.m. Master Class Series Violoncello, Viola da gamba, Violone, and Contrabass (Free) 5:00 p.m. Lecture Series: Corey Jamason Postmodern Bach: French and Italian Styles Absorbed, Transformed, and Made Entirely New (Free)

Friday July 18 2014 3:00 p.m. Master Class Series Winds & Brass (Free) 5:00 p.m. Lecture Series: Jeffrey Thomas All Things in Moderation: A Look at Handel’s Oratorio Texts from Dryden, Hamilton, Jennens, & Milton (Free) 8:00 p.m. Handel’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato The utterly sublime oratorio set to words by one of England’s preeminent writers, John Milton, whose poems about the joyful man (“L’Allegro”) and contemplative man (“Il Penseroso”) inspired Handel to new heights of humanist expression. Performed by instrumentalists and singers from the 2014 Academy, a lavish panoply of more than 30 arias and choruses is an exquisite musical delight.

Saturday July 19 2014 Monday July 14 2014 8:00 p.m. Academy-in-Action Concert Performances by members of the 2014 Academy of chamber works by Bach, Boismortier, Heinichen, Legrenzi, Lotti, Luzzaschi, Monteverdi, and Steffani.

3:00 p.m. Master Class Series Voice (Free) 5:00 p.m. Lecture Series: Debra Nagy Musical and Dramatic Performances of the Passion Story — Before Bach (Free)

Tuesday July 15 2014

8:00 p.m. Distinguished Artist Series Mary Wilson, soprano

3:00 p.m. Master Class Series Harpsichord (Free)

Sunday July 20 2014

5:00 p.m. Lecture Series: Kenneth Slowik Bach: “The Greatest Musical Orator That Ever Existed” (Free) 8:00 p.m. Academy-in-Action Concert Performances by members of the 2014 Academy of chamber works including Bach’s Concerto for 3 Harpsichords and works

by Bach, Janitsch, Scarlatti, Telemann, and Young.

2:00 p.m. Bach’s Mass in B Minor The 2014 Festival concludes with a second performance of Bach’s monumental testament to his life’s work under the direction of Jeffrey Thomas. Fanfare Magazine wrote that “Thomas’ direction seems just right, capturing the humanity of the music…there is no higher praise for Bach performance.”

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Great music is here to stay.

Listen, read and learn.

• • • • • • • •

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“the choral singing was magnificent—the sound beguiling”

Splendor at VerSailleS october 17–19, 2014

Baroque music from the Royal courts by Dumont, Charpentier, and others

chriStmaS in Germany december 5–7, 2014 Music for the Nativity from the Renaissance to the 20th century

J.S. bach early cantataS February 27–march 1, 2015

BWV 4, 131, 50, and 182

an italian lineaGe april 24–26, 2015

Music by Carissimi, Scarlatti, Schütz, and Verdi

Fridays at 8 pm — San Francisco · Saturdays at 8 pm — Palo Alto · Sundays at 4 pm — Berkeley

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A Message from the Executive Director Welcome to the 5th annual American Bach Soloists Festival & Academy. These concerts, as well as public lectures and master classes, draw to a close a year of splendid celebrations of our organization’s twenty-fifth year.

Looking forward, we recognize that advocacy is deeply rooted in both the creation and sustenance of ABS. From its beginnings at St. Stephen’s Church, Belvedere, to its performances in Hong Kong and Singapore, ABS has always been at the forefront of historically informed performance practice. In 1989, a group of America’s foremost baroque specialists gathered to perform the music of Bach and, recognizing a need to present this music to the world with stylistic perfection, ABS was born. The core mission of ABS is to champion the music of Bach and his contemporaries through live performances, recordings, and education and outreach initiatives. Over the course of twenty-five years, ABS has introduced this music to thousands upon thousands of listeners who have responded with accolades and appreciation for the musicians of ABS and conductor Jeffrey Thomas. In its June 2014 issue, Opera News said it best, “Jeffrey Thomas draws crisp, vital playing from the ace baroque instrumentalists of American Bach Soloists, who provide galvanizing vigor but also caress the gut strings of their period instruments with unusual beauty.”

DON SCOTT CARPENTER Executive Director

ABS has burgeoned and matured over its first twenty-five years and it is now at the tipping point of its next era of significant growth. We are establishing both a cash reserve and a special endowment to support the Academy in order to create a completely tuition-free program, allowing access to the most promising young virtuosi, regardless of their financial abilities. We are actively increasing our presence in additional communities; and we are building the infrastructure to support an annual touring schedule as a way of sharing our artistic endeavors with even more concertgoers. As an advocate for ABS, you share in the success of our first twenty-five years and you become the voice of our next.

ABS’s mission also declares its dedication to education. It has been over 35 years since California voters approved the passage of Proposition 13, which cut local tax revenues for public schools and virtually eliminated arts programs. With the overwhelming success of our Academy, it is time for us to expand our support of elementary and secondary arts education in order to ensure that we are training and encouraging future generations about the arts, in all of its forms, and with a special focus on baroque music. These in-school, after-school, and young artist-in-training programs, will allow ABS to draw upon our own musicians as teachers and mentors.

We—all of us—are the caretakers of our cultural heritage. The future of the arts has been placed in our hands. By presenting the finest concerts, creating arts education opportunities, pressing our government officials to support the arts, and by raising awareness and, yes, the vital financial support to sustain these initiatives, we create a future for the arts that allows future generations to share what we have come to appreciate and to treasure.

Be an advocate for ABS by sharing your concert experience with a friend. I truly hope that you are enriched by our Festival & Academy.

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Love it LIVE! begins on Saturday, September 13, 2 014 with our second

Waterfront Pops outdoor concert — Hooray for Hollywood — movie music classics including music from Apollo 13, Braveheart,

Titanic, Gone with the Wind, Lord

M A R I N SY M P HONY ALASDA IR NE ALE

PRESENTS

Love it LIVE! 14/15 S E A S O N

of the Rings, Spiderman and many more... with a fireworks finale!

Virtuoso cellist Zuill Bailey returns as the soloist for our first Masterworks concerts, French Reverie, on September 28 and 30, 2 014.

Our season finale is the world premiere of Star Trek in Concert on Saturday, June 6, 2 015.

14 /15 Season subscriptions and

Waterfront Pops Concert tickets are on sale now. Single tickets for all concerts available August 1, 2 014.

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marinsymphony.org/LoveitLIVE

| MUS IC DIRECTOR

Academy Founders & Sponsors 2014 ACADEMY SPONSORS Festival Concert Sponsor ($5,000 and above) John & Lois Crowe Judith Flynn Academy Scholarship ($2,500-$4,999) Jose & Carol Alonso Kwei & Michele Ü Academy Sponsor ($1,000-$2,499) Richard & Sharon Boyer Tom Flesher & Adam Verret Jan Goldberg Daniel & Valerie King Steven Lehning William Lokke Blair Martin James R. Meehan Ezra & Carol Mersey Fraser & Helen Muirhead Paul & Sandra Ogden Peter & Asiye Sonnen (Gifts up to $999) Raymond Carter David Cates & Cheryl Sumsion Carolyn Green Marie Hogan & Douglas Lutgen James & Joan Kelly Bridger & Katherine Mitchell ACADEMY FOUNDERS Jose & Carol Alonso Richard J. & Sharon Boyer Lisa Capaldini David Cates J.P. Crametz & Tamar Ravid John & Lois Crowe Silvia Davidson Hugh Davies & Kaneez Munjee Tom Driscoll & Nancy Quinn Richard G. Fabian Tom Flesher & Adam Verret Judith Flynn Richard Forde & David Foushee Jan Goldberg Benjamin & Lynette Hart James & Joan Kelly James R. Meehan Fraser & Helen Muirhead Paul & Sandra Ogden Virginia Patterson Peter & Asiye Sonnen Fred Stark & Roman Shi Jim & Jennifer Steelquist Jeffrey Thomas Kwei & Michele Ü

The American Bach Soloists ACADEMY FOUNDERS & SPONSORS represent the San Francisco Bay Area arts community’s most culturally responsible patrons who are excited to provide uniquely challenging and artistically productive educational experiences to the world’s next generation of professional musicians specializing in the timeless repertoire of the Baroque era and, in particular, the music of Bach and his contemporaries. We are exceedingly grateful for their support and commitment to the Academy.

SUPPORT THE ACADEMY Whether your passion is for the Arts, Education, or Early Music in particular, your investment in the careers of the most promising young artists from conservatories and professional studios around the globe will help ensure the future of great music from the Baroque that has inspired generations from all walks of life.

You can help us welcome next year’s roster of students by becoming an Academy Sponsor through your commitment of $1,000 in support. You can help us further—and bring much-needed scholarship funds to the program—by engaging your colleagues, associates, and friends to join you as Academy Sponsors.

American Bach Soloists Academy Sponsors will be acknowledged in Festival program booklets and enjoy the same perks and benefits as our annual donors. As a member of this essential and prestigious society, you will be invited to a special opening reception on the first day of the Academy to meet our students and faculty, and you will have first access to Priority Ticketing for all events.

Please call Don Scott Carpenter, ABS Executive Director, for information about how to become an Academy Sponsor: (415) 621-7900 extension 203.

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About American Bach Soloists

“Jeffrey Thomas draws crisp, vital playing from the ace baroque instrumentalists of American Bach Soloists, who provide galvanizing vigor but also caress the gut strings of their period instruments with unusual beauty.”

Joshua Rosenblum, Opera News, June 2014 The AMERICAN BACH SOLOISTS (“ABS”) were founded in 1989 with the mission of introducing contemporary audiences to the cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach through historically informed performances. Under the leadership of co-founder and Music Director Jeffrey Thomas, the ensemble has achieved its vision of assembling the world’s finest vocalists and period-instrument performers to bring this brilliant music to life.

include performances of major works, opera, and oratorio from the Baroque; Distinguished Artist Series; Academy-in-Action Concerts; free Lectures and Master Classes; and public Colloquia on a variety of topics. In addition to their regular subscription season, the American Bach Soloists have been presented at some of the world’s leading early music and chamber music festivals, and have appeared across the continent, in Europe, and in Asia.

For more than two decades, Jeffrey Thomas has brought thoughtful, meaningful, and informed perspectives to his performances as Artistic and Music Director of the American Bach Soloists. Recognized worldwide as one of the foremost interpreters of the music of Bach and the Baroque, he continues to inspire audiences and performers alike through his keen insights into the passions behind musical expression. Fanfare Magazine proclaimed that “Thomas’ direction seems just right, capturing the humanity of the music…there is no higher praise for Bach performance.”

ABS has been a leader throughout the Bay Area in its commitment to artistic collaborations. Some examples include a collaboration with two San Francisco dance organizations, Xeno and Ultra Gypsy, at The Crucible in Oakland in 2004 and collaborations with the well-known Mark Morris Dance Group in 2004 and 1999. To celebrate the 20th Anniversary Season, ABS presented a spectacular laser show featuring Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks in Grace Cathedral, and in 2012, ABS teamed up with the San Francisco Girls Chorus in a program titled “Vivaldi’s Venice.” During the 2013 ABS Festival & Academy, ABS presented the first North American performance of Heinrich Biber’s 53-part Missa Salisburgensis— the largest-scaled surviving work from the Baroque—with the composer’s full forces and instrumentation.

Critical acclaim has been extensive: The Washington Post named ABS “the best American specialists in early music…a flawless ensemble…a level of musical finesse one rarely encounters.”

San Francisco Classical Voice declared “there is nothing routine or settled about their work. Jeffrey Thomas is still pushing the musical Baroque envelope.” And the San Francisco Chronicle recently extolled the ensemble’s “divinely inspired singing.”

PERFORMANCES The American Bach Soloists present an annual Subscription Series with performances in Belvedere, Berkeley, Davis, and San Francisco. Their annual holiday performances of Handel’s Messiah— presented each December before capacity audiences since 1992—have become a Bay Area tradition. Each season culminates with the American Bach Soloists Festival & Academy, held every summer in July in the spectacular facilities of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Components of the Summer Bach Festival 10

HISTORY The first public concerts were given in February 1990 at St. Stephen’s Church in Belvedere, where the ensemble serves as Artists-in-Residence. The debut of ABS’s first annual summer festival in Tiburon/Belvedere took place in 1993. By the fifth season, regular performances had been inaugurated in San Francisco and Berkeley, and as a result of highly successful collaborations with the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, ABS’s full concert seasons expanded to the Davis/Sacramento region in 2005.

As the audience increased, so the artistic direction of the ensemble expanded to include Bach’s purely instrumental and larger choral masterpieces, as well as music of his contemporaries and that of the early Classical era.

About American Bach Soloists In 1998, in conjunction with the Fifth Biennial Berkeley Festival & Exhibition, ABS established the American Bach Soloists & Henry I. Goldberg International Young Artist Competition as a way to foster emerging musicians who wish to pursue a career in early music.

The Chorus of the American Bach Soloists has shone in repertoire from the Baroque and early Classical eras to works by living composers. With the inception of a Choral Series in 2004, these fine singers have been featured on programs exploring over five centuries of choral music. To acknowledge this splendid work, the American Bach Soloists announced in 2006 a new name for their choral ensemble: American Bach Choir. Critics have acclaimed their “sounds of remarkable transparency and body.”

In July 2010, the American Bach Soloists inaugurated North America’s newest annual professional training program in Historically Informed Performance Practice. Drawing on their distinguished roster of performers, the AMERICAN BACH SOLOISTS ACADEMY offers unique opportunities to advanced conservatorylevel students and emerging professionals to study and perform Baroque music in a multi-disciplinary learning environment. The Academy is held in the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s exquisite facilities in the heart of the city’s arts district.

In 2013, to commemorate ABS music director Jeffrey Thomas’s 25-year tenure of inspired leadership, the American Bach Soloists created the Jeffrey Thomas Award to honor, recognize, and encourage exceptionally gifted emerging professionals in the field of early music.

RECORDINGS The American Bach Soloists have a discography of nineteen titles on the Koch International Classics, Delos International, and American Bach Soloists labels, including six volumes of Bach cantatas, many performed one on a part. The ensemble’s

critically acclaimed disc of Bach’s Mass in B Minor has been called a benchmark recording and a “joyous new performance” (The Washington Post).

One of their most popular offerings is an historically significant version of Handel’s Messiah, recorded live during performances in 2004 at the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts at UC Davis, and released in November 2005 on the Delos International label.

In 2007, ABS’s entire catalogue—Bach’s Mass in B Minor, cantatas, and transcriptions of Italian music, Haydn Masses, choral and vocal works by Schütz, and other works—was re-released on iTunes, Magnatune.com, Amazon, CDBaby, and ABS’s own excellent and resourceful website, which features free streaming audio of most titles. The same year brought two new and much-anticipated releases: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos. The following release, 1685 & The Art of Ian Howell, features the remarkable countertenor (and winner of the ABS Young Artist Competition) in works by Bach, Handel, and Domenico Scarlatti. ABS’s newest recording features soprano Mary Wilson singing a collection of virtuoso vocal works by Handel, including his setting of the psalm, Laudate pueri Dominum, and the motet, Silete venti.

SUPPORT The American Bach Soloists have been recipients of major grants from Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, The Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation, The Charles Hosmer Morse Foundation, E. Nakamichi Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, The Bernard Osher Foundation, The Wallis Foundation, The AT&T Foundation Matching Gifts Program, The AXA Foundation Matching Gifts Program, Clorox Foundation, County of Marin, and The San Francisco Foundation. An administrative staff and Board of Directors support ABS’s activities as a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization.

“Leaving the church, several audience members were hugging each other.

This is clearly a close-knit community who is absolutely mad about American Bach Soloists.”

Maggee VanSpeybroeck, San Francisco Classical Voice

Board of Directors, Advisory Council, Founders, & Staff BOARD OF DIRECTORS

ADVISORY COUNCIL

FOUNDERS

STAFF

Hugh Davies President Angela Hilt Vice President Greg Madsen Secretary Richard J. Boyer Judith Flynn Marie Hogan James R. Meehan Blake Reinhardt

The Rt. Rev. Marc Andrus Irving Broido Karen Broido Corty Fengler Tom Flesher John Karl Hirten Corey Jamason Harvey Malloy Sandra M. Ogden Don Roth Peter Sonnen Kwei Ü Charles E. Wilts Elizabeth F. Wilts

Jeffrey Thomas Jeffrey Thomas Artistic & Music Director Jonathan Dimmock Richard H. Graff Don Scott Carpenter The Rev. & Mrs. Alvin S. Haag Executive Director Mr. & Mrs. Robert V. Kane Steven Lehning Dr. & Mrs. Paul C. Ogden Music Administrator Jeff McMillan

Executive Administrator

Lisa May

Patron Services Manager

Derek Tam

Education Coordinator

Philip Daley

Production Manager

E. J. Chavez Stage Crew

Camille Reed

Development Associate

Steven J. Spector Business Manager

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Sing with uS! Auditions to be held summer 2014 www.sfbach.org

AnnoUncinG the APPointMent oF DR. MAgEn SOLOMOn AS ArtiStic Director Bringing a wealth of experience with university, professional and community choirs and many years as an innovative teacher and conductor, she leads SFBc into an exciting new era!

www.sfbach.org 855- 4sf-bach (855-473-2224)

oin the choir for its 79th Season— concerts in october, December, March and May inspired choral singing and baroque eras

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music from the renaissance

rare early music gems and choral masterpieces

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world-class soloists and period-instrument orchestra

ng Comi ! ll this fa

nicholas mcgegan, music director

STEVEn iSSErliS, BoCChErini, and haYdn

October 8-12, 2014

andrEaS SCholl, BaCh, and handEl

November 5-9, 2014

ViValdi and ZElEnKa: a JoYoUS ChriSTmaS

December 3-7, 2014

with the Philharmonia Chorale

SUBSCRIBE FOR AS LITTLE AS $23 PER CONCERT! www.philharmonia.org/subscribe 12

American Bach Soloists & Their Instruments FLUTE

HORN

VIOLIN

VIOLA

Sandra Miller

Paul Avril

Elizabeth Blumenstock

Katherine Kyme

Roderick Cameron, Mendocino, California, 1986; after Thomas Cahusac, London, 1740.

Richard Seraphinoff, Bloomington, Indiana, 1997; copy of J. W. Haas, Nuremberg, early 18th century.

Andrea Guarneri, Cremona, 1660.

Anonymous, Germany, 18th century.

OBOE Loren Tayerle Debra Nagy Randall Cook, Basel, 2004; after Jonathan Bradbury, London, circa 1720.

RECORDER Louise Carslake Peter van der Poel, Bunnik, The Netherlands, 1998; after Jacob Denner, Nuremberg, early 18th century.

Judith Linsenberg Joachim Rohmer, Celle, Germany, 2011; after Thomas Stanesby, London, early 18th century.

Jean-Luc Boudreau, Blainville, Quebec, Canada, 2011; after Jacob Denner, Nuremberg, early 18th century.

Lowell Greer, Ypsilanti, Michigan, 1982; after anonymous German, circa 1750.

von Huene Workshop, Boston, Massachusetts 2002; after Thomas Stanesby, Jr., London, circa 1725.

Johann Gottlob Pfretzchner, Mittenwald, 1791.

John Thiessen

Tyler Lewis

Rainer Egger, Basel, 2004; after Leonhard Ehe III, Nuremberg, 1748.

Timothy Johnson, Hewitt, Texas, 2009; after Stradivari, Cremona, 18th century.

Robert Mealy Jason Viseltear, New York, New York, 2009; after Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù, Cremona, circa 1735.

Barbara Stanley, Clifton, England 1993, after I. H. Rottenburgh. The Netherlands, circa 1720.

ClioTilton Eric Lourme, Le Havre, France, 2009; after Brothers Amati, Cremona, 16th century.

William Skeen

Ken Slowik Anonymous, Germany or Milan, 1725.

Stephen Escher Frank Tomes, London, 1993, after Johann Leonhard Ehe III, Nuremburg, 1746.

VIOLONCELLO

Noah Strick Celia Bridges, Cologne, 1988; after Nicola Amati, circa 1640.

William Skeen Anonymous, The Netherlands, circa 1680.

Keavy Vanryne, London, 2003; after Johann Wilhelm Haas, Nuremberg, circa 1710-1720.

Lisa Weiss Gabriel David Buchstetter, Regensburg, 1769.

David Wilson

Anonymous, England, circa 1840.

Timothy Johnson, Hewitt, Texas, 2007; after Antonio Stradivari, Cremona, early 17th century.

HARPSICHORD

ORGAN

Corey Jamason

Corey Jamason

Kevin Fryer, San Francisco, California, 2011; after “Colmar” Ruckers, Antwerp, 1624.

John Brombaugh & Associates, Eugene, Oregon, 1980

Kent Reed

Daniel Deitch

Jay Haide, El Cerrito, California, 2008; after Giovanni Paolo Maggini, Brescia, circa 1580.

John Pringle, Efland, North Carolina, 2001; after William Addison, London, 1697.

Rainer Egger, Basel, 2005, after Leonhard Ehe III, Nuremburg, 1748.

BASSOON

Peter de Koningh, The Netherlands, 1986; copy of Thierriot Prudent, Paris, circa 1770.

Jason Pyszkowski

VIOLA DA GAMBA

Kathryn James Adduci

TIMPANI

Kate van Orden

Katherine Kyme

TRUMPET

William Harvey

Debra Nagy

The 1660 Andrea Guarneri violin played by Elizabeth Blumenstock is made available to her though the generosity of the Philharmonia Baroque Period Instrument Trust.

Ken Slowik Matthias Hummel, Nurnberg, 1708.

VIOLONE / CONTRABASS Steven Lehning Violone: John Pringle, Efland, North Carolina, 1992; after Ernst Busch, Nuremberg, circa 1640.

Violone grosso : Hammond Ashley Luthiers, Issaquah, Washington, 1977; after 17thcentury models.

Contrabass: Anonymous, Austria, circa 1830.

American Bach Choir SOPRANO I

SOPRANO II

ALTO

TENOR

BASS

Michelle Clair Tonia D’Amelio Rita Lilly Allison Lloyd Diana Pray

Jennifer Brody Cheryl Cain Meghan Spyker Amelia Triest Helene Zindarsian

James Apgar Daniel Cromeenes Ruth Escher Gabriela Estephanie Solis Heidi Waterman Celeste Winant

Edward Betts Matthew Curtis Michael Desnoyers Andrew Morgan Mark Mueller John Rouse

John Kendall Bailey Hugh Davies Thomas Hart Ben Johns Jefferson Packer Daniel Pickens-Jones Chad Runyon 13

Jeffrey Thomas & Corey Jamason, Co-Directors

Instrumentalists

TRUMPET Steven Marquardt – Burnsville, Minnesota

VIOLIN Suhashini Arulanandam – Mississauga, Ontario Salma Bachar – San Diego, California Cynthia K. Black – Dallas, Texas Alexis Brett – Toronto, Canada Alexa Cantalupo – Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Rebecca Cole – Fairview, Tennessee Addi Liu – San Francisco, California Francis Liu – West Windsor, New Jersey Andrew McIntosh – Los Angeles, California Augusta McKay Lodge – Oberlin, Ohio Lindsey Strand-Polyak – Santa Monica, California VIOLA Salwa Bachar – San Diego, California Ramón Negrón Pérez – Canóvanas, Puerto Rico Kim Mai Nguyen – Paris, France VIOLONCELLO Laura Gaynon – Palo Alto, California Michael Kaufman – Los Angeles, California Charlie Rasmussen – Walworth, Wisconsin Sarah Stone – Lake Forest Park, Washington J. Adam Young – San Francisco, California VIOLA DA GAMBA Joshua Keller – Memphis, Tennessee CONTRABASS / VIOLONE Shawn Alger – Woodland, California Daniel Turkos – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania FLUTE Alissa Roedig – Santa Cruz, California Joshua Romatowski – Dearborn, Michigan Kelly Roudabush – Raleigh, North Carolina Mara Winter – Olympia, Washington OBOE Glenda Dahle Bates – San Francisco, California David Dickey – Bowie, Maryland Joel Verkaik – Montréal, Quebec Bethan White – London, England BASSOON Nate Helgeson – Eugene, Oregon

HORN Sadie Glass – Manitowoc, Wisconsin HARPSICHORD / ORGAN Bryan Anderson – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Kyle Collins – Shongaloo, Louisiana Melissa Niemeyer – Saint Charles, Missouri Arthur Omura – Los Angeles, California Patrick Parker – Four Oaks, North Carolina John Steven Yeh – Hong Kong THEORBO Paul Holmes Morton – Strasburg, Pennsylvania

Vocalists SOPRANO Eliza Bagg – Brooklyn, New York Elise Figa – Randolph, New Jersey Hailey Fuqua – Boston, Massachusetts Fiona Gillespie – Williamsport, Pennsylvania Anna Gorbachyova – Yekaterinburg, Russia Molly Netter – Urbana, Illinois Elsa Nicol – Besançon, France MEZZO-SOPRANO Janna Elesia Critz – Charlotte, North Carolina Agnes Vojtko – Siófok, Hungary Raquel Winnica Young – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ALTO / COUNTERTENOR Nicholas Burns – Vancouver, British Columbia Daniel Cromeenes – San Francisco, California Travis Hewitt – Salt Lake City, Utah Min Sang Kim – Daegu, South Korea Gabriela Estephanie Solis – San Jose, California TENOR Mark Alexander Bonney – San Francisco, California Michael Jankosky – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Jason Rylander – Arlington, Virginia Corey Shotwell – Ionia, Michigan BASS Randall John Bunnell – Port Lavaca, Texas Ben Kazez – San Francisco, California David Rugger – Bloomington, Indiana

Faculty Elizabeth Blumenstock, violin & viola Max van Egmond, voice Corey Jamason, harpsichord Steven Lehning, violone & contrabass Judith Malafronte, voice Robert Mealy, violin & viola Sandra Miller, flute 14

Staff Debra Nagy, oboe & recorder William Sharp, voice William Skeen, violoncello Kenneth Slowik, viola da gamba & violoncello John Thiessen, trumpet Jeffrey Thomas, conductor

Jeff McMillan, Academy administrator Derek Tam, accompanist JungHae Kim, accompanist Michael Peterson, accompanist

Artist & Academy Faculty Biographies ELIZABETH BLUMENSTOCK (violin & viola) started playing the violin at age eight when her mother developed a crush on a fine local violinist. Their relationship did not pan out, but Elizabeth is still with the violin, despite brief affairs with some violas. She grew up listening to Baroque music at home: “It was the background music to my childhood. But then I heard these [Harnoncourt and Leonhardt] cantata recordings. I was blown away by the expressiveness and instrumental timbres. The music came alive.” Now widely admired as a baroque violinist of expressive eloquence and technical sparkle, she is a long-time concertmaster, soloist, and leader with the Bay Area’s American Bach Soloists and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and is concertmaster of the International Handel Festival in Göttingen, Germany. In Southern California, Ms Blumenstock is Music Director of the Corona del Mar Baroque Music Festival. Her love of chamber music has involved her in several accomplished and interesting smaller ensembles including Musica Pacifica, Galax Quartet, Ensemble Mirable, Live Oak Baroque, the Arcadian Academy, and Trio Galanterie.

She has appeared with period orchestras and chamber ensembles throughout the United States and abroad, and has performed for the Boston and Berkeley Early Music Festivals, Los Angeles Opera, the Carmel Bach Festival, the Oulunsalo Soi festival in Finland, and the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, among many others. With more than 95 titles in her discography, Ms Blumenstock has recorded for Harmonia Mundi, Deutsche Grammophon, Virgin Classics, Dorian, BMG, American Bach Soloists, Reference Recordings, Koch International, and Sono Luminus. An enthusiastic educator and mentor, Ms Blumenstock teaches at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the American Bach Soloists’ summer Festival and Academy, and the International Baroque Institute at Longy, with former appointments at the University of Southern California and the Austrian Baroque Academy, among others. When not concertizing or teaching, she plays Scrabble obsessively, and pieces quilt tops. She has ten of them now, none of which has been quilted.

DEREK CHESTER (tenor) had an early love for classical music that led him to a musical vocation as performer and pedagogue. He studied voice at the University of Georgia and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music.

As a recipient of a Fulbright scholarship, he spent a year in Germany working as a freelance musician and furthering his training with a focus on the music of Bach with acclaimed German tenor, Christoph Prégardien.

He obtained his Doctorate in Voice Performance and Opera Studies from the University of North Texas, with a dissertation on the juvenile song compositions of Samuel Barber, while also building his reputation as an acclaimed oratorio specialist and raising a new family.

Recent concert appearances include a reconstruction of Bach’s St. Markus Passion with Barokksolistene of Norway; Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 with Boston Baroque; Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis at the Berkshire Choral Festival; and Britten’s War Requiem with the Korean Broadcasting System Symphony Orchestra. He sang the Evangelist in the acclaimed 2006 recording of Bach’s St. John Passion (1725 version) on the ReZound label under the baton of Simon Carrington. He is frequently featured as a guest soloist with American Bach Soloists, Seraphic Fire, and Conspirare. After seven seasons of appearances with ABS, Mr. Chester considers it an honor to have performed all of the

major Bach vocal works under the baton of Jeffrey Thomas. He is a featured soloist at the Staunton Music Festival and the Colorado Bach Festival. He currently lives with his wife, son, and two daughters in Greeley, Colorado where he serves as Assistant Professor of Voice at the University of Northern Colorado.

MAX van EGMOND (bass-baritone) was born in 1936, on the isle of Java (Netherlands East Indies, at the time). After World War II, he completed his education and musical studies in the Netherlands. He became a member of the Nederlandse Bachvereniging (Dutch Bach Society) at the age of eighteen. In 1959 (three years after his friend and compatriot, Elly Ameling) he became one of the prizewinners at the ‘s‑Hertogenbosch Vocal competition. He took prizes also in Brussels (1959) and Munich (1964) competitions. Those prizes marked the beginning of his full-time career as a singer of oratorio, lieder, and baroque opera. He achieved his greatest fame as an interpreter of J. S. Bach’s cantatas, masses, and passions, and from 1965 participated in complete recordings and performances of these masterpieces with conductors Gustav Leonhardt, Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Frans Brüggen. His recordings “Songs of the Baroque Era” and Monteverdi’s “Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda” (both Telefunken/Decca) were awarded the prestigious Edison Award recognizing outstanding achievements in the music industry. In more recent years, Mr. van Egmond has participated in recordings of the great Schubert Cycles (MusicaOmnia) and “La bonne chanson” by Fauré (Channel Classics). Following four decades of performing, he is now much in demand for workshops and master classes around the world, including annual visits to Mateus, Portugal for 21 years and the Baroque Performance Institute at Oberlin, Ohio for 32 years. In 2012, McGill University, Montreal, awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in Music. His concerts, recordings, and many prominent students all provide eloquent testimony not only to his expertise in all areas of the vocal repertoire, but also to his great kindness and humanity in the service of music.

COREY JAMASON (harpsichord & Academy CoDirector) was born in New York City and developed a fascination with baroque music as a young piano student growing up in Puerto Rico and Florida. He was introduced to the harpsichord by Anthony Newman while an undergraduate student at SUNY Purchase and then pursued further studies in early music at Yale University and at the Early Music Institute at Indiana University. His fascination with historically informed performance and a love of American musical theater and vaudeville led him and his colleague Eric Davis to create Theatre Comique, an ensemble specializing in reviving late nineteenth and early 20th-century American musical theater in historically informed performances. He has performed the Goldberg Variations and the Well-Tempered Clavier throughout the United States and his playing of Bach was described in the Los Angeles Times as displaying “the careful, due balance of objective detachment and lofty passion.” From 2007 to 2014 he was artistic director of the San Francisco Bach Choir. Nominated for a GRAMMY® award, his recent recordings include performances with American Bach Soloists, violinist Gilles Apap, recorder player Astrid Andersson, and El Mundo. He is a contributing author to History of Performance, published in 2012 by Cambridge University Press and is currently preparing an article on the performance practice of early 20th-century musical 15

Artist & Academy Faculty Biographies theater for Oxford Handbooks Online. He joined the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory in 2001 where he is director of the school’s historical performance program and professor of harpsichord. Mr. Jamason has enjoyed working with a variety of ensembles, appearing frequently with American Bach Soloists, with whom he is principal keyboardist, as well as a variety of other groups such as the San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Opera, Philharmonia Baroque, Musica Angelica, Camerata Pacifica, Yale Spectrum, and El Mundo.

ERIC JURENAS (countertenor) grew up outside Washington, D.C. where his youthful ambition was to be a jazz drummer and perform with big bands. His musical focus shifted after he began playing piano and joined his high school chorus as a bass. Not really thinking things through, he applied to music school and, after some trials and tribulations as a baritone at the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) at the University of Cincinnati, he made the switch to countertenor. He has since appeared as a featured soloist with numerous groups, including The Santa Fe Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Opera Philadelphia, Wolf Trap Opera, The Dayton Philharmonic, American Bach Soloists, Colorado Bach Ensemble, Calvin College Choirs, Kentucky Bach Choir, and the Bel Canto Chorus of Milwaukee, among others. A proponent of new music for countertenors, he covered David Daniels in the title role of a newly commissioned opera, Oscar, with Santa Fe Opera in 2013 and will repeat the assignment in 2015 for Opera Philadelphia. An alumnus of the American Bach Soloists Academy (class of 2011), he has been featured in many ABS performances including Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s Magnificat during the 2013-14 season. Other recent performances include St. Matthew Passion with Simon Carrington at the University of Northern Colorado and with Juilliard415 at Alice Tulley Hall, John Adam’s El Niño at Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and Tolomeo in Handel’s Giulio Cesare for Wolf Trap Opera. He resides in New York City, and is pursuing a Masters degree at The Juilliard School.

STEVEN LEHNING (violone & contrabass) was attending Pacific Lutheran University as an undergraduate when he stumbled upon a used book store that had a nearly complete collection of the Bach-Gesellschaft edition of Bach Cantatas in mini-score; each for only a nickel!

Finding these while taking a class in Lutheran theology set him on a trajectory that prepared him to eventually become one of the founding members of the American Bach Soloists. A remarkable and versatile musician who is equally at home with violas da gamba, violones, contrabass, and historical keyboards, he has worked with many of the luminaries of the early music world including Jeffrey Thomas, John Butt, Andrew Parrott, and Ton Koopman. He has performed at the acclaimed Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, as well as the Early Music Festivals in Boston and Berkeley. After finishing his undergraduate degree and while waiting to see what performances might come his way, he worked as an apprentice learning the art of French bread and pastry. Always curious about the entirety of the world in which the music he plays came from, he dove into many aspects of early music. In addition to performing with ABS, he is their librarian, and tunes harpsichords and organs for rehearsals and performances. On the scholarship side, he has pursued graduate studies 16

in musicology at the University of California (Davis).

Mr. Lehning has recorded on the American Bach Soloists, Delos, EMI, Harmonia Mundi, and Koch Labels.

JUDITH MALAFRONTE (mezzo-soprano) was born in Stratford, Connecticut and attended American Shakespeare Theater rehearsals and performances as a toddler and believed everyone was in a play or, in some way, involved backstage in theater. Since pursuing her path as a performer, she has appeared with Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, the San Francisco Symphony, the St. Louis and Baltimore Symphonies, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, and the Handel and Haydn Society.

She has sung at the Tanglewood Festival, the Boston Early Music Festival, and the Utrecht Early Music Festival, and is a frequent guest artist with the American Bach Soloists, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, The Harp Consort, and the medieval vocal ensemble Bicinium, which she cofounded with Drew Minter in 2004. Her operatic performances have included the title role in Handel’s Serse at the Göttingen Festival, Scarlatti’s L’Aldimiro at the Berkeley Festival, Dido and Aeneas with Mark Morris Dance Group (singing both Dido and the Sorceress), the title role of Handel’s Ariodante at the Spoleto USA Festival, and Nero in Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea for the Aston Magna Festival.

She holds degrees with honors from Vassar College and Stanford University, and pursued post-graduate studies at the Eastman School of Music, with Mlle.

Nadia Boulanger in Paris, and with Giulietta Simionato in Milan as a Fulbright scholar. She has recorded a wide range of repertoire, from the 12th-century chant of Hildegard von Bingen to the Deutsche Motette of Richard Strauss, including Handel operas, Bach cantatas, the St. Matthew Passion, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with American Bach Soloists, medieval music, and Spanish 17th-century music. Ms Malafronte’s writings on music have appeared in Opera News, Early Music America, Stagebill, Schwann Inside, and Opus. She is a faculty member at Yale University where she teaches, among other courses, a freshman seminar she created on Shakespeare and Music.

ROBERT MEALY (violin & viola) first began exploring early music as a teenager in Berkeley. He joined the UC Collegium Musicum in high school, working with Alan Curtis and Philip Brett; at 16 he spent a formative year studying in London, where he performed with the baroque orchestra of the Royal College of Music.

While still an undergraduate at Harvard he was asked to join Tafelmusik, with whom he toured and recorded for eight years. He then moved to Europe to work with Les Arts Florissants; he also played frequently with Sequentia, with whom he toured the world performing Hildegard. He directed the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra for over a decade, and then led the Yale Collegium for many years; he remains Professor of Early Music at the Yale School of Music. In 2009, he joined the faculty of the new Historical Performance program at the Juilliard School, and became Director of the program in 2012. A devoted chamber musician, he loves to play with his friends in Quicksilver, which has received much critical acclaim in many festival appearances. He cofounded the medieval ensemble Fortune’s Wheel, which performed throughout the United States and in Mexico, and played for years with the King’s Noyse. Mr. Mealy regularly appears as a soloist and concertmaster in New York City, where he leads

Artist & Academy Faculty Biographies the GRAMMY®-nominated orchestra of Trinity Wall Street in their weekly performances of Bach cantatas.

As Orchestra Director of the Boston Early Music Festival, he has led this distinguished ensemble since 2004 in many festival operas, tours, and recordings. He has made over 80 CDs, and still very much likes to practice.

SANDRA MILLER (flute) had an early fascination with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach that ultimately led her to the baroque flauto traverso, upon which she is widely regarded to be one of the finest performers of her generation. Trained at the North Carolina School of the Arts and the Curtis Institute of Music in the conservatory curriculum traditional for woodwind players, she chose—instead of the path leading to membership in a symphony orchestra—to settle in New York City, where she leads an active musical life, appearing in a variety of chamber music performances, solo recitals, and orchestral concerts. Ms Miller was winner of the Concert Artists Guild Competition, the Erwin Bodky Competition for Early Music, and of a Solo Recitalist’s Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She is frequently invited to perform and record with many well-known period-instrument ensembles, touring throughout the United States and in Canada, South America, Europe and Asia. For many years Professor (now Emerita) of Music at the Purchase College Conservatory of Music (SUNY), Ms Miller has also taught at the Mannes College of Music, in CUNY’s doctoral program, at the New England Conservatory of Music, and as Kulas Visiting Artist at Case Western Reserve University. She currently serves on the faculty of the Historical Performance Program at the Juilliard School of Music. Her solo recordings include the complete Bach flute sonatas and, on six- and eight-keyed classical flutes, the three Mozart concertos.

DEBRA NAGY (oboe & recorder) was once worried she’d be spending an entire summer in a windowless basement repairing pianos at the Oberlin Conservatory so her teacher suggested she attend an early music workshop, offering, “Even if you hate it and never want to play baroque oboe again, it will help your modern playing.” Hearing Bach’s Christmas Oratorio on period instruments for the first time, she knew that early music could be her vocation. Debra has been praised for her “dazzling technique and soulful expressiveness,” (Rocky Mountain News), and deemed “a baroque oboist of consummate taste and expressivity” (Cleveland Plain Dealer). She performs with baroque ensembles and orchestras on both coasts including American Bach Soloists, Portland and Seattle’s Baroque Orchestras, Tempesta di Mare, REBEL, Apollo’s Fire, Musica Pacifica, and many others. Debra was the first-prize winner in the 2002 American Bach Soloists Young Artist Competition, is the director of Les Délices (whose debut recording was named “One of the Top Ten Early Music Discoveries of 2009”), and performs fifteenth-century music on shawms and recorders as a member of Ciaramella.

She directs the Collegium Musicum and teaches Medieval & Renaissance Notation at Case Western Reserve University (where she earned her doctorate), and completed undergraduate and master’s degrees at the Oberlin Conservatory with additional studies at the Amsterdam Conservatory. Ms Nagy makes her home in Cleveland, OH, which awarded her a 2010 Creative Workforce Fellowship (generously funded by Cuyahoga Arts & Culture). She is also an unabashed foodie and loves commuting by bike from her home in Cleveland’s historic Ohio City neighborhood.

WILLIAM SHARP (baritone) was a teenager when he became interested in medieval and renaissance music, Bach, Romantic Lieder and mélodie, and contemporary music. His highly inclusive musical diet as a young man laid the foundation for a career as a leading performer and educator of musical styles spanning 900 years, from the 12th century to today. His first professional solo performance was in Bach’s St. John Passion, 40 years ago.

He left doctoral studies at the Eastman School of Music to join a leading early music ensemble and performed hundreds of concerts. His expertise in art song led to his winning the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, the Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition, and the Geneva International Music Competition. He has performed as a soloist throughout the US and abroad, including a sold-out solo recital in Carnegie Hall. He was nominated for a GRAMMY® award for Best Classical Vocal Performance for his recording featuring the works of American composers such as Virgil Thomson, John Musto, and Lee Hoiby in 1989 and his recording of Leonard Bernstein’s last major work, Arias and Barcarolles, won a GRAMMY® Award in 1990. He is profoundly grateful for the career that he has enjoyed, consisting of innumerable concerts and recordings, operatic engagements in Baroque and contemporary works, and teaching, which has long been central to his musical life. He currently serves on the voice faculty of Peabody Conservatory of Music of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Mr. Sharp is proud of his association with American Bach Soloists, a collaboration which began twenty-five years ago during the inaugural season. Along with being a featured soloist at ABS concerts, he has appeared on their recordings of Bach cantatas, the St. Matthew Passion, the Mass in B Minor, and Handel’s Messiah.

WILLIAM SKEEN (violoncello and viola da gamba) had little incentive to practice cello as a young man growing up in tropical South Florida. He overcame the acute lack of arts culture in his surroundings when he found chamber music partners among a community of retired 1930s orchestra musicians in Miami Beach. Today, he is Principal Cellist with American Bach Soloists, Musica Angelica, and Co-Principal Cellist with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. He has also appeared as solo cellist with the Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle baroque orchestras and is a frequent continuo cellist for opera companies including Chicago Opera and San Diego Opera. He is Co-Founder of the New Esterházy Quartet, whose repertoire includes over 150 string quartets performed exclusively on gut strings. Mr. Skeen performs with several leading early music ensembles including Aeris, El Mundo, Galanterie, Agave Baroque, Philharmonia Chamber Players, Pacific MusicWorks in Seattle, Portland Baroque Orchestra, and Bach Collegium San Diego. In addition to his busy schedule as a period instrument specialist, Mr. Skeen also serves as associate principal cellist of the Stockton Symphony and was, for seven seasons, a member of the Carmel Bach Festival orchestra. He has appeared on over 80 recordings for Koch, Delos, BIS, Hannsler, Sono Luminus, and Pandore records. Since 2000, Mr. Skeen has been a faculty member of the University of Southern California where he teaches baroque cello and viola da gamba.

KENNETH SLOWIK (violoncello & viola da gamba) built his first harpsichord from a kit at age twelve in order to indulge his love of Bach and the English virginalists.

Artistic Director of the Smithsonian Chamber Music 17

Fridays in Palo Alto

·

Saturdays in Berkeley

November 21/22/23, 2014 EAST OF THE RIVER—Levantera Daphna Mor and Nina Stern, recorder, ney & chalumeau; Tamer Pinarbasi, kanun; Jesse Kotansky, violin; Shane Shanahan, percussion

December 19/20/21, 2014 MAGNIFICAT, Warren Stewart, Director—Cavalli, Mass for Christmas

Clara Rottsolk and Jennifer Paulino, soprano; Andrew Rader and Clifton Massey, alto; Christopher LeCluyse, and Dan Hutchings, tenor; Peter Becker, bass; Rob Diggins and Jolianne von Einem, violin; Richard Van Hessel and Mack Ramsey, sackbut; John Dornenburg, violone; Yuko Tanaka, organ

·

Sundays in San Francisco

March 27/28/29, 2015 ARTIFICE—Resonance of Salzburg: Biber, Vlismayr, Muffat

Cynthia Freivogel, violin; Tekla Cunningham, violin & viola d’amore; Katherine Heater, harpsichord; Daniel Zuluaga, lute, guitar & theorbo; Elizabeth Reed, cello & viola da gamba

April 10/11/12, 2015 ENSEMBLE MIRABLE WITH MARION VERBRUGGEN —La Primavera: the Spring of the Italian Baroque

JungHae Kim, harpsichord; Elizabeth Blumenstock and Katherine Kyme, violin; Joanna Blendulf, viola da gamba; Kevin Cooper, baroque guitar; with guest artist Marion Verbruggen, recorder

January 16/17/18, 2015 PALLADE MUSICA—A mio modo: Stile Moderno to Stylus Phantasticus Tanya LaPerrière, violin; Elinor Frey, viola da gamba; Estaban La Rotta, theorbo; Mylène Bélanger, harpsichord & organ

February 20/21/22, 2015 DARKHORSE—The (Un)Broken Consort: The Marriage of Voice and Brass in 17th-century Germany

Jolle Greenleaf and Molly Quinn, soprano; Kiri Tollaksen and Alex Opsahl, cornetto; Greg Ingles, Erik Schmalz and Mack Ramsey, sackbut; Ian Pritchard, keyboard

Advertise your business or organization in our program booklets during our 2014-2015 Season Reach a discerning audience of informed and passionate music lovers

Artists and programs subject to change.

Tickets go on sale June 15, 2014

510-528-1725 P.O. BOx 10151, Berkeley, CA 94709 www.sfems.Org

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Artist & Academy Faculty Biographies Society since 1985, he initially established his reputation as a cellist and viola da gamba player through his work with the Smithsonian Chamber Players, Castle Trio, Smithson String Quartet, Axelrod Quartet, and with the Amsterdam-based ensemble L’Archibudelli. Conductor of the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra since 1988, he led the Santa Fe Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra from 1998 to 2004, and has been a featured instrumental soloist and conductor with numerous other orchestras, among them the National Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, l’Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, the Vancouver Symphony, the Filharmonia Sudecka, and the Cleveland Orchestra. Mr. Slowik’s impressive discography comprises over seventy recordings featuring him as conductor, cellist, gambist, baryton player, and keyboard player for music ranging from the Baroque (Marais, Corelli, Bach) through the Classical (Haydn, Boccherini, Beethoven, Schubert) and Romantic (Mendelssohn, Gade, Spohr, Schumann) to the early twentieth century (Schönberg, Mahler, Richard Strauss).

Of these, many have won prestigious international awards, including France’s Diapason d’Or and Choc, the “British Music Retailers’ Award for Excellence,” Italy’s Premio Internazionale del Disco Antonio Vivaldi, two GRAMMY® nominations, and numerous “Record of the Month” and “Record of the Year” prizes. Mr. Slowik has presented lectures throughout the United States and has contributed to a number of symposia at American and European museums. Artistic Director of the Baroque Performance Institute at Oberlin since 1993, he serves on the faculties of the University of Maryland and L’Académie internationale du Domaine Forget, and received the Smithsonian Secretary’s Distinguished Research Lecture Award in 2011.

More artist biographies are available online at americanbach.org/ bios

JOHN THIESSEN (trumpet) began his journey as a brass player on the modern valve trumpet and he was introduced to the baroque trumpet as a young man in his native Ontario, Canada. Following his undergraduate degree in performance at the Eastman School of Music, where he studied 17th- and 18th-century music with lutenist Paul O’Dette and cultural historian Peter Kountz, Mr. Thiessen chose to specialize in period performance, training in the UK with renowned soloists Michael Laird and Crispian Steele-Perkins, and completing a master’s degree in musicology at King’s College, University of London. While living in the UK, he performed with the Academy of Ancient Music, Monteverdi Orchestra, Taverner Players, and Amsterdam Baroque. In 1990, he returned to Canada where he was Principal Trumpet with Tafelmusik, and now also holds that position with the American Bach Soloists, Trinity Baroque, Philharmonia Baroque, and the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra.

On the modern trumpet, he has recently appeared as soloist with the San Francisco Symphony and as principal with the St Luke’s Orchestra. 2013-14 season highlights include J. S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No 2 in New York and San Francisco, numerous cantatas with Trinity Baroque in New York, and Magnificat with Tafelmusik in Leipzig; as well as productions of Handel’s Messiah, Saul, Israel in Egypt, and Samson throughout North America. Mr. Thiessen teaches at the Juilliard School of Music, and has presented master classes throughout the United States and Canada. He has recorded extensively for Sony Classical Vivarte, Telarc, EMI, BMG, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, London Decca, Analekta, CBC, Tafelmusik Media and Denon, including major works by Bach, Handel, Purcell, Vivaldi, Biber, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert.

JEFFREY THOMAS (conductor & Academy Co-Director) has loved the music of Bach since his teenage years when he took up harpsichord and organ studies. He attended the Oberlin Conservatory and The Juilliard School, and enjoyed brief forays in musical theater (including dancing with the legendary hoofer, Ann Miller), before beginning his professional career as a tenor at the Spoleto USA Festival and the San Francisco Opera, which awarded him one of their first prestigious Adler Fellowships. While at the SFO, he made the acquaintance of the immortal Laurette Goldberg, who introduced him to Gustav Leonhardt and set in motion his career in early music. Engagements with most major US symphonies and Baroque orchestras followed, including collaborations with the greatest early music conductors and scholars including Hogwood, Koopman, Norrington, Parrott, and Rifkin. Appearances abroad took him to the UK, Europe, Japan, and Southeast Asia.

Cited by the Wall Street Journal as “a superstar among oratorio tenors,” Mr. Thomas’s extensive discography of vocal music includes dozens of recordings of major works for Decca, EMI, Erato, Koch International Classics, Denon, Harmonia Mundi, Smithsonian, Newport Classics, and Arabesque. For the past 25 years, as Music Director of ABS, he has counted himself among the luckiest conductors in the world, being able to work with superb colleagues that have inspired him to continue his pursuit of perfection in the performance of the music of Bach and others. Thoroughly dedicated to the education and mentorship of new generations of early music performers, he established the ABS Academy and holds a Barbara K. Jackson Professorship in Conducting at the University of California, Davis. Listeners around the world enjoy his weekly streaming broadcasts of choral music and Baroque music produced by Classical KDFC. MARY WILSON (soprano) grew up accompanying her mother’s music students at the piano and quite possibly knew how to read music before she learned her ABCs. Her early musical aspirations included playing flute, singing back up for Barry Manilow, and recording commercial jingles, but her studies at St. Olaf College and Washington University in St. Louis led her to a career as a distinguished singer of opera, oratorio, and song. An exciting interpreter of Baroque repertoire, especially the music of Handel, Ms Wilson has appeared with American Bach Soloists, Musica Angelica, Boston Baroque, Grand Rapids Bach Festival, Bach Society of St. Louis, Baltimore Handel Choir, Florida Bach Festival, and the Carmel Bach Festival.

Since her 2003 debut with ABS as a soloist in Handel’s Messiah, Mary has performed works by Handel, Bach, Vivaldi, Charpentier, and Pergolesi to the delight and acclaim of Bay Area audiences. In high demand on the concert stage, she has recently appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, among others.

This season she performed Bernstein’s Kaddish with the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Mozart’s Impressario with Opera Memphis, Bach’s St. John Passion with the Florida Bach Festival, and an all-Handel program at the Colorado Bach Festival. She made her debut as a recording artist in 2013 with “Mary Wilson Sings Handel” with American Bach Soloists and Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with Boston Baroque. She currently resides in Memphis with her husband, son, and two Vizslas.

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2014–15

Our 26th Season Jeffrey Thomas • Artistic Director

TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW

Handel’s Messiah

Bach & Handel

Mary Wilson soprano Eric Jurenas countertenor Wesley Rogers tenor Jesse Blumberg baritone

Johann Sebastian Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G Major

The season kicks off in December with five performances of Handel’s enduring masterwork, Messiah, given in three venues. Jeffrey Thomas will conduct the ABS periodinstrument orchestra, the acclaimed American Bach Choir, and an outstanding quartet of soloists in three performances in San Francisco’s historic Grace Cathedral. Additionally, the ensemble will debut at the Donald & Maureen Green Music Center in Rohnert Park, Northern California’s newest home for the performing arts, and will be presented at the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts in Davis. Tickets for the Green Center and Mondavi Center performances are not available through ABS. The soloists for all five performances will be ABS favorites soprano Mary Wilson, tenor Wesley Rogers, baritone Jesse Blumberg, as well as countertenor Eric Jurenas who astounded audiences in last year’s performances.

Tuesday December 16 2014 7:30 p.m.

Thursday December 18 2014 7:30 p.m.

Friday December 19 2014 7:30 p.m.

Grace Cathedral, San Francisco Additional performances: Sunday December 14 2014 4:00 p.m.

Mondavi Center, Davis Call (530) 754-ARTS Sunday December 21 2014 3:00 p.m.

Green Music Center, Rohnert Park Call (866) 955-6040

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George Frideric Handel Acis and Galatea Nola Richardson Galatea Kyle Stegall Acis Mischa Bouvier Polyphemus Zachary Wilder Damon The subscription season opens January 23-26, 2015, with “Bach & Handel,” an attractive pairing of masterworks by two musical giants. Jeffrey Thomas will direct his renowned players in Bach’s Fourth Brandenburg Concerto. The balance of the program will be devoted to Handel’s 1718 pastorale, Acis and Galatea.

Full of buoyant, witty, charming melodies, it is one of his most popular operatic works. Thomas conducts a quartet of charismatic soloists in this story of love and jealousy. Acis pursues the nymph Galatea against the advice of his cohort, Damon, angering the envious giant, Polyphemus, whose murderous actions are annulled by a magical transformation.

Friday January 23 2015 8:00 p.m.

St. Stephen’s Church, Belvedere Saturday January 24 2015 8:00 p.m.

First Congregational Church, Berkeley Sunday January 25 2015 4:00 p.m.

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco Monday January 26 2015 7:00 p.m.

Davis Community Church, Davis

The new season, packed with Baroque masterpieces and rarities, promises musical delights and discoveries.

Maestro Jeffrey Thomas is especially pleased to present a roster of frequent ABS performers and new artists during ABS’s 26th season.

Bach’s St. Matthew Passion

Bach & Vivaldi

Wesley Rogers Evangelista William Sharp Christus

Johann Sebastian Bach Orchestral Suite No. 4 in D Major

From February 27 to March 2, 2015, ABS will revisit Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. ABS and Thomas, “unsurpassable as a Bach interpreter” (SFCV), have become closely associated with this masterpiece.

Their emotionally stirring performances are unforgettable. The experience of their 2012 performance of an early version of the work made a profound impact on audiences and critics alike.

“I am so grateful I was there,” one patron excitedly proclaimed. SFCV remarked that the work, “when cleansed of much historical baggage, shone as new. Thanks to Thomas and ABS for such a profoundly beautiful, moving evening.”

Returning to the work’s more familiar form this season, Thomas will direct the Passion with his accustomed focus on transparent textures, direct expression, and intense intimacy. ABS and the American Bach Choir will be joined by ten soloists including tenor Wesley Rogers and baritone William Sharp.

Johann Sebastian Bach Gott soll allein mein Herze haben Cantata 169

Friday February 27 2015 7:30 p.m.

St. Stephen’s Church, Belvedere Saturday February 28 2015 7:30 p.m.

First Congregational Church, Berkeley Sunday March 1 2015 4:00 p.m.

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco Monday March 2 2015 7:00 p.m.

Davis Community Church, Davis

ABS Subscribers enjoy exclusive perks.

Visit americanbach.org/subscribe for more information.

(415) 621-7900

Antonio Vivaldi Nisi Dominus Leonardo Leo Concerto for Violoncello in A Major

Ian Howell countertenor Gretchen Claassen violoncello The subscription season concludes May 1-4, 2015, with “Bach & Vivaldi.”

Balancing vocal and instrumental works, the program includes the solo cantata Gott soll allein mein Herze haben (“God alone shall have my heart”) performed by countertenor Ian Howell. The Orchestral Suite No. 4 in D Major, Bach’s virtuosic tour through French dance forms, will showcase the magnificent forces of ABS. Howell will again be featured in Vivaldi’s psalm setting, Nisi Dominus, often described as a concerto for voice. It was written for an extraordinary soloist in his Venetian ensemble at the Ospedale della Pietà. Another highlight will be the opportunity to hear the 2015 Jeffrey Thomas Award recipient, Gretchen Claassen, performing Leonardo Leo’s Concerto for Violoncello in A Major.

Friday May 1 2015 8:00 p.m.

St. Stephen’s Church, Belvedere Saturday May 2 2015 8:00 p.m.

First Congregational Church, Berkeley Sunday May 3 2015 4:00 p.m.

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco Monday May 4 2015 7:00 p.m.

Davis Community Church, Davis 21

ABS on CD Bach Brandenburg Concertos Bach Harpsichord Concertos Bach Italian Transcriptions Bach Mass in B Minor

Bach St. Matthew Passion Beethoven Ninth Symphony Corelli Concerti Grossi Handel Messiah

Haydn Masses Sch端tz Choral & Vocal Works The Art of Ian Howell Mary Wilson Sings Handel

St Matthew Passion Highlights Carols for Christmas Solo Cantatas Trauerode

M端hlhausen Cantatas Cantatas for Easter Weimar Cantatas Favorite Cantatas

americanbach.org/recordings 22

Available at Intermission and after the performance.

Bach’s Inspiration I This concert is generously sponsored by John & Lois Crowe.

AMERICAN BACH SOLOISTS AMERICAN BACH CHOIR Jeffrey Thomas, conductor • Es erhub sich ein Streit, Cantata à 22

Johann Christoph Bach 1642-1703

Text: Revelation 12:7-12

Mary Wilson soprano - Judith Malafronte alto Derek Chester tenor - William Sharp baritone - Max van Egmond baritone Jesu, meines Lebens Leben

Dieterich Buxtehude

BuxWV 62

1637-1707

Text: Ernest Christoph Homburg (1607-1681) Composed prior to 1671

Mary Wilson soprano - Judith Malafronte alto Derek Chester tenor - Max van Egmond baritone Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern

Johann Kuhnau 1660-1722

Text: Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608) Composed between 1701 & 1705

Derek Chester tenor Concerto for Flute in C Major (no. 3)

Bach’s Inspiration I

Friday July 11 2014

Frederick the Great 1712-1786

Composed at Sanssouci, Potsdam, circa 1772

Allegro—Grave—Allegro assai Sandra Miller flute ~ Intermission ~ Concerto for Oboe in D Minor

Alessandro Marcello

Published in Etienne Roget’s Concerti a cinque [contains works by various composers], Amsterdam, 1717

1673-1747

Andante e spiccato—Adagio—Presto Debra Nagy oboe Tilge, Höchster, meine Sünden

BWV 1083

Text: Paraphrase of Psalm 51 Composed between 1743 & 1745 Transcribed & arranged from the Stabat Mater by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736)

Johann Sebastian Bach 1685-1750

Mary Wilson soprano - Eric Jurenas countertenor

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Friday July 11 2014 Johann Christoph Bach: Es erhub sich ein Streit im Himmel

5-part (SATBB) Soloists, 5-part (SATBB) Chorus; 4 Trumpets, Timpani, 3 Violins, 3 Violas, Basso continuo Bach, at every stage of his life, was acutely aware of the passing of time, the shifting of tastes, and the dawning of new eras of philosophical, educational, and—most especially—artistic sensibilities. As a young boy between the ages of 6 and 10, he experienced the passing of a brother, an uncle (his father’s twin), his mother, and his father. The next seven years brought several major changes in living situations including a deep reliance on his older brother Johann Christoph in Ohrdruf for both housing and musical training, followed by a mandatory departure from the safekeeping of his sibling to life on his own, at the age of 15, in the far-away city of Lüneburg, some 200 miles to the north.

None of that deterred Johann Sebastian from cherishing his heritage. Knowing that he had been brought into the world as part of a family “that seems to have received a love and aptitude for music as a gift of Nature to all its members in common” (from his obituary notice, published in 1754) and having dedicated a great amount of his efforts to preserve his family’s legacy and even the heritage of an age of composition that was dissipating into the wake of the onset of the Classical age and its lighter and leaner aesthetics, in 1735 he penned a genealogy titled “Origins of the Bach Family of Musicians” (Ursprung der musicalisch-bachischen Familie). Complete with short biographies of generations of Bachs, it is one of two documents that served to support Bach’s own historically appreciative values. The second is a compilation of works by family members that Bach had curated, known as the “Altbachisches Archiv” (“Archive of the elder Bachs”), which was passed on to Bach’s son, Carl Philipp Emanuel, then auctioned, eventually finding its way to the collection of the

Berliner Singakademie, a musical society founded in 1791. The Bach anniversary year of 1935 brought forth a publication of those works, in number about twenty, and that issue was extremely fortunate: after the end of the Second World War, the manuscript went missing and was assumed to have been burned along with nearly all of the manuscripts in the collection of the Berliner Singakademie.

However, the manuscripts were recently found in Kiev and have been returned to Berlin.

Works by Johann Christoph Bach (1642-1703) are most prominent in the collection. To Johann Sebastian, he was a first cousin once removed, and enjoyed the reputation among his family members as being “the great and expressive composer…capable of composing in styles both gallant and singing, as well as remarkably polyphonic…strong both in the invention of beautiful ideas and in the expression of the meaning of words,” according to Carl Philipp Emanuel. By far, the most colorful and powerful of Johann Christoph’s compositions included in the archive is the cantata Es erhub sich ein Streit.

Its rather sensational depiction of St. John’s extraordinary vision of the war of the angels in heaven and the fall of the dragon is as exciting today as it was hundreds of years ago. Again, Carl Philipp Emanuel sings its praises: “The 22-voice work is a masterpiece. My late father once performed it in church in Leipzig, and everyone was astonished by its effect.” Today, we hear music and can create cinematic images in our minds. In Bach’s day, no such transference was possible, making the impact even more immediately overwhelming than we can imagine. [JT]

Sonata Double Chorus

Es erhub sich ein Streit im Himmel; Michael und seine Engel stritten mit dem Drachen, und der Drache stritt und seine Engel und siegeten nicht.

There was war in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and did not prevail;

Auch ward ihre Stätte nicht mehr funden im Himmel,

And thus they lost their place in heaven,

Und es ward ausgeworfen der große Drach’, die alte Schlange, die da heißet der Teufel und Satanas, der die ganze Welt verführet, und ward geworfen auf die Erde, und seine Engel wurden auch dahin geworfen.

And the great dragon was thrown out, that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, which deceived the whole world: he was thrown to the earth, and his angels with him.

Und ich hörete eine große Stimme, die sprach im Himmel.

And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying:

“Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft und das Reich und die Macht unsers Gottes seines Christus worden.

“Now is the salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of God, and the authority of his Christ has come.

Weil der verworfen ist, der sie verklaget Tag und Nacht vor Gott.

For the accuser of our brothers and sisters is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

Und sie haben ihn überwunden durch des Lammes Blut und durch das Wort ihres Zeugnis und haben ihr Leben nicht geliebet bis an den Tod.

And they defeated him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the message they preached, and they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid of death.

Darum freuet euch, ihr Himmel und die darinnen wohnen!”

Therefore rejoice heavens, and those that dwell there!”

Sinfonia Double Chorus

Text: Book of Revelation, 12:7-12, by John of Patmos, circa AD 60-95

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Friday July 11 2014 Dieterich Buxtehude: Jesu, meines Lebens Leben BuxWV 62

4-part (SATB) Soloists; 4-part (SATB) Chorus; 2 Violins, 2 Violas, Basso continuo Bach’s famous trip to Lübeck in the north of Germany to hear concerts given by the celebrated Dieterich Buxtehude proved so rewarding for the young 20-year-old composer that he overstayed the leave granted by his employer in Arnstadt by several months.

He made the trip on foot, taking about 10 days to cover the 250mile distance. Once there, the musical wonders that he would have heard during Buxtehude’s Abendmusiken (evening concerts) were tremendously inspiring. The series had been inaugurated in the 17th century under the direction of Franz Tunder (1614-1667) and were offered to the pubic without charge—thanks to the sponsorships of local businesses—until the 19th century. Buxtehude took over the series when he succeeded Tunder in 1668. The venue was Lübeck’s Marienkirche (St. Mary’s Church), and the programs featured concerted music with voices as well as works for organ alone. Many of Buxtehude’s organ compositions are noted for their qualities of fantastic sonorities, adventurous playfulness, and virtuosic display: Bach was quick to adopt the best points from them into his own works, and a few years after his first-hand exposure to Buxtehude’s playing brought forward the majority of Bach’s own compositions for organ.

During Bach’s extended stay in Lübeck, he would have heard works like Jesu, meines Lebens Leben, which is based on a passion chorale by Ernst Christoph Homburg (1605-1681). Following an opening sinfonia for strings, five verses are presented over an ostinato bass of only eight notes, which is played 41 times. The rhetorical effect of the repetition of the two bar figure is a direct reference to an

excerpt from the text, “tausend, tausendmal sei dir, liebster Jesu, Dank dafür” (thousands and thousands of times to you, dearest Jesus, be given thanks). The composition of variants over an ostinato bass was a favorite technique of many composers, and Buxtehude’s works contain an especially significant number of them. This format enabled a composer to demonstrate both ingenuity and imagination.

Here, in a work that includes text, Buxtehude successfully combined those traits with effective means to communicate specific words; for example, an increasing number of dissonances are heard near the utterances of the words “Wunden schlagen,” “Plagen,” “Dornen,” and “Zittern” (wounding blows, troubles, thorns, and trembling), as well as those heard along with the words “daß du möchtest mich ergötzen, mir die Ehrenkron aufsetzen” (so that you might cheer me, and crown me with honor). In the latter case, the difficult harmonies suggest both the difficult route to salvation (as experienced by both leader and follower) and the medium of that salvation, the cross, which is quite typically depicted in baroque music through dissonance and chromaticism. Only one or three voices alternately are utilized for the first four verses, perhaps making reference to “one God” and the holy trinity. This scheme is dramatically altered for the final verse, when all voices (and all peoples) unite in a final thanksgiving, the text of which is curiously divided into relatively short interjections, giving Buxtehude an opportunity to compose similarly abbreviated instrumental interludes between phrases that illuminate the rhetoric. No doubt, the incessant ostinato helped make this piece especially memorable in the minds of the listeners, making its message all the more effective. [JT]

Sinfonia Verse 1 (Aria) Soprano

Jesu, meines Lebens Leben, Jesu, meines Todes Tod, der du dich vor mich gegeben in die tiefste Seelennot, in das äußerste Verderben, nur daß ich nicht möchte sterben: tausend, tausendmal sei dir, liebster Jesu, Dank dafür.

Jesus, life of my life Jesus, death of my death, you who have given yourself for me in the hour of greatest suffering, in the most extreme dissolution, only that I might not perish: thousands and thousands of times to you, dearest Jesus, be given thanks.

Verse 2 Alto, Tenor, Bass

Du, ach! du hast ausgestanden Lästerreden, Spott und Hohn, Speichel, Schläge, Strick und Banden, du gerechter Gottessohn, nur mich armen zu erretten von des Teufels Sündenketten: tausend, tausendmal sei dir, liebster Jesu, Dank dafür.

You, ah! you have endured defamation, scorn, and shame, spittle, blows, bonds and shackles, you righteous son of God, only to save me, the unworthy, from the devil’s sinful chains: thousands and thousands of times to you, dearest Jesus, be given thanks.

Verse 3 Tenor

Du hast lassen Wunden schlagen, dich erbärmlich richten zu, um zu heilen meine Plagen, um zu setzen mich in Ruh; ach, du hast zu meinem Segen lassen dich mit Fluch belegen; tausend, tausendmal sei dir, liebster Jesu, Dank dafür.

You have let wounds strike you, endured most grievous injury, so as to heal my torments, to give me peace.

Ah, you have endured curses, for my blessing; thousands and thousands of times to you, dearest Jesus, be given thanks. continued…

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Friday July 11 2014 Verse 4 Soprano, Alto, Bass

Man hat dich sehr hart verhöhnet, dich mit grossem Schimpf belegt, gar mit Dornen angekrönet, was hat dich dazu bewegt, daß du möchtest mich ergötzen, mir die Ehrenkron aufsetzen: tausend, tausendmal sei dir, liebster Jesu, Dank dafür.

They mocked you cruelly, scorned you greatly, even crowned you with thorns, what hath brought you, so to do, that you should bring joy to me and crown me with honor: thousands and thousands of times to you, dearest Jesus, be given thanks.

Verse 5 4-part Chorus

Ich, ich danke dir von Herzen, Jesu, vor gesamte Not, vor die Wunden, vor die Schmerzen, vor den herben, bittern Tod, vor dein Zittern, vor dein Zagen, vor dein tausendfaches Plagen: tausend, tausendmal sei dir, liebster Jesu, Dank dafür.

Amen.

I, I thank you from my heart, Jesus, for all your suffering, for your wounds and for thy pain, for your harsh and bitter death, for your trembling, for your fear, and your torments thousand fold: thousands and thousands of times to you, dearest Jesus, be given thanks.

Amen.

Text: Ernest Christoph Homburg (1607-1681)

Johann Kuhnau: Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern

Tenor Solo; 4-part (SATB) Chorus; 2 Horns, 2 Violins, 2 Violas, Basso continuo The name of Johann Kuhnau (1660–1722) often evokes a shadowy figure who lives in the footnotes of Bach biographies, someone who forms part of the background musical culture against which Bach can ever more brightly shine. Indeed it was Kuhnau who inspired Bach in his choice of the title Clavier-Übung for four keyboard publications; it was he who collaborated with Bach in the examination of an organ at Halle in 1716; and he whom Bach succeeded as cantor of the Thomaskirche, Leipzig, in 1723.

Furthermore, Kuhnau’s nephew, Johann Andreas, was Bach’s first principal copyist of cantata parts and must have enjoyed a close association with the new cantor.

Nevertheless, not only was Kuhnau a remarkable composer in his own right but he was also talented and active in many ways which Bach did not share. Having trained and practiced as a lawyer, he was a prolific theorist, a talented linguist, and even wrote a satirical novel, Der musicalische Quacksalber (1700), on what he considered to be the shallow and superficial trends in contemporary music. In all, he is arguably the last “Renaissance man” in the field of musical composition. Having received his early musical education in Dresden, one of the greatest centers of German musical culture, Kuhnau may well have encountered the aged Heinrich Schütz (who died in 1672) and thus he must be virtually the only significant figure to have experienced the environments of both Schütz and Bach.

Kuhnau had been organist of the Leipzig Thomaskirche since 1684 but he did not take over the post of cantor of the Thomasschule and Director musices for the major Leipzig churches until 1701; thus most of his church music must date from after the keyboard publications. Just as Bach was to experience twenty years later, Kuhnau suffered continual vexation in his new post and soon gained the reputation of an embittered conservative. Much of this may be attributed to the short tenure of Telemann as director of music at the Leipzig New Church (1701–5). In this capacity, Telemann, a young 26

law student at the time, was allowed to produce music with his new collegium musicum entirely independently of Kuhnau’s official monopoly of the town church music and—with his youthful flair and up-to-date music—he attracted students who would otherwise have filled the empty places in Kuhnau’s choir and orchestra. The Leipzig opera was also a drain on the student resources and Kuhnau seems to have developed a somewhat ironic moral antipathy to the opera, given his significant role in its founding. He repeatedly petitioned the town council regarding the erosion of his rights and sought to discredit Telemann as an “opera musician.” Matters must have sunk to a new low when Kuhnau became critically ill in 1703 and Telemann not only substituted for him but was also approached as a potential successor. This whole episode may have inspired Kuhnau to inveigh against operatic church music in the introduction to a set of cantata librettos, suggesting that the new Italian operatic genres and styles carried the wrong connotations within the context of church music.

Only comparatively recently has Kuhnau’s church music been given even a modicum of the attention it deserves. The impression gained from his later reputation and apparent antipathy towards innovation is entirely overturned. Indeed, his church music is full of just the Italianate forms he condemned in the overly “operatic” church composers of the time. Kuhnau’s contrapuntal proficiency comes as no surprise. The imitations, fugues, and chorale-setting of Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern are to us almost a Lutheran stereotype (although chorale cantatas are surprisingly rare before Bach). What is absolutely winning about this music, though, is its remarkable lyricism and the immediately memorable thematic tags (usually treated as ritornellos). This is a tendency of German church music in the two or three decades surrounding the turn of the century: an influence from opera, on the one hand, and the pietistic air on the other.

— John Butt

Friday July 11 2014 Chorus

Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, voll Gnad und Wahrheit von dem Herrn, aus Juda aufgegangen.

O gutter Hirte, Davids Sohn, mein König auf dem Gnaden thron, hast mir mein Herz umfangen, lieblich, freundlich, schön und prächtig, groß und mächtig, reich an Gaben, hoch und wunderbar erhaben.

How lovely shines the morning star full of grace and truth from the Lord, which came out of Judah.

Oh good shepherd, David’s son on the throne of heaven, you have clasped my heart, Sweetly, lovingly, beautiful and glorious, great and powerful, rich with gifts, high and marvelously sublime.

Recitative

Allein, heut’ wird der Große klein, der Sohn, aus Gott geboren, wird heut ein Menschensohn, als heut’ der Himmelsherr sein Himmelreich verloren.

Er wird ein rechtes Opferlamm, weil er als Davids höchster Stamm. in Davids eigner Stadt, nur einen Stall zur Herberg hat.

Alone, today the great becomes small, the Son, born as God, today becomes the Son of Man, as though the Lord of heaven had lost his heavenly realm.

He becomes a true sacrificial lamb, since he, from David’s most high lineage, in David’s own town has only a barn for an inn.

Chorus

Uns ist ein Kind geboren, ein Sohn ist uns gegeben, welches Herrschaft ist auf seiner Schulter, und er heißet: Wunderbar, Rat, Kraft, Held, ewig Vater, Friedefürst.

For to us a child is born, a son to us is given, and the government shall be on his shoulder, and he shall be called wonderful, counselor, power, hero, everlasting father, the prince of peace.

Aria

O Wundersohn, dein überirdisch Wesen hatt sich zum Thron den ird’schen Leib erlesen, damit der Mensch die Erde, zu deinem Himmel werde.

O son of wonder, your heavenly being for a throne chose an earthly body, so that mankind should make the earth become your heaven.

Recitative

Doch leuchtet in der Niedrigkeit ein Strahl von seiner Göttlichkeit, ein Kaiser schreibt die Schätzung aus, so zieht zugleich der Prinz der Prinzen in eines ird’schen Leibes Haus, die Engel sagen ihn der Welt in Lüften an, weil es kein Mensch verrichten kann.

Denn alle Himmel sind sein eigen, wie sollt’ sich nicht vor ihm die ganze Erde neigen.

But there shines in the depths a beam of his godliness, an emperor writes out the appraisal, so now the prince of princes makes his home in an earthly body, while the angels proclaim him to the world in airs, Since no man can do the task.

For all the heavens are his own, how could the whole earth not bend before him.

Aria

Kommt, ihr Völker, kommt mit Haufen kommt und huldigt diesem Kind.

Himmel, Erde, zu den Heiden soll sein Zepter ewig weiden, weil sie dessen eigen sind.

Come, you peoples, come in hordes, come and worship this child.

Heaven, earth, the heathen should all be under his scepter’s sway for they are his own.

Recitative

Ich huld’ge dir, großmächt’ger Prinz, weil deine Gotteskraft die Macht der Sünden, durch die uns Satan tracht’, mit sich als Sklaven zu verbinden, ganz aus dem Wege schafft.

Ich ehre die verborgne Macht, und meine untertän’gen Lippen lobsingen dir auch in der schlechten Krippen.

I worship you, almighty prince, since by your godly strength the power of sin, by which Satan tempts us, and binds us to him as slaves, is quite removed; I honor the hidden might, and my submissive lips sing your praises also in the poor cribs.

Duet & Chorus

(Duet) Zwingt die Saiten in Cythara und laßt die süße Musica ganz freundenreich erschallen.

(Chorus) Zwingt die Saiten in Cythara und laßt die süße Musica ganz freudenreich erschallen, daß ich möge mit Jesulein, dem wunderschönen Bräutigam in steter Liebe wallen.

Singet, springet, jubilieret, triumphieret, dankt dem Herren, groß ist der König der Ehren.

(Duet) Master the strings of the lute, and let sweet music ring out in all friendship.

(Chorus) Master the strings of the lute, and let sweet music ring out in all friendship, that I may with Jesus, my wondrous lovely bridegroom, rest in lasting love.

Sing, dance, rejoice, triumph, thank the Lord, great is the king of glory.

Text: Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608), Isaiah 9:6 27

Friday July 11 2014 Frederick the Great: Concerto for Flute in C Major Flute, 2 Violins, Viola, Basso continuo

J. S. Bach had made it a point that his sons would not have to endure the indignities that he, one who had never received a university education, so often suffered. Carl Philipp Emanuel, Bach’s third son, inferred the implications, and sought the company of literati over musicians. He was glad to have a forum in which to show his own intellectualism, and he also became scrupulously meticulous in financial matters. Like two of his brothers, he attended the University of Leipzig, but followed those years with more studies of law and philosophy at the University of Frankfurt before finally settling on a musical career.

While in his twenties, he was invited by the 26-year-old crown prince, the future Frederick II of Prussia (1712-1786), to join his band of distinguished musicians. Carl Philipp Emanuel had already composed ten chamber works for flute; perhaps they were known to the crown prince and interested him in employing Bach, who would eventually follow Frederick to Berlin following his accession to the throne in 1740.

Frederick the Great was a noble ruler who ascribed to the philosophies of enlightened absolutism (also known as “benevolent despotism”) whereby a monarch would embrace Enlightenment principles, govern with tolerance and rationality, and promote the arts, sciences, and education. He was a gifted musician, both as a performer on the transverse flute—having been trained by Johann Joachim Quantz (1697-1773) who was considered to be the finest flutist in all of Europe at the time—and as a composer of at least four symphonies, about 100 flute sonatas, and four flute concertos. The celebrated meeting that took place between Frederick the Great and J. S. Bach in 1747 had been anticipated for some time. The product of that meeting was The Musical Offering, joining the Art of the Fugue and the Mass in B Minor as one of Bach’s great summative works.

Without a doubt, Frederick had spent some time in constructing the theme or melody that would so greatly inspire Bach to compose

Flute Concert with Frederick the Great in Sanssouci, 1852; oil on canvas by Adolph Menzel (1815-1905). C.P.E. Bach is at the harpsichord.

the intricate and intellectually stimulating collection of canons and ricercars that would comprise the final, published work.

Frederick the Great’s Flute Concerto in C Major dates from 1772, more than a decade after Bach’s death. It is included on this program as a reference to Bach’s customarily intense interest in the musical activities at various European courts. Bach applied for (and received) court appointments several times during his career, and the glimpse that he had into the splendid music-making that was a regular part of the activities at Sanssouci—the summer palace and favorite residence of Frederick—must have been both enlightening and comforting: Bach could rest assured that his son had indeed found good employment. [JT]

INTERMISSION

Alessandro Marcello: Concerto for Oboe in D Minor Oboe, 2 Violins, Viola, Basso continuo

One of the most productive ways that Bach transformed the inspiration he found in the music of his predecessors and contemporaries was through the transcription of their orchestral works into versions for keyboard alone. He could have opted to simply copy scores as they became available to him, but the mental process of condensing many parts into just two musical staffs that could be rendered upon a keyboard required Bach to deconstruct the examples of those who inspired him and then reconstruct them to fit the performance medium that literally fell under his own fingertips.

Throughout the course of this Festival’s concerts, you will hear a number of such works, in one form or another: either the original, or the keyboard transcription, or an elaborate arrangement.

Alessandro Marcello (1673-1747) was a member of Venice’s dilettante, a group of musicians who were of independent means and had no need to find employment as such. Marcello, the son of a Venetian senator, was a student of mathematics, had knowledge of many languages (he enjoyed composing verses in Latin as well as Italian), painted, played the violin, and sang. As a member of the Arcadian Academy he held weekly concerts in his home.

Today he is chiefly remembered for the oboe concerto heard on this program. It was published in 1717 by Estienne Roger in Amsterdam as one in a set of Concerti a Cinque (concertos for five 28

instruments). This particular work has frequently been misattributed to Marcello’s brother, Benedetto, a more famous composer. This is probably because most of Alessandro’s works were published under the pseudonym of Eterio Stinfalico, his Arcadian nickname. This concerto is perhaps his best known work also because it was one of the concertos by various (mostly Italian) composers that were transcribed by J. S. Bach for solo harpsichord. Considering its date of publication, which is likely to have occurred several years after its composition, Bach probably first encountered Marcello’s concerto among the scores that were brought back to the Weimar Court (where Bach was employed between 1708 ­and 1717) by the younger brother of one of Weimar’s two coregents. This timeline effectively places Bach’s transcription of the concerto within the proper time frame of many of Bach’s other keyboard transformations of Italian concertos.

In several instances, Bach’s process of transcription produced a more or less literal transfer of the original, without significant changes. The central Adagio movement in the transcription, however, features a highly ornamented version of Marcello’s original oboe part, and many oboists opt to perform the concerto using Bach’s florid realization. But that produces questionable results, as Bach’s melismas were composed with the keyboard in mind. [JT]

Friday July 11 2014 Johann Sebastian Bach: Tilge, Höchster, meine Sünden BWV 1083 Transcribed & arranged from the Stabat Mater by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

Soprano & Alto Soloists; Violins I & II, Violas, Basso continuo Bach’s adaptation of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater is one of the more interesting appropriations in musical history, largely by virtue of its sheer unlikelihood. For the much older master to have extended himself in the direction of a work by a young Italian, a Catholic at that, and one whose first fame had come with a work whose every impulse ran directly counter to Bach’s aesthetics, morals, and musical training—the famous La Serva Padrona—well, this is odd. Why would Bach choose such a project?

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi had died at the age of 26 in 1736, about a decade before Bach made his arrangement of the Stabat Mater, which was probably Pergolesi’s last work. In the six or so years of his professional career, Pergolesi wrote quantities of music for both church and stage, and managed what most composers (including Bach) do not in a life three times as long: real, huge, blockbuster success, in not one but two works, each in a different genre. La Serva Padrona—scarcely an opera, more an extended scena, in the new, spare, sardonic Italian style—was still enormously, controversially popular thirty years after its composer’s death. The Stabat Mater is thought to have had more printings than any other single piece of 18th-century music, not to mention its many incarnations in arrangements and re-textings, of which Bach’s is only one.

Pergolesi’s genius is amply manifest in his deft, sweet-natured music; but it also clearly lay in his uncanny ability to sense the “next wave,” what people wanted, craved in fact, to hear. Taste was shifting away from the painstaking, the profound, the monumental; in sacred music, the “antique style” based in the austerities of the 16th century was increasingly felt to express only the more remote and institutional qualities of religion. The Stabat Mater provided a link to something more personal, more (as John Adam Hiller (1728 - 1804), one of its admirers and adapters, put it) “sensitive.” It does this by incorporating the overtly emotional gestures and formulas of the new Italian opera into an overtly traditional framework, comprised of a 13th-century liturgical poem, and a certain amount of contrapuntal writing (or at least, contrapuntal-sounding: Pergolesi manages to give a remarkable Gestalt of the 16th century without actually burdening himself or us with any real fugues or extended imitation).

The combination, predictably, offended conservatives, who found it vulgar or irreverent; but the publication and performance history of the work attests to just how much of a minority those conservatives were becoming, and to just how expertly Pergolesi’s work had “hit the spot.”

Copies of the Stabat Mater probably reached Bach’s environs in the early 1740s; they would have been preceded by its reputation.

As a lifelong composer of sacred music, and a lifelong negotiator of its inherent conflicts between personal and impersonal, sensual and austere, human and divine, Bach seems to have found this notorious new work, and the compromise it represented, more intriguing than

off-putting, despite his own staunch conservatism. What better way to really get to know it than to adapt if for use at home?

The motet Bach made out of the Stabat Mater is his sole essay into appropriating music so unlike his own in every way (save in its capacity for aesthetic ingenuity). His handling of Pergolesi’s work is wonderfully circumspect, basically amounting to a replacement of the original tear-soaked Latin poem, about the sorrows and compassion of Mary at the foot of the cross, with an equally tearsoaked German one about the sorrow and contrition of an unworthy sinner. The two poems are a remarkably good match on a movementby-movement basis. A good deal of the original word-painting carries over into its new text. Particularly satisfying examples can be heard in verse 3 at “Missetäten” (“transgressions”), and in verse 18 at “Herz und Geist, voll Angst und Grämen” (“Heart and soul, in anguish and grieving”); this might support the theory that Bach himself made the German adaptation of the psalm.

Most of the musical alterations consist of Bach’s substitution of texted, active lines for Pergolesi’s melismas and long messe di voce for the singers; these most explicitly operatic qualities are exchanged for something a little more instrumental, a little less flagrant. The final “Amen” is repeated in the major mode (an odd and slightly clunky amendment), and movements 12 and 13 are reversed from Pergolesi’s ordering; the most extensive alteration, however, is a subtle one to the ear. Bach liberates the viola from its Italian role as a reinforcement of the bass and gives it an independent part— indeed, a gloriously active one, that enriches the texture of the whole ensemble and ups the contrapuntal ante by some few degrees. The addition of a new part to an already complete composition, without doublings or redundancies, is an old and formidable contrapuntal exercise, which Bach accomplishes here almost as an afterthought, or as if he simply could not resist.

— Elisabeth Le Guin

TILGE, HÖCHSTER, MEINE SÜNDEN Bach’s Transcription of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater Benita Valente, soprano Judith Malafronte, alto

Verse 1 Largo Soprano, Alto

Tilge, Höchster, meine Sünden, deinen Eifer laß verschwinden, laß mich deine Huld erfreun.

Blot out, O God, my sins, let your zeal disappear, and let me rejoice in your grace.

Verse 2 Andante Soprano

Ist mein Herz in Missetaten und in große Schuld geraten, wasch es selber, mach es rein.

And when my heart is filled with transgressions and burdened with great guilt, wash it yourself and make it pure. continued…

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Friday July 11 2014 Verse 3 Larghetto Soprano, Alto

Missetaten, die mich drücken, muß ich mir itzt selbst aufrücken; Vater, ich bin nicht gerecht.

I must always think of my transgressions and they weigh on me.

Father I am unjust.

Verse 4 Andante Alto

Dich erzürnt mein Tun und Lassen, meinen Wandel muß du hassen, weil die Sünde mich geschwächt.

My deeds and actions anger you and you hate my conduct, for my sins have weakened me.

Verses 5 & 6 Largo Soprano, Alto

Wer wird seine Schuld verneinen oder gar gerecht erscheinen?

Ich bin doch ein Sündenknecht.

Wer wird, Herr, dein Urteil mindern, oder deinen Ausspruch hindern?

Du bist recht, dein Wort ist recht.

Who denies his guilt or pretends to be righteous?

I certainly am a slave of sin.

Who will, Lord, lessen your judgment or prevent your pronouncements?

You are just, your word is just.

Verse 7 Soprano, Alto

Sieh! Ich bin in Sünd empfangen, Sünde wurde ja begangen, da wo ich erzeuget ward.

See, I was conceived in sin, and wrong was done where I was begotten.

Verse 8 Soprano

Sieh, du willst die Wahrheit haben, die geheimen Weisheitsgaben hast du selbst mir offenbart.

See, you want the truth, and you yourself revealed to me the secrets of wisdom.

Verse 9 Alto

Wasche mich doch rein von Sünden, daß kein Makel mehr zu finden, wenn der Isop mich besprengt.

Do wash me pure from sins, so that no more blemish can be found when I am splashed with hyssop.

Verse 10 Allabreve Soprano, Alto

Laß mich Freud und Wonne spüren, daß die Gebeine triumphieren, da dein Kreuz mich hart gedrängt.

Your cross pressed hard on me; now let me feel joy and bliss and let the body triumph.

Verses 11-15 Andante Soprano, Alto

Schaue nicht auf meine Sünden, tilge sie, laß sie verschwinden, Geist und Herze mache neu.

Stoß mich nicht von deinen Augen und soll fort mein Wandel taugen, o, so steh dein Geist mir bei.

Gib, o Höchster, Trost ins Herze, heile wieder nach dem Schmerze.

Es enthalte mich dein Geist.

Denn ich will die Sünder lehren, daß sie sich zu dir bekehren und nicht tun, was Sünde heißt.

Laß, o Tilger, meiner Sünden, alle Blutschuld gar verschwinden, daß mein Loblied, Herr, dich ehrt.

Do not look on my sins, blot them out, let them vanish; make spirit and heart new.

Do not cast me from your eyes, and stand by me to help my conduct be good.

Give, O God, comfort to my heart, heal again after suffering.

Let me be part of your spirit.

Because I want to teach the sinners to convert themselves to you, and not to do as sin teaches Let, redeemer, all my sins and blood-guilt be gone forever, so that my songs of praise honor you, Lord.

Verse 16 Adagio spirituoso Alto

Öffne Lippen, Mund und Seele, daß ich deinen Ruhm erzähle, der alleine dir gehört.

Open lips, mouth and soul, that I tell of glory which is yours alone.

Verses 17 & 18 Largo Soprano, Alto

Denn du willst kein Opfer haben, sonsten brächt ich meine Gaben, Rauch und Brand gefällt dir nicht.

Herz und Geist, voll Angst und Grämen, wirst du, Höchster, nicht beschämen, weil dir das dein Herze bricht.

You want no offering, or I would bring my gifts.

You do not like smoke or burning Heart and soul, in anguish and grieving, you, O God, will not put to shame, because that would break your heart.

Verses 19 and 20 Allegro Vivace Soprano, Alto

Laß dein Zion blühend dauern, baue die verfallnen Mauern, alsdann opfern wir erfreut, Alsdann soll dein Ruhm erschallen, alsdann werden dir gefallen Opfer der Gerechtigkeit.

Let Zion continue to blossom, rebuild the walls that have gone to ruins, then we will offer with joy.

And then shall all your glory resound, and then you will be pleased with the offerings of righteousness.

Allabreve Soprano, Alto

Amen.

Amen.

Text: Paraphrase of Psalm 51

Translation: Vera Lucia Calabria

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Bach’s Inspiration II AMERICAN BACH SOLOISTS Elizabeth Blumenstock violin - Derek Chester tenor - Max van Egmond baritone - Corey Jamason organ & harpsichord Katherine Kyme violin - Steven Lehning violone - Judith Linsenberg recorder - Judith Malafronte alto Robert Mealy violin - Sandra Miller flute - Debra Nagy oboe - Jason Pyszkowski viola - William Sharp baritone William Skeen viola da gamba & violoncello - Kenneth Slowik viola da gamba & violoncello - John Thiessen trumpet • Partita No. 1 in A Minor

Johann Adam Reincken 1623-1722

From Hortus musicus recentibus aliquot flosculis, (Hamburg, 1687)

Adagio-Allegro-Largo-Presto-Adagio-Allegro Allemand, Allegro—Courant—Saraband—Gigue, Presto Mein Herz ist bereit

Nicolaus Bruhns 1665-1697

Text: Psalms 57:8-12 & 108:1-5 Composed circa 1690

Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin & Klaglied

Dieterich Buxtehude

BuxWV 76

Text: Mit Fried und Freud, Martin Luther (1483-1546), based on the Nunc dimittis (“Song of Simeon”), Luke 2:29; Klaglied, likely by Buxtehude himself Published in Lübeck, 1674

1637-1707

Contrapunctus I-Evolutio—Contrapunctus II-Evolutio—Klaglied Meine Seele rühmt und preist

Bach’s Inspiration II

Saturday July 12 2014

Georg Melchior Hoffmann 1679-1715

Cantata for The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Text: Unknown Once attributed to J. S. Bach and given the catalogue number BWV 189

~ Intermission ~ Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major

Johann Sebastian Bach

BWV 1047

1685-1750

Probably composed in Cöthen, 1721

[Allegro]—Andante—Allegro assai Amore traditore

Johann Sebastian Bach

BWV 203

Text: Unknown Composed between 1718 & 1723

Trio Sopr’ il Soggetto Reale (“Musical Offering” Trio in C Minor)

BWV 1079

Johann Sebastian Bach

Composed in Leipzig, 1747

Largo—Allegro—Andante—Allegro

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Saturday July 12 2014 Johann Adam Reincken: Partita No. 1 in A Minor 2 Violins, Basso continuo

While the name Johann Adam Reincken (1623-1722) might not have the familiarity of Bach or Buxtehude, he was nonetheless an important composer who figured greatly in the musical activities in the city of Hamburg. Like several other wealthy centers of commerce, Hamburg had benefited both financially and artistically from the shift of political power from southern ports, including Venice, to northern cities in France, Germany, and the Netherlands. Mattias Weckmann (1619-1674) and two students of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621)— namely Johann Praetorius (1595-1660) and Heinrich Scheidemann (1595-1663)—had established their influence on the musical tastes of the city’s merchant class. So, too, did Reincken through his association with Hamburg’s Katharinenkirche (St. Catherine’s Church), where he took up the post of organist in 1663, remaining there for nearly 60 years. Additionally, together with Johann Theile (1646-1724), he cofounded the Hamburg Opera in 1678, and developed a close association with Dieterich Buxtehude from the nearby city of Lübeck, about 40 miles to the northeast.

Most importantly, though, Reincken’s music figured prominently in Bach’s interests. This is no surprise considering our knowledge that Bach was drawn quite deeply to the music of Buxtehude as well. The group of Reincken, Buxtehude, Theile, Weckmann, and a handful of others were close-knit in their studies and discussions of music theory and counterpoint. They were one small degree of separation away from Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) who disseminated important information about Italian styles to the north, and from the Italian music theorist Gioseffo Zarlino (1517-1590) whose famous treatise on composition, tuning, temperaments, and harmony (Le istitutioni harmoniche, 1558) had been translated by Sweelinck.

With some certainty, we believe that Bach, as a 16-year-old, walked about 30 miles from Lüneburg—where he was enrolled at St. Michael’s School and studying organ with Georg Böhm (1661-1733)— to Hamburg to hear the great Reincken play upon what was a tremendously impressive pipe organ at St. Catherine’s. The story is confirmed by the recent discovery in 2006 of the earliest known Bach autograph: a copy of Reincken’s famous chorale fantasia on the tune “An Wasserflüssen Babylon” (“By the waters of Babylon”) that Bach took back to Lüneburg to show to his teacher, Böhm. Bach formally met Reincken either in 1720 or in 1722, the last year of his life, during a return visit to Hamburg. Bach improvised for a half hour on the same chorale, “An Wasserflüssen Babylon,” as a tribute to the nearly 100-year-old composer, who remarked to Bach, “I thought that this art was dead, but I see that it lives in you.”

Reincken’s set of chamber works called Hortus Musicus (“Musical Garden”) was published in 1687. There is no programmatic music contained therein, nothing musically descriptive of nature or gardens. Rather it is a collection of six partitas, each comprised of a complete Sonata da chiesa (“Church Sonata,” an alternation of

slow and fast movements), and a suite of the Sonata da camera type (“Chamber Sonata”), consisting of four dance movements. Bach was particularly impressed by these and transcribed excerpts from their original form as works for strings and basso continuo into works for keyboard solo. Drawing from three of the partitas, Bach transcribed the first in its entirety. The result is a highly ornamented version of Reincken’s original that nevertheless preserves its character with great integrity. The work (in both Reincken’s and Bach’s versions) opens with a somber Adagio that includes fantasy-like material, in this case for both the first violinist and the continuo players. A second violinist contributes at all other times. The Allemand is light and sprightly; the Courant is similarly active; the Saraband breaks the pace with its weighty stresses on beats one and two of the slow triple meter; and a romping Gigue, still retaining the somewhat somber quality of the key of A minor, closes the partita with a flourish.

An interesting facet to Reincken’s publication is found on its frontispiece, a detailed engraving that depicts what appears to be an architecturally ornate cloister or a baldachin within an inner courtyard. At the top of the baldachin, above a description of the contents of the publication, are the words “Soli Deo Gloria” (Glory to God alone). It is one of five short Latin phrases that began to be used during the Reformation to summarize theological precepts. Similarly, Bach placed an abbreviated inscription of the same text (“S.D.G.”) at the end of his sacred works. [JT]

An important painting by the Dutch artist Johannes Voorhout

(1647-1723), most certainly commissioned by Reincken in 1674, shows the

composer surrounded by friends (probably Buxtehude and Theile) and other artistic elements that imply a comfortable and even luxurious lifestyle.

Reincken wears a fashionable Japanese silk kimono, and the presence of a page-boy offering fruit, sculptures of cupids, and a couple whose gestures indicate a romantic liaison combine to confirm the suggestions by the contemporary writer and composer Johann Mattheson (1681-1764) that Reincken was “a regular lover of ladies and wine.”

Nicolaus Bruhns: Mein Herz ist bereit Bass Solo; Violin, Basso continuo

Like Johann Sebastian Bach, Nicolaus Bruhns was part of a musical family with several generations of accomplished performers.

As a child he studied organ, violin, and viola da gamba, and his adeptness was so extraordinary that the music chronicler, Johann 32

Mattheson (1681-1764), reported that Bruhns was able to perform upper voices of dense counterpoint on the violin while playing the bass on the pedal board of a pipe organ. Being about twenty years younger than Buxtehude and twenty years older than Bach,

Saturday July 12 2014 the compositions of Bruhns represent a stepping stone in the development of North German music. Bruhns studied composition with Buxtehude, and stylistic traits of the senior composer can be found through the works of the younger, even though only a dozen vocal concertos have survived. Additionally, the penchant for virtuosic display that Bruhns shared with both Buxtehude and Bach was carried forward in the compositions of Bruhns, resulting in demanding and rigorous passagework for voices and instruments alike. This separated Bruhns out from his mentor, Buxtehude, whose writing for voices and instruments rarely makes extraordinary demands on performers.

That characteristic of demanding virtuosity especially from vocalists would be adopted by Bach, whose compositions— particularly at the start of his tenure at Leipzig—quickly proved to be essentially unperformable by the students at the St. Thomas School.

In both cases, however, those technical requirements were never for the purpose of extravagance. Whether through the pen of Bruhns or Bach, the challenges were necessary to fully support the intended inflections and rhetoric in the minds of their composers.

Mein Herz ist bereit is a perfect example of how Bruhns, and later Bach, required the utmost from their performers, but always

for the sake of proper delivery of the meaning of texts. The opening sonatina begins with a graceful and poised Adagio, establishing the instrumental sonority. Next, a lightly romping Presto begins to impress the listener, but in its modesty it sets up both the ardor and cheerfulness with which the singer will soon join the ensemble. That enthusiasm and sheer joyfulness expressed by singer and violinist in tandem is unmistakable, even infectious. Traversing a number of meters and rhythmic patterns, and giving way temporarily to a most florid bit of violin playing, the arrival at the central Adagio section, and its noticeably different affect, projects a deep solemnity to the texts about the expansiveness of mercy and the breadth of gloriousness. But the initial levels of energy cannot be held back anymore and a return to an Allegro tempo rounds the corner to the final “Alleluia.” The structure of this short work, especially considering its slow central “movement” and florid “Alleluia,” is hardly different from that of later Italian sacred cantatas and motets.

Even though a direct link between Bruhns and Bach cannot be established, the vocal concertos (or cantatas) of Bruhns represent a significant development in the use of variation of tempos, affects, and difficult coloratura for sacred works, laying the groundwork for the multi-movement approach that would be taken by Bach only two or three decades later. [JT]

Sonatina Adagio - Presto [Allegro]

Mein Herz ist bereit, Gott, daß ich singe und lobe.

Wache auf, meine Ehre, wache auf.

My heart is ready, O God: I will sing, and give praise.

Awake up, my glory;

Presto

Wohlauf, Psalter und Harfen wohlauf!

Früh will ich aufwachen.

Awake, lute and harp: I myself will awake right early.

Adagio

Herr, ich will dir danken unter den Völkern, ich will dir lobsingen unter den Leuten.

Denn deine Gnade reichet so weit der Himmel ist und deine Wahrheit, soweit die Wolken gehen.

Erhebe dich, Gott, über den Himmel und deine Ehre über alle Welt.

I will give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the people: and I will sing unto thee among the nations.

For the greatness of thy mercy reacheth unto the heavens: and thy truth unto the clouds.

Set up thyself, O God, above the heavens: and thy glory above all the earth.

Allegro

Alleluja.

Alleluia.

Text: Psalms 57: 8-12, 108:1-5

Dieterich Buxtehude: Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin & Klaglied BuxWV 76 Alto & Bass Solo; Violin, 2 Violas da gamba, Violone

The Hamburg association of composers and theorists (Reincken, Theile, Weckmann, et al) were closely affiliated with Buxtehude, and together they were intrinsically fascinated with the idea and realization of canonic and contrapuntal writing. Their discussions and interests were often focused on exploring the possibilities of juxtaposing melodic lines with inverse versions of the same: upside down, backwards, sometimes starting at different times and beginning at different pitches within the scale, etc. All of these were explored and would eventually be taken up by Bach to masterful degrees, especially in his late work, the Musical Offering.

Buxtehude’s Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin, was composed in the style of composition that is as much about form and compositional skill as it is about affekt and programmatic content. Four verses of a hymn text based on Luke 2:30-32, written in 1524 by Martin Luther (1483-1546), are given a four-part setting, but no specifics as to the

accompanying instruments are given in Buxtehude’s score as printed in 1674. Two of the verses are labeled “Contrapunctus,” a shortened form of “contra punctum” (“against note”). First used in 1320, by the time of the Baroque era the term was applied to a fugal movements or, more broadly, to any counterpoint (or polyphony), meaning the coherent combination of multiple independent melodic parts or voices.

The first verse (Contrapunctus I) is realized in strict counterpoint, and the second verse (named Evolutio) is a clever rearrangement of the first: The top line and the bottom lines are switched, as are the middle parts, creating a kind of mirror image, and the entire verse is transposed down by a fifth in order to accommodate the range of the bass singer. The music has become, in fact, an evolution (or a mutation) of the verse that preceded it. For the third verse (Contrapunctus II) the chorale melody is retained, now 33

Saturday July 12 2014 moved back to the top line, but the “accompanying” voices are much more elaborate than those previously constructed. For the following Evolutio, the transposition is now a true inversion of the preceding verse, including the chorale melody: ascending figures become descending ones, and vice versa.

This work was composed in 1671 for the funeral service of a Lübeck town official. Three years later, however, Buxtehude returned to it for the funeral service of his own father, who had lived with Buxtehude for the previous year. On this occasion, Buxtehude

appended the four verses with a Klaglied (lament) in which one finds the performance instruction, “Tremulo”, indicated for the middle parts. The exact meaning of that direction cannot be unquestionably determined, considering the date of the composition, but it almost certainly meant that the strings should play long notes as a series of evenly divided shorter values. Those values could be, in this case, eighth notes or sixteenth notes. The result is a moving, pathosimbued dirge. [JT]

Contrapunctus I

Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin in Gottes Willen, getrost is mir mein Herz und Sinn, sanft und stille, wie Gott mich verheißen hat: Der Tod is mein Schlaf worden.

With peace and joy I depart according to God’s will, my heart and mind are comforted, calm and quiet.

As God had promised me: death has become my sleep.

Evolutio

Das macht Christus, wahr Gottes Sohn der treue Heiland, den du mich, Herr, hast sehen lahn, und machst bekannt, daß er sei das Leben und Heil in Not und auch im Sterben.

Christ, God’s true son, does this, the loving Savior, whom you, Lord, have allowed me to see, and have made known, that he is life and salvation in death and also in dying.

Contrapunctus II-

Den hast du allen vorgestellt mit großen Gnaden, zu seinem Reich die ganze Welt heißen laden, durch dein teuer heilsam Wort an allem Ort erschollen.

That you presented all with great salvation, to his kingdom, the whole world, every nation, by your loving and wholesome word, resounding in every place.

Evolutio

Er ist das Heil und selig Licht für die Heiden, zu erleuchten die dich dennen nicht, und zu weiden, Er ist deines Volks Israel der Preis, Ehr, Freud, und Wonne.

He is the salvation and the blessed light of the heathens, to enlighten those who know you not, and to nurture them.

He is, for your people Israel, praise, honor, joy, and delight.

Text: Martin Luther (1483-1546) based on the Nunc Dimittis, Simeon’s prayer in Luke:2: 29 Klaglied

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Muß der Tod denn auch entbinden, was kein Fall entbinden kann?

Muß sich der mir auch entwinden, der mir klebt dem Herzen an?

Ach! der Väter trübes Scheiden machet gar zu herbes Leiden, wenn man unsre Brust entherzt, solches mehr als tödlich schmerzt.

Must death then also set free as Adam’s Fall cannot?

Must he also slip away from me the one that clings to my heart?

Ah, the father’s mournful passing bring with it too bitter sorrow, when from the breast the heart is torn The pain is greater than death.

Er Spielt nun die Freuden-Lieder auf des Himmels-Lust-Clavier, da die Engel hin und wieder singen ein mit süßer Zier — Hier is unser Leid-Gesänge schwarze Noten Traur-Gemenge mit viel Kreuzen durchgemischt, dort ist alles mit Lust erfrischt.

Now he plays songs of joy on his cheerful, heavenly keyboard with the angels continually sing with sweet embellishment.

Here are our woeful songs, black notes mournful mixture stirred through with many crosses; there are all then is happily refreshed.

Schlafe wohl, du Hoch-Geliebter, lebe wohl, du seelge Seel; ich, dein Sohn, nun Hoch-Betrübter, schreib auf deines Gräbes Höhl: “Alhie liegt, des Spielens Gaben selbsten Gott erfreuet haben: darumb ist sein Geist beglückt zu des Himmels-Chor gerückt.”

Sleep well, you beloved one, live in peace, you blessed soul; I, your son, now deeply grieving, write on your hollow grave: “Here lies one whose gifts of music once pleased God himself; now his soul in happiness has joined the choir of heaven.”

Text: likely by Buxtehude himself

Saturday July 12 2014 Georg Melchior Hoffmann: Meine Seele rühmt und preist (formerly BWV 189) Tenor Solo; Recorder, Oboe, Violin, Basso continuo

Early efforts to catalogue Bach’s cantatas—coupled with the desire to “find” as many as possible considering the knowledge that many have been lost—resulted in the adoption of a number of works whose authenticity has since been recanted. As a result, it has been discovered that at least a couple of “Bach’s” best-loved cantatas were actually composed by Georg Melchior Hoffmann (1679-1715). The utterly charming cantata for alto and bells (Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde, performed at the 2012 ABS Festival) was originally given the Bach catalogue number (BWV) 53. Altos, saddened by the removal of that work from their cache of solo cantatas by Bach, still have three extraordinary solo works at their disposal. But their lower-voiced neighbors (tenors), having had three “Bach” cantatas to choose from, have suffered the reattribution of two of them, now known to have been composed by Telemann in one case and by Hoffmann in the other. The single remaining cantata for solo tenor by Bach is indeed the most difficult of the three to perform, so tenors did not fare so well at the hands of such scrutiny of origins. Nevertheless, Hoffmann’s cantata remains as piquant and agreeable as ever, qualities that seem to be omnipresent in much of Hoffmann’s music.

Born and trained as a choirboy in Dresden, Hoffman studied law at the Leipzig University and participated in the Collegium Musicum that had been founded by Telemann. In 1705, at the age of 26, he took over the position of organist and music director at the Neukirche and became director of the Collegium. Additionally he composed and conducted a few works for the Leipzig Civic Opera.

He was highly regarded by his contemporaries as an important and

sensitive composer; in fact, the great English music historian Charles Burney (1726-1814) regarded him as one of the finest composers of the first half of the 18th century. Unfortunately he lived a short life of only 36 years, but left behind a considerable body of compositions, most of which have since disappeared.

Among them is the sweet and quite affecting cantata Meine Seele rühmt und preist. Comprised of three arias separated by recitatives, it features a remarkably mellifluous trio of obligato instruments. In the outer movements, the recorder, oboe, and violin immediately establish the joyfulness that is extolled by the unknown poet. In each of those arias, when the tenor joins the three instruments plus the bass line, we have a magical 5-part interplay that is perfectly successful. For the central movement, which describes the elevation of God (“God sits high above us”), the treble instruments retire for a few minutes, leaving the inflection of nobility up to the continuo players who render their parts in regal, dotted rhythms.

The fact that this work was in Bach’s Leipzig library tells us that he knew it well, and the instrumentation of recorder, oboe, and violin—the same (plus trumpet) that is found in the second Brandenburg Concerto—must have intrigued Bach as much as it intrigues us, if not more. Add a trumpet to the skillfully conceived interweaving of Hoffmann’s trio of treble instruments and we have a very good formula for what has become one of Bach’s most celebrated Brandenburgs. [JT]

Aria

Meine Seele rühmt und preist Gottes Huld und reiche Güte.

Und mein Geist, Herz und Sinn und ganz Gemüte ist in meinem Gott erfreut der mein Heil und Helfer heißt.

This my soul extols and praises God’s dear grace and generous kindness.

And my soul, heart and mind and all my spirit are pleased in my God who is called my health and helper.

Recitative

Denn seh’ ich mich und auch mein Leben an, so muß mein Mund in diese Worte brechen: Gott, Gott! was hast du doch an mir getan? Es ist mit tausend Zungen nicht einmal auszusprechen, wie gut du bist, wie freundlich deine Treu, wie reich dein Liebe sei. So sei dir denn Lob, Ehr und Preis gesungen.

When I see myself and how I live, then I must open my mouth with these words: God, God! what have you done for me here? Not even with a thousand tongues could one ever declare, how good you are, how faithful is your word, how rich your charity. So praise, honor, and glory be sung to you.

Aria

Gott hat sich hoch gesetzet und sieht auf das, was niedrig ist.

Gesetzt, daß mich die Welt gering und elend hält, doch bin ich hoch geschätzet, weil Gott mich nicht vergißt

God sits high above us and sees all in low estate.

It is obvious, that to the world I seem low and poor, yet I am highly treasured since God does not forget me.

Recitative

O was für große Dinge treff ich an allen Orten an, die Gott mir getan, wofür ich ihm mein Herz zum Opfer bringe; Er tut es dessen Macht den Himmel kann umschränken, an dessen Namens pracht die Seraphim in Demut nur gedenken. Er hat mir Leib und Leben, er hat mir auch das Recht zur Seeligkeit, und was mich hier und dort erfreut, aus lauter Huld gegeben.

Oh what great things meet me in all directions, those that God has done for me; so I bring to him my heart as an offering; his is the deed whose might heaven can encompass the glory of whose name the Seraphim are humbly ever mindful. He gave me body and life, he too gave me the right to be redeemed, and that which pleases me here and there, is given from great grace.

Aria

Deine Güte, dein Erbarmen Währet, Gott, zu aller Zeit.

Du erzeigst Barmherzigkeit Denen dir ergebnen Armen.

Your kindness, your mercy lasts, God, through all time.

You show your graciousness to your devoted poor creatures.

Text: Poet unknown

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Saturday July 12 2014 Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major BWV 1047 Trumpet, Recorder, Oboe, Violin; 2 Violins, Viola, Violone, Basso continuo On 24 March 1721, a few days after his thirty-sixth birthday, J. S. Bach signed the dedicatory preface to a meticulously prepared and beautifully penned manuscript of “Concerts avec plusieurs instruments” (“Concertos with several instruments”), an offering to the Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg, who lived in Berlin. Bach did not compose these concertos specifically for this collection; indeed, the set can be seen as his selection of the best concerto movements he had written over the previous decade, as he encountered, emulated, and finally assimilated the concerto style of Vivaldi and other contemporary Italian masters.

Eager perhaps to offer a collection which would effectively compliment the Margrave’s excellent orchestra, Bach’s aims in revision and compilation seem to have been to present six entirely disparate solutions to the concerto genre, which was by no means fixed and which could imply many instrumental combinations. Never, in fact, was he to better his achievement here, and each concerto seems exhaustively to exploit a different aspect of the genre: no two share the same instrumentation.

The Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major has four soloists: trumpet, recorder, oboe, and violin, along with strings and continuo.

Bach combines the solo instruments in various ways, and displays both their potential for successful cooperation and their individual

virtuosity (the high tromba parts in the outer movements are particularly impressive). The solo trumpet and the orchestral strings retire for the second movement, leaving the remaining soloists and continuo to present a lyrical meditation on a simple two-bar melodic fragment. As if to compensate the trumpet for its silence during the Andante, Bach gives it both the first and last word in the closing fugue, built on a fanfare-like subject.

—John Butt & Alan Lewis

“Electric Camaraderie”

San Francisco Classical Voice

BRANDENBURG CONCERTOS Bonus Tracks: 5 Sinfonias from Cantatas Concerto for 4 Harpsichords

Johann Sebastian Bach: Amore traditore BWV 203 Bass Solo; Harpsichord continuo and concertato

Cöthen had been a Calvinist principality since 1595, but a century later the reigning prince, Emmanuel Lebrecht (1671-1704), married a Lutheran and began to relax the policies that had disallowed the celebration of the Orthodox Lutheran rites. Their eldest son, Leopold (1694-1728), showed early signs of musical talent and studied music at school and while traveling abroad in the Low Countries, Italy, France, and England. When he returned to Cöthen in 1713, he was an accomplished bass viol player, violinist, harpsichordist, and baritone singer. One of his priorities was to build up the court Kapelle orchestra.

Bach took up his new duties at Cöthen just before the Prince’s 23rd birthday (10 December 1717). This very attractive job offered some freedom to travel, especially through opportunities to travel with the Prince (along with other members of the court orchestra).

It is on one of those trips that Bach probably met the Margrave of Brandenburg in Berlin, later resulting in the composition and compilation of the Brandenburg Concertos, which he sent to the Margrave in March, 1721.

It is during this period that Bach tried to meet with Handel, who was visiting relatives in Halle. Unfortunately, Handel left just before Bach arrived. Bach was never able to meet his famous contemporary, which disappointed him greatly. Another unfortunate event during Bach’s years at Cöthen was the loss of his first wife, Maria Barbara who died while Bach was away on a trip with the Prince. Despite those events, he described the complete period in Cöthen as among the happiest years of his life, a testament to the very satisfying musical opportunities that were a regular part of life at the Cöthen court.

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In 1721, Bach married Anna Magdalena Wilcke (1701-1760), a gifted singer who was also employed at the court. She received a good salary and served as one of Bach’s copyists as well. The new stepmother to Bach’s four surviving children from his first marriage produced 13 of her own.

At the end of the same year, Prince Leopold married, but his Princess was not a music lover. Her influence on the Prince seems to have disrupted artistic and musical activities at court. Nevertheless, for six years, Cöthen provided Bach with ample opportunity to compose concertos, sonatas, and secular cantatas. Among them is Amore traditore, one of only two works that have been handed down to us by Bach in the Italian language. It is unique among Bach’s compositions due to the scoring alone. For baritone and harpsichord, it is the keyboard part that is exceptionally detailed and intricate. It is likely, however, that Bach would have been the harpsichordist, and Prince Leopold the baritone.

Comprised of two arias about the despondency caused by betrayal, with a bit of explanation in the central recitative, both arias are in the new Italian da capo form, characterized by an opening section, a middle and somewhat different section that uses new lines of text, and a repeat of the opening material, but perhaps with greater emphasis and occasionally some added ornamentation to better make the point of the meaning of the verse. It is the second of those two arias that calls upon the harpsichordist to perform an “obligato” part: notes required to be played by the right hand, compared to the standard mode of continuo playing in which the harpsichordist would improvise chords and melodic lines above the bass line. Thus the somewhat dour tone of the second aria becomes a mini-harpsichord concerto with baritone. [JT]

Saturday July 12 2014 Aria

Amore traditore, Tu non m’inganni più.

Non voglio più catene, Non voglio affanni, pene, Cordoglio e servitù.

Traitorous love, you will deceive me no more .

I desire chains no more, I don’t want suffering, pains, heartache or servitude.

Recitative

Voglio provar, Se posso sanar L’anima mia dalla piaga fatale, E viver si può senza il tuo strale; Non sia più la speranza Lusinga del dolore, E la gioja nel mio core, Più tuo scherzo sarà nella mia costanza.

I want to try and see if I can heal my soul of this fatal wound, and if it can live without your arrow; then no more will hope dazzle with sorrow and joy my heart, your games will have no place within my constancy.

Aria

Chi in amore ha nemica la sorte, È follia, se non lascia d’amar.

Sprezzi l’alma le crude ritorte, Se non trova mercede al penar.

Whoever has fate as his enemy in love is a fool if he does not give up loving.

May the soul fracture its cruel bonds if it cannot find mercy for its suffering.

Text: Unknown

Johann Sebastian Bach: Trio Sopr’ il Soggetto Reale (“Musical Offering” Trio in C Minor) BWV 1079 Flute, Violin, Basso continuo

In 1747, Bach made a journey to visit his son Carl Philipp Emanuel in Potsdam. The meeting that occurred there between Johann Sebastian Bach and his son’s employer, King Frederick the Great of Prussia, is well documented. Frederick was an ardent musical amateur, a flute player, and composer who kept a lively musical establishment at his court, and who evidently regarded the arrival of “old Bach” with some excitement.

“With his flute in his hand he … turned to the assembled musicians, and said with a kind of agitation, ‘Gentlemen, old Bach is come.’ The flute was now laid aside; and old Bach … was immediately summoned to the palace.” (W. F. Bach, quoted by Forkel) “The king immediately ordered that [Bach] should be allowed to enter, and as he did so His Majesty went to the so-called forte and piano [a pianoforte] and condescended, in person and without any preparation, to play to Kapellmeister Bach a theme on which to improvise a fugue. This the Kapellmeister did so successfully that not only was His Majesty moved to express his most gracious satisfaction with it, but all those present were astonished. Herr Bach found the theme he was given of such unusual beauty that he intends to work it out on paper as a regular fugue and have it engraved on copper.” (from the Spenersche Zeitung, 11 May, 1747)

Indeed the theme is a fine one; in the end Bach’s copper engraving titled Das Musikalische Opfer (The Musical Offering), issued about two months later, was to include not only his improvised fugue (of which the Ricercar a tre is thought to be the written version), but a series of canons of various degrees of complexity, each built upon

some version of the King’s theme; the massive fugue in six parts, and, lest this display of contrapuntal virtuosity seem too forbidding, a trio sonata whose middle Andante movement is the epitome of the new style—style galant, a highly mannered protocol of phrasing and ornamentation popular in the mid-eighteenth century—as well as the only piece in the whole collection that is not based entirely upon the theme. The whole was elegantly engraved and surmounted with an acrostic:

Regis Issu Cantio Et Reliqua Canonica Arte Resoluta

Translation: “The theme given by the King with additions resolved in the canonic style” The first letters of the inscription spell out the word ricercar, a type of fugue.

The pieces in the Musical Offering were printed in a sequence that does not work particularly well in performance. A variety of solutions to the questions of a proper performance order have been put forth by scholars. What may seem like a strange oversight in the work’s presentation may in fact be a reflection of its intended use: as a collection to be pored over, studied for its intricacies and the lessons they contain, played piecemeal, discussed with friends, and then maybe played again—in other words, enjoyed in a leisurely way that is often difficult for non-Royalty to achieve.

— Elisabeth Le Guin

Il Soggetto Reale (The King’s Theme)

b & b bC

˙ ˙

˙ ˙

n˙

Œ œ #˙ n˙

n˙ b˙

œ œ bœ œ n œ n œ œ œ ˙ ˙ œ

w 37

Sunday July 13 & Sunday July 20 2014

Bach’s Mass in B Minor

Mass in B Minor BWV 232 Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) AMERICAN BACH SOLOISTS ACADEMY ORCHESTRA AMERICAN BACH CHOIR Jeffrey Thomas, conductor •

I. MISSA

II. SYMBOLUM NICENUM

KYRIE

Chorus: Credo in unum Deum

Chorus: Kyrie eleison

Chorus: Patrem omnipotentem

Duet: Christe eleison Fiona Gillespie, soprano Janna Elesia Critz, mezzo-soprano

Duet: Et in unum Dominum Anna Gorbachyova, soprano Min Sang Kim, countertenor (July 13) Travis Hewitt, countertenor (July 20)

Chorus: Kyrie eleison

Chorus: Et incarnatus est Chorus: Crucifixus

GLORIA Chorus: Gloria in excelsis Deo Chorus: Et in terra pax Aria: Laudamus te Agnes Vojtko, mezzo-soprano Cynthia Black, violin (July 13) Augusta McKay Lodge, violin (July 20) Chorus: Gratias agimus tibi Duet: Domine Deus, Rex coelestis Fiona Gillespie, soprano Jason Rylander, tenor (July 13) Corey Shotwell, tenor (July 20) Alissa Roedig, flute

Chorus: Et resurrexit Aria: Et in Spiritum Sanctum Dominum Randall Bunnell, baritone Bethan White, oboe d’amore I Joel Verkaik, oboe d’amore II Chorus: Confiteor Chorus: Et expecto

III. SANCTUS Chorus: Sanctus

Chorus: Qui tollis peccata mundi Aria: Qui sedes ad dextram Patris Raquel Winnica Young, mezzo-soprano (July 13) Dan Cromeenes, countertenor (July 20) Joel Verkaik, oboe d’amore Aria: Quoniam tu solus sanctus David Rugger, bass Paul Avril, horn Daniel Deitch & Kate van Orden, bassoon (July 13) Nate Helgeson & Daniel Deitch, bassoon (July 20) Chorus: Cum Sancto Spiritu ~ INTERMISSION ~

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IV. OSANNA, BENEDICTUS, AGNUS DEI et DONA NOBIS PACEM Chorus: Osanna in excelsis Aria: Benedictus Mark Alexander Bonney, tenor Kelly Roudabush, flute Chorus: Osanna in excelsis Aria: Agnus Dei Gabriela Estephanie Solis, alto Chorus: Dona nobis pacem

Sunday July 13 & Sunday July 20 2014 Bach’s motivations to compile the Mass in B Minor, and the variety of styles that he chose to chronicle, give us tremendous insight into so many burning questions about his self-identity as composer, theologian, and craftsman. As a young man, he was fascinated by the styles of his forbears; mid-career, despite the criticisms from his contemporaries that his music was old-fashioned and fussy, he implemented modern devices from opera and dance better than any other; and at the end of his life—as evidenced by the 16th-century stile antico compositional techniques that he incorporated with never-before-realized perfection into the Mass in B Minor—he again looked backwards as if to bow in homage one last time to the great masters of the expired traditions that he honored and revered. Bach accepted his world, and found no need to dismiss or look beyond the methodologies for the creation of art, or the answers to life’s most difficult questions, that were provided by his culture, by his religion, and by his ancestry. Rather, he sought to perfect all of those ideals and solutions in a way that further glorified what he saw as the ideal expression of life’s meaning and purpose.

The genesis of the Mass in B Minor—so admired for its colossal dimensions and encyclopedic stylistic variety—is actually a long history of separable parts. Although Bach compiled the music for this work in the last years of his life (1748-1749), most of the movements had been composed long before or were reworked from earlier pieces. The origins of the Mass date back to Christmas day of 1724—the day on which the Sanctus was first performed. Indeed, it was entirely in keeping with Lutheran liturgical practice of this time to insert individual parts of the Latin Mass Ordinary into the predominantly vernacular liturgy.

Two other sections—the Kyrie and Gloria—anticipate the compilation of the Mass by a considerable amount of time. In 1733, Bach presented a manuscript of the Kyrie and Gloria (titled Missa) to the new Elector Friedrich August II in Dresden; he also attached to this an ingratiating petition for a titled position in the Elector’s Hofkapelle, which he hoped would give him additional stability in his post as Kantor at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. Three years earlier, Bach had been threatened by the political machinations of the head Leipzig Burgermeister, Jakob Born, who tried to restore the original requisites for the position of Kantor and thus disqualify Bach from his job. Although this initiative failed, Bach continued to be frustrated with the limited musical resources in Leipzig and with the behavior of the authorities. (In the end, Bach had to wait until 1736 to receive the requested court title, that—though it perhaps gave to him a measurable increase in rank—did not dispel the difficulties that persisted in his career at the Thomaskirche.) As John Butt notes in the Cambridge Music Handbook on the Mass in B Minor, Bach seems to have composed the Kyrie and Gloria especially to suit the taste of the Dresden court, in that they demonstrate several style characteristics typical of mass settings at Dresden: the writing for two soprano parts, the setting of the “Christe eleison” as a duet, the absence of da capo arias, and the use of independent instrumental parts. (This invaluable guide examines the Mass from a variety of perspectives and provides an overview of the latest scholarly discoveries.) It is unknown whether these two sections were performed around the time of their presentation. The music for the Gloria, however, shows up again in the mid-1740s, appearing in Bach’s Latin cantata Gloria in excelsis Deo, BWV 191.

For most of the parts of the Mass, Bach borrowed music from his own compositions. Arias, duets, instrumental concertos, and cantata choruses all provide possible sources for the various movements. Some of the sections—such as the breathtaking aria

Johann Sebastian Bach holding a page of his manuscript of Fourteen Canons on the Goldberg Ground, circa 1748,

by Elias Gottlob Haussmann (1695-1774)

“Agnus Dei”—represent the third version of a musical model; the music for the chorus, “Et expecto”, appears in at least three other settings.

Bach gathered the parts of the Mass in B Minor into four discreet manuscripts, to which he assigned a numerical order. Part I consists of the Kyrie/Gloria Missa of 1733; Part II the Symbolum Nicenum or Credo; Part III the Sanctus; and Part IV the Osanna, Benedictus, Agnus Dei, et Dona nobis pacem. Unlike the Missa and Sanctus, the Symbolum Nicenum seems not to have existed before the final compilation. This section also contains the only newly composed parts of the Mass. In fact, only the “Confiteor” is regarded without doubt to be an original composition; Bach’s alterations in the autograph of the opening fugue subject give evidence that no previous manuscript could have existed. Moreover, like the first “Credo” section, the “Confiteor” features a plainchant cantus firmus that corresponds to the specific text. The “Et incarnatus est” was added to the Symbolum Nicenum during the compilation and may also represent a new composition.

There is no record of a performance of the complete Mass in B Minor in Bach’s lifetime. Long after his father’s death, C.P.E. Bach conducted a performance in 1786 of the Symbolum Nicenum in a concert that included works by himself and Handel. Performances in the first part of the 19th century followed this example, presenting only extracts of the Mass. Only in the latter half of the century did the work see performance as an integral composition.

Recent scholarship that has illuminated the often difficult task of reliably dating the various elements of the complete Mass in B Minor has been all but conclusive. Debates still continue about the origins of a number of movements that seem to be parodies of pre-existing compositions. When used in the context of Bach’s compositional methods, “parody” simply refers to Bach’s practice of borrowing music from his own earlier compositions. Typically the context would change, but the music would not.

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Sunday July 13 & Sunday July 20 2014 The methods of determining the origins of the various movements that Bach compiled to assemble the Mass in B Minor are several, but the most interesting, and problematic, is that of calligraphic analysis. Within the autograph score, three types of Bach’s handwriting have been identified: the so-called “fair” hand, characterized by meticulously spaced notes, vertically upright note stems, and calligraphic text; the “revision” hand, characterized by the fluent copying of notes for one group of instruments or voices, but poorly spaced and often corrected notes in another part, and often cluttered verbal underlay (the result of applying a new text to preexisting musical material); and the “composing” hand, characterized by diagonal note stems, uneven note spacing, corrections, and generally poor calligraphy. Through the identification of these handwriting styles, much can be determined regarding the originality of the musical material; that is, whether or not a piece was pre-existing, a parody of an earlier work, or newly composed.

Such technical detective work does not, however, shed light on the most burning question of all: Why did Bach compile, or assemble, a work for which he had no plans or need for performance? We know that in Bach’s last years, he set his hand to two other summative documents that would become monuments of his compositional legacy. In 1747, The Musical Offering was composed and very shortly thereafter published, and The Art of the Fugue, a collection of fugues and canons that exhaustively catalogues the contrapuntal possibilities of one predominant fugue subject, was copied out by Bach in 1745 and published in its final, yet incomplete, form in 1751 (one year after his death).

Bach was clearly reading the writing on the wall regarding his “old school” craftsmanship. Compositional styles had already changed quite dramatically, and the fact that Bach’s music was more or less always considered to be old-fashioned further exacerbated his fears that a century of contrapuntal mastery—begun by his predecessors—was simply going down the drain. He had no reason to believe that any of his church cantatas would survive.

Indeed, Bach’s own compositions essentially replaced those of the previous Leipzig Kantor, and newly composed works by whomever would be his successor would surely replace his. But complete settings of the choral movements from the Ordinary of the Mass had survived as time capsules from previous centuries. And new Age of Enlightenment trends would further secure the longevity of such “masterworks” (a concept that was still mostly outside of the consciousness of artists and their patrons). By encapsulating works from a span of at least thirty-five years—the “Crucifixus” is borrowed from music composed in 1714, and the new movements including “Confiteor” were composed in 1749—Bach was able to leave behind a lasting testament to his art.

Several movements contain more than one type of handwriting. For example, the opening Kyrie contains all three.

The initial four bars show the revision hand for the instrumental parts, which were put to paper first, and the composing hand for the vocal parts. Then, the main body of the Kyrie is in the fair hand, indicating a pre-existing work. Generally, those movements in the fair or revision hands are considered to be pre-existing or parodies.

But Bach’s health was poor by the time he compiled the complete mass (or, missa tota), and there are arguments as to whether or not his infirmity led him to preliminarily sketch new music before committing it to the final version of the score, thus clouding the issue in the cases of music not in the composing hand and that cannot be found among his earlier surviving works.

— Jeffrey Thomas & Kristi Brown-Montesano

“A Red Carpet Evening” awaits you at this year’s annual American Bach Soloists Gala auction, concert, and dinner! Our red carpet will lead you to exclusive auction items, with food and drink from Delicious! Catering and a special ABS performance to enjoy along the way.

Don’t miss this intimate opportunity to mingle with your favorite ABS artists and fellow supporters, all while supporting the artistic and educational initiatives of ABS. Reserve your tickets today for ABS’s unparalleled “Red Carpet Evening!” Invitations will be mailed in July.

A

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EVENING Save the Date Saturday, September 20, 2014 Reserve your tickets today at americanbach.org/gala 40

Sunday July 13 & Sunday July 20 2014 Johann Sebastian Bach

Mass in B Minor, BWV 232

I. MISSA

Tromba I, II, III; Corno da caccia; Timpani; Flauto traverso I, II; Oboe I, II; Oboe d’amore I, II; Fagotto I, II; Violino I, II; Viola; Continuo (e Violoncello); Soprano I, II; Alto; Tenore; Basso

KYRIE 5-part (SSATB) Chorus; Flutes, Oboes d’amore, Bassoon, Strings, Basso continuo

Kyrie eleison.

Lord, have mercy.

Duet: Soprano I & Soprano II Violins, Basso continuo

Christe eleison.

Christ, have mercy.

Alla breve 4-part (SATB) Chorus; Flutes, Oboes d’amore, Bassoon, Strings, Basso continuo

Kyrie eleison.

Lord, have mercy.

GLORIA 5-part (SSATB) Chorus; Trumpets, Timpani, Flutes, Oboes, Bassoon, Strings, Basso continuo

Gloria in excelsis Deo. Et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.

Glory be to God in the highest. And on earth peace to men of good will.

Aria: Soprano II Violin (solo), Strings, Basso continuo

Laudamus te; benedicimus te; adoramus te; glorificamus te.

We praise thee; we bless thee, we worship thee; we glorify thee.

Alla breve 4-part (SATB) Chorus; Trumpets, Timpani, Flutes, Oboes, Bassoon, Strings, Basso continuo

Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam.

We give thanks to thee for thy great glory.

Duet: Soprano I & Tenor Flute (solo), Strings, Basso continuo

Domine Deus, Rex coelestis, Deus Pater omnipotens. Domine Fili unigenite Jesu Christe altissime: Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris: Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father almighty. O Lord, the only-begotten Son Jesus Christ most high: Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father:

4-part (SATB) Chorus; Flutes, Strings, Basso continuo

Qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis: Qui tollis peccata mundi, suscipe deprecationem nostram: Thou that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us: Thou that takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer:

Aria: Alto Oboe d’amore (solo), Strings, Basso continuo

Qui sedes ad dextram Patris, miserere nobis: Thou that sittest at the right hand of the Father, have mercy upon us:

Aria: Bass Corno da caccia (solo), Bassoons, Basso continuo

Quoniam tu solus sanctus, tu solus Dominus, tu solus altissimus, Jesu Christe: For thou only art holy, thou only art the Lord, thou only art the most high, Jesus Christ:

Vivace 5-part (SSATB) Chorus; Trumpets, Timpani, Flutes, Oboes, Bassoon, Strings, Basso continuo

Cum Sancto Spiritu in gloria Dei Patris. Amen.

With the Holy Ghost in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

INTERMISSION

“Thomas united enlightened historical performance practice with native musical intelligence. He welded scholarship to theatricality...This was a B Minor Mass that transcended technical expertise and incidental points of authenticity to touch the heart on the most profound level.” — Allan Ulrich San Francisco Examiner

MASS IN B MINOR 2 CD SET

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Sunday July 13 & Sunday July 20 2014 We can’t do it without you!

American Bach Soloists strive to retain reasonable ticket prices even though sales cover only about 40% of the cost of presenting these outstanding concerts. We are fortunate to receive government, foundation, and corporate support, but the bulk of our contributed income must come from generous donations from individuals like you.

As an ABS donor, you’ll play a crucial role in bringing these wonderful programs to the widest possible audience.

Find out how you can help. Please turn to page 59 for more information.

Your gift in any amount is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

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II. SYMBOLUM NICENUM

Tromba I, II, III; Timpani; Flauto traverso I, II; Oboe I, II; Oboe d’amore I, II; Violino I, II; Viola; Continuo; Soprano I, II; Alto; Tenore; Basso

5-part (SSATB) Chorus; Violins, Basso continuo

Credo in unum Deum I believe in one God

4-part (SATB) Chorus; Trumpets, Timpani, Oboes, Strings, Basso continuo

Patrem omnipotentem, factorem coeli et terrae, visibilium omnium et invisibilium: the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible:

Andante Duet: Soprano I & Alto Oboes d’amore, Strings, Basso continuo

Et in unum Dominum Jesum Christum, Filium Dei unigenitum, et ex Patre natum ante omnia saecula: Deum de Deo, Lumen de Lumine, Deum verum de Deo vero, Genitum non factum, consubstantialem Patri, per quem omnia facta sunt: qui propter nos homines et propter nostram salutem descendit de coelis: And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds: God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten not made; being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made: who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven:

5-part (SSATB) Chorus; Violins, Basso continuo

Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria virgine, et homo factus est. and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.

4-part (SATB) Chorus; Flutes, Strings, Basso continuo

Crucifixus etiam pro nobis sub Pontio Pilato, passus et sepultus est.

He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, he suffered and was buried.

5-part (SSATB) Chorus; Trumpets, Timpani, Flutes, Oboes, Strings, Basso continuo

Et resurrexit tertia die, secundum scripturas: Et ascendit in coelum. Sedet ad dexteram Dei Patris.

Et iterum venturus est cum gloria judicare vivos et mortuos, cujus regni non erit finis.

And the third day he rose again according to the scriptures; and ascended into heaven. He sitteth at the right hand of God the Father. And he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

Aria: Bass Oboes d’amore, Basso continuo

Et in Spiritum Sanctum Dominum et vivificantem, qui ex Patre Filioque procedit: Qui cum Patre et Filio simul adoratur et conglorificatur: qui locutus est per prophetas. Et unam sanctam catholicam et apostolicam ecclesiam.

And in the Holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spake by the prophets. And in one holy, catholic and apostolic church.

5-part (SSATB) Chorus; Basso continuo

Confiteor unum baptisma in remissionem peccatorum.

I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins,

Vivace e Allegro 5-part (SSATB) Chorus; Trumpets, Timpani, Flutes, Oboes, Strings, Basso continuo

Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum et vitam venturi saeculi. Amen. and I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Sunday July 13 & Sunday July 20 2014 III. SANCTUS

Tromba I, II, III; Timpani; Oboe I, II, III; Violino I, II; Viola; Continuo (Violoncello, Violone, Fagotto, Organo); Soprano I, II; Alto I, II; Tenore; Basso

6-part (SSAATB) Chorus; Trumpets, Timpani, Oboes, Strings, Basso continuo

Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth. Pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria ejus.

Holy is the Lord God of Hosts. Heaven and earth are full of his glory.

IV. OSANNA, BENEDICTUS, AGNUS DEI et DONA NOBIS PACEM

Tromba I, II, III; Timpani; Flauto traverso I, II; Oboe I, II; Violino I, II; Viola; Continuo; Soprano I, II; Alto I, II; Tenore I, II; Basso I, II

8-part (SATB/SATB) Double-Chorus; Trumpets, Timpani, Flutes, Oboes, Strings, Basso continuo

Osanna in excelsis.

Hosanna in the highest.

Aria: Tenor Flute (solo), Basso continuo

Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.

Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

8-part (SATB/SATB) Double-Chorus; Trumpets, Timpani, Flutes, Oboes, Strings, Basso continuo

Osanna in excelsis.

Hosanna in the highest.

Aria: Alto Violins, Basso continuo

Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.

Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.

4-part (SATB) Chorus; Trumpets, Timpani, Flutes, Oboes, Strings, Basso continuo

Dona nobis pacem.

Grant us peace.

AMERICAN BACH SOLOISTS present

Handel’s Messiah in Grace Cathedral Tuesday December 16 2014 Thursday December 18 2014 Friday December 19 2014 Mary Wilson soprano Eric Jurenas countertenor Wesley Rogers tenor Jesse Blumberg baritone

SOLD OUT YEAR AFTER YEAR

americanbach.org/tickets 43

Monday – Wednesday July 14 – 16 2014

Academy-in-Action Concerts

Academy-In-Action Concerts These concerts are generously underwritten by Judith Flynn.

• In July 2010, the American Bach Soloists inaugurated North America’s newest annual professional training program in Historically Informed Performance Practice, drawing on the ensemble’s distinguished roster of performers. The American Bach Soloists Academy offers advanced conservatory-level students and emerging professional musicians unique opportunities to study and perform Baroque music in a multi-disciplinary learning environment.

The Academy is home to several series of events including Academy-in-Action Concerts, a Lecture Series, a Master Class Series, and Public Colloquia.

•

The Academy-in-Action Concerts feature the next generation of early music virtuosi as they perform cantatas, arias, and chamber music by masters of the Baroque.

•

The Lecture Series joins faculty and students in a series of enlightening and informative free public lectures.

•

The Master Class Series allows the ABS Academy to open its doors to the public to witness the artistic transformations that make master classes so tremendously exciting.

•

The Public Colloquia create engaging forums for performers, presenters and their public supporters.

Most Academy days include master classes with primary mentors and ensemble rehearsals coached by primary and cross-disciplinary teachers. On many afternoons, faculty members present lectures on a variety of relevant topics including performance practice, Baroque studies, and historical contexts.

These Academy-in-Action Concerts showcase the talents of Academy participants. Many are works in progress and represent both in-depth development of previously studied repertoire as well as forays into newly awakened aspects of performance, musical rhetoric, and historical perspectives.

Please ask an usher for each evening’s specific program.

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L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato HWV 55 George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) Based on L’Allegro and Il Penseroso by John Milton (1608-1674) arranged and adapted by James Harris (1709-1780) Il Moderato by Charles Jennens (1700-1773) Final Duet adapted from The Tempest by William Shakespeare (1564-1616) DRAMATIS PERSONAE L’ALLEGRO – Anna Gorbachyova, soprano; Michael Jankosky, tenor; Benjamin Kazez, bass IL PENSEROSO – Hailey Fuqua, soprano; Agnes Vojtko, alto; Jason Rylander, tenor IL MODERATO – Fiona Gillespie, soprano; Corey Shotwell, tenor; David Rugger, bass CHORUS AMERICAN BACH SOLOISTS ACADEMY ORCHESTRA - AMERICAN BACH CHOIR Jeffrey Thomas, conductor • Handel’s 1740 masterpiece—known by its short name, “L’Allegro”—is arguably his finest. In it and through it, he brought all of his compassionate understanding for the world around him, his unparalleled expertise at expressing human emotions and conditions, and his omnipresent sense of goodwill to listeners. It is not opera, it is not oratorio; and yet it seems to be both, blurring their distinctions while displaying an astonishing array of colors, moods, and sonorities that can overwhelm the listener in their clarity and variety.

A work so great as this—and other masterpieces by composers who also found a way, through words and music, to celebrate humanity—must have come from a spark of inspiration so bright as to ignite its creator’s genius beyond the realm of his ordinary level of superior achievement.

By the time Handel reached his mid-50s, the ups and downs of his career had been a roller coaster ride. His ascent to the top of the heap of the western world’s most important, successful, and popular composers was quick, set in motion following early successes in Hamburg, Italy, and on the opera stages of London. But his prominence became a target for rivals and a solid decade or so of aggressive competition from lesser impresarios took its toll on his career, on his finances, and certainly on his sense of professional security.

His personal outlook, by contrast, seems not to have been terribly affected by the ebbs and flows of the favor of London’s upper class audiences. Except for a few years of emotional upsets during his late teens, he seems to have kept his personal life and humors on an even keel. Not much is known about his private affairs, quite probably because there is not much to tell. Nevertheless, life in London was difficult. The city’s untamed growth created hardship for many and desolation for the most unfortunate. Then, as now, life’s turns of fate could quickly topple the most steady soul.

A century before, Robert Burton (1577-1640) had published The Anatomy of Melancholy in 1621, an encyclopedic discourse, both serious and satirical at times, about all the human emotions that cause the mental and physical manifestations of melancholia. Although copies were somewhat rare during Handel’s era, it was nonetheless

a famous and well-regarded collection of references to ancient and medieval philosophy, and, happily, it offered a considerable portion of its length to the subject of remedies.

John Milton’s poems on the subjects of L’Allegro (the happy man, an extrovert) and Il Penseroso (the thoughtful, pensive, melancholy man) were composed at Cambridge while he was in his early twenties, around 1630. They offered a beautifully sincere and evocative perspective on much the same subject material, but never with the sort of scientific and dour tone (no matter how cleverly expressed) that Burton’s writing presented.

They are exquisite poems, full of as many allusions to external subjects as one finds in the poetry of T. S. Eliot.

Handel’s L’Allegro

Friday July 18 2014

Handel, who seems never to have expressed personal elation or melancholy at all, must have enjoyed the happy medium between the two. When his colleague, Charles Jennens—the librettist for Messiah and several other works set by Handel—approached the composer with the idea of setting Milton’s verse, Handel embraced the idea with fervor and excitement, and he asked Jennens to compose verses to express a third option: Moderation. Jennens complied and further suggested that a scholar and grammarian named James Harris should reorder Milton’s verses in such a way as to create a dialogue that would lead to the inevitability and necessity of eventual emotional temperance.

Composed during the last week of January and the first week of February in 1740, it had its premiere on February 27th at the Royal Theatre of Lincoln’s Inn Fields.

That year saw no opera performances by Handel at all, save one: Imeneo had its premiere, but it was billed as “operetta.”

By then, Handel’s new career and fame as the creator of the English oratorio had brought him success that would only continue to rise. Yet, forevermore this unique ode would give us the most intuitive glance into the spirit of Handel, a man who enjoyed, even relished life yet was acutely aware of human suffering. It expresses neither the thoughts nor the words of characters, but rather the inner emotional conflicts and search for contentedness of humankind’s collective soul. [JT] 45

Friday July 18 2014 LIBRETTO Based on L’Allegro and Il Penseroso by John Milton (1608-1674) arranged and adapted by James Harris (1709-1780) Il Moderato by Charles Jennens (1700-1773) Final Duet adapted from The Tempest by William Shakespeare (1564-1616) PARTE PRIMA

Annotations of Milton texts by Michael J. Cummings

Accompagnato Tenor

L’Allegro

Hence loathed Melancholy Of Cerberus, and blackest midnight born, In Stygian cave forlorn ‘Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy, Find out some uncouth cell, Where brooding darkness spreads his jealous wings, And the night-raven sings; There under ebon shades, and low-brow’d rocks, As ragged as thy locks, In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell.

Cerberus: In Greek mythology, a three-headed dog keeping watch at the gates of Hades (the Underworld).

Stygian: Having to do with the River Styx, which in Greek mythology encircles Hades (the Underworld). ebon: (1) Like ebony, a dark hardwood; black; dark.

(2) Ebony itself.

Cimmerian: Dark, gloomy .

Accompagnato Soprano

Il Penseroso

Hence vain deluding joys, Dwell in some idle brain, And fancies fond with gaudy shapes possess, As thick and numberless As the gay motes that people the sunbeams, Or likest hovering dreams The fickle pensioners of Morpheus’ train.

motes: Specks of dust. pensioners: men-at-arms; attendants.

Morpheus: In Greek mythology, the god of dreams.

Air Soprano

L’Allegro

Come, thou goddess fair and free, In Heav’n yclep’d Euphrosyne; And by men heart-easing Mirth, Whom lovely Venus, at a birth, With two sister-graces more, To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore.

yclep’d: Named, called.

Euphrosyne: See Graces.

Venus: Roman name for Aphrodite, the goddess of love in Greek mythology .

Graces: In Greek mythology, three sister deities: Aglaia, goddess of splendor and brightness; Euphrosyne, goddess of joy; and Thalia, goddess of festivity and good cheer.

Ivy-crownèd: Wearing an ivy wreath as a crown.

Bacchus: Roman name for Dionysus, the god of wine and revelry in Greek mythology.

Air Soprano

Il Penseroso

Come rather, goddess sage and holy; Hail, divinest Melancholy, Whose saintly visage is too bright To hit the sense of human sight; Thee bright-hair’d Vesta long of yore, To solitary Saturn bore.

Vesta: Roman name for Hestia, the goddess of the hearth in Greek mythology.

Saturn: Roman name for Cronus, the first king of the gods in Greek mythology. He was overthrown

Air Tenor

L’Allegro

Haste thee, nymph, and bring with thee Jest and youthful jollity, Quips and cranks, and wanton wiles, Nods, and becks, and wreathed smiles Such as hang on Hebe’s cheek, And love to live in dimple sleek, Sport, that wrinkled care derides, And laughter, holding both his sides.

cranks: Clever or fanciful speech; whims; caprices.

Hebe: In Greek mythology, the goddess of youth.

Chorus

L’Allegro

Haste thee, nymph, and bring with thee Jest, and youthful jollity; Sport, that wrinkled care derides, And laughter, holding both his sides.

Air Tenor

L’Allegro

Come, and trip it as you go, On the light fantastic toe.

Chorus

L’Allegro

Come, and trip it as you go, On the light fantastic toe.

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trip: Dance.

Friday July 18 2014 Accompagnato Soprano

Il Penseroso

Come, pensive nun, devout and pure, Sober, steadfast, and demure; All in a robe of darkest grain, Flowing with majestic train.

nun: Another reference to Melancholy.

Arioso Soprano

Il Penseroso

Come, but keep thy wonted state, With even step, and musing gait, And looks commercing with the skies, Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes.

commercing: Communicating.

Accompagnato Alto

Il Penseroso

There held in holy passion still, Forget thyself to marble, till With a sad leaden downward cast Thou fix them on the earth as fast.

And join with thee calm peace, and quiet, Spare fast, that oft with gods doth diet, And hears the muses in a ring Round about Jove’s altar sing.

Forget . . . marble: She is as still as a marble statue. muses: In Greek mythology, the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory. The Muses inspired writers, musicians, dancers, and scholars. Calliope, for example, was the muse of epic poetry, and Euterpe was the muse of lyric poetry. The other Muses were Clio (history), Terpsichore (choral singing and dance), Melpomene (tragic plays), Thalia (tragic comedies), Euterpe (lyric poetry), Polyhymnia (sacred poetry), and Urania (astronomy).

Jove: Allusion to the overthrow of Saturn by his son Jove. Saturn was the Roman name for Cronus, king of the gods in Greek mythology; Jove was one of the Roman names for Zeus, who became king of the gods after overthrowing his father. The other Roman name for Zeus was Jupiter.

Chorus

Il Penseroso

Join with thee calm peace, and quiet, Spare fast, that oft with gods doth diet.

Recitative Tenor

L’Allegro

Hence, loathed Melancholy, In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell.

But haste thee, Mirth, and bring with thee The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty.

Recitative Soprano

L’Allegro

And if I give thee honour due, Mirth, admit me of thy crew!

Air Soprano

L’Allegro

Mirth, admit me of thy crew, To live with her, and live with thee, In unreproved pleasures free; To hear the lark begin his flight, And singing startle the dull night; Then to come in spite of sorrow, And at my window bid good morrow.

Mirth, admit me of thy crew!

Accompagnato Soprano

Il Penseroso

First, and chief, on golden wing, The cherub Contemplation bring; And the mute Silence hist along, ‘Less Philomel will deign a song, In her sweetest, saddest plight, Smoothing the rugged brow of night.

hist along: Come along quietly.

‘Less: Unless...

Philomel: Another name for a nightingale. Philomel is derived from the name Philomela. In Greek mythology. Philomela was a princess of Athens. Her sister, Procne, was married to King Tereus of Thrace.

Not satisfied with only one of the sisters, Tereus lusted after Philomela and one day raped her. To prevent her from revealing his crime, he cut out her tongue. However, Philomel embroidered a tapestry depicting his brutality and showed it to her sister.

The two women then plotted against Tereus and ended up serving him his son, Itys, in a stew. When Tereus discovered what they did, he chased them with an axe. The gods then turned Philomela into a nightingale and Procne into a swallow.

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Friday July 18 2014 Air Soprano

Il Penseroso

Sweet bird, that shun’st the noise of folly, Most musical, most melancholy!

Thee, chauntress, oft the woods among, I woo to hear thy even-song.

Or, missing thee, I walk unseen, On the dry smooth-shaven green, To behold the wand’ring moon Riding near her highest noon.

Sweet bird. . . da capo

Recitative Bass

L’Allegro

If I give thee honour due, Mirth, admit me of thy crew!

Air Bass

L’Allegro

Mirth, admit me of thy crew!

To listen how the hounds and horn Cheerly rouse the slumb’ring morn, From the side of some hoar hill, Through the high wood echoing shrill.

hounds and horn: The baying hounds and blowing horns of a fox hunt. cheerly: Cheerily.

Air Soprano

Il Penseroso

Oft on a plat of rising ground, I hear the far-off curfew sound, Over some wide-water’d shore, Swinging slow, with sullen roar; Or if the air will not permit, Some still removed place will fit, Where glowing embers through the room Teach light to counterfeit a gloom.

plat: small plot of ground.

Air Tenor

Il Penseroso

Far from all resort of mirth, Save the cricket on the hearth, Or the bellman’s drowsy charm, To bless the doors from nightly harm.

bellman: Town crier.

Recitative Tenor

L’Allegro

If I give thee honour due, Mirth, admit me of thy crew!

Air Tenor

L’Allegro

Let me wander, not unseen By hedge-row elms, on hillocks green: There the ploughman, near at hand, Whistles over the furrow’d land, And the milkmaid singeth blithe, And the mower whets his scythe, And every shepherd tells his tale Under the hawthorn in the dale.

Air Soprano

L’Allegro

Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures, While the landscape round it measures Russet lawns, and fallows grey, Where the nibbling flocks do stray.

Accompagnato Bass

L’Allegro

Mountains, on whose barren breast The lab’ring clouds do often rest: Meadows trim with daisies pied, Shallow brooks, and rivers wide Tow’rs and battlements it sees, Bosom’d high in tufted trees.

pied: Of many colors; colorful.

Air Soprano

L’Allegro

Or let the merry bells ring round, And the jocund rebecks sound To many a youth, and many a maid, Dancing in the checquer’d shade.

rebecks: Stringed musical instruments.

Chorus

L’Allegro

And young and old come forth to play On a sunshine holiday, Till the livelong daylight fail.

Thus past the day, to bed they creep, By whisp’ring winds soon lull’d asleep.

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INTERMISSION

chauntress: Chanter, singer.

tells his tale: Counts his sheep.

Friday July 18 2014 PARTE SECONDA Accompagnato Alto

Il Penseroso

Hence, vain deluding joys, The brood of Folly without father bred!

How little you bestead, Or fill the fixed mind with all your toys.

Oh! let my lamp, at midnight hour, Be seen in some high lonely tow’r, Where I may oft out-watch the Bear With thrice-great Hermes, or unsphere The spirit of Plato to unfold What worIds, or what vast regions hold Th’immortal mind that hath forsook Her mansion in this fleshly nook.

bestead: Satisfy.

Bear: In astronomy, the constellation known as Ursa Major (commonly called the Bear or the Big Dipper) Hermes: Hermes Trismegistus, an Egyptian alchemist and author of works on magic, the soul, and philosophy. Trismegistus means thrice great.

Plato: The great Greek thinker who helped lay the foundation for the philosophy of the western world. immortal mind: Plato’s soul or mind. mansion: heavenly home.

Air Alto

Il Penseroso

Sometimes let gorgeous Tragedy In sceptred pall come sweeping by, Presenting Thebes, or Pelops’ line, Or the tale of Troy divine; Or what (though rare) of later age Ennobled hath the buskin’d stage.

Tragedy: Tragic stage play personified. sceptr’d pall: Black robe.

Thebes . . . divine: Settings or subjects of tragedies by ancient Greek playwrights. buskin’d: Adjective (buskined) derived from buskin, the name of a boot worn by actors in ancient Greek and Roman tragedies. Hence, a buskin’d stage is a stage presenting a tragedy.

Air Soprano

Il Penseroso

But oh! sad virgin, that thy pow’r Might raise Musaeus from his bow’r, Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing Such notes as, warbled to the string, Drew iron tears down Pluto’s cheeks And made hell grant what love did seek.

sad virgin: Another reference to Melancholy Musaeus: In Greek mythology, a poet and singer.

Orpheus: In Greek mythology, an extraordinary musician who was the son of the god Apollo and the muse Calliope. When he played the lyre, his music was so beautiful that even the rivers would change their courses to listen to it. The god of the Underworld, Pluto (Greek name, Hades), was so enthralled with his music that he allowed Orpheus to attempt to lead his wife, Eurydice, out of the Underworld. But he failed because he disobeyed an order from Pluto not to look back at her until they reached the upper world.

Pluto: See Orpheus, above.

Recitative Soprano

Il Penseroso

Thus night oft see me in thy pale career, Till unwelcome morn appear.

morn: Allusion to Aurora, the Roman name for Eos, the goddess of dawn in Greek mythology.

Solo & Chorus Bass

L’Allegro

Populous cities please me then, And the busy hum of men.

L’Allegro

Populous cities please us then, And the busy hum of men, Where throngs of knights and barons bold, In weeds of peace high triumphs hold; With store of ladies, whose bright eyes Rain influence, and judge the prize Of wit, or arms, while both contend To win her grace, whom all commend.

Populous cities. . . da capo

weeds: Attire, clothing.

Air Tenor

L’Allegro

There let Hymen oft appear In saffron robe, with taper clear, And pomp, and feast, and revelry, With mask, and antique pageantry; Such sights as youthful poets dream On summer eves by haunted stream.

Hymen: In Greek mythology, the god of marriage.

Accompagnato Soprano

Il Penseroso

Me, when the sun begins to fling His flaring beams, me goddess bring To arched walks of twilight groves, And shadows brown that Sylvan loves; There in close covert by some brook, Where no profaner eye may look.

Sylvan: (1) Person who lives in a forest; (2) Sylvanus, the Roman god of the forest. covert: Sheltered or protected place.

49

Friday July 18 2014 Air Soprano

Il Penseroso

Hide me from day’s garish eye, While the bee with honied thigh, Which at her flow’ry worth doth sing, And the waters murmuring, With such consort as they keep Entice the dewy-feather’d sleep; And let some strange mysterious dream Wave at his wings in airy stream Of lively portraiture display’d, Softly on my eyelids laid.

Then as I wake, sweet music breathe, Above, about, or underneath, Sent by some spirit to mortals good, Or th’unseen genius of the wood.

garish eye: The sun.

Entice . . . Sleep: The murmuring waters lull the listener to sleep. mortals good: Mortals that are good; good mortals. genius: Guardian spirit.

Air Tenor

L’Allegro

I’ll to the well-trod stage anon, If Jonson’s learned sock be on, Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy’s child, Warble his native wood-notes wild.

Jonson’s: Reference to Ben Jonson (1572-1637), a major Elizabethan playwright and poet and contemporary of Shakespeare. sock: Footwear of actors with comic parts in the drama of ancient Greece and Rome. Here, Milton uses the word to mean wittiness or drollery.

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Friday July 18 2014 Air Soprano

L’Allegro

And ever against eating cares, Lap me in soft Lydian airs Married to immortal verse, Such as the meeting soul may pierce In notes, with many a winding bout Of linked sweetness long drawn out; With wanton heed, and giddy cunning, The melting voice through mazes running, Untwisting all the chains that tie The hidden soul of harmony.

Lydian airs: Soothing Lydian music. The ancient kingdom of Lydia was in the northwestern region of present-day Turkey. It flourished in the seventh and sixth centuries BC. Possibly melodies using the Lydian scale or mode.

Air Soprano

L’Allegro

Orpheus’ self may heave his head From golden slumbers on a bed Of heap’d Elysian flow’rs, and hear Such strains as would have won the ear Of Pluto, to have quite set free His half-regain’d Eurydice.

Orpheus: In Greek mythology, an extraordinary musician who was the son of the god Apollo and the muse Calliope. When he played the lyre, his music was so beautiful that even the rivers would change their courses to listen to it. The god of the Underworld, Pluto (Greek name, Hades), was so enthralled with his music that he allowed Orpheus to attempt to lead his wife, Eurydice, out of the Underworld. But he failed because he disobeyed an order from Pluto not to look back at her until they reached the upper world.

Elysian: Heavenly.

Pluto: Roman name for Hades, the Greek god of the underworld.

Eurydice: See Orpheus above.

Air Tenor

L’Allegro

These delights if thou canst give, Mirth, with thee I mean to live.

Mirth: The speaker of the poem addresses Euphrosyne, one of three sister deities in Greek mythology: Aglaia, goddess of splendor and brightness; Euphrosyne, goddess of joy; and Thalia, goddess of festivity and good cheer.

Chorus

L’Allegro

These delights if thou canst give, Mirth, with thee we mean to live.

Recitative Soprano

Il Penseroso

But let my due feet never fail To walk the studious cloister’s pale, And love the high-embowed roof, With antic pillars’ massy proof, And storied windows richly dight, Casting a dim religious light.

Chorus & Solo Chorus

Il Penseroso

There let the pealing organ blow To the full voic’d quire below, In service high and anthems clear!

Soprano

Il Penseroso

And let their sweetness, through mine ear, Dissolve me into ecstasies, And bring all Heav’n before mine eyes!

Air Soprano

Il Penseroso

May at last my weary age Find out the peaceful hermitage, The hairy gown and mossy cell, Where I may sit and rightly spell Of ev’ry star that Heav’n doth show, And ev’ry herb that sips the dew; Till old experience do attain To something like prophetic strain.

Solo & Chorus Soprano

Il Penseroso

These pleasures, Melancholy, give, And I with thee will choose to live.

Chorus

Il Penseroso

These pleasures, Melancholy, give, And we with thee will choose to live.

The speaker asks Melancholy to let him walk the outer hallways of a cloistered convent with dim light coming through stained-glass windows. While an organ plays and a choir sings, he would “dissolve into ecstasies” and have a vision of heaven.

hermitage: In old age, the speaker would ask for a hermit’s cell. hairy gown: Hair shirt, which monks and other religious persons wore to cause themselves discomfort. This discomfort helped them to repent for their sins and distance themselves from worldly pleasure.

continued…

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Friday July 18 2014 PARTE TERZA Accompagnato Bass

Il Moderato

Hence, boast not, ye profane, Of vainly-fancied, little-tasted pleasure, Pursued beyond all measure, And by its own excess transform’d to pain.

Air Bass

Il Moderato

Come, with native lustre shine, Moderation, grace divine, Whom the wise God of nature gave, Mad mortals from themselves to save.

Keep, as of old, the middle way, Nor deeply sad, nor idly gay, But still the same in look and gait, Easy, cheerful and sedate.

Accompagnato Bass

Il Moderato

Sweet temp’rance in thy right hand bear, With her let rosy health appear, And in thy left contentment true, Whom headlong passion never knew; Frugality by bounty’s side, Fast friends, though oft as foes belied; Chaste love, by reason led secure, With joy sincere, and pleasure pure; Happy life from Heav’n descending, Crowds of smiling years attending: All this company serene, Join, to fill thy beauteous train.

Chorus

Il Moderato

All this company serene, Join, to fill thy beauteous train.

Air Soprano

Il Moderato

Come, with gentle hand restrain Those who fondly court their bane, One extreme with caution shunning, To another blindly running.

Kindly teach, how blest are they, Who nature’s equal rules obey; Who safely steer two rocks between, And prudent keep the golden mean.

Recitative Tenor

Il Moderato

No more short life they then will spend In straying farther from its end, In frantic mirth, and childish play, In dance and revels, night and day; Or else like lifeless statues seeming, Ever musing, moping, dreaming.

Air Tenor

Il Moderato

Each action will derive new grace From order, measure, time, and place; Till life the goodly structure rise In due proportion to the skies.

Duet Soprano & Tenor

Il Moderato

As steals the morn upon the night, And melts the shades away: So truth does fancy’s charm dissolve, And rising reason puts to flight The fumes that did the mind involve, Restoring intellectual day.

Chorus

Il Moderato

Thy pleasures, Moderation, give, In them alone we truly live.

END

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Mary Wilson, soprano Distinguished Artist Series AMERICAN BACH SOLOISTS Jeffrey Thomas, conductor • Tra le fiamme (ll consiglio)

George Frideric Handel

HWV 170

1685-1759

Text: Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili (1653-1730) Composed in Rome, 1707

Kenneth Slowik viola da gamba - Louise Carslake & Debra Nagy recorders - Debra Nagy oboe Robert Mealy & Elizabeth Blumenstock violins - William Skeen violoncello Steven Lehning violone - Corey Jamason harpsichord Concerto in D Major for Harpsichord Solo

BWV 972

Johann Sebastian Bach 1685-1750

Composed in Weimar, 1713 After Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in D Major, RV 230, L’Estro armonico, Op. 3 no. 9, Amsterdam, 1711

[Allegro]—Larghetto—Allegro Corey Jamason harpsichord Non sa che sia dolore

Johann Sebastian Bach

BWV 209

Text: Unknown Composed in Leipzig, 1729

Sandra Miller flute Elizabeth Blumenstock & Robert Mealy violins - Clio Tilton viola - William Skeen violoncello Steven Lehning violone - Corey Jamason harpsichord

Mary Wilson, soprano

Saturday July 19 2014

~ Intermission ~ Concerto in B minor for 4 Violins

RV 580

Antonio Vivaldi 1678-1741

Published in L’Estro armonico, Op. 3 no. 10, Amsterdam, 1711

Allergo assai—Largo-Larghetto-Largo—Allegro Elizabeth Blumenstock, Robert Mealy, Katherine Kyme, Noah Strick violins Jason Pyszkowski & Clio Tilton violas - William Skeen & Kenneth Slowik violoncellos Steven Lehning violone - Corey Jamason harpsichord In furore iustissimae irae

RV 626

Antonio Vivaldi

Text: Anonymous-traditional Composed in Rome, 1720s

Elizabeth Blumenstock, Katherine Kyme, Robert Mealy, Noah Strick, Lisa Weiss, David Wilson violins Jason Pyszkowski & Clio Tilton violas - William Skeen & Kenneth Slowik violoncellos Steven Lehning violone - Corey Jamason harpsichord

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Saturday July 19 2014 George Frideric Handel: Tra le fiamme (Il consiglio) HWV 170 Soprano Solo; 2 Recorders, 2 Violins, Viola da gamba, Basso continuo

At the age of twenty-one, George Frideric Handel embarked on an expedition that would prove enjoyable, enlightening, profitable, and integral to his career. A Medici prince had made an offer to Handel to visit Italy. He packed up his things in Hamburg and began his journey to Florence, Rome, Naples, and Venice. Italy was the center of European music, and one of the most valuable traits of Italian music was the expressive style in which its composers wrote for the voice. Italian vocal writing was characterized by its qualities of suppleness, expansiveness, flexibility, and lyricism. Handel would quickly master the art, and Italian opera would become the bedrock of his career.

But in Rome, where Handel spent most of his time between 1706 and 1710, papal decrees had closed the public theaters. Opera was an unprofitable medium. Instead, the Italian cantata would provide him with the most opportunity to grow and to succeed as a composer. It was a popular genre, due in part to the constraints of the papal ban, and further supported by the patronage of foreign visitors and local aristocrats—even Church officials—who were eager to hear the considerable talent of Venetian singers put to good use, even if opera was out of the question.

Alessandro Scarlatti was the role model to whom Handel looked as his inspiration to master the art of composing Italian cantatas. Scarlatti, in his lifetime, composed more than six hundred! Most of them were scored for voice with continuo only.

These displayed a remarkable ability to find tremendous variety of expression within the constraints of extremely limited forces (although an Italian continuo group might have included a half dozen or so instruments, capable of a whole world of sounds).

Scarlatti was the master, but Handel took the form to new heights.

Cantatas with orchestral accompaniments—or cantate con stromenti—had been rare in Rome, until Handel’s mastery of the craft put him and his new sound at the forefront.

Performances of cantatas, serenatas, and pastorales—which in some cases were actually mini-operas in all ways except by name—were often presented in the “academies” held in the private theaters of discerning (and wealthy) patrons of the arts. These academies were the outgrowth of the scuole popular in Venice during

the previous century. One generous patron was the Marchese (later Prince) Francesco Maria Ruspoli, whose Roman palace and country estates were the venues for performances of Handel’s works. Handel had been engaged between 1707 and 1709 to compose a new secular cantata each week for performances every Sunday. But the Church scrutinized even these private productions. In 1708, Ruspoli was commanded to replace a female singer with a castrato for the role of Mary Magdalene in a performance of Handel’s La Resurrezione.

Among the other patrons for whom Handel wrote cantatas were members of the Accademia dell’Arcadia, a literary society that welcomed Rome’s best musicians, and the cardinals Benedetto Pamphili and Pietro Ottoboni. Pamphili had some considerable talent as a poet and wrote several librettos that Handel would set to music, including Il Trionfo del Tempo. He is probably the author of Tra le fiamme, scored for solo soprano accompanied by viola da gamba, recorders, strings and basso continuo. The poet describes the attraction his own heart has for “playing in the flames”, but admonishes himself that few survive them. The legend of Daedalus and Icarus is recalled. In order to escape from Crete with his son Icarus, the Grecian inventor Daedalus fashioned wings of wax and feathers. But Icarus disobeyed the instructions of his father and flew too close to the sun. Icarus fell into the sea and drowned because his wings melted in the sun’s heat. Daedalus, however, continued on to safety. The poet concludes that while there are many like Icarus in this world, there are few like Daedalus. Let those “fly” who can; the rest of us should only do so in our dreams. It’s much safer.

Handel’s setting marvelously captures the implications of the text. The first movement, in which are mentioned the “pleasures” of the flames, is richly scored; the viola da gamba itself seems to dance in the flames. The story of Icarus’ proud but reckless flight is accompanied by music that is haughty, but punctuated by notes crashing to the bottom, just like the poor boy. The third aria, about flight of body and of mind, goes at a breezy pace, but with an undertone of danger. The recapitulation of the opening of the first movement is extraordinary. Could it be that the poet muses that he simply won’t learn, yearning once again for the wild life? [JT]

Aria

Tra le fiamme tu scherzi per gioco, O mio core, per farti felice, e t’inganna una vaga beltà.

Cadon mille farfalle nel foco, e si trova una sola fenice, che risorge se a morte sen va.

Among the flames you playfully dart, O my heart, to make you happy, and are deceived by a fine beauty.

A thousand butterflies fall into the fire, but there is only one phoenix, which rises from death.

Recitative

Dedalo già le fortunate penne tessea con mano ardita e con tenera cera piuma a piuma aggiungea. Icaro, il fanciulletto sovente confondea l’ingegnoso lavoro; Ah, così mai trattato non avesse e cera e piume: Per chi non nacque augello il volare è portento, il cader è costume.

Daedalus once, with crafty hands weaved fortunate wings out of soft wax to which feather-to-feather is added. Icarus, the young child confused the cunning work; Ah, so he should never have treated wax and feathers in this way: For those not born a bird, flying is a miracle and falling is customary.

Aria

Pien di nuovo e bel diletto, sciolse l’ali il giovinetto, e con l’aure gìa scherzando.

Ma del volo sì gradito, troppo ardito, l’onda ancor va mormorando.

Full of new and lovely enjoyment, the young boy melted the wings, while darting in the breezes.

But the flight so pleasing, but too bold, is still talked about by the murmuring waves.

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Saturday July 19 2014 Recitative

Sì, sì purtroppo è vero: nel temerario volo molti gl’lcari son, Dedalo un solo.

Yes, yes it is unfortunately true: there are many flying daringly like Icarus, but only one Daedalus.

Aria

Voli per l’aria chi può volare scorra veloce la terra, il mare, parta, ritorni né fermi il piè.

Voli ancor l’uomo ma coi pensieri che delle piume ben più leggeri e più sublimi il ciel gli diè.

Fly through the air whoever wishes to do so rushing through land and sea, starting and stopping without returning to the foot.

Man may fly, but with thoughts far lighter and sublime than the wings that heaven gave him.

Recitative

L’uomo, che nacque per salire al cielo, ferma il pensier nel suolo, e poi dispone il volo con ali che si finge, e in sè non ha.

The man, born to ascend to heaven, leaves his thoughts on the ground, and then has flight with pretend wings, that he was not born with.

Aria (repeated)

Tra le fiamme tu scherzi per gioco …

Among the flames you playfully dart…

Text: Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili (1653-1730)

Johann Sebastian Bach: Concerto in D Major for Harpsichord Solo BWV 972 Bach’s first employment—at the age of 18 in 1703—was at the Weimar court. His official job title was “lackey,” which meant that he served as a court musician, playing violin. Destined for far greater things, within a few months he left Weimar to serve as organist in the city of Arnstadt. After three years there, followed by one year in Mühlhausen, he returned in 1708 to the court of Weimar, now ruled by a team of coregents, Duke Wilhelm Ernst (1662-1728) and his nephew Duke Ernst August (1688-1748). The nephew, three years younger than Bach who was only 23 at this time, was very much the more engaging and gregarious of the two rulers. The senior Duke Wilhelm Ernst, however, was a keen supporter of the arts and music, believing that he was charged with developing and maintaining the cultural welfare of his subjects. For example, Wilhelm Ernst reinstated the court Kapelle, which had disbanded in the previous century.

Ernst August lived with his younger brother, Prince Johann Ernst (1696-1715), in the Rotes Schloss (Red Castle), a smaller edifice that was attached to the grand living space of the older and stodgier uncle. The young Prince Johann was a diligent student of music.

He traveled extensively, and sent home many scores of Italian compositions. When he returned to Weimar in 1713, at the age of 17, Bach was greatly inspired by the wealth of information about Italian music that was now at his disposal.

The two young brothers provided a much more enjoyable environment than their uncle’s tastes allowed, and Bach became more and more associated with music at the Red Castle. Duke Wilhelm was already peeved by his nephew’s participation in governing the dukedom of Saxe-Weimar—even though Ernst August was a legitimate coregent—and was even more annoyed by the interest in newer and secular music exhibited by his nephews. So Wilhelm began imposing fines on any of his servants who would

work at the Red Castle, including Bach! Undeterred, he continued to pursue his interests, and even wrote a cantata for Ernst August’s birthday. When the higher post of Kapellmeister became available, Bach was passed over by the displeased elder Wilhelm Ernst.

Prince Johann and Bach shared the same keen interest in Italian music. The prince was not a bad composer himself, and it is likely that it is he who asked Bach to make some of the transcriptions of the concertos by Vivaldi that the Prince had brought back to the court. Bach quickly developed a hunger to understand Vivaldi’s compositional practices, especially in the construction of their orchestral interjections (known as ripieno ritornelli). As a result, Bach transcribed at least a dozen of Vivaldi’s concertos.

Thus Bach honed his skills in concerto composition by applying the Italian techniques to the medium with which he was most familiar: the keyboard. The transfer of the idiom from the orchestral originals to keyboard, whether organ or harpsichord, radically narrowed the range of contrast possible between the opposing sonorities of soloist and ripieno (full orchestra), but it still afforded ample experience in manipulating the formal and technical devices of the Italians. The Concerto in D Major for Harpsichord Solo, therefore, does not contain any music newly composed by Bach. It is a more or less literal transcription of Vivaldi’s Concerto in D Major for Violin (RV 230), rescored for one keyboard instrument.

While Bach’s justification to carry out his exercise of transcription and arrangement of another composer’s music may seem elusive to us, it is testimony to his admiration of Vivaldi and of his desire to perfect the techniques used by others—even from foreign lands—into his own later, original concertos, many of which would be composed at his next place of employment, Cöthen. [JT]

Johann Sebastian Bach: Non sa che sia dolore BWV 209 Soprano Solo; Flute, 2 Violins, Viola, Basso continuo

When considering Bach’s output of cantatas, a number of commonly held beliefs come to mind. We generally take the word of his sons that he composed about 300 sacred cantatas, even though only 200 have survived, and the fact there are only about a dozen or so extant secular cantatas implies that they represent a significantly lesser degree of importance in Bach’s compositional activity.

There are two misconceptions already in play. Bach composed many more secular cantatas than have survived, and the implication that secular cantatas are secondary (in any way) to their sacred counterparts creates a distinction and a separation of the two types that belies their singular origin. In fact, the closer we look at both types as a whole, the more they blend together into one genre.

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Saturday July 19 2014 The term “cantata” was first used in the 17th century as the designation of a musical setting of a secular text, and it was not until a century later that the word was used by Erdmann Neumeister (1671-1756), a German theologian and hymnologist, in his title of a collection of texts that were meant to be used by composers as the basis for liturgical works. His librettos were presented in the format of those that had been used for secular cantatas, specifically with the structures of pairings of recitative and arias. This sparked an adoption not only of the term but also of the musical formats of those Italian arias in da capo form, and among the adopters of Neumeister’s verses would be Johann Sebastian Bach. As “cantata” began to imply a sacred work, the term “serenata” began to be implemented to describe secular vocal works.

The principal reason that so few secular cantatas by Bach have survived is that Bach reused many cantatas originally composed for civic or courtly occasions by reapportioning them for sacred services.

Once this was done, there was little need to keep the original versions, which might have had only one use for a singular occasion.

To many, this concept of musical recycling, and especially the crossfunctional nature of transcribing a secular work for sacred use, is puzzling and even confusing. But there are three aspects about these conversions by Bach that are intriguing, and that explain what might seem to be a mystery of intention.

• Once Bach had reused secular music in a newly sacred context—”sanctifying” it, one could say—he never reused it again for a secular occasion. In fact, he never transcribed sacred music into secular music at all: the direction was always from secular to sacred.

• The occasions for which a secular cantata were composed (for example, birthdays of royalty) were one-time events.

Yet Bach had, of course, composed superb music for them,

so reutilization in a sacred context would keep the music “alive,” so to speak, among other works in the current liturgical repertory.

• As a compliment, perhaps, to the subjects of the secular cantatas of praise, the further implementations of that secular music, to be used in the praise and worship of God, would only have elevated and honored those royalty even further.

Whereas most extant secular cantatas follow this pattern of origin and recycling, Non sa che sia dolore seems to be an exception.

None of its music can be found among the sacred cantatas, at least not among those that have survived.

Between the years of 1729 and 1741, Bach was the director of Leipzig’s Collegium Musicum, an organization of professional and highly accomplished amateur musicians who presented weekly concerts during the late spring and summer months. Non sa che sia dolore is almost certainly a product of those years, especially considering its subject matter about bidding farewell to a student (probably at Leipzig University) who is about to leave his friends and return to his hometown of Ansbach. Despite the libretto’s borrowings from the Italian poets Giovanni Battista Guarini (1538-1612) and Metastasio (1698-1782), the verses are not very distinguished—or even very intelligible at this point—and were probably written by a German author.

The cantata begins with a lengthy opening sinfonia that is essentially the opening of a rather grand flute concerto. The following pairs of recitative and aria seem to constitute the expected slow movement and final dance-like allegro of a concerto format, in which a soprano shares the spotlight with the flutist. Even with the addition of the vocal line, we are always aware of how much this work is a tour de force for the instrumental soloist. [JT]

Sinfonia Recitative

Non sa che sia dolore chi dall’ amico suo parte e non more.

Il fanciullin’ che plora e geme ed allor che più ei teme, vien la madre a consolar.

Va dunque a cenni del cielo, adempi or di Minerva il zelo.

He does not know what sorrow is who parts from his friend and does not die.

The little child weeps and moans, and indeed, the more fearful he is, his mother comes to console him.

Therefore, go and seek a sign from heaven, that you will now fulfill Minerva’s purpose.

Aria

Parti pur, e con dolore lasci a noi dolente il cuore.

La patria goderai, a dover la servirai; varchi or di sponda in sponda, propizi vedi il vento e l’onda.

Go then, and with grief leave to us our sorrowful hearts.

You will delight your nation, as you will serve it with duty; set sail now from shore to shore, you will find the winds and waves gracious.

Recitative

Tuo saver al tempo e l’età constrasta virtù e valor solo a vincer basta; ma chi gran ti farà più che non fusti Ansbaca, piena di tanti Augusti.

Your knowledge contrasts with your age and years, strength and bravery alone are enough for victory; but greater than you were will you now be, Ansbach, favored by such august ones.

Aria

Ricetti gramezza e pavento, qual nocchier, placato il vento più non teme o si scolora, ma contento in su la prora va cantando in faccia al mar.

Suppressing grief and fear, the sailor, in quiet winds, no longer is fearful or pale, but happily upon his prow goes forth singing in the face of the sea.

Text: Unknown

INTERMISSION 56

MEET THE ARTIST AFTER THE PERFORMANCE Join Ms Wilson in the Conservatory lobby immediately following the performance for a CD signing event at which copies of her new recording “Mary Wilson Sings Handel” will be available for purchase.

MARY WILSON SINGS HANDEL

“The latest recording released by the American Bach Soloists, directed by Jeffrey Thomas, is absolutely essential for any love of Handel’s music. … American soprano Mary Wilson’s crystal clear and agile soprano voice is perfectly suited to Handel’s music … Wilson makes every note ring out clearly in fast coloratura passages.”

Alison DeSimone, Early Music America

“Her light, alluring, velvety voice is as soothing as a soft, warm blanket.”

Joshua Rosenblum, Opera News

“There are moments when a musical performance is so carefully conceived or so sublimely delivered that all you can do is surrender to the beauty of it and express gratitude for being alive. … Shining soprano Mary Wilson, a gift from the gods if I ever heard one.”

Jason Victor Serinus, San Francisco Classical Voice

Available tonight and at americanbach.org/recordings 57

Saturday July 19 2014 Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto in B Minor for Four Violins RV 580 4 Violins, 2 Violas, Violoncello, Basso continuo

The set of twelve string concertos titled L’Estro Armonico, which translates not at all perfectly to “The Harmonic Fancy”, were published by Estienne Roger of Amsterdam in 1711. They quickly catapulted Vivaldi to international celebrity, and enjoyed success as at least the second most popular works of the entire 18th century, trumped only by Arcangelo Corelli’s famous Opus 6 Concerti Grossi.

They were subsequently reprinted by the London publisher John Walsh, and by Le Clerc Cadet in Paris.

Assembled as four groups of three concertos—each group comprised of a concerto for four violins, one for two violins, and one for solo violin—Vivaldi alternated minor and major tonalities in a way that indicates that the entire set could very appropriately be performed as a whole. Tomaso Albinoni’s Opus 7 and 9, and Giuseppe Torelli’s Opus 5 and 8 employed the same paired arrangement of keys. Variety seems to have been the primary goal, and Vivaldi achieved this with stunning perfection. In the Concerto in B Minor for Four Violins, especially notable is the marvelous effect in the

middle Larghetto movement of four violins simultaneously playing arpeggiated figures, but each in a different metrical frame. Most intriguing, though, is the way in which the four soloists provide “orchestral” support for each other in all three movements, obviating the need for ripieno violins that usually participate in the fuller ritornello sections that delineate the traditional interplay between soloists and tutti.

Bach transcribed a dozen Vivaldi concertos. Of the resulting works for keyboard, six are from this opus, including his brilliant resetting of this work for four harpsichords. Clearly the excitement Bach must have felt when he studied this work inspired him to extend his usual practice of condensing full concertos into a version for one keyboard. Realizing that the intricacies of Vivaldi’s scoring for a quartet of soloists could not be condensed in such a way as to make them performable on one instrument, his decision to create a fuller sonority by employing four harpsichords resulted in a sensational transcription. [JT]

Antonio Vivaldi: In furore iustissimae irae RV 626 Soprano Solo; 2 Violins, Viola, Basso continuo

In 1703, Vivaldi was appointed maestro di violino at the Pio Ospedale della Pietà (literally, “Merciful Hospital of the Pietà”), one of four Venetian institutions devoted to the care of orphans and which offered musical education for those girls among them who showed talent. Twice during his tenure at the Pietà (1713-17 and 1737-39), Vivaldi acted as interim maestro di coro, a post which required him to provide sacred music for the chorus at the Ospedale. Of his numerous motets (the Ospedale required two motets each month), only twelve have survived in complete form. The majority of them were undoubtedly composed for performance at the Ospedale during High Mass or Vespers, though Vivaldi’s reputation would have earned him outside commissions for sacred vocal music. Considering its extreme difficulty, In furore iustissimae irae was probably composed in Rome for a highly accomplished singer during the 1720s as the result of one of those outside commissions.

For centuries, the term “motet” has rather broadly defined sacred vocal compositions that cannot be more precisely described and that were extra-liturgical works, interspersed among proper

liturgical events and composed to free texts. Usually performed during moments of relative stasis during a mass, they were often substituted for antiphons or introduced during the Offertory, Elevation of the Host, or Blessing. While some motets might have been composed for specific applications, most were composed “per ogni tempo” (for all seasons). Settings for a single voice (usually accompanied by strings and basso continuo), rather than for a choir, grew in popularity during the 17th century so that, by the 18th century, this scoring was standard.

The poetic structure of these works closely resembles that of the 18th-century secular solo cantata; Vivaldi’s preferred scheme consists of two da capo arias, connected by a brief recitative passage, and a final “Alleluia.” The expressive text of In furore provides ample opportunity for vocal bravura, exploiting the imageries of wrath and entreaty, fury and tears. Even the closing C-minor “Alleluia,” which serves to showcase the soprano’s pyrotechnics, retains the vehemence of the opening sentiments. [JT]

Aria Allegro

In furore iustissimae irae tu divinitus facis potentem.

Quando potes me reum punire ipsum crimen te gerit clementem.

In the furor of your most just wrath you might act with strength.

Though you can punish me in my guilt, you bear the crime yourself.

Recitative

Miserationum Pater piissime, parce mihi dolenti peccatori languenti, O Jesu dulcissime.

O most loving Father of mercies, spare me in my grief, have pity on this languishing sinner, O most sweet Jesus.

Aria Largo

Tunc meus fletus evadet laetus dum pro te meum languescit cor.

Fac me plorare, mi Jesu care, et fletus laetum fovebit cor.

My weeping will turn to joy when for you my heart swoons.

Make me weep, my dear Jesus, and let hot tears warm my heart.

Alleluia Allegro

Alleluia.

Alleluia.

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Text: Anonymous (traditional)

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STADTPFEIFER - $250-$499 The above, plus an invitation for two to a postconcert reception with ABS musicians

CHORISTER - $500-$999 The above, plus an invitation for two to an ABS rehearsal

We can’t do it without you…

American Bach Soloists strive to retain reasonable ticket prices even though sales cover only about 40% of the cost of presenting these outstanding concerts. ABS is proud to receive significant foundation and government support, but the bulk of our contributed income comes from generous donations from individuals like you. * Gifts to American Bach Soloists are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law. Certain benefits have a fair market value that must be deducted from your gift to determine the tax-deductible portion of the contribution. You may elect to decline all the benefits in your giving category, and receive a tax-deduction of the full value of your gift.

Soloists Circle CANTOR - $1,000-$1,499

All benefits on the left, plus an invitation to the ABS Academy opening night reception

CAPELLMEISTER - $1,500-$2,499

The above, plus an invitation to a unique special event concert

PATRON - $2,500-$4,999

The above, plus an invitation for two to a special ABS private “House Concert” performance

BACH FAMILY - $5,000-$9,999

All benefits, plus sponsorship of an ABS program

ROYAL PATRON - $10,000-$24,999

All benefits, plus sponsorship of a guest artist in an upcoming season

BENEFACTOR - $25,000-$99,999

All benefits, plus exclusive sponsorship of an ABS program

SEBASTIAN SOCIETY - $100,000 and above

All benefits, plus a season sponsor for one year

Your gift in any amount is greatly appreciated…

As an ABS donor, you play a crucial role in bringing these wonderful programs to the widest possible audience.

Your gift will further enable our educational programs including the American Bach Soloists Academy, public Master Classes, and free tickets for K-12 educators.

Gifts of Stock and Vehicle Donation We also welcome gifts of appreciated securities. To arrange transfers, please call (415) 621-7900. Donating your used vehicles to ABS has never been easier thanks to our partnership with the Vehicle Donation Processing Center! You receive a tax-deductible donation and ABS gets cash!

Call the VDPC at 800-390-4790 or visit their website: donatecarusa.com.

 Mail

ABS 44 Page Street Suite 403 San Francisco CA 94102-5975

Phone

415-621-7900

Fax

415-621-7920

Online

americanbach.org 59

Contributors & Acknowledgments American Bach Soloists have presented performances to the public for 25 years thanks to the many individuals, businesses, foundations, and government agencies that have provided generous support for our programs. We are pleased to recognize gifts received June 1, 2013 – May 31, 2014.

Gifts received after May 31, 2014 will be acknowledged in our December 2014 program book.

SILVER HERITAGE FUND Established to celebrate our 25th Season, this fund will endow ABS’s future with a solid financial foundation for longevity and growth and initiate the formation of an endowment fund whose purpose will be to make our annual summer Academy tuitionfree. Please consider making an additional, tax-deductible gift to this important fund in honor of our 25-year legacy.

Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation

Silver Heritage Founder’s Society ($100,000 and above) Anonymous Silver Heritage Society ($25,000-$99,999) Jose & Carol Alonso Hugh Davies & Kaneez Munjee Paul & Sandra Ogden Silver Legacy ($10,000-$24,999) Jan Goldberg Marie Hogan & Douglas Lutgen

Nakamichi Foundation

Silver Soloist ($2,500-$9,999) Anonymous John & Lois Crowe Lester Dropkin Angela Hilt & Blake Reinhardt Chris McCrum & Liz Velarde Robert Ripps & Steven Spector Gifts up to $2,499 Anonymous Hans & Salome Abplanalp Sandy Apgar Coralyn Bond Richard & Sharon Boyer David Cates & Cheryl Sumsion Cynthia Cooper Jaqueline Desoer

Susan Hedges Carol Dutton-Hollenberg Judith Flynn Margaret Fuerst Ingeborg Henderson Greg & Robin Madsen Abigail McKee James R. Meehan Matthew Nieder Alice Oi Charles & Janet Seim Judd & Sherry Smith Jim & Jennifer Steelquist Mary Tepley CORPORATE, GOVERNMENT, AND FOUNDATION SUPPORT $25,000 and above Anonymous Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund $10,000 - $24,999 The Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation Charles Hosmer Morse Foundation, Inc. The Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation $5,000 - $9,999 The Bernard Osher Foundation The E. Nakamichi Foundation The Wallis Foundation Up to $4,999 Anonymous (2) AT&T Foundation AXA Foundation Center For Learning In Retirement Google Schwab Charitable Fund Wells Fargo Foundation

ANNUAL GIVING The American Bach Soloists engage and inspire audiences through historically informed performances, recordings, and educational programs that emphasize the music of the Baroque, Classical, and Early Romantic eras.

Gifts to the Annual Fund keep the mission of ABS alive by supporting our year-round programming. From subscription concerts to our annual Festival & Academy and from our master classes to our lecture series, your support ensures that ABS is at the forefront of the performing arts in Northern California, across the country, and around the world.

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Contributors & Acknowledgments SOLOISTS CIRCLE Sebastian Society ($100,000 and above) Anonymous Benefactor ($25,000-$99,999) Hugh Davies & Kaneez Munjee Jan Goldberg Paul & Sandra Ogden Royal Patrons ($10,000-$24,999) Anonymous Jose & Carol Alonso John & Lois Crowe H.G. Lau, MD Marie Hogan & Douglas Lutgen Patricia & George Locke Bach Family Circle ($5,000-$9,999) Anonymous Wendy Buchen Judith Flynn James R. Meehan Angela Hilt & Blake Reinhardt Jim & Jennifer Steelquist Jeffrey Thomas Kim & Judith Maxwell Kwei & Michele Ü Patron ($2,500-$4,999) Richard & Sharon Boyer Helen Cagampang Don Scott Carpenter David Cates & Cheryl Sumsion Lester Dropkin Peggy Harrington Norman T. Larson Greg & Robin Madsen Chris McCrum & Liz Velarde Fraser & Helen Muirhead Robert Ripps & Steven Spector Martin Secker Edward Towne Geerat & Edith Vermeij Capellmeister ($1,500-$2,499) Peter & Claudia Brown Eunice Childs Joseph & Judy Craig Tom Flesher & Adam Verret Alfred & Irene M. Glassgold Steve Lehning Lamar Leland Peter & Asiye Sonnen Cantor ($1,000-$1,499) Anonymous Edward Betts & Elena Snegova John & Jane Buffington David & Judy Covin Mag Dimond Thomas & Phyllis Farver Dean Farwood Ayame Flint John F. Heil D. Kern Holoman James & Joan Kelly

Valerie & Dan King William & Adair Langston William Lokke Thomas Mansi & Carmen Flórez Mansi Terry McKelvey & Heli Roiha Mary Belle O’Brien & Georgia Heid Nancy Quinn & Tom Driscoll David & Mary Raub Bill & Ray Riess Richard & Shipley Walters Thomas & Ann Watrous INDIVIDUAL SUPPORT Chorister ($500-$999) Anonymous (4) Grace Barner Borden & Betty Bloom Elizabeth Bonney Donald Buhman & Wray Humphrey Eric Collier & Joseph Newell Jacqueline Desoer Pauline Farmer-Koppenol Norma Feldman Cynthia Foster David Foushee & Richard Forde David Franklin & Ruedi Thoeni Pamela George Robert & Ann Goldberg Connie Harden & Chuck O’Neill Susan Hedges Ingeborg Henderson Kathryn Hobart James & Victoria Irwin David Kvaratskhelia Norman & Rae Leaper Hollis Lenderking Ezra & Carol Mersey Guy & Wende Williams Micco Paul Nettelmann Joseph Newell Dee Norris Jefferson Packer Mark & Katherine Perl Charles Quesenberry, Jr. Gary Schilling & Stefan Hastrup Charles & Janet Seim Sharie Shute Judd & Sherry Smith Scott Sochar Evelyn Wegienka David & Kay Werdegar Foster Wright Stadtpfeifer ($250-$499) Anonymous Dianne L. Anderson Marc & Sheila Andrus James Barnes James & Josephine Bennington Gretchen Brosius Richard Burnham Gerard Butler Rick Callison Lynne Carmichael Marna Clark Marie Collins

Robert Cook & Blanca Haendler Cynthia Cooper Carol Dutton-Hollenberg Steven Edwards Patricia Else Richard G. Fabian Heather Findlay John Frykman William & Ilse Gaede Jim & Laura Gregory David Hammer David & Dorli Hanchette John W. Harbaugh Philip & Ruth Hicks Ken Hoffman Mary Huebsch Teresa Kaneko Gary Keller Mary Kimball David G. King, M.D. John & Julianna Kleppe Robert Lea John & Kathleen Leones David & Kathleen Martin Noreen Mazelis Thomas McElligott Kurt & Suzanne Melchior Marian Metson Camille Reed Lynn Robbie Cynthia Sawtell Paul Schmidt Wilma Smith Roger Stoll Gerald & Sandra Swafford Barbara Thomas-Fexa Irina Torrey Mr. & Mrs. Thomas A. Weikert Steward ($100-$249) Anonymous (4) Michelle Adams Katherine Applegate Peter & Margaret Armstrong H. Mattson & Mary Austin Judith Barker & Linda Mitteness Jeff Bartak Merry Benard Robert Berman Al Bernstein Linda Blum Jesse Blumberg Joan W. Bonnar Ann & Scott Botel-Barnard Ruth Braunstein Tod Brody Irving & Karen Broido Leslie Brown James Caleshu Robert & Lynn Campbell Raymond Carter Kenneth Cederquist and Jean Kezeor Steve & Carol Conn Kenn & Elaine Cunningham Tekla Cunningham & David Sawyer Lawrence & Mary Ann Dawson Jane DeLawter 61

Contributors & Acknowledgments Jonathan Dimmock & George Emblom Debbie Duncan Bob & Margaret Eldred Linda Elrod Judith Ets Hokin Jeff Everett José Fernández-Peña & Joseph Brian Gendron Robert & Susan Flax Thomas & Mary Foote Lowell Froker Margaret Fuerst John Girton Michal Gizinski John Gosselin Helen Gunderson Patrick Gunning Thomas H. Guthrie Darrow & Gwen Haagensen Allen Hackett Susan Hamilton William Hartrick Donna Heinle Daniel Hersh John Karl Hirten Elizabeth Hoelter Boyd Jarrell Bonnie & Peter Jensen Susan Judy Mario & Masako Juncosa Wolfram Jung Robert & Kathleen Kaiser Elizabeth Kaplan & Marc Franklin Barbara Koerber Thomas Koster Norman La Force Cindy Lau Bill Lann Lee William & Emily Leider Catherine Lewis Malcom Litwiller & Teri Dowling Deana Logan & Joseph C. Najpaver Hayward Maben Malcolm & Natalie Mackenzie Frank Mainzer James Manning Jo Maxon Lee & Hannelore McCrumb John McKnight Sharon Menke Antonio Merino Mary Anne Miller Abigail Millikan-States Bridger & Katherine Mitchell Terrance Moore Krista Muirhead & Barry Grossman Doerte Murray Debra Nagy Steven Peterson & Peter Jaret Dyan Pike Patrizian Pollastrini Gail Riley & Moira Little Penelope Rink & Frederick Toth Rebecca Rishell Peter Samson Walter & Ellen Sanford Stephen Schrey William Senecal & Karen Roseland 62

Douglas & Carole Sheft Edith Simonson Harold Skilbred & Rochelle Matonich David Stein & William Stewart Mariana Steinberg Jan Stevens & Carole Cory James Sweeney Holly A. Tigard Dean & Jeanice Tipps Delia Voitoff-Bauman & Steve Bauman Curtis Vose Nigel & Susan Warshaw Laurie Wayburn Michael Weston John & Marilyn Whitcher Richard White Mary Wildavsky Barbara Winter Jerri Witt Dennis Wolframski Friend ($25-99) Anonymous (2) Jean Alford Wayne Anderson Adrienne Austin-Shapiro Schuyler & Susie Bailey Lydia Baskin Gertraud Baughman Meagan Becker Barbara Bernhart Richard & Nancy Bohannon Lois Bueler Mark Caprio Gary Chock Robert & Mary Commanday Bruce Conrad Mechthild Cranston Richard Cushman Boris DeDenko Mari Jon Di Basilio Jeffrey Martin Dickemann Mary Lou Dorking Hubert & Genevieve Dreyfus Tony Drummond Stephen & Ruth Escher Walter Feigenson Rudy Flinker Lotte F. France Nan Gefen Carolyn Doleman Green Philip Grisier Ilse Hadda Marjorie Halloran Katharine Hammond Joseph M. Helms Robert Herriot & Patricia Landman Ellen Hershey Gilbert Heyser Al Hoffman Martha Howard Peter Huson Elizabeth O. Hutchins Richard Irizary Bob Isaacson & Virginia Stearns Cary & Elaine James Herbert Jeong Elaine Johnson

Charles & Paige Kelso Julianne Booth Knell Robert Kovsky Regina Lackner Harold & Helene Lecar Jason & Joan Leineke Manjari & Michael Lewis Rudolf K. Loeser Paul Mackel George Marchand Joseph F. McGuire J. Michael McKechnie Hugh & Katherine McLean Doug McLean Terry McNeill Minako Miyazaki Hildegard M. Mohr Michael Nathanson Birgit Nielsen Eleanor Norris Joe Novitski Crystal Olson Jerome Oremland Sam Price Richard & Ellen Price Edward Radlo Janet Reider Carolyn Revelle Maria Reyes & Thomas Plumb Colby & Katherine Roberts Charles Roberts David Robinson Bettina Rosenbladt Mako Rova Albert Sammons Marilyn Seiberling Jane Sloane Hart & Wilma Smith Sam W. Smith Anne Smith Joan E. Sprinson Debbie Sutter Edwin Swatek Lorelei Tanji Warren Taylor Karl & Marianne Thon Stanley & Stephanie Tick Glenn W. Tilton Janice Trebbin Stephanie Trenck & Michael Witty Ron & Marlene Wizelman Carl & Adele Zachrisson Russell Zink BACH KIDS Richard & Sharon Boyer in honor of Walker Avery Elkus Alexander J. Sutter Jake D. Sutter Keira N. Sutter Leah G. Sutter Zuri Anela Summers

Contributors & Acknowledgments Jan Goldberg, in honor of Cameron Gremmels Alexander Goldberg Michael Goldberg TRIBUTES ABS Board of Directors in memory of Kevin Harrington Anonymous in memory of Robert Volberg Rouhlac & Tom Austin in honor of The Rt. Rev. Marc Andrus & Sheila Andrus Edward & Joni Bissell in memory of Milton Hollenberg Richard & Sharon Boyer in memory of Mamie F. Vercelli in memory of Edward T. Smithburn in memory of Rosemary Pollastrini Gretchen Brosius in honor of Lisa May Lissa Dutton & Danny Shader in memory of Milton Hollenberg John & Joan Goble in memory of Milton Hollenberg Jan Goldberg in memory of Kevin Harrington Jeffery & Judy Gough in honor of Don Scott Carpenter Robert & Dottie Hamilton in memory of Milton Hollenberg David & Dorli Hanchette in honor of Jeffrey Thomas and Barbara Thomas-Fexa David, Dorli, & Diella Hanchette in memory of Dominique Sebastian Hanchette Bonnie & Peter Jensen in memory of Milton Hollenberg Laura Koehler in memory of Milton Hollenberg James McCurdy, M.D. in memory of Milton Hollenberg Scott A. & Karen B. McKown in memory of Milton Hollenberg Audrey Newman & Gary Rivara in memory of Milton Hollenberg Sandra Ogden in memory of Dominique Hanchette in honor of Jeffrey Thomas in memory of Milton Hollenberg in memory of Judith Nelson in memory of Kevin Harrington Paul Nettelmann in honor of Miriam Nakayama in honor of Rieko Nettelmann Sylvia Panichelli in memory of Milton Hollenberg Tia Pollastrini in appreciation of Mom Sher Robert Ripps & Steven Spector in honor of Don Scott Carpenter William & Sue Rochester in honor of Tekla Cunningham

Sharie Shute in memory of Professor Garniss H. Curtis Lisa Spencer in honor of Ken Hoffman & Jan Goldberg in honor of Gordon & Sue Oehser Irvin & Judith Taylor in memory of Milton Hollenberg Jeffrey Thomas & Barbara Thomas-Fexa in honor of the Hanchette Family Jeffrey Thomas in memory of Kevin Harrington in memory of Milton Hollenberg Michael & Karen Traynor in honor of Professor Garniss H. Curtis David & Kay Werdegar in memory of Milton Hollenberg OFFICE VOLUNTEERS Lisa Jackson William Langley Leonore Levitt Sam Price IN-KIND SUPPORT Jose Alonso American Bach Soloists Board of Directors American Conservatory Theater Jim & Vicky Asbury Ballanico Restaurant & Wine Bar Elizabeth Blumenstock Richard & Sharon Boyer California Shakespeare Theater Don Scott Carpenter David Cates & Cheryl Sumsion Marna Clark Cline Cellars Cooper-Garrod Estate Vineyard Kenn & Elaine Cunningham Hugh Davies & Kaneez Munjee Tom Driscoll & Nancy Quinn Carmen Flórez-Mansi Cynthia Foster Judith Flynn Jan Goldberg Angela Hilt & Blake Reinhardt Ken Hoffman Marie Hogan & Douglas Lutgen Jason’s Restaurant Katherine Kyme & William Skeen Lark Theater Left Bank Restaurant Blair Martin, Toby Lane Vineyards Raymond Martinez Marin Symphony Association Marin Theatre Company Merola Opera Program Sue Morris Helen Drake Muirhead John Newmeyer Lissa Nicolaus Paul & Sandra Ogden Camille Reed Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra Sam’s Anchor Cafe

San Francisco Giants San Francisco Opera John Shearman Marsha Silberstein Millicent Tomkins Trumer Pils Kwei & Michele Ü Mary Wilson FESTIVAL USHERS Anne Averill Larry Becker Rhoda Becker Al Bernstein Sheila Brooke Anne Conway Kevin Downing Susan Ford Sara Frucht Karen Gierlach Paul Gierlach Tina Haner Kris Kargo William Langley Joy Massa Linda McCann Mary Osterloh Karen Stella Ruth Ungar Rene Voss Margriet Wetherwax Marlene Wizelman Ron Wizelman ACKNOWLEDGMENTS San Francisco Conservatory of Music David H. Stull, President Robert Fitzpatrick, Provost and Dean Sam Smith, Director of Communications Seth Ducey, Production Manager Lauren Quimby, Assistant Production Manager INSTRUMENT LOANS The Academy thanks the following institutions and individuals for generously loaning instruments: First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto San Francisco Conservatory of Music University of California, Davis Kevin Fryer John Phillips Jonathan Salzedo HOUSING Richard G. Fabian

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Preparing artists for success in the 21st century

HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS 2014-15 FACULTY ARTIST RECITALS Music of Castello, Purcell, Corelli, Vivaldi and LeClair September 3 Elizabeth Blumenstock baroque violin Elisabeth Reed baroque cello Corey Jamason harpsichord with Catherine MacIntosh baroque violin All-Beethoven Recital October 6 Jean-Michel Fonteneau cello Corey Jamason fortepiano CPE Bach anniversary celebration November 23 Corey Jamason harpsichord with Jennifer Morsches baroque cello Haydn Piano Trios February 5 Ian Swensen violin Elisabeth Reed cello with Kenneth Slowik cello J.S. Bach Goldberg Variations February 19 Corey Jamason harpsichord Works by Bach and Rameau April 10 Elisabeth Reed viola da gamba Corey Jamason harpsichord with Cynthia Freivogel baroque violin

CONSERVATORY BAROQUE ENSEMBLE Corey Jamason and Elisabeth Reed directors Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea (concert version) March 7 and 8 Elinor Armer’s Leonardo’s Riddle (world premiere) April 19 Adam Cockerham archlute and winners of the Baroque Ensemble Concerto Competition

MASTER CLASSES Sponsored by American Bach Soloists January 19 Stephen Lehning violone February 23 Derek Chester tenor March 16 Jeffrey Thomas conductor

Complete season details at www.sfcm.edu | 50 Oak Street, San Francisco |

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