HARRY CHRISTOPHERS, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR • BICENTENNIAL COMMEMORATIVE ISSUE
HANDEL AND HAYDN SOCIETY GOVERNANCE As of September 29, 2014
LEADERSHIP
BOARD OF GOVERNORS
Thomas J. Watt
John S. Cornish
Robin R. Riggs
Nicholas Gleysteen, Chairman
William F. Achtmeyer
Elizabeth P. Wax
Russell V. Corsini, Jr.
Dr. Michael Fisher Sandler
Marie-Hélène Bernard, Executive Director/CEO
Amy S. Anthony
Kathleen W. Weld
Elizabeth C. Davis
Richard F. Seamans
Louise Cashman
Jane Wilson
Thomas B. Draper
Robert N. Shapiro
Harry Christophers, CBE, Artistic Director
Willma H. Davis
Jean Woodward
Sylvia Ferrell-Jones
Cecily Tyler
David Elsbree
Christopher R. Yens
Christina M. Frangos
Susan Weatherbie
Howard Fuguet
Dr. Laima Zarins
Ian Watson, Resident Conductor Christopher Hogwood, Conductor Laureate
John W. Gerstmayr W. Carl Kester Mark A. King
GOVERNORS EMERITI Leo L. Beranek Joseph M. Flynn
Nancy Hammer Roy A. Hammer
OFFICERS
Laura Lucke
Julia D. Cox, Vice Chair
Kathleen McGirr
Todd Estabrook, Vice Chair
Anthony T. Moosey
Deborah S. First, Vice Chair
Dr. Stephen Morrissey
Karen S. Levy, Vice Chair
Catherine Powell
BOARD OF OVERSEERS
Peter G. Manson
Mary Nada, Vice Chair
George Sacerdote
Martha Hatch Bancroft
James F. Millea
Michael S. Scott Morton, Vice Chair
Emily F. Schabacker
Richard D. Batchelder, Jr.
Michael Oliveri
Wat H. Tyler, Vice Chair
Robert H. Scott
Afarin O. Bellisario
Dr. Winifred B. Parker
Jeffrey S. Thomas, Treasurer
Susan M. Stemper
Nancy A. Bradley
Judith Lewis Rameior
Winifred I. Li, Secretary
Nancy B. Tooke
Mary Briggs
Brenda Gray Reny
Judith Verhave
Julian G. Bullitt
Alice E. Richmond
Jerome Preston, Jr. Timothy C. Robinson Janet P. Whitla
Suzanne Hamner Anneliese M. Henderson Paul V. Kelly Brenda Marr Kronberg
BICENTENNIAL COMMITTEE Amy Anthony, Chair Joseph M. Flynn Mary Jeka W. Carl Kester Dr. Stephen Morrissey Judith Verhave Thomas J. Watt Elizabeth P. Wax Susan Weatherbie Janet P. Whitla Jane Wilson Jean Woodward
BICENTENNIAL HONORARY COMMITTEE As of September 29, 2014
Governor Deval Patrick
Michael Caljouw
Ellen T. Harris
J. Keith Motley
Mark Thompson
Mayor Martin J. Walsh
Plácido Domingo
Stephen Kidder
Eric Owens
Senator Elizabeth Warren
Michael and Kitty Dukakis
Senator Ed Markey
Christopher Purvis
Grace Fey
Margaret Marshall
Rafael Reif
David Gergen
Thomas M. Menino
Amy E. Ryan
Deborah Borda Rick Burnes
BICENTENNIAL SPONSORS
BICENTENNIAL PARTNERS
September 2014 | Handel and Haydn Society | 9 Harcourt St Boston, MA 02116 | Design by Opus Design
GRETJEN HELENE
HANDEL AND HAYDN SOCIETY BRINGING MUSIC TO LIFE FOR 200 YEARS It is with great enthusiasm and pride that we embark on the Handel and Haydn Society’s Bicentennial celebration. Two hundred years of inspiring musical legacy and still thriving, H+H successfully combines the best of the old and new through its fresh and historically-informed approach to time-honored works, many of which were given their US premieres by H+H. True to its origins, we continue to commission new works and serve as an educational resource. We think you’ll agree that H+H is fulfilling very well its unique and wonderful mission! The Bicentennial isn’t just a chance to celebrate and look back; it’s also an opportunity for exploration. That dual spirit is captured in this commemorative magazine, which, along with historical articles, lays out H+H’s creative vision for this concert season. There is so much to look forward to: a festive Baroque display, four stirring oratorios that have rich associations with H+H’s past, and an exciting collaboration with Chorus America, whom we will host in June 2015. We are also thrilled to offer this summer a free public concert of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Copley Square — just a few feet from an exhibit of H+H history that will be on view at the Boston Public Library between March 24 and September 7, 2015. The essence of H+H today is no different than it was back in 1815: fostering a better community through great music. Because of
Marie-Hélène Bernard executive director and ceo
generous philanthropy, our education programs aspire to make this music available to as large and diverse an audience as possible. A leader in music education, H+H aims to make its music accessible, specifically, to youth and their families, schools and teachers, and those in underserved populations. Through the Vocal Arts Program (five youth choirs, programs for young soloists, and high school choirs performing with H+H professional ensembles at Symphony Hall), as well as school visits and a residency initiative, the Education Program reaches over 10,000 children in eastern New England. As we commemorate this occasion, there are so many people to thank: our sensationally talented musicians, past and present; our wonderful community partners, donors, and supporters; the exceptional leadership of the H+H Board; our fantastic staff team; and, most importantly, the people of Boston, the most engaged musical audience in the world. H+H is one of Boston’s finest music organizations and a “Boston first,” right up there with Harvard University (America’s first college) and the Boston Common (the nation’s first public park). For this Bicentennial Season we are giving back with an extraordinary celebration that will reveal what a compelling national arts leader H+H has become.
Nicholas Gleysteen chairman
Harry Christophers artistic director
President Barack Obama Governor Deval L. Patrick Mayor Martin J. Walsh
PETE SOUZA, THE OBAMA-BIDEN TRANSITION PROJECT
LETTERS OF CELEBRATION
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
JULY 22, 2014 I am pleased to join in celebrating your 200th anniversary. Throughout our Nation's history, the performing arts have not merely reflected America. They have shaped America. And our rich musical tradition holds a special place in this legacy. Uniting structure and creativity, precision and spontaneity, music captures our emotions, ignites our imaginations, and stirs within us a desire to be our best selves. For two centuries, you have striven to set a standard of excellence in performance. By cultivating an appreciation for classical music and promoting music education, organizations like yours help fortify our country's artistic spirit and ensure future generations carry forward our passion for the arts. As you celebrate this historic milestone, I hope you take great pride in all you have achieved. I wish you the very best as you continue to nurture musicians, inspire audiences, and open new minds to music in the years to come.
President Barack Obama
CITY OF BOSTON
ERIC HAYNES / GOVERNOR'S OFFICE
GOVERNOR DEVAL L. PATRICK
MAYOR MARTIN J. WALSH
SEPTEMBER 2014
JUNE 2014
On behalf of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, I would like to congratulate the Handel and Haydn Society on marking their 200th anniversary.
As Mayor of the City of Boston, I am extremely honored to participate in the commemoration of the Handel and Haydn Society's 200th anniversary. This spectacular Bicentennial is a tribute to the outstanding musical contributions H+H has made to Boston and beyond.
Since 1815, the Handel and Haydn Society has brought beautiful performances to audiences all across the Commonwealth. Along the way, it has built an impressive legacy of presenting some of the world’s foremost musicians and has integrated itself into American history and culture. Music allows all of us to become citizens of the world. The Handel and Haydn Society has hosted some of the best composers, writers, artists, and musicians worldwide. I would like to thank the Handel and Haydn Society for their musical education and service to the Commonwealth. We have a wealth of musical talent here in the Bay State and the Handel and Haydn Society has contributed greatly to our musical landscape and tradition. Massachusetts is proud to serve as the home of the Handel and Haydn Society. We are grateful for your representation of the Commonwealth nationwide and beyond. I wish to congratulate them for this special milestone, and thank them for their service to the arts and culture of Massachusetts and beyond. Sincerely,
Governor Deval L. Patrick
The Handel and Haydn Society is America's oldest continuously performing arts organization and has brought extraordinary masterpieces to concert halls around the world. Throughout its history, H+H has introduced many of the great choral masterworks to Americans — works like Handel's Messiah, Bach's St. Matthew Passion, and Mozart's Requiem. Today, Handel and Haydn's performances and recordings are critically acclaimed and praised for their exceptional quality of music-making. The Handel and Haydn Society places a high priority on its role as educator, resource center, and community partner. Not only does it entertain and inspire audiences, but it also provides unique educational experiences to people of all ages. The award-winning Karen S. and George D. Levy Education Program reaches thousands of students each year throughout Greater Boston by offering comprehensive, vocal music education and providing performance opportunities for talented young singers. On behalf of the City of Boston, I applaud the Handel and Haydn Society on 200 momentous years. I thank you for all you have brought to our city, to our students, and to the arts and entertainment community as a whole. Sincerely,
Mayor Martin J. Walsh
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THE YOUNG WOMEN'S CHORUS IS JUST ONE OF THE H+H EDUCATION PROGRAM'S SHINING STARS
STU ROSNER
CONTEMPORARY COMPOSER GABRIELA LENA FRANK DISCUSSES HER NEW PIECE FOR H+H
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SABINA FRANK
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HANDEL'S MESSIAH JOINS THE H+H CATALOG OF AWARD-WINNING AND CHART-TOPPING CDS
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THE STORY OF THE HANDEL AND HAYDN SOCIETY TOLD THROUGH WORDS AND PHOTOS
H+H NOW AND THEN Introducing H+H........................................................................................2 Under Harry Christophers’ artistic leadership, H+H has proven its ability to present exceptional, historically informed performances.
The History of the Handel and Haydn Society.................................. 12 The story of the Handel and Haydn Society in the course of its first 200 years is part of the story of music in its city and music in the United States.
MUSIC What is Historically Informed Performance?.....................................4 The study of performance practice, or historically informed performance (HIP), began, at some level, with the fundamental question, “What did this piece sound like in the composer’s day?”
Exploring the Bicentennial Season........................................................6 A season this good comes only once every 200 years.
H+H Firsts................................................................................................ 28 H+H has a long and distinguished history of presenting new works.
Recording Spotlight................................................................................ 31 Since the 1950s, H+H has been on the forefront of seeking new audiences in the evolving media age.
PEOPLE Education + Community....................................................................... 20 Handel and Haydn’s commitment to music education goes as far back as Lowell Mason (1792–1872), a 19th-century pioneer in the field and former H+H president.
The Mysteries, Myths + Truths About Mr. Handel......................... 22 Not so long ago George Frideric Handel was best known to the general public for a few predictable things: Messiah, being “German,” his obesity, and for going blind.
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Joseph Haydn — The Poor Man's Mozart?....................................... 34 IS JOSEPH HAYDN ONE OF TODAY'S MOST UNDERRATED COMPOSERS?
In December 1790, shortly before Haydn’s departure for England and the greatest adventure of his life, he, Mozart, and the impresario Johann Peter Salomon met for a dinner at a Viennese tavern.
Tributes.................................................................................................... 39
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Memories and messages of support for H+H.
Reflections from Harry..........................................................................44 Artistic Director Harry Christophers looks back at his tenure so far with H+H.
TIMELINE Learn about the Handel and Haydn Society with key dates since 1815.
STU ROSNER
INTRODUCING H+H The Handel and Haydn Society was founded in Boston in 1815 by a diverse group of citizens — merchants, musicians, and professionals — dedicated to promoting the love and performance of choral music. H+H would go on to give the American premieres of many choral masterworks, including Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation, Verdi’s Requiem, and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, and has played an active civic role, in Boston and beyond, for 200 years.
Today, under Artistic Director Harry Christophers, H+H is America’s oldest continuously performing arts organization and one of the nation’s preeminent choral and period instrument ensembles. Older than the New York Philharmonic and Vienna Philharmonic (or, for that matter, the Boston Red Sox), H+H has as an important mission the enrichment of life and influencing of culture through the performance of Baroque and Classical music at the highest levels of artistic excellence.
American classical music launched in earnest on Christmas Day of 1815. The Boston Handel and Haydn Society — comprised of middle-class music lovers — unveiled excerpts from European oratorios, and concluded with a rousing 'Hallelujah' chorus. "There is nothing to compare with it; it is the wonder of the nation," proclaimed one critic. Next year, the Society will celebrate its twohundredth anniversary. How many other American phenomena have endured for two centuries? — William Robin, The New Yorker, January 29, 2014
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This year, H+H’s Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus presents an 11-program concert series at Symphony Hall (its primary venue since the building’s opening in 1900), New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall, and Faneuil Hall, reaching over 30,000 concert-goers. H+H specializes in music composed between 1600 and 1830, performing the music of a range of historic composers as well as select premieres of newly commissioned works. As a period ensemble, it employs the instruments and techniques of the time in which the music was composed. H+H’s unique versatility across different eras and styles allows it to offer varied programs of intimate a cappella works (for chorus alone), chamber music, and major masterworks.
Already stellar, the Handel and Haydn Society reliably inches higher in quality with each passing year.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
— Tom Garvey, The Hub Review, December 11, 2013
By establishing H+H under the names of George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) and Joseph Haydn (1732–1809), the founders proclaimed their commitment to universally recognized masters. Haydn, who had died just a handful of years before, was considered the greatest composer of the era, while Handel represented the best music of the past, especially through his oratorios with extensive choral parts. At the time, Bach was virtually unknown, waiting to be rediscovered in the decades ahead, while Mozart, deceased for a quarter-century, was seen by some (hard to believe) as a has-been. Beethoven, though already famous around the world, had written few major choral works by the time of H+H’s founding.
Beyond Boston, H+H is widely known through regular appearances on series and festivals around the region, via local and national broadcasts on WCRB and NPR, for national and international tours, and through a growing catalog of critically acclaimed recordings. H+H spotlights the region’s finest period-instrument players and trained singers, representing today’s leading artists and tomorrow’s future stars. Its performances regularly feature international guest conductors and soloists. Under Harry Christophers’ artistic leadership, H+H has proven its ability to present exceptional, historically informed performances, engaging the public through captivating musical experiences that reveal the composers’ dramatic genius and artistic craft. Growing and diversifying audiences respond with sheer enthusiasm, and critics are consistent in their praises.
A venerable Boston institution. — James R. Oestreich, The New York Times, November 20, 2013
INEHOUR
An important aspect of H+H’s work is providing engaging, accessible, and broadly inclusive music education and training activities. H+H’s Karen S. and George D. Levy Education Program, established in 1985, reaches 10,000 young people each year through public school visits and chorus partnerships, five youth choruses, and specialized pre-professional vocal training for underserved high school students. H+H has also created partnerships with area cultural organizations, education institutions, and community centers, providing opportunities each season for audiences to enhance their knowledge and appreciation of the music, while also offering artistic development and training for college students and young professionals.
Although over time “society” has developed less than democratic connotations, H+H uses its broadest sense to include a wide community of musicians, patrons, volunteers, students, donors, and staff. “H+H was never about the elite,” says Executive Director Marie-Hélène Bernard. “We are a society in large and small ways.” STEPHEN ST
COLLABORATIVE YOUTH CONCERTS BRING TOGETHER PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS FROM ACROSS GREATER BOSTON.
Why the word “society”? For centuries, the term has been used for a voluntary group of individuals coming together for common ends — including making music. Groups of mostly amateur musicians had been creating chamber music and vocal societies in Europe since the 18th century, presenting house concerts among friends, and the term took root in America.
TOP: PROGRAM BOOK COVER FOR THE 1961 PRESENTATION OF HANDEL'S MESSIAH ; LEFT: FROM THE 2013 H+H PERFORMANCE OF HANDEL'S MESSIAH AT SYMPHONY HALL
WHAT IS
HISTORICALLY INFORMED PERFORMANCE? The study of performance practice, or historically informed performance (HIP), began, at some level, with the fundamental question, “What did this piece sound like in the composer’s day?”
This series of extensions, however, was not available before the 19th century; using instruments without these extensions changes the sound.
Period-instrument ensembles like H+H specialize in reproducing, with as much accuracy as possible, how a performance in the 17th and 18th centuries may have sounded, using instruments and performing techniques specific to that time period.
String instruments, such as the violin, were also quite different in the 17th and 18th centuries compared with modern instruments. The fingerboard was slightly shorter, affecting the playing of the instrument. Violins and violas had no chin rests. Even the bows were shaped and held differently.
From its beginnings in the mid-20th century, the HIP movement was widespread, yet concentrated in major musical centers. Nikolaus Harnoncourt spearheaded the movement in Vienna with the founding of the period-instrument ensemble Concentus Musicus Wien in 1953. In England, musicologist and harpsichordist Thurston Dart inspired a new generation of HIP performers, including David Munrow and Christopher Hogwood, who became the founders of the Early Music Consort of London. Hogwood then revived the Academy of Ancient Music, a group dedicated to performing and recording on period instruments. Under Hogwood’s direction, the “new” Academy of Ancient Music performed and recorded on period instruments. With his appointment as H+H Artistic Director in 1986, Hogwood began the transformation of the Handel and Haydn Society orchestra into a period-instrument ensemble.
INSTRUMENTS While many aspects of performance are researched and examined in connection with HIP or period-instrument performances, instrument construction is probably the most far-reaching in terms of what the audience hears and sees in any one performance. Some of the most obvious visual differences are found in the brass and woodwind instruments. Early flutes, for example, were constructed of wood rather than metal, producing a rounder tone. Modern brass and woodwinds are built with a series of valves (brass) and keys (woodwinds), which extend the number of notes that the instrument can play accurately.
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TUNING Instrument construction, including the materials from which an instrument is made, affects how the instrument is played as well as the sound produced. Period-instrument strings are made of gut rather than steel, producing a mellower, even sweeter, sound quality. Gut strings are also one reason why period instruments are tuned at a lower pitch than modern ones. If a composition were played by both a period-instrument and modern ensemble, one of the first audible differences between the two would be the pitch. Orchestras today tend to tune to A=440 (or a little higher) while period-instrument ensembles tune about A=420 (or a little lower).
ARTICULATION Similarly, articulation, or how a note is played, on a modern instrument is not the same on a period instrument. The result for the listener can perhaps be described as a lighter and faster or more dance-like sound. Another aspect of articulation is the use of vibrato, which Guy Fishman, principal cellist of the H+H Period Instrument Orchestra, explains:
A BAROQUE TRUMPET IS MUCH LONGER THAN A MODERN ONE AND DOES NOT HAVE VALVES, LIMITING THE NUMBER OF PITCHES A PERFORMER CAN PLAY WITH ACCURACY.
BAROQUE WOODWIND INSTRUMENTS SUCH AS THE OBOE AND BASSOON PRODUCE A ROUNDER TONE THAN THEIR MODERN COUNTERPARTS.
SIZE OF THE ENSEMBLE
CHIN REST
FINGERBOARDS
With Historically Informed Performance, one of the most fundamental questions concerns how many people played in an orchestra or sang in a chorus. To answer this question, payment records, diaries, composer’s scores, notes, program, etc., are culled. We know, for example, that about 50 musicians performed for the premiere of Handel’s Messiah in 1742. In the 1980s, when the Handel and Haydn Society decided to follow that performance practice, as opposed to using some 200-plus performers as was its tradition, it was presenting a known work in a new way. Many of the compositions that the HIP movement revisited had never left the concert hall. Often hearing these “old” works in a “new” light is a revelation for performer and audience alike. Musical lines and the interactions between instruments become fresh experiences for the seasoned listener while the lively nature of period-instrument performance can captivate someone new to the HIP movement.
NECK
TOP: A BAROQUE VIOLIN (LEFT) AND MODERN VIOLIN (RIGHT) ARE OF THE SAME GENERAL SIZE AND SHAPE. MIDDLE: ONE DISTINCT DIFFERENCE IS THE ADDITION OF A CHIN REST, AN EARLY 19TH CENTURY INVENTION, TO THE MODERN VIOLIN (TOP). ALSO, THE FINGERBOARD OF THE MODERN VIOLIN IS LONGER. BOTTOM: ON CLOSER EXAMINATION, THE NECK OF THE MODERN VIOLIN (TOP) IS POSITIONED AT A SHARPER ANGLE IN RELATION TO THE BODY OF THE INSTRUMENT, PLACING MORE TENSION ON THE STRINGS.
TERESA M. NEFF, PHD Handel and Haydn Society Christopher Hogwood Historically Informed Performance Fellow
DECEMBER 25, 1815: First public performance at King’s Chapel in Boston.
NECK
While period-instrument ensembles seek to create performances that are influenced by knowledge of the time in which the work was composed, it is done with the understanding that no live musical performance can be duplicated. Historical performance practice does not claim superiority over modern-instrument performances; it offers an alternative way of engaging with music of the past, in other words, making the old new again.
MARCH 24, 1815: The Handel and Haydn Society is founded “to promote the love of good music and a better performance of it.”
Vibrato refers to an expressive device whereby the deliberate alteration of pitch [a note] above and below its center differentiates it from what would otherwise be described as a "straight" or "pure" tone. The musicians of the Handel and Haydn Society utilize this device as an ornament, in accordance with the general performance practice norm starting in the 1400s and lasting into the 1920s; that is, the application of vibrato to straight tone in order to heighten the affect of specific points in the music, in a manner that is judicious, brief, and infrequent.
HANDEL + HAYDN SOCIETY BICENTENNIAL
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BAROQUE FIREWORKS! H+H TURNS 200 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10 7.30PM, SYMPHONY HALL SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12 3PM, SYMPHONY HALL
The Bicentennial officially begins with this concert overflowing with virtuosity, pomp, and some special surprises. H+H musicians display their full range with Harry Christophers leading familiar orchestral and choral selections. Harry Christophers, conductor Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus VAP Young Women’s and Young Men’s Choruses Handel: Coronation Anthem No. 1, Zadok the Priest Bach: Singet dem Herrn Handel: Coronation Anthem No. 3, The King Shall Rejoice Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks Sir John Stevenson: They play’d, in air the trembling music floats Vivaldi: “Summer” from The Four Seasons Handel: “Worthy is the Lamb” and “Amen” choruses from Messiah
Boston Private Bank & Trust Company, lead sponsor 6 HANDEL + HAYDN SOCIETY BICENTENNIAL
EXPLORING THE
BICENTENNIAL SEASON A season this good comes only once every 200 years. Because it’s our birthday, we’re planning to toast Boston with some of the best and most exciting music composed since 1650, performed by many of today’s finAISSLINN NOSKY’S PLAYING WILL TAKE YOUR BREATH AWAY AS SHE PERFORMS AND CURATES AN ITALIAN BAROQUE PROGRAM FULL OF PASSION AND ENERGY.
est international singers and instrumentalists. Artistic Director Harry Christophers will also bring out the best from our virtuoso Period Instrument Orchestra and the H+H Chorus, considered the finest in New England. From the entertaining to the dramatic, passion won’t be lacking this season. You’ll be riveted and want to come back for the next concert celebration. Highlights include a festive Baroque display, a collection of some of the greatest oratorios ever written (several of which were premiered in this country by H+H), and two brilliant showcases for H+H Concertmaster Aisslinn Nosky. Accompany-
VIVALDI L’ESTRO ARMONICO FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31 7.30PM, NEC’S JORDAN HALL SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 2 3PM, NEC’S JORDAN HALL
Concertmaster Aisslinn Nosky and friends present an multitude of special events and activities. Be imaginative brew of musical inspiration and thrilling our guest for a year full of surprises, goose challenge. Vivaldi’s sublime bumps, and cheer. L’estro armonico concertos, music that greatly influenced Bach, are paired with Tartini’s Devil’s Trill Sonata, a piece made legendary by its fiendish difficulty.
ing the 2014–2015 Bicentennial Season is a
Aisslinn Nosky, violin and leader Period Instrument Orchestra
HANDEL MESSIAH FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 28 7.30PM, SYMPHONY HALL SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29 3PM, SYMPHONY HALL SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 30 3PM, SYMPHONY HALL
A holiday tradition for 161 years — make it yours! A favorite that never goes out of fashion, this classic oratorio is kept fresh each year by Harry Christophers, the Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus, and internationally acclaimed soloists. “Rejoice greatly” in H+H’s stellar performance of Messiah, the heralding of the Christmas season. Harry Christophers, conductor Joélle Harvey, soprano Tim Mead, countertenor Allan Clayton, tenor Brindley Sherratt, bass Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus
Vivaldi: Concerto for 2 Violins in D Minor, Op. 3, No. 11 Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 3, No. 9 Tartini: Devil’s Trill Sonata Corelli: Concerto Grosso in C Major, Op. 6, No. 10 Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in D Major RV 208, Grosso Mogul
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HOLIDAY SING SATURDAY DECEMBER 13 1 AND 3PM, THE GREAT HALL, FANEUIL HALL
Lisa Graham, conductor Handel and Haydn Society Chorus and Brass Quintet VAP Choruses
GRETJEN HELENE
Sing along to your favorite holiday carols and songs with the magnificent and merry H+H chorus and H+H children’s choral ensembles — as well as brass quintet! Faneuil Hall is the historic and beautiful setting for this sing-along concert, perfect for families and kids of all ages.
A BACH CHRISTMAS
HAYDN WITH AISSLINN NOSKY
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18 7.30PM, NEC’S JORDAN HALL SUNDAY, DECEMBER 21 3PM, NEC’S JORDAN HALL
FRIDAY, JANUARY 23 7.30PM, SYMPHONY HALL SUNDAY, JANUARY 25 3PM, SYMPHONY HALL
Artistic Director Harry Christophers and Concertmaster Aisslinn Nosky continue their critically-praised survey of the orchestral music of Joseph Haydn. The sequel to 2012’s Haydn in Paris, the program has Nosky taking the stage in Haydn’s seldom-heard Violin Concerto in C Major, followed by a powerful foray into the minor key, the dramatic Symphony No. 83. Harry Christophers, conductor Aisslinn Nosky, violin Period Instrument Orchestra AN INSPIRATIONAL HOLIDAY PROGRAM AT NEC'S JORDAN HALL.
Back Bay Chorale Music Director Scott Allen Jarrett takes the Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus on a journey through Christmas past, from medieval plainchant to the 18th century. Corelli’s popular Christmas Concerto is just one of many highlights in this unique and creative program. Scott Allen Jarrett, conductor Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus J.S. Bach: Cantata IV from Christmas Oratorio J.S. Bach: Cantata 40, Dazu ist erscheinen der Sohn Gottes Corelli: Concerto Grosso, Op. 6, No. 8, Christmas Concerto Schütz: Ach Herr, du Schöpfer aller Ding Vulpius: Es ist ein Ros’ entsprungen Sweelinck: Hodie Christus natus est
Haydn: Symphony No. 7, Le Midi Haydn: Violin Concerto in C Major Haydn: Overture to Lo Speziale Haydn: Symphony No. 83, La Poule
MOZART AND BEETHOVEN FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13 7.30PM, NEC’S JORDAN HALL SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14 7.30PM, NEC’S JORDAN HALL SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15 3PM, NEC’S JORDAN HALL
Hear these titans of the Classical era as young musicians. Composed by the master at the tender age of 13, Mozart’s Waisenhaus Mass receives a rare performance from conductor Richard Egarr, the Period Instrument Orchestra, and soloists from H+H’s own Chorus. You also won’t want to miss Egarr conduct Beethoven’s charismatic Symphony No. 1. Richard Egarr, conductor Sonja DuToit Tengblad, soprano Emily Marvosh, contralto Stefan Reed, tenor David McFerrin, bass-baritone Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus Mozart: Mass in C Minor, K. 139, Waisenhaus Mass
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Beethoven: Symphony No. 1
BACH ST. MATTHEW PASSION FRIDAY, MARCH 27 7.30PM, SYMPHONY HALL SUNDAY, MARCH 29 3PM, SYMPHONY HALL
MENDELSSOHN ELIJAH Known in the 19th century as the Messiah of its day, Mendelssohn’s dramatic oratorio never loses its grip on an audience. Former Artistic Director Grant Llewellyn makes a triumphant H+H return, leading the Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus and soloists. Acclaimed bass-baritone Andrew Foster-Williams sings the pivotal title role of the Old Testament prophet. Grant Llewellyn, conductor Sarah Coburn, soprano Christianne Stotijn, mezzo-soprano Andrew Kennedy, tenor Andrew Foster-Williams, bass-baritone
Harry Christophers, conductor Joshua Ellicott, tenor (evangelist) Roderick Williams, baritone (jesus) Joélle Harvey, soprano Catherine Wyn-Rogers, mezzo-soprano Matthew Long, tenor Sumner Thompson, baritone Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus VAP Young Women’s and Young Men’s Choruses
JULY 15, 1817: Performance for President James Monroe. President Monroe’s March is commissioned for the occasion.
FRIDAY, MARCH 6 7.30PM, SYMPHONY HALL SUNDAY, MARCH 8 3PM, SYMPHONY HALL
H+H reprises its sold-out 2012 performances of the Saint Matthew Passion with an exemplary cast of soloists, double choir, double orchestra, and children’s choir. Don’t miss out on this one-of-a-kind masterwork, premiered in the US by H+H in 1879, to be performed during the final days of Lent.
FEBRUARY 9, 1816: H+H incorporated by a Special Act of the General Court, Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
STUDENTS IN THE VOCAL ARTS PROGRAM JOIN THE PERIOD INSTRUMENT ORCHESTRA AND CHORUS FOR THE ST. MATTHEW PASSION .
VAP SINGERS PERFORM A SOOTHING MEDLEY OF HOLIDAY MUSIC IN A HISTORIC BOSTON LANDMARK.
Ropes & Gray, LLP, presenting sponsor
Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus
1821: Publication of the first Handel and Haydn Society music collection.
MUSIC DIRECTOR OF THE PRESTIGIOUS ACADEMY OF ANCIENT MUSIC, RICHARD EGARR IS AN IMPRESSIVE SHOWMAN WHO KNOWS HOW TO MAKE THE MUSIC OF MOZART AND BEETHOVEN SPARKLE.
9
SPECIAL ACTIVITIES
HAYDN THE CREATION FRIDAY, MAY 1 7.30PM, SYMPHONY HALL SUNDAY, MAY 3 3PM, SYMPHONY HALL
BICENTENNIAL EXHIBIT: DISCOVERY, INSIGHT, AND SONG MARCH 24 THROUGH SEPTEMBER 7, 2015 AT THE CENTRAL LIBRARY IN COPLEY SQUARE; FREE ADMISSION
Lowell Mason, Carl Zerrahn, Julia Beecher Howe, Thomas Dunn, Christopher Hogwood… become familiar with all the important figures in H+H’s distinguished 200-year-old history. Drawing on the extensive H+H archives, this interactive exhibit will explore Handel and Haydn’s 200-year history and the development of classical music in America. Presented in partnership with the Freedom Trail Foundation and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it will be enhanced by concerts, lectures, and family programming.
History will come alive in this fun, family-friendly presentation that will teach and demonstrate how H+H has endured as America’s oldest continuously performing arts organization. Supported by the Plymouth Rock Foundation and the Adams Arts Program of the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
THE SOCIETY BALL BICENTENNIAL GALA: SUPPORTING 200 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE
THE H+H CHORUS EXPANDS TO 42 SINGERS TO PERFORM HAYDN’S MASSIVE CREATION .
Inspired by Haydn’s trips to England, where he first heard Handel’s oratorios, The Creation is widely considered Haydn’s crowning masterpiece. Based on both the biblical Genesis and Milton’s Paradise Lost, the oratorio was premiered in the US by H+H in 1819 and hasn’t been performed by the ensemble since 2001. Harry Christophers, conductor Sarah Tynan, soprano Jeremy Ovenden, tenor Matthew Brook, bass-baritone Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus
SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 2015 6.30PM, SYMPHONY HALL
H+H’s benefactors and friends come together for a lavish gala fundraiser, featuring a performance by the Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus, led by Harry Christophers, with proceeds to benefit H+H’s education and artistic initiatives. This Boston event of the year takes place at Symphony Hall, H+H’s home since 1900, with a focus on celebrating H+H’s important place in the history of Boston and the US.
This elegant evening will be a splashy black-tie occasion with plenty of opportunities to meet and converse with your favorite H+H musicians. Boston Private Bank & Trust Company, sponsor
HANDEL AND HAYDN SINGS THURSDAY, JUNE 18 7.30PM, SYMPHONY HALL
Be there for this special concert, held in conjunction with the 2015 Chorus America National Conference. Harry Christophers conducts many of his favorite choral works, from the glorious majesty of Palestrina to the spiritual minimalism of Arvo Pärt. Adding to this unique program is the world premiere of a new work by Gabriela Lena Frank for chorus and chamber ensemble, a co-commission with the Library of Congress. Harry Christophers, conductor Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus Frank: World premiere piece, title TBD
BEETHOVEN SYMPHONY NO. 9: A COMMUNITY CELEBRATION
Handel: Coronation Anthem No. 1, Zadok the Priest
SUNDAY, JULY 26, 2015, COPLEY SQUARE
Handel: Overture and final choruses of Act II from Jephtha
A free outdoor performance of Beethoven’s epic Symphony No. 9 (“Ode to Joy”) in the heart of Copley Square. The H+H Chorus will be joined by singers from area choirs to celebrate Boston’s great choral tradition.
Palestrina: Vineam meam non custodivi
H+H brings Boston together for a performance of a work that it first premiered in Boston in 1853.
10 HANDEL + HAYDN SOCIETY BICENTENNIAL
Bach: Singet dem Herrn Pärt: The Deer’s Cry
MacMillan: O radiant dawn Palestrina: Pulchrae sunt genae tuae Handel: Part the Third from Messiah
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HISTO 12 HANDEL + HAYDN SOCIETY BICENTENNIAL
ORY
I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy... in order to give their children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, and Architecture. —JOHN ADAMS
BY JAN SWAFFORD
The story of The Boston Handel and Haydn Society in the course of its first 200 years is part of the story of music in its city and music in the United States. At its inception, H+H was not a unique organization. In the next centuries, what became unique about the Society was its ability to remake itself again and again from the often musically unlettered amateurs of its founding to its current position as a professional organization and world leader in historically informed performance. Given the nature of America as an immigrant country, in the 18th century there had been a steady trickle of music and musical forums making their way to the new world. The first documented public concert in the US was heard in Boston in 1731. Thrilled by the concert life during his sojourn in Europe, Thomas Jefferson played violin and called music “the favorite passion of my soul.” A seminal figure in Boston concert life was German-born Gottlieb Graupner, who arrived in 1797. He had once played oboe under Haydn in London. In 1809, he formed the Philo-Harmonic Society; this small group of mostly amateurs lasted until 1824, playing some Haydn alongside lighter composers. Graupner led the group from his position as its double bass player. A busy entrepreneur and married to a singer, Graupner was Boston’s main music publisher for some 25 years. Among his efforts was helping to found H+H. How that founding came about began with a couple of concerts in February 1815. The first, at Rev. Dr. Baldwin’s meetinghouse, was scheduled for the sixteenth of that month by the HANDEL + HAYDN SOCIETY BICENTENNIAL 13
Second Baptist Singing Society. The program was a selection of movements from “the most favorite authors of Europe” — the first part of Haydn’s Creation and works by Handel, including the “Hallelujah” Chorus from Messiah, and part of Judas Maccabaeus. Since word had just been received of the peace agreement ending the War of 1812, the concert became something of a celebration of that event. In its comment, The Advertiser particularly rhapsodized over “the rare and astonishingly sublime and descriptive production of Haydn, which has never been exhibited in New England.” The Creation was immensely popular in Europe in those days, and it would prove likewise in the US. That occasion having gone well, a second was mounted on February 22, this one intended to celebrate both George Washington’s birthday and the end of the war. A procession marched from the State House to historic King’s Chapel, where a large and enthusiastic audience again heard choruses Christmas Day, 1815 marked the of Handel and Haydn presented by a first Handel and Haydn Society collection of 250 singers and instruperformance at King’s Chapel. It mentalists. It was agreed that such was an auspicious start for what concerts were a fine idea, so why not no one could have imagined continue them?
was going to become a history encompassing centuries.
After the second concert, Gottlieb Graupner, Thomas Smith Webb, and Aaron (Asa) Peabody issued a call for interested parties to meet in regard to “cultivating and improving a correct taste in the performance of sacred music.” In March 1815, two meetings were held, the first not on record, the second at Graupner’s Hall, attended by 16 men. They agreed to form an oratorio society, with Handel and Haydn to be the heart of the repertoire. In April, the members drafted a constitution. At that point there were 44 members who signed the constitution and together contributed $53 (some $750 in modern dollars) toward music and other expenses. Most of these founders were veterans of local church choirs, especially the well-trained group at Park Street Church. It was agreed that members must have good singing voices, though it was considered too much to require them to know how to read music. None of the men were Boston Brahmins, but rather entirely middle-class. Eight were merchants, the rest represented a mélange of professions from bank cashier to shopkeeper to printer to apothecary. Only two are listed as professional musicians, one being Gottlieb Graupner. From that beginning, H+H remained predominately a middle-class organization whose goals were as much pleasure and self-improvement as performance. From among the founders, Thomas Smith Webb was named president of the Society, which made him at the same time music director in theory, if not always in practice.
BETWEEN 1818 AND 1839, H+H CONCERTS TOOK PLACE AT BOYLSTON HALL, WHICH STOOD ON THE CORNER OF BOYLSTON AND WASHINGTON STREETS IN BOSTON (PRESENT DAY CHINATOWN). 14 HANDEL + HAYDN SOCIETY BICENTENNIAL
Christmas Day, 1815 marked the first Handel and Haydn Society performance at King’s Chapel. It was an auspicious start for what no one could have imagined was going to become a history encompassing centuries. The audience numbered around a thousand, the chorus 90 men and 10 women, supported by a small instrumental group and organ. The program was a huge
compendium in three parts. The first part was a collection of arias and choruses from Haydn’s Creation, ending with “The Heavens are Telling.” Part two was more of a grab-bag, dominated by numbers from Messiah. Part three had some patriotic items: “’Tis Liberty, dear Liberty alone” and “Come, ever-smiling Liberty” — ending with the “Hallelujah” Chorus.
PORTRAIT TAKEN OF THE HANDEL AND HAYDN SOCIETY ON APRIL 28, 1915 AT BOSTON’S SYMPHONY HALL. SYMPHONY HALL HAS BEEN HOME TO H+H SINCE IT OPENED IN 1900.
IN FOR THE LONG-TERM
going to wither away ing in societies and churches. What did these concerts really sound like, to as had every other local Missing, however, was a founan educated ear? That is hard to determine: performing organization, dation in training and the kind When it came to the performance of Eurosooner or later. But of first-rate performing modpean oratorios, there were few educated salvation was at hand. els that had long been in place ears to be found in Boston or anywhere else in Europe. Also missing in the in the country. In the Society’s third year, a beginning was broad public newspaper raved, “Their efforts have nearly produced a revosupport for oratorios and other classical music, lution in our musical world… not only in establishing a relish for and therefore funding. genuine harmony, but of doing away with… that up-and-down monotony, whose dolorous creak has so often agonized the nerves of the stoutest Christian.”
From the beginning, then, the Handel and Haydn Society was subject to the available local skills and resources.
AUGUST 2, 1826: Performance at the memorial service for John Adams and Thomas Jefferson at Faneuil Hall.
A telling item from this era is the number of women in the first chorus: ten, presumably all sopranos. As was often done in churches and singing societies in those days, men covered the alto part in falsetto and likewise doubled the soprano part an octave below. Of course, the music was hardly written to be performed that way; it played havoc with the four- or five-part writing. The effect was largely unremarked at the time because it was what people were used to.
Undaunted, on Christmas Day, 1818, three years after its founding, the Society gave the first complete performance of Handel’s Messiah in America. The next February saw the country’s first complete Haydn Creation. In fact, for H+H’s first 20 years, these two works by the Society’s namesakes were the essence of its repertoire. This reflected the reputation of both works in Europe. Handel was the first composer in history who never had to be revived or rediscovered; from his own lifetime to this day, Messiah has been not only one of the most admired, but one of the most popular works ever written. By the time H+H first performed the whole of Messiah, it was the most famous piece in the world.
1823: The Society requests a new work from Ludwig van Beethoven. He dies before fulfilling the commission.
What must come together to make a strong By popular demand, the concert was repeated in January. The musical tradition includes a variety of elements: next month, Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society was incorpoenthusiasm, training, an established and thriving rated by a Special Act of the General Court, Commonwealth of performing life, and money. H+H began with great Massachusetts, “for the purpose of extendenthusiasm, in its ambition to ing the knowledge and improving the style of perform European oratorios performance of Church music.” It looked like H+H was and in order to improve sing-
HANDEL + HAYDN SOCIETY BICENTENNIAL 15
Meanwhile, Haydn’s Creation was, in those days, the most beloved of more or less contemporary oratorios. Where was J.S. Bach in this picture? In Europe, he was still a legendary but rarely performed figure. It took most of the 19th century for the complete edition of his music to be published and for performances to catch up. It would be later in the century when his choral works arrived in the US, the two most important via H+H.
GROWTH THROUGH LEADERSHIP AND SONG In the first two decades of H+H, there was a perennially casual attitude about rehearsing. One longtime member recalled that, during rehearsals, there were inspiring libations to be had on the first floor, and members were often seen heading downstairs for a break. This process was referred to, perhaps with a drop of irony, as “tuning.” At least in that respect, rehearsals got more and more in tune as the evening went on. Programs remained Messiah and Creation in whole or part, plus a parade of smaller numbers in grab-bag programs. Soloists remained mostly local and relatively inexperienced. (One early soloist, having been so bold as to memorize his part in The Creation, became confused during a recitative and was heard to declaim: “And God created great whales, and He said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, and sit and sing on every tree.”) By 1822, performance quality and audience numbers were slipping, and the Society’s coffers were running dangerously low. It looked like H+H was going to wither away as had every other local performing organization, sooner or later. But salvation was at hand. In 1820, the idea had been proposed that the Society In his five-year tenure, the give its imprimatur to a new collection of indefatigable Lowell Mason sacred music that would improve existing songbooks by presenting tunes with proper gave the Handel and “scientific” harmony. Enter Lowell Mason. Haydn Society new vitality
and ambition.
Mason was then living in Savannah, Georgia, holding down a bank job while in his spare time he assembled a hymnal largely based on melodies of Handel, Haydn, Mozart, etc. Through some Boston connections, Mason got the book into the hands of the Society. In 1822, that collection was issued as The Boston Handel and Haydn Society Collection of Church Music. Its impact was meteoric — musically and for the Society’s finances. The most successful hymnal of its time, the
GERMAN-BORN CARL ZERRAHN CONDUCTED H+H FOR 42 YEARS, THE LONGEST TENURE OF ANY H+H MUSIC DIRECTOR.
book was the cornerstone of a new prosperity for the Society and a new career for the indefatigable Lowell Mason.
In 1827, after two tenures at the helm, affable but musically limited H+H President Amasa Winchester stepped down and the clear next choice was Lowell Mason. In his five-year tenure, he gave the Society new vitality and ambition.
As the H+H coffers began to fill, there occurred an interesting sidelight in the larger history of music: in 1823, the Society sent word across the Atlantic to the leading composer of the day, Ludwig van Beethoven, offering to commission him for an oratorio. Beethoven was pleased to hear his reputation had spread to the new world, and he seemed to be receptive. However, busy with finishing the Missa solemnis and starting the Ninth Symphony, Beethoven had no interest in composing oratorios for anybody, particularly of the pious sort that would have been expected. It was fortunate for all that the proposal was unaccepted, because the Society would likely have lost its investment — in his later years, Beethoven was given to accepting commissions for pieces he had no interest in writing. With his endeavors in and out of the Society (see accompanying article on page 18), Mason became the country’s leading advocate for a
16 HANDEL + HAYDN SOCIETY BICENTENNIAL
STEPHANIE BERGER
SEPTEMBER 3, 1827: Lowell Mason, noted music educator and editor, elected President of the Society.
NEW TIMES AND NEW GENERATIONS
In 1852, the grand new Boston Music Hall opened with seats for twenty-seven hundred and a fine organ. H+H sang at the opening ceremony and moved its performances to the hall, which served for many years as the city’s main venue. The more important development in musical circles in many places around the world during the second half of the 19th century was the establishment of independent, well-trained conductors. The conductor who impacted the Society most in the second half of the century was Carl Zerrahn. He was one of the wave of German musicians who fled that country after the revolution of 1848 and sought their future in America. One group of instrumentalists formed the Germania Musical Society. In the end they gave nearly a thousand concerts, heard by more than
Zerrahn was a flutist with the Germania group and afterward picked up a baton, becoming the H+H conductor in 1854. By that point the Society had taken the critical step of separating the responsibilities of president and music director. Starting with Charles Edward Horn in 1847, there were a series of short-tenured directors before Zerrahn took over. He stayed on the H+H podium until 1895, and returned for one last season in 1897 — not only the longest tenure of any H+H music director, but surely one of the longest in musical history. Meanwhile, classical music on both sides of the Atlantic was moving toward the model of specialist conductors, who were better able to manage and shape large works like oratorios, passions, and Beethoven’s Ninth.
1865: Julia Ward Howe, composer of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, begins her decade-long tenure as a member of the Society Chorus.
By the middle of the 19th century, H+H was woven into the fabric of musical life in Boston as something familiar and dependable. In the rest of its two centuries it has been nothing less. The repertoire slowly grew. Handel’s oratorio Samson, which after the Society gave its American premiere in 1845, proved a huge hit and an H+H staple for years. Later in the decade the first performances of Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus aroused little excitement, but Mendelssohn’s Elijah filled the seats again. The Society found a dynamic new president in Jonas Chickering, of the famous Boston piano-making company.
a million listeners. These men, well-versed in the European literature, brought a new understanding of what performances could be. After touring around the country, the Germanians settled in Boston in 1852, among other endeavors played with H+H, and finally disbanded to pursue their individual careers.
JANUARY 1, 1863: H+H observes the Emancipation Proclamation with musical celebration.
bottom-up approach to spreading music, even if he was not primarily concerned with spreading the classical variety as such. But his efforts raised literacy and taste at every level of society, and all music benefited.
ONE OF SEVERAL PROJECTS UNDERTAKEN IN COLLABORATION WITH CHINESEBORN STAGE DIRECTOR CHEN SHI-ZHENG, MONTEVERDI’S VESPERS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY FROM 2003.
The Zerrahn years saw an expansion of the Society’s repertoire and ambition. The era of men HANDEL + HAYDN SOCIETY BICENTENNIAL 17
Born in Medfield, Massachusetts, Lowell Mason (1792– 1872) grew up with a passion for music, playing every instrument he could get his hands on, singing in church choirs, and directing the town band. In maturity he was a large, handsome, personable man with incomparable energy. Before becoming H+H President in 1827, Mason created an important and highly influential hymnal for the Society. In Boston during the early 19th century, church music was stagnant and interest in more ambitious kinds of music faltering. In its more sophisticated, “scientific” harmony, Mason’s Boston Handel and Haydn Society Collection of Church Music set a new standard for church music in the country. Its tunes, adapted from Mozart, Handel, and Haydn, were supplied with appropriate new words. (Only the rare opera buff would notice that the original of one of those hymns was from Mozart’s Don Giovanni: Zerlina’s forlorn plea to her boyfriend, Batti, batti, O bel Masetto — “Beat me, beat me, dear Masetto.”) In three decades, Mason assembled 70 collections, most of it sacred music. Eventually, he wrote more than 1,600 hymns himself, among them some of the most familiar ones in the American repertoire: “Joy to the World,” “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” “Nearer, My God, to Thee.” On the secular side, he wrote “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” He also founded a family musical dynasty: his son Henry was part of the leading Mason & Hamlin piano company; his other pianist son, William, studied with Liszt in Weimar; his composer grandson, Daniel Gregory Mason, became head of music at Columbia University. Meanwhile, Mason co-founded the Boston Academy of Music to provide music education for the public. By its second year, it had 3,000 students, and it also presented concerts of instrumental music. Mainly interested in education, Mason began to teach singing to children and, in Boston, created America's first public-school music program. From 1838, he served as its superintendent, and taught in the schools until 1851.
18 HANDEL + HAYDN SOCIETY BICENTENNIAL
In due course followed important premieres: in 1878, the first American performance of Verdi’s Requiem, next year likewise of the complete Bach St. Matthew Passion. The year 1887 saw the first Boston airing of parts of Bach’s Mass in B Minor. Only a few years earlier, five hundred chorus members from Boston went to New York to join in on the Beethoven Centennial under the leading American conductor Theodore Thomas, who could not find enough singers of that quality in New York.
NEW WAYS FOR A NEW CENTURY By this point the chorus was still amateur, but far more experienced than in the early years. Now H+H was a business organization devoted to giving first-rate performances of a broad repertoire for a broad audience. Meanwhile, with the advent in 1881 of the Boston Symphony, the city now possessed a major orchestra. In 1900, Symphony Hall was inaugurated and soon proved itself one of the world’s great concert halls. It became the home of both the Boston Symphony and H+H. If the two organizations were then and have remained in some degree competitors for audiences, they have been relatively friendly competitors. BOHDAN HRYNEWYCH
THE FATHER OF MUSIC EDUCATION IN AMERICA
singing alto and soprano parts was long gone, and the Society could afford to pay leading soloists. There was an appropriate number of women singers (though women were not allowed as members until 1967), and the forces reflected the time’s penchant for giant choruses; at the five-day Golden Jubilee of 1865, the chorus numbered seven hundred, accompanied by a large orchestra. By that point there were enough competent amateur singers and experienced local instrumentalists to fill the stage of the Music Hall.
Thus, H+H was on the move. The 20th century saw an expansion into continually widening repertoire (with Messiah, of course, still a constant), into performances of contemporary works, including H+H commissions, and a steady ascent in the level of music-making. By the 1950s the Society was eager to seek new audiences in the evolving media age. In 1955 came the first commercial recording of Handel’s Messiah, with conductor Thompson Stone. In 1961, artistic director Ed Gilday ushered in the television age with local broadcasts, and then in 1963 the world’s first-ever
of what has come from their little group of amateurs singing for the love of great music and for the fun of it.
The appointment of Thomas Dunn as music director in 1967 brought a historic new era: balanced programming of early and contemporary works, including premieres; a new concern with historically informed performance (though still on modern instruments); and a turn away from the giant choruses of the past to a smaller and more highly trained choir. His December 1972 Messiah performance had a choir of only 30 singers.
Composer and writer Jan Swafford has taught composition, theory, and music history at Amherst College, Boston College, and The Boston Conservatory. He has written respected musical biographies of Charles Ives and Johannes Brahms. Swafford writes regular columns on music and other subjects for Slate, and has been heard as a commentator on NPR and the BBC. He is a regular program annotator for orchestras and venues, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and Carnegie Hall. His biography of Beethoven has just been released.
After Dunn’s long tenure, with the advent of Christopher Hogwood as music director in 1986, the turn toward a historically informed ensemble with period instruments and ensemble size was complete. The Society’s first period-ensemble recording of Messiah was released in 2000, just at the start of a new millennium. By then the chorus consisted entirely of paid professionals.
APPROACHING THE BICENTENNIAL MILESTONE
A SAMPLING OF HISTORICAL OBJECTS FROM H+H’S EXTENSIVE ARCHIVES.
1967: Music Director Thomas Dunn shifts H+H’s focus from exclusively choral music to early and contemporary choral and instrumental music.
At the same time, H+H education efforts, formalized as an ongoing program in 1985, have broadened steadily to include presentations for underserved populations, the creation of youth choruses, and specific initiatives for pre-professional musicians, THOMAS DUNN, eventually reaching some 10,000 ONE OF H+H’S students of all kinds each year. MOST INFLUIn 2004, the H+H Youth Chorus ENTIAL MUSIC DIRECTORS, IN received national attention by REHEARSAL singing at the Democratic National AT SYMPHONY Convention in Boston. These efforts HALL. for future generations have returned the Society to its early tradition as an institution devoted to spreading the word about music and developing skills through music education.
To purchase a copy, visit the H+H online shop at handelandhaydn.org/shop.
APRIL 29, 1945: Performance at the memorial service for President Franklin D. Roosevelt at Symphony Hall.
Today the Handel and Haydn Society occupies a leading place among performing organizations in the United States, recording and performing around the world. The 2000s saw the ascent of Grant Llewellyn and then Harry Christophers to the podium. There was a steady expansion of repertoire, artistic approach , and audience experience: the orchestra’s San Francisco collaboration with the vocal ensemble Chanticleer for the world premiere and recording of John Tavener’s Lamentations and Praises; fully staged productions of Monteverdi’s Vespers and L’Orfeo and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, directed by Chen Shi-Zheng; Christophers leading the Society’s continental European debut in a Haydn Festival at the Esterházy Palace in Austria, where Haydn had once worked; Sir Roger Norrington directing Haydn’s The Seasons at Royal Albert Hall.
Swafford’s article is excerpted from The Handel and Haydn Society: Bringing Music to Life for 200 Years, published by Godine Publishers. The book is available in two editions: a standard copy selling at $40 and a special limited edition bound in cloth, enclosed in a slipcase, and signed by Artistic Director Harry Christophers for $200.
OCTOBER 21, 1900: First Handel and Haydn Society concert in Boston’s new Symphony Hall.
televised performance of the complete Messiah for National Educational Television (now PBS).
In that respect the modern Handel and Haydn Society has come full circle since its early years — a performing group with a vital education program, an approach that focuses on developing performers and audiences toward common interests. It performs for large, enthusiastic audiences that are variously in search of entertainment, edification, and inspiration. The founders of 1815 would be both astounded and proud HANDEL + HAYDN SOCIETY BICENTENNIAL 19
EDUCATION +COMMUNITY Handel and Haydn’s commitment to music education goes as far back as Lowell Mason (1792–1872), a 19th-century pioneer in the field and former H+H president. Mason’s legacy continues today through the Karen S. and George D. Levy Education Program, which formalized H+H’s education initiatives in 1985. Each year, H+H provides music education to 10,000 students, mainly in underserved communities, through the Vocal Arts Program (encompassing five choruses), Collaborative Youth Concerts, Vocal Quartet school visits, and a series of in-school residencies. In addition, H+H provides professional training and master classes to students enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New England Conservatory, and other area colleges. H+H also reaches the community through enriching partnerships with some of Boston’s premier institutions, including the Boston Children’s Museum, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, Boston Public Library, King’s Chapel, the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and the Museum of African American History, among others. Through our Heartstrings program, public school students, education program families, and underserved communities receive free and discounted tickets to subscription series concerts, ensuring that the enjoyment of live music is accessible to all.
H+H MUSICIANS PERFORMING AT KING'S CHAPEL, THE SITE OF H+H'S FIRST PUBLIC CONCERT IN 1815.
ANDREW MILNE, Young Men's Chorus singer (Westborough, MA)
“I have gained so much from being in the Vocal Arts Program. I gained life-long friends that I am still in contact with. The program also forced me to become more responsible. I would not be the musician I am today without my time in VAP.” THE VOCAL ARTS PROGRAM (VAP) provides talented young singers in grades 3–12 the opportunity to sing in a chorus, take musicianship classes, perform with professional musicians, and receive private voice instruction.
CLAIRE CRANE, Ford School Principal (Lynn, MA)
“This is the first time many of these kids have seen anything like this. They don’t get exposed to a lot of music like this.” THE VOCAL QUARTET, comprising H+H professional singers, visits schools with original presentations designed to teach music history in an entertaining, age-appropriate way.
GRETJEN HELENE
ANNICKA DELISCA, student at Brockton High School (Brockton, MA)
“Performing at Symphony Hall with professionals and such beautiful acoustics was life changing. At that moment, I knew for sure that I wanted to be a performer.” COLLABORATIVE YOUTH CONCERTS bring choirs from Greater Boston area high schools together to perform alongside Handel and Haydn Society musicians in their home communities and at Symphony Hall.
JOSHUA WEILERSTEIN, New York Philharmonic Assistant Conductor and former conducting apprentice (he studied with Harry Christophers while a student at New England Conservatory)
“So often we are asked to mimic period playing, and being with H+H allowed me to see it in action, at an up-close-and-personal vantage point. I’m so appreciative and honored to have been able to take part in the experience!” COACHING AND MASTER CLASSES led by Handel and Haydn Society musicians and conductors are offered to high school choruses and soloists, as well as college ensembles and young conductors.
ANITA COOPER, parent of John F. Kennedy Elementary School student (Jamaica Plain, MA)
“We found that H+H’s enthusiasm and their embrace of the students and willingness to get to know them was amazing. We’re glad they’re here.” SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS led by H+H teaching artists bring choral and music education programs to Boston’s public schools.
FROM TOP TO BOTTOM: THE VOCAL QUARTET PERFORMING FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS; THE YOUNG WOMEN’S CHORUS (GRADES 9–12); H+H CHORUS MEMBER JENNIFER ASHE TEACHING STUDENTS AT BOSTON'S JOHN F. KENNEDY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL; MASSART STUDENT KRISTA PERRY WITH HER ARTWORK INSPIRED BY HANDEL’S SAMSON .
HANDEL + HAYDN SOCIETY BICENTENNIAL 21
THE MYSTERIES, MYTHS + TRUTHS ABOUT MR. HANDEL
BY DAVID VICKERS
Not so long ago George Frideric Handel was best known to the general public for a few predictable things: Messiah, being “German,” his obesity, and for going blind. Thankfully that narrow perception has substantially altered over the last 30 years. Nowadays we appreciate that his career was often as dramatic in its ups, downs, and incredible twists as the plot of one of his operas. Moreover, Handel has become the composer who most epitomizes “European-ness,” and from our 21st-century perspective, he represents an exemplary historical precedent for what it means to be multinational. As much as we know about him, though, there are still riddles to be solved. Some of which we can begin to answer. What do we know for sure? He was born at Halle in Lower Saxony on February 23, 1685. His barber-surgeon father intended for him to pursue the study of law at the historic local university, but was persuaded to let the boy study music with the local church organist Friedrich Zachow. Having acquired a good foundation in counterpoint and organ-playing, Handel obtained his first music job in March 1702 as organist at the local Calvinist cathedral. About a year later, he quit and traveled to Hamburg. Perhaps he was enticed to the cosmopolitan Hanseatic city by the famous organs in its churches, but he scraped a living as a back-desk violin-player at the Gänsemarkt opera house, and gradually worked his way up through the ranks until his first opera, Almira, was premiered there in January 1705.
It seems that Handel had a supremely high regard of his own talent, or at least played such a role to perfection in the upper echelons of early Georgian Britain. He deliberately secured an exalted status in society by paying for his own Poet’s Corner memorial in Westminster Abbey. His installation into the pantheon was consolidated only a year after his death when John Mainwaring’s Memoirs of the Life of the Late George Frideric Handel became the first published biography of its kind devoted to one composer.
THE RUSH TO ENGLAND There has been a steady flow of literature devoted to Handel ever since. However, we still know little about his private life. Why did he never marry? There is no evidence whatsoever to support speculative claims that he was homosexual, but the apparent lack of a romantic attachments is peculiar: reading between the lines, I wonder if he was married to his career, eating habits (portraits certainly confirm that he put on weight in later life) and art collection (he acquired
It might be that the university-educated Lutheran had no wish to become a Catholic cardinal’s pet musical monkey. Or, indeed, it might have become apparent to Handel that his Lutheranism would restrict his long-term prospects in Italy. After leaving Venice in early 1710, he secured a position as the Elector of Hanover’s Kapellmeister. But this raises one of the biggest mysteries about Handel’s life: why did he promptly desert his new post in preference for London? The fact that his new employer (the future George I) was heir to the British throne, and that Queen Anne’s health was notoriously poor, has led to some speculation that the composer’s move to London involved some sort of secret diplomatic mission. However, it is farfetched to suggest that Handel was a Hanoverian James Bond spying at the British court in the early 1710s. After all, there is more than a grain of truth in the famous story about the Water Music for the Royal barge party on the River Thames in 1717 restoring him to his disgruntled ex-employer’s favor. Another famous event in Handel’s life is also shrouded in mystery. In July 1733 he traveled to Oxford to give a week of concerts (most of them in Wren’s Sheldonian Theater) during the university’s conferring of degrees. Contemporary gossipers chronicle the trip and mention that he refused the offer of an honorary doctorate. Given Handel’s notable lack of modesty at other times, his apparent refusal is intriguing. Theories that he disliked having to pay a small fee for the honor, did not want to be compared with his erstwhile friend Maurice Greene (recently awarded this honor by Cambridge), or refused to submit an example of his work are unconvincing: we cannot rule out the possibility that Handel was wary of being used as a pawn in a political game between
JUNE 30, 1986: Christopher Hogwood appointed Artistic Director, marking the beginning of the Orchestra’s transition to period instruments.
FROM THE H+H CENTENARY, BRONZE MEDAL WITH IMAGES OF HANDEL AND HAYDN ON THE FRONT. THE MEDALS SOLD FOR $1 IN 1915.
There are other equally intriguing questions. Why did he decide to quit Italy at the age of 25, despite having enjoyed tremendous success in Rome and Venice? Handel stubbornly resolved to visit Italy at his own expense rather than become indebted to a wealthy sponsor, and this spirit of independence — combined with his own religious inclinations — probably led him to rebuff persistent attempts by his patrons (at least three of whom were Cardinals) to convert him to Roman Catholicism.
1985: Karen S. and George D. Levy Education Program established to serve young people with limited access to music education and performance.
During the 1730s, Handel gradually pioneered the genre of English oratorio in his opera seasons, but the imported genre of Italian opera struggled to remain afloat and his operatic activities took place under shifting administrative circumstances. On February 10, 1741, he gave his last performance of an Italian opera on the London stage. Afterwards, his theater seasons consisted solely of unstaged works in English, but in late 1741 the composer traveled to Dublin to give a series of subscription concerts, which included the premiere of Messiah on April 13, 1742. First performed in London a year later, the oratorio was not particularly popular at first, but it became established as a perennial favorite during the 1750s. From 1751, Handel gradually lost his eyesight, and he passed away on April 14 (Easter Saturday) 1759.
reproductive engravings of art by great masters). There were a few rumors of a youthful fling with the soprano Vittoria Tarquini when in Italy, a favorite (and lover) of Prince Ferdinando de’ Medici. Maybe some kind of scandalous liaison between the young Saxon and the diva explains why Handel does not seem to have secured any commissions directly from the Medicis.
1972: Thomas Dunn integrates Historically Informed Performance by reducing the chorus size for Messiah to 30 singers.
Becoming increasingly fascinated by Italianate opera, Handel spent several years pursuing a glittering career in Italy (1706–1710), where he wrote operas for Florence and Venice, a serenata for Naples, spectacular church music for Rome, and exquisite secular cantatas for aristocratic patrons in the papal city. After briefly occupying his post as Kapellmeister to the Elector of Hanover, from autumn 1710, Handel spent most of his creative life based in London producing a tremendous variety of music (usually for the theater). In 1719, he was appointed music director of the Royal Academy of Music, an opera company devoted to producing Italian operas at the King’s Theatre on the Haymarket, and four years later he bought his own house on Brook Street in London. He became a naturalized British citizen in 1727, and, after the Royal Academy of Music fell apart a year later, formed his own opera company in partnership with the Swiss-born impresario John James Heidegger.
HANDEL + HAYDN SOCIETY BICENTENNIAL 23
the notoriously Jacobite Oxonians and his Hanoverian patrons, or perhaps he really was modest occasionally. FROM HANDEL'S ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT OF THE HALLELUJAH CHORUS.
There is, though, a wealth of documentation about Handel’s works, not least the evidence we can glean from his autograph manuscripts, and plenty of information about Handel would have thought of Bach’s cerebral writing his performances was published in contemporary newspa(though we should not underestimate Handel’s abilipers and discussed in letters between his circle of patrons, ty to be cerebral when he wanted to be). We do know supporters, and collaborators. The correspondence of his that Handel, like Mozart later on, could be scornful of friends Mary Delany, the Earl of Shaftesbury, and James composers of lesser ability. Apparently he once threw Harris abound with admiring remarks about his new a piece of music written by Greene out of the window compositions, but there is little trustworthy indication of because “it wanted more air.” However, he certainly which of these many works Handel privately esteemed wasn’t snobby about other good composers: he incormost highly. One can imagine from porated musical ideas, themes, his deletions, corrections, and altertricks, and sometimes even largations in his compositional scores Why did Handel decide to er chunks, from works written by what made his artistic instincts tick, quit Italy at the age of 25, others into his own pieces. but we do not know how he rated despite having enjoyed Scholars have recently shown his own achievements. A letter writtremendous success in that Handel was far from alone ten by his oratorio librettist Thomas Rome and Venice? in his use of musical “borrowing,” Morell claims that he once asked the but it would be illuminating to composer if the Hallelujah Chorus was know how he actually felt about the method of recycling his masterpiece, and apparently Handel responded negamusic by other composers. Judging from his choice of tively to the idea, and said that he thought the chorus “He sources, Handel seems to have particularly liked music by saw the lovely youth” in Theodora was far beyond it. ConAlessandro Scarlatti, Lotti, and Gasparini (all of whom he sidering Handel’s genius for compassionate and sublime had met or probably heard works by during trips to Italy); story-telling, there may be some truth in the tale that he Keiser (for whom he worked in Hamburg); his friend preferred the narrative chorus from Theodora to his most Telemann; and his former Royal Academy colleague, famous moment of splendor in Messiah. Bononcini. Most remarkably, Handel also used musical Likewise, we do not know whether Handel was familiar with ideas by earlier 17th-century composers including Bach’s music. While his Leipzig counterpart certainly knew Carissimi, Stradella, and Blow. Scholars have identified a and performed a few bits of Handel’s music, and they had lot of Handel’s borrowings, but his motivation for making a mutual friend in Telemann, it is difficult to imagine what them is a formidable enigma.
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Notwithstanding our fascination with the man, Handel remains a figure of admiration and affection because of the enduring quality and power of his music.
We also know that Handel was a tough perfectionist and had a terrible temper. He threatened to throw the petulant prima donna Cuzzoni out of the window because during a rehearsal of Ottone she complained about her aria “Falsa imagine.” During rehearsals for Flavio, he suggested that more people would pay to watch the contentious tenor Alexander Gordon jumping down onto his harpsichord than to hear the Scotsman sing. When Carestini declared that “Verdi prati” in Alcina was “unfit” for him to sing, Handel furiously insisted that he would withhold the star castrato’s wages unless he relented. Even the Prince and Princess of Wales did not escape his censure if they were late arriving for sneak previews of oratorios at Carlton House.
AN AMBITIOUS TRIPLE BILL PERFORMED BY THE HANDEL AND HAYDN SOCIETY IN 1857. MESSIAH WAS ALWAYS A POPULAR DRAW, EVEN IN MAY.
On the other hand, Handel could respond to unfair box-office failures with dignity and humor. Apparently he joked that the empty theater at Theodora would help the music to sound better. He certainly understood that he was subject to the whims of fashion, and one of the greatest fascinations for us is his willingness constantly to diversify and experiment with the types of music theater he would offer his audience. The documented number of performances of a work during its first run reveals that some of his finest music dramas were commercial failures (Partenope, Serse, Semele, and Hercules
2002: H+H is inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame.
Other anecdotes claim that the composer’s voracious appetite led him to order enough food for several people when dining alone, and that he would serve his guests unremarkable wine while sneaking into another room in order to help himself to expensive port under the pretense of creative inspiration having suddenly struck. Roubiliac’s statue of the composer in Vauxhall Gardens in 1738 suggests that Handel was not short of egotism long before Messiah conquered the world. Now in London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, the statue depicts him in casual dress, playing a lyre, and sitting on a pile of his own scores. It is hard to imagine any other composer until the peak of Romanticism feeling comfortable with such a public image that made obvious comparisons between a living musician and the mythical Orpheus and Timotheus.
JULY 1, 2001: Grant Llewellyn appointed Music Director.
EGO AND OCCUPATION
APRIL 1996: H+H makes its European debut with a fully-staged production of Gluck’s Orfeo, directed by Mark Morris.
Much of what we know about the man derives from anecdotes preserved in 18th-century chronicles by authors who knew him, such as Mainwaring, John Hawkins, and Charles Burney. Apparently, he liked to attend evensong at St. Paul’s Cathedral, play its great organ, and retire to the pub afterwards with the gentlemen of the choir for an evening of music and refreshment. Handel seems to have had a great sense of humor and generously supported charities (the Foundling Hospital and the Fund for Decay’d Musicians). We know that he worshiped devoutly at his local parish church in St. George’s, Hanover Square, in his later years, tried out an early fortepiano, but rode a horse very rarely; he enjoyed a dramatic reading of John Milton’s closet drama Samson Agonistes (which no doubt played a part in his decision to compose Samson a few years later) and appreciated exotic plants.
HANDEL + HAYDN SOCIETY BICENTENNIAL 25
were flops). In contrast, other masterpieces that are now seldom revived were popular hits at their first appearance (e.g., Admeto, Sosarme, Arianna in Creta), although some of his box-office successes are also popular nowadays (Rinaldo, Giulio Cesare, Alcina, Judas Maccabaeus). An intriguing puzzle for historians is the lack of evidence about what Handel actually did for most of the time — he did not compose, revise, rehearse, and perform his music theater works all year round, so how else did he occupy his time? One wonders what he got up to during the mid1710s when he is alleged to have lived as a guest at Lord Burlington’s grand house in Piccadilly, and how much time he actually spent at the Duke of Chandos’ country palace Cannons between 1717 and 1719. He was extremely busy during the peak of his operatic career, but in 1740 his friend and collaborator Charles Jennens complained of Handel’s laziness, and from then on the pace at which the composer worked slowed down considerably. The explanation could be mundane — he suffered a serious
A HOLIDAY TRADITION, MESSIAH HAS BEEN ANNUALLY PRESENTED BY H+H SINCE 1854.
paralytic attack in 1737, after which he had good reason not to push himself quite so hard, and as he grew older his health declined. Indeed, the one occasion when Handel tried to repeat the intense activity of full theater season during the 1740s backfired horribly: his 1744-1745 oratorio series of 24 subscription concerts was poorly attended and nearly collapsed only a quarter of the way through the season. This caused him to publish a letter in the Daily Advertiser expressing mortification that his best efforts no longer pleased the public. Notwithstanding our fascination with the man, Handel remains a figure of admiration and affection because of the enduring quality and power of his music. He was regarded in his own lifetime as the musical heir of Homer and Milton, and even now it is difficult to think of many composers who created such an astonishing variety of masterpieces: our appreciation of his biblical dramatic oratorios and Italian operas — few
of which are exactly alike in dramatic tone and musical — should not overshadow our estimation of his genius in setting great English odes by Milton (L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato) and Dryden (Alexander’s Feast), the pastoral charm and sentimentality of Acis and Galatea, the vivacious wit and subtlety of his Italian secular cantatas, the brilliance of his Latin and English church music, and the inventive élan of his orchestral works (not least his innovation of the organ concerto). A remarkably full amount of Handel’s works are preserved more or less intact (it seems that only a few early German works are lost). Moreover, a broad variety of the composer’s music has never been out of repertoire since his own lifetime: Zadok the Priest has been performed at every British coronation since 1727, festive performances of Messiah are a firmly established tradition (though more seldom at Easter, for which Handel and the librettist Jennens intended it), and tunes from the Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks are familiar to almost everyone. Although the renaissance of his operas has taken longer to permeate public awareness, a few popular arias were long admired in arrangements, such as the ubiquitous Largo based on "Ombra mai fù" (actually marked larghetto) from Serse. If he has suffered in the past from being misrepresented by musicians and misunderstood by audiences, Handel is undoubtedly an icon of the Western classical tradition with very few comparable peers. The revival of his operas and English music theater works — hand in hand with the early music “revolution” — has brought about a phenomenal transformation in our experiences of his music. His works have never been more widely available, performed, and appreciated than they are today. Today, we know more about Handel and his music than any other generation has between our time and his, not least thanks to almost every one of his music theater works being issued on CD at least once (albeit too often in performances that are abridged and unidiomatic). Notwithstanding swings in fashion and perception, it is remarkable that our obsession with Handel has persisted without interruption from his day till ours, as with no other composer before and very few since. Reprinted from the April 2009 issue of Gramophone magazine.
The Handel and Haydn Society Vocal Arts Program (VAP) provides choral training and exciting performance opportunities for talented young singers in grades 3–12, who may advance through five ensembles based on age and experience. Participants also take musicianship class and receive free tickets to H+H concerts.
VOCAL ARTS PROGRAM ENSEMBLES Handel and Haydn Society Singers (grades 3–5) is for children who show strong interest in music. Youth Chorus (grades 6–8) is for children who have basic music reading skills and can sing in parts. Repertoire includes classical music, folksongs, and world music. Young Men’s Chorus (grades 8–12) is for young men with changing to changed voices. Repertoire includes classical, popular, and multicultural music. Young Women’s Chorus (grades 9–12) is for young women who have achieved a high level of musicianship. Repertoire includes classical music, folksongs, spirituals, and popular music in three and four parts. Young Women’s Chamber Choir (grades 10–12) is for young women who demonstrate highly advanced singing and musicianship skills.
THE KAREN S. AND GEORGE D. LEVY EDUCATION PROGRAM FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT
HANDELANDHAYDN.ORG/EDUCATION OR CALL 617 262 1815
HARRY CHRISTOPHERS ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
H+H FIRSTS H+H has a long and distinguished history of premiering new works. In 1823, it even approached Beethoven to write a grand oratorio in the style of Handel. (Beethoven, who in his later years was preoccupied with his final string quartets, never got to the project.) In more recent decades, H+H has commissioned new works by Daniel Pinkham, Randall Thompson, and John Tavener. On June 18, 2015, as part of the concert program Handel and Haydn Sings, award-winning American composer Gabriela Lena Frank will get her turn in the spotlight: a world premiere work based on the Ralph Waldo Emerson poem Boston Hymn, arranged for chorus and chamber ensemble. The work is a co-commission with the Library of Congress.
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Q+A WITH COMPOSER
GABRIELA LENA FRANK What is it about Emerson’s poem that you find so compelling, and what do you enjoy most about setting a text to music? In looking at Emerson’s “Boston Hymn,” an example of Transcendentalist poetry at its best, my composer’s eye already finds attractive its lofty calls for freedom and self-determination welded to specific, even humble, imagery familiar to the farmers who built our nation. My challenge will be how to capture something that I find so essentially American — that an ordinary existence can be tied to extraordinary aspirations — in sound. I love writing for the voice, the original instrument! This transcends all cultures and while it is our oldest form of expression, no one can deny its modernity either, its continued relevance for newly created songs. It’s a truly timeless vehicle.
already existing material is the greatest flattery! Rather, meeting the essence of a culture head-on and grappling with it in lieu of keeping it self-contained, unfiltered through the blender of your craft and imagination, is my preferred way to pay tribute. And paying tribute can come in many forms. For instance, inspired by a particularly wobbly vocal vibrato enacted by high-voiced Quechua women from the sierras of Peru, I might ask members of a classical string quartet to not only create a similar vibrato as
Many people in the music world identify you as a composer comfortable working in different musical traditions. Your family heritage, after all, is Peruvian, Jewish, and Chinese. To what extent does this polyglot background inform your music?
SABINA FRANK
This is a really great question, and I honestly think that Bela Bartók of Hungary, Benjamin Britten of England, and Chou Wen Chung (originally of China, now lives in New York) are the truest kindred spirits in terms of how my polyglot background informs my work. Although Bartók was a champion arranger, these composers mostly created completely original material that was inspired by their knowledge and careful study of other cultures. So, by becoming very familiar with traditions, they can add to it authentically yet with a completely original and personal voice. This inspires me because I’m not sure imitation and/or assembling
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IMPORTANT H+H PREMIERES
Meeting the essence of a culture headon and grappling with it in lieu of keeping it self-contained, unfiltered through the blender of your craft and imagination, is my preferred way to pay tribute.
AMERICAN PREMIERES
DECEMBER 25, 1818 Messiah by George Frideric Handel (complete)
FEBRUARY 16, 1819 The Creation by Joseph Haydn (complete)
APRIL 13, 1829 Missa longa in C Major by Wolfgang Amadé Mozart
JANUARY 26, 1845 Samson by George Frideric Handel NOVEMBER 15, 1855 Solomon by George Frideric Handel FEBRUARY 17, 1867 Jephtha by George Frideric Handel
MAY 5, 1878 Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi APRIL 11, 1879 Saint Matthew Passion by J.S. Bach (complete)
their bow draws across the string, but will help them highlight this irregular sound by giving them melodies and harmonies that are curiously dissonant and, well, wobbly! This brings the idea of “wobble” in areas beyond just the technical act of playing the music (the vibrato) but leaps into the deeper levels of the piece itself. I’m also a firm believer that connections can be made between any cocktail of cultures if one has the ingenuity to suss it out. I’ve sometimes felt that my job was to be a matchmaker… I can introduce a viola to an Andean pan pipe, find the overlap between the two, and then compose a piece from that place. And if I do my job right, I’ll create a piece of music that makes the overlap even larger.
DECEMBER 8, 1967 Messiah by George Frideric Handel (Mozart arrangement)
OCTOBER 28, 1971 Le diable boiteux by Jean Françaix
MARCH 2001 Hymn of Thanks and Friendship by C.P.E. Bach
BOSTON PREMIERES
JANUARY 22, 1843 St. Paul by Felix Mendelssohn FEBRUARY 26, 1843 Stabat Mater by Gioachino Rossini DECEMBER 5, 1847 Judas Maccabaeus by George Frideric Handel
FEBRUARY 13, 1848 Elijah by Felix Mendelssohn FEBRUARY 5, 1853 Symphony No. 9 in D Minor by Ludwig van Beethoven
JANUARY 18, 1857 Requiem in D Minor by Wolfgang Amadé Mozart
For this upcoming Bicentennial Season at H+H, we have a running theme of composers influenced by others, i.e., Vivaldi influencing Bach, Mendelssohn and Haydn influenced by Handel's oratorios. Which composers have most influenced you? Oh, the list is long: Bach, my original jazz musician and contrapuntalist, recalibrates me every time I listen or play his music; punk rocker Peter Pan Mozart brightens me when my energy flags; late moody Beethoven makes me take myself and my music more seriously; Britten shocks me with his inventiveness and lyricism; Ravel’s luminosity of orchestration makes me clean my own sonic paintbrushes; Stravinsky and Prokofiev remind me to draw on the rugged insistent rhythms of my own South American forebears; Shostakovich asks that I not be afraid to stare down life’s bleakly ironic moments. And Bartók! To me, Bartók embraces all of these qualities of the aforementioned composers with an eye to cultural brotherhood. My influences are many and I'm indeed standing on the shoulders of giants, as they say.
FEBRUARY 13, 1859 Israel in Egypt by George Frideric Handel
APRIL 6, 1930 Psalmus Hungaricus by Zoltan Kodaly
FEBRUARY 8, 1969 Le dit des jeux du monde (The Story of the World at Play) by Arthur Honegger
DECEMBER 12, 1975 Il ritorno di Tobia by Joseph Haydn JANUARY 31, 2002 Lamentations and Praises by John Tavener WORLD PREMIERES
MARCH 28, 1965 Passion According to St. Luke by Randall Thompson
APRIL 27, 1973 Daniel in the Lion’s Den by Daniel Pinkham MARCH 25, 1977 Garden Party by Daniel Pinkham MARCH 1999 JFK: The Voice of Peace by Dan Welcher
SEPTEMBER 11, 2011 Illuminessence: prayers for peace by Silvio Amato
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Gabriela Lena Frank’s new piece receives its world premiere on Thursday, June 18 at 7.30pm in Symphony Hall. The performance is being presented in conjunction with the Chorus America National Conference, held in Boston from June 17–20, 2015.
EARLY ON, H+H RECOGNIZED THE POTENTIAL OF EVOLVING TECHNOLOGY, INCLUDING TELEVISION. IN T HIS PHOTO FROM 1 961, EDWARD GILDAY CONDUCTS THE H+H CHORUS ON WBZ-TV'S POPULAR ACCENT ON MUSIC.
RECORDING SPOTLIGHT PURCHASE ONLINE To purchase any of the CDs featured on these pages, visit our online shop at HANDELANDHAYDN.ORG/SHOP.
Since the 1950s, H+H has been on the forefront of seeking new audiences in the evolving media age. In 1955 came the first commercial recording of Handel’s Messiah, and then, in 1963, the world’s first-ever televised performance of the complete Messiah for National Educational Television (now PBS). Altogether, H+H has released 22 albums. Many have received international critical acclaim, one has won a Grammy Award, and several have been hits on the Billboard classical charts. Under Artistic Director Harry Christophers, plans are set for a recording of Haydn’s Creation (due out in 2015). This will join the newest release in the H+H catalog, a glowing performance of Handel’s Messiah, recorded at Symphony Hall in 2013, and available now for purchase.
“Under the direction of Harry Christophers, the chorale in particular once more produced one of the most eloquent versions of this Handel classic ever to be heard in these parts. … And of course the best ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ evah.” – Tom Garvey, The Hub Review
Timed expressly for the Bicentennial, this is H+H's first recording of Handel’s powerful oratorio since 2001 and the first under the direction of Artistic Director Harry Christophers. The double CD, recorded live at Symphony Hall in November 2013, is an essential addition to any music lover’s collection. PRICE: $27
HANDEL MESSIAH
Harry Christophers, conductor | Gillian Keith, soprano | Daniel Taylor, countertenor | Tom Randle, tenor | Sumner Thompson, baritone Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus HANDEL + HAYDN SOCIETY BICENTENNIAL 31
“Both tasteful and robust…[This CD] conveys a genuine community spirit.” – Geoff Brown, The Times (UK)
Hear Harry Christophers’ choral magic at work in this CD of holiday favorites and traditional carols, sung by H+H’s magnificent chorus. This popular CD debuted at #14 on November 2013's Billboard Traditional Classical Charts! PRICE: $19.76 Harry Christophers, conductor | Handel and Haydn Society Chorus
JOY TO THE WORLD: AN AMERICAN CHRISTMAS
MOZART MASS IN C MINOR “The scale of Mozart's conception comes across clearly; there's grandeur and theatricality, combined with clarity in both the choral counterpoint and all the orchestral textures.” – Andrew Clements, The Guardian
Often referred to as the “Great Mass,” Mozart’s Mass in C Minor is one of the best known of the composer’s mass settings. It is a remarkable union of musical vision and religious text and draws on Mozart’s skill for drama that made his operatic works such a phenomenal success. Recorded in 2010, the CD launched H+H’s Mozart trilogy with Harry Christophers directing. PRICE: $15.06. Harry Christophers, conductor | Gillian Keith, soprano | Tove Dahlberg, mezzo-soprano Thomas Cooley, tenor | Nathan Berg, bass-baritone | Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus
MOZART REQUIEM “Christophers led a high-tension performance that bristled with drama and sharp edges. Tempos were swift, and Christophers not only provided shape for individual phrases but for entire movements as well.” – David Weininger, The Boston Globe
Recorded live in 2011, Mozart’s Requiem is the second installment of H+H’s Mozart trilogy with Harry Christophers on the CORO label. The track list comprises Mozart’s Requiem and Ave verum corpus. The CD also includes the first ever period-instrument recording of Mozart’s Per questa bella mano, featuring Eric Owens and H+H’s Rob Nairn on double bass. PRICE: $15.06. Harry Christophers, conductor | Elizabeth Watts, soprano | Phyllis Pancella, mezzo-soprano | Andrew Kennedy, tenor | Eric Owens, bass-baritone Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus 32 HANDEL + HAYDN SOCIETY BICENTENNIAL
“Lush sound and precision from the strings, as well as focused winds, bring out the elegant character of the music.” – Ronni Reich, New Jersey Star-Ledger
MOZART CORONATION MASS Recorded live in Symphony Hall in spring 2012, Mozart Coronation Mass is the final installment in H+H’s Mozart trilogy with Harry Christophers. PRICE: $15.06 Harry Christophers, conductor | Teresa Wakim, soprano Paula Murrihy, mezzo-soprano | Thomas Cooley, tenor Sumner Thompson, baritone | Handel and Haydn Society Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus
“The orchestral playing in both symphonies is full of character and exuberance, with Christopher Krueger (flute), Guy Fishman (cello), and Aisslinn Nosky (violin) contributing sparkling solo work.” – Jeremy Eichler, The Boston Globe
HAYDN VOL. 1 Don’t miss Concertmaster Aisslinn Nosky’s first CD release with H+H in Haydn’s rarely-heard Violin Concerto in G Major paired with Haydn’s elegant Symphony No. 6 and jubilant Symphony No. 82. PRICE: $15.06 Harry Christophers, conductor | Aisslinn Nosky, violin Handel and Haydn Society Period Instrument Orchestra
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JOSEPH HAYDN THE POOR MAN'S MOZART?
BY RICHARD WIGMORE
In December 1790, shortly before Haydn’s departure for England and the greatest adventure of his life, he, Mozart, and the impresario Johann Peter Salomon met for a dinner at a Viennese tavern. The mood was convivial, though Mozart, the seasoned, cosmopolitan traveler, expressed concern for his 58-year-old friend in London. “You have too little experience of the great world, and you speak too few languages.” To which Haydn countered, with magnificent, ingenuous confidence: “My language is understood throughout the whole world.” Haydn’s famed modesty, noted by several contemporaries, never precluded an acute sense of his own worth. In the final decades of the 18th century his music, far more than Mozart’s, was indeed “understood throughout the world,” and a touchstone for all composers of instrumental music. Haydn’s reputation, kick-started by the dissemination of his early symphonies and string quartets, had been growing steadily since the early 1760s. By 1790 he was an international superstar, feted from St. Petersburg to Cadiz, from Edinburgh to Naples as publishers fell over each other to acquire his latest symphonies, quartets, and keyboard works. No composer, not even Handel, had ever been as widely celebrated in his own lifetime. After the two triumphant London visits, The Creation, his joyous celebration of an unsullied universe that contrasted poignantly with the turbulence of the Napoleonic wars, would set the final seal on his fame.
The once-affectionate nickname “Papa,” which even Haydn’s parrot caught on to, was now tinged with condescension.
FEBRUARY 24, 2003: H+H wins two Grammy Awards for the album Lamentations and Praises. JULY 2006: Sir Roger Norrington appointed Artistic Advisor. OCTOBER 2009: Harry Christophers begins his tenure as Artistic Director.
Mozart’s reputation, even at its lowest, was shored Yet even before Haydn’s death in 1809, as Napoleon’s troops were up by the “demonic” strain in Don Giovanni (the bombarding Vienna, Beethoven and Mozart (who towards the end Mozart opera that haunted the 19th century above of his life had often been branded a “difficult” composer) were all others) and the D minor Piano Concerto, K. 466, usurping his pre-eminence. Although his quartets, late symphoand by the mingled virtuosity and surface prettiness nies, and oratorios never fell out of favor, Haydn was increasingly of a work like the Coronation Concerto, K. 537. An seen as the first and least in an evolutionary chain that culminatage that placed a premium on the confessional, the ed in Beethoven. This progressive notion of musical history was erotic, and the apocalyptic heard in Haydn’s music famously enshrined in an 1810 essay by that weaver of fantastic only a playfulness devoid of deeper emotional and tales, E.T.A. Hoffmann. Haydn’s compositions expressed a “childlike narrative significance: the music of a man who, mood of cheerfulness…a life of eternal youth, abundant in love and in contrast to the mercurial, ultimately “tragic” bliss, as though before the Fall.” (The epithets “kindlich” — childMozart and the scowling, convention-defying like — and “heiter” — serene, or cheerful — would run like a mantra Beethoven, had spent his career placidly in the through 19th- and early 20th-century writings on Haydn.) Like so service of the discredited aristocracy. many in his century, Hoffmann was evidently deaf to the turbulence, pathos and bleakness of works like the Trauer and Passione Only after the First World War did public percepsymphonies (Nos. 44 and 49), the F-sharp minor String Quartion of Haydn slowly begin to shift, in part because tet, Op. 50, No. 4, and the F minor keyboard variations. Mozart of a wider reaction against the febrile, neurasthenic moved beyond Haydn — a position he has atmosphere of late Romanticism. never relinquished in the popular imaginaCrucial in the English-speaking world was the passionate advotion — to lead “deep into the spirit realm.” In the two centuries since cacy of Sir Donald Francis Tovey Finally, Beethoven evoked awe, fear, and his death Joseph Haydn in a brilliant article on the string terror, awakening “the infinite yearning has been scandalously quartets for Cobbett’s Cyclopaedia which is the essence of Romanticism." underrated, argues of Chamber Music and a still wideRichard Wigmore. By the mid-19th century the image was ly read series of notes on the late fixed of Haydn the blithe precursor, who symphonies. Tovey’s Haydn was “invented” the symphony and string a supreme original, an intrepid quartet for others to build on: a naively optimistic figure, at once adventurer, heedless of “rules,” who traded in the inchildlike and avuncular, in an age that revered heroes, rebels, and spired-unexpected and raised wit to the level of the tragic victims, preferably all three rolled into one. The once-affecsublime; a composer of emotional profundity who, tionate nickname “Papa,” which even Haydn’s parrot caught on (in the slow introduction of Symphony No. 104), to, was now tinged with condescension. He always had his ad“could strike one of those tragic notes of which [he] mirers among musicians, notably the tradition-revering Brahms, knows the depth as well or better than the gloomwho allegedly exclaimed of the glorious Largo from Symphony iest artists.” Here was a Haydn who would not be No 88, “I want my Ninth Symphony to sound like this,” and near cowed by Mozart, Beethoven, or anyone else. the end of his life remarked of Haydn, “What a man! Beside him Tovey’s revolutionary understanding of Haydn we are just wretches.” More typical of the century was Robert colored, and still colors, the attitudes of later genSchumann’s review of a Haydn symphony in 1841. “One can learn erations of scholars and music lovers. Yet it was nothing more from him. He is like a regular house friend, always with good reason that he dubbed Haydn “the Inacgladly and respectfully received, but no longer of deeper interest cessible.” Between the wars, whole swathes of his for our age.” Wagner, who on occasion waxed enthusiastic over music, especially from the early and middle years, Haydn’s late symphonies, delivered an even more withering verwere not even in print. Even repertoire pieces like dict: “Beethoven was to Haydn as the born adult to the man in his the “London” Symphonies were only published second childhood.” in corrupt 19th-century editions that excised or
HANDEL + HAYDN SOCIETY BICENTENNIAL 35
SINCE PRESENTING THE US PREMIERE IN 1819, H+H HAS FREQUENTLY PERFORMED HAYDN’S CREATION . THE ABOVE PROGRAM BOOK COVER DATES FROM MARCH 14, 1948.
smoothed out many of Haydn’s wittiest and most original strokes. The “normalization” of the wrong-harmony joke in the Trio of the Clock, No. 101, is one example among many. It was only after the Second World War, thanks above all to the efforts of Jens Peter Larsen and that prodigious one-man Haydn industry H.C. Robbins Landon, that most of his huge oeuvre, including the hitherto unknown operas, became available in a reliable critical edition. Radio and recordings have opened up whole areas of Haydn’s output that lay unperformed since the 18th century. Today, we can hear on CD over 90 percent of his works, more than anyone bar Haydn himself could have heard during his own lifetime. Even the trios involving that strange hybrid instrument the baryton — a kind of bass viol with a harp extension that became a curious obsession of Prince Nicolaus Esterházy — have now been recorded complete. In this anniversary year, Haydn’s stock stands higher than at any time since his death. For music lovers on his wavelength, the boundless inventiveness and sheer speed of thought of his greatest quartets, symphonies and keyboard trios (still among his best-kept secrets) exert a unique fascination. Haydn’s delight in paradox and ambiguity, his mastery of subtle and complex compositional games, have also made him a particular favorite of composers, among them Robin Holloway and John McCabe. Even more than Mozart, he has gained hugely from historically aware performances, usually on “period” instruments, that seek to recreate the color, balance, and articulation of the late 18th century. As a result, his works have sounded still more fiercely original, certainly less comfortable, with their un-Mozartian disruptions, and asymmetries relished rather than smoothed out. Yet even today Haydn aficionados still tend to speak of their man with a hint of defensiveness or special pleading, aware that for the wider musical public Mozart still wins hands down. His
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finest instrumental works, for all their intellectual and expressive virtuosity, have relatively little of Mozart’s sensuous allure. Nor can Haydn’s life begin to compete with Mozart’s in romantic appeal. He was far from the naive, unreflective countryman of popular myth. His family, although several notches lower down the social scale than Mozart’s, were not even “peasants,” as is commonly supposed. A respected master wheelwright, his father even became the elected magistrate (Marktrichter) of the village of Rohrau, some 25 miles east of Vienna, where the composer was born in 1732. But since the 19th century, Haydn has been the victim of his genial, unneurotic persona, and of a working life spent in seclusion as Kapellmeister to the Hungarian Esterházy family until the two London sojourns of 1791–1792 and 1794–1795: no scurrilous letters, no rebellion against the status quo, precious little scandal or intrigue (the odd mistress was de rigueur in 18th-century court circles), no “stranger in black” or unfinished Requiem, no tragically early grave. Haydn’s life, unlike Mozart’s, has defied glamorization.
APRIL 26- MAY 1, 2013: H+H performs Handel’s oratorio Jephtha in a West Coast tour.
Just as the amiable “Papa” image — Haydn as lovable musical grandfather — is an absurd simplification, so the famed “naivety” of his music is deceptive. The themes of his greatest instrumental works — the opening movements of the Drum Roll Symphony, No.
DECEMBER 12, 2012: H+H receives the largest donations in its history: two $1 million gifts to endow its chorus and education programs.
From his letters to Maria Anna von Genzinger and Luigia Polzelli we know, too, that he was a prey to loneliness and depression. Indeed, by the late 1780s, the most celebrated composer of the age had come to loathe his existence as a provincial Kapellmeister in the remote Hungarian marshes. Prince Nicolaus Esterházy’s death in September 1790 did not come a moment too soon.
On a higher plane, Haydn’s wit is about the manipulation and thwarting of the listener’s expectations. In his minuets he often lulls you into a false sense of security with regular four-bar phrases before pulling the rug from under your feet. In his finales he loves to keep you guessing as the exact moment of a theme’s return, often toying with the theme’s first two or three notes. He carries this favorite “upbeat joke” to extremes in Symphony No. 93 and, even more zanily, the quicksilver finale of the great C major Piano Trio, No. 27, where clownish contrasts of register enhance the comic mayhem. Elsewhere he delights in teasing the listener as to whether a piece has ended or not,
2012: Collaborative Young Concerts, an important component of H+H’s education program, celebrates its 25th year anniversary.
Many contemporary witnesses testify to Haydn’s predominant 103, and the Quartet Op. 76, No. 1 are two examples cheerfulness. The music historian Charles Burney, who befriended among many — may exude an air of frolicking pasthe composer in London, remarked how his “natural, unassuming, toral innocence, as Mozart’s suave, vocally inspired and pleasing character” had endeared him to the whole nation. That melodies rarely do. But Haydn’s treatment of his he was affable, considerate to his fellow musicians (among whom guileless tunes is that of a supremely sophisticated, he was always popular) and a genial father figure to his pupils is self-aware composer: a master of subtlety, surprise irrefutable. Modesty (which the Romantics twisted into a cringing and subterfuge — not least in his play with silence meekness), love of order, and a devout, unquestioning, yet never and unexpected phrase lengths — who exploits dogmatic faith were instilled into him from childhood. Haydn’s sense the comic-dramatic potential of his themes with of fun and mischief, and his fondness for practical jokes, are chronibreathtaking harmonic and contrapuntal legerdecled in various boyhood escapades, as when he lopped off the pigtail main. In the late symphonies and string quartets of a fellow choirboy in St. Stephen’s Catheespecially, joyous, open-air dral. Even in old age his character retained exuberance typically coexists His is an essentially what his early biographer Albert Christoph with intense cerebration. Not optimistic, Apollonian art Dies dubbed “a genial, witty, teasing strain.” for nothing has Robin Hollowith roots in Croatian and way dubbed Haydn “music’s Yet Haydn’s personality, like his music, was Austro-Hungarian folksong. supreme intellectual.” less bucolically uncomplicated than the 19th century liked to maintain. His humor could He is also arguably the comhave a wry, acerbic edge, as revealed in his London notebooks (full of poser most likely to provoke a smile or chuckle sharp observations on English customs) and his letters to his friend in players and audiences. The Romantics had litand confidante Maria Anna von Genzinger, wife of Prince Nicolaus tle time for humor in music; and even in Haydn’s Esterházy’s physician. With or without the consolation of his Itallifetime po-faced critics, usually from Berlin or ian mistress, the soprano Luigia Polzelli, Haydn must often have felt Hamburg, accused his early string quartets and isolated and embittered in his marriage to an ill-educated, bigoted symphonies of tasteless “comic fooling.” Somewoman of whom he remarked “it’s all the same to her whether her times his famed humor can be bizarre or (in, say, husband is a cobbler or an artist.” (When Frau Haydn died in 1800, the programmatic Symphony No. 60, Il Distratto) one of his friends reported that the composer was “writing with new naively farcical. Often he delights in sudden inconzeal, since he has had the good luck to lose his unpleasant wife.”) gruous contrasts, as in the gigantic bassoon fart that shatters the ethereal atmosphere of the Largo of Symphony No. 93 (who could imagine Mozart doing this?). Even Haydn’s sacred music was not immune, as when he roguishly set the “Qui tollis” of one of his late masses to the strains of Adam A BRONZE MEDAL, SOLD AT THE H+H CENTENARY and Eve’s jolly duet from The Creation. The Empress FESTIVAL, IMPRINTED WITH THE H+H LOGO. Marie Therese, normally one of Haydn’s warmest admirers, was unamused.
HANDEL + HAYDN SOCIETY BICENTENNIAL 37
INSPIRED BY HIS TRIPS TO ENGLAND, WHERE HE FIRST HEARD HANDEL'S ORATORIOS, HAYDN'S THE CREATION IS HIS CROWNING MASTERPIECE.
most famously in the Joke Quartet, Op. 33, No. 2, and the outrageous, clap-if-you-dare false ending of Symphony No. 90, more subtly in, say, the B-flat String Quartet, Op. 50, No. 1. Haydn’s comic subversiveness, his supreme mastery of complex cerebral games, can still blind listeners to the full expressive range of his music, as Mozart’s exquisite grace once obscured his power. His is an essentially optimistic, Apollonian art, with (in some of the later symphonies and quartets) roots in Croatian and Austro-Hungarian folksong. Yet his music can be austere, acerbic, on occasion — notably in some of the minor-key symphonies of the years around 1770 — of an almost shocking violence. The C minor Sonata, No. 20, of 1771 — Haydn’s Appassionata — begins in lyrical pathos and ends in tragic passion. Mozart wrote nothing more moving for the keyboard. In his lifetime, Haydn’s music was celebrated not only for its wit, inventive brilliance, and effortless fusion of the “popular” and “learned” styles, but also for its emotional and philosophical depth. The groping, twisting “Chaos” prelude to The Creation, the most harmonically audacious music of the whole 18th century, is an extreme and unique case. Using a more
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“normal” language, the Seven Last Words and the visionary, hymn-like slow movements of the late string quartets and masses, where Haydn’s religious impulse is colored by a Romantic sense of the sublime and the ineffable, should scotch once and for all the notion that he was incapable of expressing the most exalted spiritual states. Haydn’s questing, rigorously argumentative art rarely admits of the operatically inspired lyrical sweetness and almost voluptuous pathos with which Mozart captivates the most casual listener — though we might be thankful that this has at least saved him from mobile ringtones and kitsch merchandise. Yet if Haydn must always yield to the Salzburger in popular appeal, the power of his greatest music, its profundity and passion as well as its wit and exuberance, remains undimmed. Indeed, in our fractured, neurotic age, Haydn’s humane, lifeaffirming vision, expressed with consummate mastery of the sonata style he did more than anyone to perfect, can refresh and uplift the spirit more, perhaps, than any other composer. Reprinted from the April 2009 issue of Gramophone magazine.
WAYNE JACKSON
GREG GORMAN FOR THE LOS ANGELES OPERA
TRIBUTES
In the summer of 1965, after two-anda-half “apprentice years” with the Israel National Opera in Tel Aviv, I came to the United States, hoping to start an international career. Many individuals and organizations were very encouraging to me, and in the fall I made my debuts with New York City Opera as well as my European debut. One of my earliest US engagements consisted of two performances of Messiah with the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston. I don’t think I was aware, at the time, of the Society’s importance in the history of American music, but I am now very much aware of it and glad to have been a part of it, even if only a very small part, at that crucial moment in my own life. I did so many different types of performances in those early years that many aspects of my Boston debut were only a blur in my memory. So I’ve gone back and looked up a review, by Michael Steinberg, that appeared in the Boston Globe on December 11, 1965 — the day after my very first Messiah. “Domingo has an unusually handsome voice and apparently considerable musicianship and technique,” he wrote. So far, so good! But then he said: “He was, however, riveted so closely to his score that it seemed as though he were finding out about Messiah one eighth note at a time as it went along.” What Mr. Steinberg couldn’t have known was that my problem wasn’t with the notes; it was with the words. I was already used to singing and speaking in Spanish, Italian, and French, but I could barely speak any English at the time, let alone sing it — and the Messiah text is in antiquated, formal, biblical English. I was probably hanging on for dear life! Anyway, together the Handel and Haydn Society and I survived the experience. I thank the Society so very much for having given me that important early opportunity, and I wish it the best of luck for its next 200 years!
MARGARET MARSHALL, former Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
It is an honor to serve as a member of the Honorary Bicentennial Committee of the Handel and Haydn Society. I arrived in Boston in the late 1960s. The Handel and Haydn Society was an early discovery, and I have been a subscriber ever since. Memories abound. Some of my first “dates” with my husband, Anthony Lewis, were with H+H; is that why we fell in love? The orchestra’s transition to period instruments harked back to an extraordinary musical history, including a memorial performance by H+H marking the deaths of President Adams and Jefferson. What better way to celebrate John Adams, the drafter of the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780, and my personal hero? Two hundred years… just the beginning, if we make that happen. Happy next century, H+H!
ERIC ANTONIOU
PLÁCIDO DOMINGO, tenor
MIKKO NISSINEN, artistic director of Boston Ballet
Happy 200th anniversary to the Handel and Haydn Society! Growing up in Finland, I listened often to Handel and Haydn Society recordings, so I feel a strong connection as a life-long fan to this unique, marvelous, world-class organization. They bring incredible quality and integrity to their work and are a vital part of our cultural life here in New England. Boston is all the richer for your presence. How fortunate we are! As you celebrate this monumental year, I send my very best wishes for this anniversary year and a stellar future.
CARE OF MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON
MALCOLM ROGERS, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
For 200 years, H+H has lifted the spirit of Boston’s citizens, starting with one of America’s most turbulent political periods in 1814–1815, through times of change, growth, hardship, and prosperity.
The great, historic city of Boston is almost unparalleled in the wealth and diversity of its arts institutions, but no other can equal the 200-year record of the Handel and Haydn Society.
Today, H+H continues to enrich the musical landscape of our city and beyond with concerts that showcase the classics as well as neglected jewels of times past. Their educational programs and choruses offer meaningful opportunities for children and young men and women. My own teenage daughter Clara considers her chorus experience with H+H one of the highlights of her high school days. Here is to the next 200 years!
Since 1815, H+H has been bringing to New England audiences some of the greatest Baroque and Classical music ever written. Under the inspiring leadership of Harry Christophers, this tradition continues. H+H is at the heart of Boston’s cultural life, but also serves increasingly global and diverse audiences. You have my heartiest congratulations!
DARIO ACOSTA
SUSAN WILSON
ESTHER NELSON, general and artistic director of Boston Lyric Opera
MARTIN PEARLMAN, music director of Boston Baroque
To Handel and Haydn, our colleagues across the street: congratulations on your 200th anniversary! Our friendly competition as Baroque orchestras has raised the level of period-instrument playing and built audiences for all of us. Here's to many more years!
ERIC OWENS, bass-baritone
It is a great honor to continue to be a small part of the Handel and Haydn Society’s illustrious, 200-year history. I first collaborated with the amazing musicians of H+H at the very beginning of my career, with performances of Handel’s Messiah. This relationship continues, under the baton of their illustrious artistic director, Harry Christophers, with whom I have shared countless artistic experiences, on the highest of levels, both in Boston and abroad. To the Handel and Haydn Society: may your star shine brightly, for many years to come! 40 HANDEL + HAYDN SOCIETY BICENTENNIAL
GRANT LLEWELLYN, H+H Music Director (2001–2006)
DAVID MCCULLOUGH, author
What a remarkable achievement, what a great gift the Handel and Haydn Society has been and continues to be.
STU ROSNER
Imagine! Through all that has happened in Boston and our country, and in the world, over the past two hundred years, all the twists and turns of history, the Society has continued as a valued part of our way of life. Think how much this says about Boston and, yes, about the immeasurable wonder and importance of music. What a grand, true cause for celebration this anniversary is and for our all-out appreciation.
AISSLINN NOSKY, H+H Concertmaster
Since joining the Handel and Haydn Society in 2011, I have been inspired by the commitment to excellence that exists at every level of the organization.
The first time I ever set foot on American soil was as a 25-year-old candidate for a Conducting Fellowship at the Boston Symphony’s Tanglewood Festival. My morning walk to the audition at Symphony Hall, from the North End through downtown on an icy January morning gave me an impression of a very foreign country in an unfamiliar landscape where I felt conspicuously out of place. Little did I suspect that this was to become my American "home from home" over the following 20 years. With the birth of my son Jasper at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston we completed our allegiance and still feel something of an umbilical connection to this most, apparently "European" of American cities. So, to find myself as music director of the Handel and Haydn Society was a delightful convergence of fate and destiny for me. That it is a "Society"appealed to my Welsh sense of community spirit, and I set out to embrace its constituency.
I always felt that one of the greatest and unique strengths of H+H is its connection to the people through music. There is something about the intimate scale and immediacy of its music-making that draws everyone in, and makes them all feel a part of the performance. This also has a lot to do with the glorious repertoire that H+H has made its own. From a humble trio sonata to the most elevated oratorios, H+H has a feel for historical music which grabs performers and audiences alike. To create the old new again is a wonderful, revitalizing artistic endeavor and has kept H+H shows fresh and alive. This ultimately has to be through the supreme achievements of its musicians. Instrumentalists and singers of the highest caliber combine to bring this music to life and benefit from a Boston music community which is an extraordinary melting pot of global talent. Nowhere else have I enjoyed such an atmosphere of dynamic yet collegial music-making at the highest level. Everyone pushes, challenges, and supports each other like the very best of football teams, and yes, I’m talking soccer. As the conductor, I felt part manager, part coach, part captain — oh, and part referee. It was always the best seat in the house from where I was able to kick every ball and sing every note (as long as it was all in my head), and at the final whistle I even got a share of the plaudits.
Though I have only been here for a few seasons, I already think of numerous performances as high points in my artistic career. I look forward with great excitement to the electrifying energy of each new concert with the orchestra and chorus. I am humbled before the rich history of this cultural jewel, and feel extremely privileged to be a part of H+H as we celebrate the past and prepare to blaze a trail into the future.
HANDEL + HAYDN SOCIETY BICENTENNIAL 41
LIZ LINDER STU ROSNER
JOHN FINNEY, H+H Chorusmaster and Associate Conductor (1990–2014)
SCOTT METCALFE, music director of Blue Heron
Over the past 36 years I have had the privilege of performing as organist and harpsichordist under four of H+H’s artistic directors.
Happy 200th Birthday, H+H!
Of the many concerts I myself have conducted for the Handel and Haydn Society, a few stand out: certainly the Messiah performances in Symphony Hall in 1997 and 2004 , the Millennium Concert at Boston’s Cathedral of the Holy Cross in 2000, and the concert in June 2014 at St. Paul’s, Cambridge, when the church was standing-room-only for two performances of works by J. S. Bach and his son C.P.E. Bach (including what might have been the modern premiere of C.P.E. Bach’s celebratory work extolling the virtues of the city of Hamburg, Spiega, Ammonia fortunata). Handel and Haydn Society, I salute you on your 200th anniversary! You have brought glorious music to Boston and the world for two centuries; may the world continue to be blessed by your musical gifts for many centuries to come!
STU ROSNER
Since 1990, I have worked side-by-side with three of them — Christopher Hogwood, Grant Llelwellyn, and Harry Christophers — as associate conductor and chorusmaster.
It is a wonderful thing, in this young country, for a cultural organization to celebrate two centuries of existence, and H+H has justly earned a place in the center of our city’s arts scene. But for me the most remarkable quality of H+H these days is not its venerability but the vigor of its educational and outreach programs — all the activity beyond and behind its busy life of concerts, tours, and recordings. H+H’s far-reaching initiatives to cultivate young musicians and new audiences, along with its friendly openness to the larger cultural community, offer outstanding models for other arts organizations. So Happy Birthday, H+H, and three cheers! May you remain as youthful at 300 as you are at 200!
MARK VOLPE, managing director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra
I want to join with the Boston Symphony Orchestra musicians and staff in congratulating the Handel and Haydn Society on the occasion of two hundred years of excellence as one of Boston’s most revered and senior arts organizations. Following its founding in 1815, the Society must have served as a model and inspiration for our city’s later philanthropists as they created in Boston the “Athens of America,” as it was sometimes called, reflecting the region’s activities in education and culture. When the BSO’s founder, Henry Lee Higginson, sought to create the BSO as a permanent, professional orchestra in 1881, he was building on the precedent set by the Handel and Haydn Society. Today, our activities complement and parallel one another in nurturing and enriching the great Western classical music tradition. The Handel and Haydn Society is not only a Boston fixture but an organization of international stature, joining with the Boston
Symphony Orchestra and other performing arts groups, our great universities and museums, our marathon, and our sports teams — to name just a few of our most recognizable institutions — in presenting our special city to the world. The significance of H+H as a musical society focused on presenting works from the time prior to, and just following, our nation’s founding allows us to revisit what culture has meant not only to Boston but to the United States as a whole as the new nation carved out its identity within the wider world. May this wonderful, and still evolving, institution celebrate many more years beyond this historical milestone. Happy Bicentennial!
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE SUPPORT THE HANDEL AND HAYDN SOCIETY
Thanks to the generosity of our donors, H+H has remained strong for 200 years, serving the community with the finest performances and giving students from all backgrounds the opportunity to learn through our education programs. We hope you will consider making a gift during this exciting Bicentennial Season. There are many ways to support H+H:
Annual Fund
Contribute toward the current season and make an immediate impact on H+H performances, community partnerships, and extensive educational activities.
Capital Campaign
Help build the H+H of tomorrow with a gift to this ambitious $12-million campaign that expands the endowment, supports strategic initiatives, and underwrites the Bicentennial celebration.
The 1815 Society
Ensure the future of music by including a gift to H+H in your long-term financial and estate plans, such as a bequest in your will or a charitable gift annuity. Help continue a tradition of musical excellence for generations to come.
To make a gift, or for more information, please contact Mike Peluse, Director of Development, at 617 262 1815 or mpeluse@handelandhaydn.org. You can also donate online at handelandhaydn.org/support.
STU ROSNER
It was in September 2006 that I first led the Handel and Haydn Society. I was invited to be their guest conductor for an all-Haydn program in Esterházy, Austria, playing on the very same stage on which Haydn had performed. Musically, there was very stylish playing — the playing of those Haydn symphonies was absolutely virtuoso. The orchestra players and I also had a fun time. Outside of their home environments, people tend to flourish and, as we know, musicians are really social people. Within three days, we got to know each other very quickly, and so began the whole process of gaining each other’s trust. When I was appointed Artistic Director of the ensemble in 2008, what most impressed me about Boston was just how much knowledge there was among the listening public about early music, the composers and the instruments. It was fascinating, like walking into a Baroque encyclopedia. With H+H, I was seeing an ensemble that knew a vast amount, and my vision as director was to let the music breathe and allow our musicians to open to say that the up more and express themthing that Boston selves without inhibition.
I’d have biggest has taught me is how great Haydn is as a composer. I just find that there is so much inside that music, wit and emotion; the stage can just come alive with energy.
There are many great artistic achievements I am very proud of. Top of that list is our recording series that began with a Mozart trilogy (the Mass in C Minor, Requiem, and Coronation Mass), now followed by our Haydn project that we started in 2012 and continues this season. I’d have to say that the biggest thing that Boston has taught me is how great Haydn is as a composer. I just find that there is so much inside that music, wit and emotion; the stage can just come alive with energy. The Haydn concert with Aisslinn that we recorded has brought us many steps forward as an organization, making this music sound as new and fresh as when it was first performed. The same goes for perhaps the greatest work ever written, Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion, which we performed in 2012
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REFLECTIONS FROM HARRY H+H Artistic Director Harry Christophers looks back at his tenure so far.
(and which we revisit again in the spring 2015). With that work, there is the additional joy of seeing everything that H+H embodies come up on stage: orchestra, chorus, and youth choruses. I hope that with the Bicentennial celebration, Boston realizes how much H+H offers with its vocal education program, reaching 10,000 children, their families and schools every year through the Vocal Arts Program, Collaborative Youth Concerts, Vocal Quartet school visits, and in-school residencies. It’s what makes this organization very special. Looking back at other highlights of the past six seasons (and there have been so many), I must also include our West Coast tour of Handel’s final oratorio Jephtha in April–May 2013. In terms of artistry and depth of playing, it brought H+H to another level. I am pleased that we will be continuing our touring activities and bringing our great interpretations to many parts of the US. Boston is a wonderfully vibrant city with a terrific amount of history. It is brilliant to see the enthusiasm of thousands of donors and supporters who have clear faith in what we’re doing... and so many young people about, too! We need those young people to see our audiences grow. The excitement that they can give a concert is fantastic. Early music is certainly not boring! With every passing season, I believe the performances reach a higher level of artistry, and that is very thrilling as Artistic Director.
HARRY CHRISTOPHERS ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
The Society Ball Bicentennial Gala April 18, 2015 at Symphony Hall Join the grand party to commemorate H+H’s 200th anniversary at Symphony Hall, its home since 1900. Featuring Harry Christophers and the Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus in a virtuosic performance. Proceeds benefit H+H’s education and artistic initiatives. For more information or to reserve your tickets, please contact Meagan McMullen at mmcmullen@handelandhaydn.org or 617 262 1815.
JOIN THE CLUB. H2, the young professionals group of the Handel and Haydn Society, brings unique events to the Boston area. Chat with new friends over drinks or meet musicians, while enjoying exclusive discounts. Use discount code H2TIX to receive $30 B-level tickets to any 2014–2015 Bicentennial Season concert (with or without an H2 event)!* 2014–2015 H2 events immediately following H+H performances: Vivaldi L’estro armonico Haydn with Aisslinn Nosky
Oct 31 Jan 23
Mozart and Beethoven Bach St. Matthew Passion
For more information visit handelandhaydn.org/h2 or call 617 266 3605 *Not applicable to Holiday Sing or Handel and Haydn Sings
Feb 13 Mar 27
SUBSCRIBE AND SAVE Purchase an H2 Young Professionals Series featuring all four 2014–2015 Bicentennial Season concerts with H2 events for only $100. Order online or by phone.
2014 – 2015 BICENTENNIAL SEASON SUBSCRIBE NOW! ENJOY UP TO TWO CONCERTS FREE*
Subscription series can include: Baroque Fireworks! H+H Turns 200 Vivaldi L’estro armonico Handel Messiah A Bach Christmas Holiday Sing Haydn with Aisslinn Nosky Mozart and Beethoven Mendelssohn Elijah Bach St. Matthew Passion Haydn The Creation Handel and Haydn Sings
SUBSCRIPTIONS START AT $60
call 617 266 3605 click www.handelandhaydn.org visit 9 Harcourt St, Boston (Mon–Fri, 10am–6pm) *Discounts as compared to the price of individually purchased tickets