Bach and his Dutch Contemporaries Program

THE EMBASSY OF THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS AND SYDNEY FESTIVAL PRESENT

BACH

AND HIS DUTCH CONTEMPORARIES

SIMON MURPHY AND NEW DUTCH ACADEMY | AUSTRALIA/THE NETHERLANDS | AUSTRALIAN EXCLUSIVE

FREE PROGRAM PROUDLY MADE POSSIBLE BY

THE EMBASSY OF THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS AND SYDNEY FESTIVAL PRESENT

BACH AND HIS DUTCH CONTEMPORARIES

SIMON MURPHY AND NEW DUTCH ACADEMY | AUSTRALIA/THE NETHERLANDS | AUSTRALIAN EXCLUSIVE CITY RECITAL HALL 17 JANUARY 110MINS INCLUDING INTERVAL

THE NEW DUTCH ACADEMY

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685 – 1750)

Simon Murphy

Aria ‘Schlummert ein’ from Cantata no. 82a Ich habe genug

MUSICAL DIRECTOR AND VIOLA SOPRANO

Gudrun Sidonie Otto RECORDER

Anna Stegmann VIOLIN 1

Rachael Beesley VIOLIN 2

Tomoe Badiarova VIOLONCELLO

JACOB VAN EYCK (C. 1590 – 1657) ‘Amarilli mia bella’ and ‘Wat zal men op den Avond doen’ from Der Fluyten Lust-hof CHRISTIAN ERNST GRAAF (1723 – 1804)

Rondo for cello, strings and basso continuo from Concerto in D

Aleksandra Renska

INTERVAL

BAROQUE GUITAR AND ARCHLUTE

GEORG FRIEDRICH HÄNDEL (1685 – 1759)

Fredrik Bock PROGRAM

Aria ‘Ombra mai fu’ from Serse

CAROLUS HACQUART (C. 1640 – 1701)

Aria ‘O! Had I Jubal’s Lyre’ from Jeptha

Sonata a Quattro in E minor

WILLEM DE FESCH (1687 – 1761)

GEORG FRIEDRICH HÄNDEL (1685 – 1759)

Canzonetta ‘Tu fai la Superbetta’

Aria ‘Meine Seele hört im Sehen’ HWV 207

Concerto in C for sopranino recorder, strings and basso continuo, RV 443

ANTONIO VIVALDI (1678 – 1741)

UNICO VAN WASSENAER (1692 – 1766)

Allegro – Largo – Allegro molto

Andante from Concerto Armonico no.

1 in G

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685 – 1750)

JOHANN CHRISTIAN SCHICKHARDT (C. 1682 – 1762)

Selections from L’Alphabet de la musique (Op. 30, c. 1735)

‘Alleluja’ from Cantata no. 51 Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen

WELCOME It is a pleasure and a great honour to perform this program at this special Sydney Festival concert event.

Especially seeing as it simultaneously officially opens the Dirk Hartog Year celebrating over 400 years of contact – and the now very rich tradition of cultural exchange – between The Netherlands and Australia. Musically, the program focuses on (one of) the great periods of exploration, both culturally and geographically – the 17th and 18th centuries, the period of ‘Bach and his Dutch Contemporaries’.

Alongside the music of Bach, our program today features music by Baroque composers living and working in several Dutch cities, including The Hague, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Leiden and Alkmaar.

Representing the hallmarks of Dutch culture of the time – openness, and international perspective, engagement and exchange – their own distinctive, Dutch musical flavour is a most cosmopolitan one. We are delighted to share with you a taste of this unique and internationally orientated Dutch musical heritage. Today’s program puts this into the context of the further very rich and wonderfully stylistically varied 18th century European musical scene – from Bach in Germany, to Handel in London, and Vivaldi in Venice.

In doing so, the program celebrates the commonality as well as the enormous variety in 18th century European musical culture, and the historical Dutch role in fostering and furthering this cultural and creative richness. The program explores the many musical forms and styles of the period (church, chamber, vocal and instrumental), highlights the variety of vibrant national and regional European flavours present, and it profiles the internationalism and connectedness of the period’s musical scene. Composers and performers were exchanging ideas and inspiring each other in shared and non-shared musical languages and, in doing so, enjoying one another’s unique musical personalities and personal combinations of regional and national musical flavours.

In the period of Bach, Handel and Telemann, The Netherlands’ music scene was effervescent, cosmopolitan and internationally orientated with the many composers, performers, instrument makers and publishers working together, inspiring and informing each other. In the Dutch court city of The Hague, the court’s concert series, the many opera houses (The Hague had four at the time), pleasure gardens and other activities saw international visitors including Abel, J.C. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Hummel. Musicians resident in The Netherlands, including Hofkapellmeister Graaf, court cellist Zappa and ‘The Dutch Haydn’ Joseph Schmitt, were highly regarded and their music was performed throughout Europe. In particular, the Dutch publishers were highly influential and in many ways they were the taste makers of Europe with excellent musical networks, beautifully presented editions and effective distribution systems throughout the continent and the then emerging markets such as northeastern America.

Inviting you into this world, this afternoon’s program commences in the highly inventive, rich Baroque sound world of 17th century The Netherlands with music by the composer of the first opera in the Dutch language, Hacquart. We then offer a tantalising glimpse of the mid18th century elegance of the music of statesman and composer Unico van Wassenaer, proceeding through to the later 18th century classical poise of the Court of Orange’s hofkapelmeester Christian Ernst Graaf.

Bach has gained a very special place in The Netherlands’ music life in more recent times, not least of all with the rather impressive Dutch Matthew Passion tradition and through the pioneering work done by major Dutch early music figures including founding father Gustav Leonhardt in redefining and recording Bach’s cantatas and other works. What is perhaps a lesser known fact about Bach’s historical relationship with The Netherlands is that his (then) future employer, Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen (a Calvinist), spent half a year in The Hague in the winter of 1710–1711 visiting the opera and stocking up his music library. When Bach took up the position of Hofkapellmeister at the Prince’s court in Köthen in 1717, he encountered a library filled with inspiring cosmopolitan musical delights, many of which the prince had acquired during his time in The Netherlands. Even the great Bach therefore owes some of his own cosmopolitanism to the Dutch – and specifically to the Dutch music publishers whose editions, in the prince’s library, introduced him and his colleagues to works of composers such as Corelli and Vivaldi.

Today, we too know about iconic Baroque masterworks such as Corelli’s Christmas Concerto and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons because of these visionary 18th century Dutch publishers. The Vivaldi Concerto on the program

is another fine example of music introduced to the world by the Dutch, and its inclusion further celebrates the special role played by the Dutch in music history.

It has been a pleasure to prepare today’s program for you. And to be your musical guests here in Sydney, in this famously vibrant festival and at this rather auspicious bilateral cultural-diplomatic event, and in turn to have you as our guests at this special concert. We wish you much listening pleasure and hope you thoroughly enjoy the concert.

SIMON MURPHY ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, THE NEW DUTCH ACADEMY

MARKING OUR HISTORY, CELEBRATING OUR FUTURE The Netherlands and Australia share over 400 years of history. The year 2016 marks the 400th anniversary of the first European contact with Western Australia. On 25 October 1616, Dirk Hartog landed with his ship, Eendracht, at Cape Inscription, on what is now called Dirk Hartog Island, in the Shark Bay area. Dirk left an inscripted pewter plate nailed to a post before sailing further northwards.

The Netherlands looks forward to celebrating our relationship through events all over Australia during this special year, and looks forward to many new encounters in the future.

ANNEMIEKE RUIGROK AMBASSADOR, THE EMBASSY OF THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS

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10/12/2015 12:48 pm