UMS Concert Program, October 11, 1983: Musica Antiqua K?ln --

Season: 105th
Concert: Fifth
Rackham Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

THE UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Musica Antiqua Koln
REINHARD GOEBEL, Director
Tuesday Evening, October 11, 1983, at 8:30 Rackham Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Music for the Potsdam Court Quartet No. 3 in G major, "L'Art de Modulation".....Fkancois-Ani:ue Philidor
Moderate) '
Aria I Aria II Allegro
Trio Sonata in C minor, "Conversation between
Sanguineo and Melancolico"................................C. P. E. Bach
(1714-1788) Allegretto, presto
Adagio Allegro
Quartet in E major................................Johann Gottlieb Janitsch
AfFetuoso (1708.1763)
Allegro
Allegro assai
INTERMISSION
The Musical Offering, BWV 1079 (complete)......................J. S. Bach
?. , , (1685-1750)
Riccrcar a 3 v '
10 Cannoncs super Thema Rcgium Sonata a tre
Largo, allegro, andante, allegro Riccrcar a 6
Deutsche Grammophon-Archiv Records
The University Musical Society acknowledges Liberty Music Shop's generosity and commitment to Ann Arbor's cultural life in underwriting the printing costs of this concert program.
Fifth Concert of the 105th Season Twenty-first Annual Chamber Arts Series
The Musical Offering
(Notes provided by the Ensemble)
Among the surviving works of Johann Sebastian Bach, the "Musical Offering" and the "Art of Fugue" occupy a special place. Unlike the (likewise monothematic) related work, the so-called "Goldberg" variations, these two late works were revived only in the 1930s and, moreover, since then have hardly enjoyed a universal popularity. On the one hand, they are the highly stylized late works of a genius, on the other hand they have frequently been dismissed as mere mathematical contrivances. For whatever reason, performances of these two cycles are rare occurrences in the concert life of today.
For both works, Bach provided no indication of the required performing forces. While the "Art of Fugue" has entered the repertoire of harpsichordists and organists -whether de?servedly or not is another question -the "Musical Offering" has been forced to suffer the most tasteless arrangements and reworkings, in which the music is thought to be made more palatable through unspeakably inappropriate instrumental combinations. Although we will return later to our instrumentation of the "Musical Offering," one thing more needs be said at this point: every reasonable performance of the "Musical Offering" must necessarily be an arrangement, for an "authentic" instrumentation does not exist. The Urtext transmits, in large part, only notes on lines, with scarcely any indication with regard to instrumentation, tempo, dynamics, or articulation.
Like most chamber music from the period of the "Ancien Regime," the "Musical Offer?ing" attempts to cater to aristocratic pretensions. The title of the "Musical Offering" recalls Georg Muffat's "Armonico tributo" (1682) -a "Thanksgiving in Harmony" to the ducal bishop of Salzburg -and moreover, precedents and traditions exist for the contents as well. Thirty years ago Erich Schenk indicated that Bach would certainly have known two collections -the "Kunstbuch" of Johann Thcile (1646-1724) and the "Artifici musicali" of G. B. Vitali (1644-1692) -which demonstrate (as do, e.g., his own "Well-Tempered Clavier" and Sonatas and Partitas for unaccompanied violin) Bach's activity as a collector who preserved and cultivated contemporary traditions. Both collections contain countless canons, fugues, and contrapuntal curiosities such as modulating canons, invertible contrapuntal structures, riddles, etc. in a "semi-performable" form for unspecified performing forces. IndFurther, these col?lections contain indications as to how these contrapuntal artifices can be applied in chamber music for strings and in Mass movements. The violin sonatas composed by Vitali for the dilcttant violinist Francesco d'Este have their counterpart in the integration of the flute, the "royal" instrument (of Fredrick the Great), in the trio sonata of the "Musical Offering."
It is noteworthy that all three of Bach's works in the "Kunstbuch" tradition (the "Gold?berg" Variations, the "Musical Offering," and the "Art of Fugue"), each one is based on a unified thematic complex, in the case of the "Musical Offering," the "Thema regium." However, this musical idea, with its bi-partite form and clearly unsymmetrical structure, can hardly have found its origins as an "inventio" of Fredrick II. Much more so, it is a combina?tion of two well-known "soggctti" that most likely received their rhythmic profile from Bach's hand.
Our instrumentation of the "Musical Offering" satisfies the minimal forces required by the print version of 1747. In that version, two violins are specifically mentioned for a canon, and travcrso, violin, and basso continuo (consisting of harpsichord and cello) are indicated for the trio sonata as well as the perpetual canon. Since all the remaining movements can be performed with this combination of instruments, there is no reason to expand the instrumental body further. The clefs in the canons likewise permit no deductions as to the intended instrumenta?tion, since soprano-clef (used up to the end of the 18th century in keyboard music), modern violin-clef and French violin-clef (usual for recorder parts), as well as all forms of the Cand F-clefs, were evidently used to accommodate the abbreviated notation in which the canons are written. Contemporary manuscript material, on the other hand, clearly indicates that in performance only the above-mentioned instruments were used. The open score notation of the six-part ricercar cannot be taken as an indication of string ensemble performance: an autograph of this riccrcar in keyboard staff notation survives and, in fact, it was quite usual to notate polyphonic music intended for keyboard performance in open score.
The original print, consisting of three individual gatherings containing in total five different parts, permits no conclusions as to the originally intended performing sequence of the whole. Only the canons (in our performance nos. 2-6) arc consecutively numbered 1 through 5. The Fuga Canonica in Epidiapentc that appears in the same gathering is unnumbered. At the
end of the trio sonata, the Canon Pcrpetuus appears. In all probability, however, it is not intended to be performed at that point, since it would interfere with the formal plan of the trio sonata, laid out in the manner of the four-movement Italian Sonata da chicsa (church sonata). We have settled upon a sequence of movements that results in a temporally symmetrical structure: the complex often canons and the trio sonata, nearly equal in length, arc juxtaposed, framed by the two ricercars.
Musica Antiqua Koln
Reinhard Goebel, Director and Violin
Phoebe Cakrai, Cello and Viola da gamba Hajo Bass, Violin Wilbert Hazelzet, Transverse flute Andreas Staier, Harpsichord
Musica Antiqua Koln has established itself as the leading Baroque chamber group on the international scene. Founded in 1973 by Reinhard Gocbcl, its director, the group achieved its first major successes in 1978, with concerts in London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, Amsterdam, Paris, and principal German cities and festivals. The group toured South America in 1979, the United States in 1981, and the Far East in 1982. Its current activities involve more than 150 concert and recording dates each year.
Musica Antiqua records on the Archiv label of Deutsche Grammophon. A number of its nearly two dozen recordings have received international awards including three Deutsche Schallplattcnpreise, the Early Music Award (London), Diapason d'Or, Orphec d'Or, and the Critics' Choice.
The repertoire performed by Musica Antiqua Koln spans the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The group's preference for playing music from the original sources -often for the first time since the music was written -reflects its scholarly involvement with issues of performance practice.
Musica Antiqua performs on some of the finest old instruments that have been restored to their original proportions. These include two violins by Jacobus Staincr (the mid-scventeeth-ccntury Tyrolian maker whose instruments were prized -and often owned -by Bach, Locatelli, Tartini, Veracini, and Mozart); violins by Rogeri, Jacobs, and Picrray; two violas by Storioni; a viola by Klotz; and a cello by Gofrillcr.
Musica Antiqua's 1983 North American tour includes concerts in New York, Boston, Toronto, Pittsburgh, St. Paul, Seattle, Spokane, Vancouver, Berkeley, Los Angeles, and tonight, the Ensemble's first appearance in Ann Arbor.
Instruments on the 1983 tour:
Mr. Goebel -Baroque violin by Jacobus Stainer, Absam 1665
Baroque violin by G. B. Rogeri, Brescia 1680 Mr. Bass -Baroque violin by Jacobus Stainer, Absam 1671
Baroque violin by Claude Pierray, Paris 1705 Ms. Carrai -Baroque cello by Francesco Goflfrilcr, Venice 17(K) Mr. Hazelzet-Transverse flute after Rottcnburgh, Brussels 1740, made by Alain Wecmacls, Brussels 1981
In this evening's performance, Mr. Staier uses a Flemish double manual harpsichord made in 1980 by Keith Hill, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
This North American tour of Musica Antiqua Kbit) is partially underwritten by the Coethe-lnstitutc.
Coming Concerts
James Tocco, Pianist.........................................Wed. Oct. 19
Beethoven: Sonata No. 26, Op. 81a ("Les Adieux"); Brahms: Fantasies, Op. 116; Chopin: Berceuse in D-flat, Op. 57, Barcarolle in F-sharp, Op. 60; Bernstein: Touches; Copland (arr. Bernstein): El Salon Mexico
Beaux Auts Trio............................................ Sun. Oct. 23
Mozart: Trio in G, K. 564; Smetana: Trio in G minor, Op. 15; Mendelssohn: Trio in D minor. Op. 49
New Would Ballet of Caracas..............................Wed. Oct. 26
Quicksilver (MendelssohnNahat); Apollo and Daphne (DebussyMagalhacs); Lost Cry (GinasteraGoh); New Dawn (Villa-LobosOrta)
English Chamber Orchestra Charles Mackerras.......... Thurs. Oct. 27
Gidon Kremer, Violinist
Rossini( L'ltaliatia in Algeri Overture; Beethoven: Violin Concerto; Anthony Halstead: Concertino for Chamber Orchestra; Haydn: Symphony No. 103 ("Drumroll")
Leonid and Valentina Kozlov................................ Sat. Oct. 29
Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Helmuth Rilling..........Tues. Nov. 1
Gaechinger Kantorei of Stuttgart and soloists Bach: "Passion According to St. John"
Soviet Emigre Orchestra Lazar Gosman.................... Wed. Nov. 2
Britten: Simple Symphony: Prokofiev: Visions Fugitives; Barber: Adagio for Strings; Dvorak: Serenade for Strings
New World String Quartet..................................Sun. Nov. 6
Mozart: Quartet in D, K. 575; Berg: Quartet, Op. 3; Beethoven: Quartet in F major. Op. 59, No. 1
Warsaw Philharmonic Kazimierz Kord....................Thurs. Nov. 10
Misha Dichter, Pianist
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor; Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10
Mstislav Rostropovich, Cellist.............................. Wed. Nov. 16
Marcello: Adagio; Beethoven: Variations on "Ein Madchen oder Weibchen" from The Magic Flute, Sonata in A, Op. 69; Schumann: Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70; Britten: Sonata in C major. Op. 65
Hermann Baumann, Horn.................................... Fri. Nov. 18
Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra Janos Rolla................Sun. Nov. 20
Corelli: Sarabanda, Giga e Badinerie; Bach: Double Violin Concerto; Rossini: Sonata No. 3 in G major; Mendelssohn: Octet in E-flat, Op. 20
Handel's Messiah I Donald Bryant....................... Fri.-Sun. Dec. 2-4
University Choral Union, U-M Orchestra; Kathryn Bouleyn, Soprano, John Ferrantc, Counter-tenor, Joseph Evans, Tenor, Jay Willoughby, Bass
Pittsburgh Ballet, Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker............ Fri.-Sun. Dec. 16-18
Richard Stoltzman, Clarinet, and
William Douglas, PianoBassoon............................ Thurs. Jan. 12
Tclcmann: Sonata in B-flat; Schumann: Three Romances, Op. 94; Bach: Two-part Inventions; Douglas: Miniatures; Saint-Sacns: Sonata in E-flat, Op. 167; Poulenc: Sonata (1962)
Cecile Licad, Pianist...........................................Sat. Jan. 14
Welsh National Opera Chorus.............................. Mon. Jan. 16
Paul Taylor Dance Company......................... Fri.-Sun. Jan. 27-29
Leontyne Price, Soprano........................................Sat. Jan. 4
Vienna Philharmonic: Leonard Bernstein.........Wed., Thurs. Feb. 15, 16
Takacs String Quartet.....................................Tues. Feb. 28
Haydn: Quartet in F, Op. 77, No. 2; Bartok: Quartet No. 3; Beethoven: Quartet in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2
Peter Zazofsky, Violinist...................................... Sun. Mar. 4
Oakland Ballet..................................... Mon.-Wed. Mar. 5-7
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