Program Notes:
Viva Vivaldi

Featuring Wheaton College President Ronald Crutcher
& Boston Symphony member Owen Young, ’cellos
Steven Lipsitt, Music Director, conducting

Friday, April 20, 2007 at 8pm
Sunday, April 22, 2007 at 3pm
at Faneuil Hall, Boston

The Italian concerto genre evolved through a long line of Baroque composers, reaching its peak with the instrumental works of Antonio Vivaldi. His extensive work in this form established the three-movement fast-slow-fast structure, and expanded the use of lyrical expression for the soloists, complementing the brilliance and virtuosity already typical of the genre. These concerti and concerti grossi were almost always "made to order" --- written for specific occasions, for the specific musicians on hand.

The Concerto in G major (RV 45) is a lively, compact concerto for orchestra (i.e., without solo parts), very likely written as entertainment for an aristocratic party or civic gathering. The equal partnership of the two orchestral violin parts reminds us of the Baroque orchestra's roots in the earlier trio sonata (two matched treble parts and a bass), and offers many felicitous melodic exchanges.

The Concerto in C major (RV 559) begins with declamatory Larghetto introduction that takes a brief turn to the minor before leading into a bracing Allegro full of rhythmic invention. The contrasts of articulation, sonority, and character between the pairs of soloists highlight the playful nature of this work. In the Largo, unusually, the orchestra remains silent while the four soloists, thus "liberated," engage in intimate musical conversation, taking turns functioning as the harmonic bass. The final Allegro concludes the concerto with another dance-influenced romp.

French Baroque composer Francois Couperin perfected the style gallant, a compositional style of the late Baroque featuring highly ornamented, sharply characterized instrumental and vocal music. Couperin himself wrote mostly for the keyboard and the voice, but his music was so admired by musicians in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that it was frequently transcribed for other instruments and performed in suites. The Pieces en Concert for solo 'cello and string quartet or string orchestra is a suite of five dance- and song-influenced movements, beautifully and idiomatically arranged by Paul Bazelaire, who was Professor of 'Cello at the Paris Conservatory in the first half of the twentieth century.

Vivaldi's Concerto in C major (RV 560), like its predecessor, begins with a stately Larghetto introduction (but here less than half the length of the RV 559 introduction) leading to a full orchestra Allegro mixing new melodic material with the fanfare-like motive of the Larghetto. The movement contains a rich variety of textures, from two soloists with a single orchestral instrument, through other small subsets of the orchestra and full orchestral unisons, to robust imitative passages with all four soloists and full orchestra. In the Largo the clarinets are silent, and the string orchestra gently supports the lovely dialogue of the two flutes. The final Allegro is a tour de force, with lively contrasts within the solo quartet and between solo quartet and orchestra.

J. S. Bach was greatly influenced by the concertos of Vivaldi --- he arranged and transcribed some of them for his own use --- and the three-movement fast - slow - fast structure was one feature he found especially effective. Bach took this form and combined it with his own assimilations of other European styles and techniques: German counterpoint, Flemish Polyphony, French court dances, and Italianate melody. The Concerto in D minor (BWV 1043) is a result of this synthesis, and one of Bach's most satisfying (and popular) instrumental works. In the opening Vivace the richly energetic counterpoint has the two solo violins alternating with the orchestra as well as with each other. In the Largo ma non tanto, the austere orchestral accompaniment gives the soloists free reign to spin out their expressive, intertwining melodic lines. The final Allegro opens with an orchestral canon in first and second violins, and continues with an energetic drive that is maintained (and increased) right to the end.

In Vivaldi's Concerto in G minor (RV 531) the manner in which the two 'cellos immediately take center stage is striking; the first measures of the opening Allegro almost have the dramatic atmosphere of an opera seria. Both outer movements possess the rhythmic drive and invention often characteristic of Vivaldi's allegros, but here sounding particularly powerful in a double concerto for two low instruments. In the Largo, the violins and violas are silent, exposing in relief the virtuosic elasticity and lyrical eloquence of the two solo 'cellos.

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