A Double Birthday Celebration!

A Double Birthday Celebration

These concerts celebrate the 200th birthdays of Franz Peter Schubert and Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti with an evening of pairs and parallels. Many of us find it incongrnous that these two much-loved composers were born in the same year. Indeed their ultimate compositional styles differ greatly. But their youthful works share an unmistakable similarity. Perhaps it was the influences of Mozart and even C.P.E. Bach that struck a commorl chord in the composers’ early works.

We begin these performances with works of another pair of composers who shared the same birthyear—Bach and Handel. And to develop our play on pairs and parallels, the program includes two settings of mass texts (by Bach and Schubert), and two sets of instrumental works (by Handel and Donizetti).

Handel: Concerto Grosso in F

Handel composed two sets of "concerti grossi": Opus 3 is comprised of six concertos, and Opus 6 (for strings alone) includes twelve. While the Opus 6 concerti were written quickly in about 30 days during October of 1739, the Opus 3 works (although published in 1734) were drawn from material originally composed sometime between 1710 and 1720. In a 1734 London publication by John Walsh, the concerto “No. 4” as printed was not by Handel at all, but in a subsequent reprint—and presumably at Handel’s instructions—it was replaced by an authentic Handelian work, and a great one at that. While there is some argument among musicologists as to how much of the concerto was originally composed as an entr’acte for his opera Amadis in 1716, a harpsichord part from those performances has been found which contains all four movements, thereby unquestionably dating the original material.

It can be said that the fourth concerto in F—indeed all of Opus 3 and 6—is written in the styles of Corelli and Torelli (Handel had traveled extensively in Italy). But any similarity in style was most likely intentional. Between 1709 and 1730, concerti grossi by Albinoni, Vivaldi, Corelli, and Geminiani had been published in England. They were extremely popular, and we can surmise that the publisher Walsh’s musical and financial goals led him to press upon Handel to compose similar works.

The first movement is a French Overture, in the typical three parts slow, fast, slow—with a repetition of the second and third sections. The second movement, a triple-meter Andante, features some brief passages for solo oboe, and gives way, following a recitative-like Adagio, to an Allegro third movement. Here imitative tutti entrances alternate with passages for the oboes and bassoon and passages for two solo violins. The fourth movement, two short minuets, features a particularly Handelian sound in the middle section: violas and bassoon in a wonderfully sonorous unison. [J.T.]

Bach: Missa in G

Very little is known about the origin of the Bach Missa in G major, BWV 236, or any of the four so-called “Lutheran Masses” other than that their compilations probably date from 1735-44. Consisting of only the Kyrie and Gloria movements, these masses were unsuitable for use in the Roman liturgy, and while the Lutheran rite made use of these two movements as a complete ’Missa’ and even permitted the use of Latin, especially on festival Sundays, it is unlikely that they were ever intended for use in Leipzig.

The music for this Missa in G major is entirely derived from pre-existing church cantatas. The Kyrie is an adaptation of the opening chorus to the cantata “Siehe zu, dass deine Gottesfurcht nicht Heuchelei sei” BWV 179 (1723) where the original text states "do not serve God with a false heart", causing Bach to use a highly chromatic line with many "false relations". Both the Gloria for chorus and the duet for soprano and alto are taken from the cantata “Gott der Herr, ist Sonn’ und Schild” BWV 79 (1725). The cantata chorus made use of horns in its long festive introduction. Rather than cutting this introduction, since horns were not available, Bach gave the horn parts to the sopranos and altos, with the tenors and basses entering at their original place in the score. The final chorus—Cum Sancto Spiritu—is taken from the opening chorus of the cantata “Wer Dank opfert” BWV 17 (1726) with a short choral introduction replacing the original 27 bar orchestral introduction. [D.P.B.]

Donizetti: Introduzione & Allegro in C for strings

While Gaetano Donizetti is definitely most well-known for his series of magnificent “bel canto” operas, he spent his early years composing a good amount of chamber music. The young Donizetti had left Padre Mattei’s school in Bologna, and was studying with his great teacher Mayr. Mayr tremendously influenced Donizetti in several ways. In fact, Donizetti’s lesser-known sacred works seem to follow explicitly the philosophies of Mayr regarding the need for a “purification” of sacred music.

It is not completely certain whether the string compositions from Donizetti’s chamber music period were intended solely for use by chamber ensembles (one-to-a-part) or string orchestras. A number of confusing factors can be found. For example, the inclusion of a double-bass part in both the Introduzione and the Allegro could logically lead us to employ a large ensemble. Certainly the breadth of the music is well-supported in this way. But the indication at the end of the Introdazione that a cadenza should be played by the first violinist is unsettling. Solo cadenzas were very common Domenico Gaetano in orchestral music 75 years earlier (there is one at the end of the second movement in the Handel Concerto Grosso in F), but they are rare in orchestral music of the early 19th century. In any event, in the Introduzione and Allegro we have two youthful works which seem to look to the past and the future. In the dark and sombre Introduzione, the sonorities of future operatic music are plainly evident, while the Allegro seems to look backward in homage to Mozart. [J T.]

Schubert: Salve Regina & Mass in G

The young Schubert was not just the average boy-genius-prodigy. He had an extremely poetic soul. He loved music for its melancholy and sadness. At the age of fourteen he was already drawn to texts, and had begun to compose his first lieder. The difficult relationship he had with his father remained so even after the death of his mother in 1812, when Franz was fifteen. But at this point, he began more serious musical studies, taking on counter-point with revitalized interest. Two years later, in 1814, he turned to the composition of his first mass setting (in F, D. 105). In this same year he wrote his first masterpiece lied, Gretchen am Spinnrade, Opus 2 (Erlkönig, Opus 1, had actually been composed a year after Gretchen). Then in 1815, at the ripe age of eighteen, he composed the Mass in G, a work extremely economical in scoring yet broadly poetic. It was composed for the parish church of Lichtental, a suburb of Vienna. As a boy soprano, Schubert had sung there in the choir from 1805 to 1808 (and his brother Ferdinand was often organist). Originally scored for strings and organ, Schubert wrote “Organo e Basso” on the title page, and “Organo e Violone” in the score, omitting violoncellos altogether. Presumably this was due to the lack of a suitable cellist (or any cellist at all) at the Lichtental Church. But in the parts Schubert indicated "Violone e Violonzello", indicating his true original intention and perhaps thinking of future performances. Although Schubert later added trumpet and timpani parts, and Ferdinand later added parts for “oboes (or clarinets) and bassoons” in 1847, it is the original scoring which imparts a particular tenderness and openness to the work, and reminds us, through this glimpse into Schubert’s quiet spiritualism, of the composer’s generosity and ultimate vulnerability. Just four years later, in November of 1819, Schubert composed the simple and lyrical Salve Regina for soprano and string orchestra, a work of great beauty and faith. Some of its almost chorale-like elements would be heard later in the final songs of Winterreise. [J.T.]