Concert: Weiss and Bach
Friday, June 22, 2012 - 8PM
John Schneiderman, baroque lute // John Gibbons and colleagues
Jordan Hall
$25 Advanced Purchase Online
$30 At the door (cash or check)
$10 Student
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John Schneiderman, baroque lute
Sonata No. 5 in D Minor (Dresden MS)
Silvius Leopold Weiss (circa 1687–1750)
- Prelude
- Allemande
- Courante
- Bourée
- Menuet
- Sarabande
- Menuet
- Gigue
Sonata No. 1 in C Minor (Op. 1, 1740)
Adam Falckenhagen (1697–1754)
- Largo
- Allegro un poco
- A tempo giusto
Sonata in F Major (Augsburg MS)
Bernhard Joachim Hagen (1720–1787)
- Minuetto & Trio
- Andante
- Allegro
Like that of Johann Sebastian Bach, Weiss’s music is a seamless blend of French and Italian styles. The German-speaking lutenists of the 18th century collectively represent the final chapter of the lute’s long history. They inherited their interest in the lute from the French, who had earlier developed a smooth, fluid style that closely interlaced several voices into a continual texture of sound, the style brisé. From the Italian concerto style came the strong, driving sense of rhythm, often offset by surprising shifts of accent within a given piece. Adam Falckenhagen studied lute under Johann Jacob Graf, a student of the great Weiss, and also studied with Weiss himself during a visit to Dresden. His galant style stood in contrast to the older “learned” style of Bach and his contemporaries by adopting a lighter, “fresher” tone; by applying shorter, more regular phrasing; and by playing on the emotions of the listeners with frequent mood shifts. In 1766, after Falckenhagen had died, Bernhard Joachim Hagen obtained a position as lutenist in the Bayreuth court. While he spent his career as a violinist, it would be for a now-obsolete instrument—the lute—that he would be remembered. Only the love of a cultured employer for this instrument had allowed it to flourish one final time before its rediscovery in the 20th century. Today, Hagen is regarded as perhaps the lute’s last great composer, extending a tradition with roots deep in the past a further generation beyond the death in 1750 of the great Silvius Weiss of Dresden.
- Peter Danner
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John Gibbons, harpsichord
Alicia Mielke, flute
Audrey Wright, violin solo
Tessa Frederick, violin
Isabella Mensz, viola
Chris Irvine, cello
Karl Doty, double bass
Toccata in E Minor, BWV 914
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)
Praeludium in G, BWV 902
Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 903
Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D Major, BWV 1050
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)
- Allegro
- Affettuoso
- Allegro
Bach’s toccata, most likely an early working dating from before 1708, is among the most popular of all of the manualiter (for hands only, i.e. without pedals) toccatas. His Prelude in G is a further example of his remarkable improvisatorial style and was also written before 1720. The Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue survive in various versions: BWV 903a dates from some time before 1720; the version known as BWV 903 dates from about 1720 when Bach was living and working in Cöthen. Around 1730, Bach revised the piece yet again. The various versions show Bach’s lifelong aspiration to (in the famous words of his first biographer Forkel) “make the good perfect”.
The Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 is scored for flute, solo violin, obbligato harpsichord, and strings. It is the only one of the famous Brandenburg Concertos to overtly feature the harpsichord, which is in the other works of this remarkable set always the foundation of the basso continuo. The famous magnificent cadenza in the first movement was also the product of at least 3 separate revisions. It remains one of the greatest instrumental cadenzas in all of Western music.
