The concert will begin, appropriately, with “Spring” from Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Composed in 1723, The Four Seasons (Le quattro stagioni) is Antonio Vivaldi's best-known work, and is among the most popular pieces in the classical music repertoire. The work is a set of four violin concertos, the texture of which is varied with each concerto, each resembling its respective season. Vivaldi’s plan was that each movement would establish a certain mood, against which narrative events could then play out. When it came to the detail of those occurrences—barking dogs, drunken dancers, buzzing insects—Vivaldi delivered elegance and originality where other composers had barely moved beyond crude animal-noise clichés. In addition, Vivaldi provided verbal instructions to the players: In “Spring” he asks the solo violin to play like “il capraro che dorme” (the sleeping goatherd) and the viola like “il cane che grida” (the barking dog).
Following this lively welcome will be the Trumpet Concerto in d minor by Tomaso Albinoni. While famous in his day as an opera composer, Albinoni is mainly remembered today for his instrumental music. His instrumental music greatly attracted the attention of Johann Sebastian Bach, who wrote at least two fugues on Albinoni's themes. Coupled with the Albinoni concerto will be Handel’s Trumpet Suite in D, a delightful slice of Baroque trumpet virtuosity. Elin Frazier will dazzle with her heraldic silver Besson trumpet, manufactured in 1840 at the beginning of the Bach revival in Europe.
Sarah Davol brings her warm-toned Baroque oboe to perform a rare work with an interesting history. Bach, like his contemporaries featured on this program, was accustomed to rearranging his music to adjust to the available forces, an overloaded work schedule (especially his first years in Leipzig), or requests—or perhaps even personal whim. The Oboe Concerto in g minor was most likely composed during his service at the court of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen, although its original manuscripts and scores are lost to us. During his period as director of the Leipzig Collegium Musicum, Bach always fell back on early compositions, clearly those concertos written for various melody instruments. This concerto survives in versions for harpsichord and for solo violin, and its middle movement is used as an introduction for Cantata 156 with oboe solo and strings. Much effort has gone into the understandable desire to reveal the original versions of these works and, as far as possible, reconstruct them for modern performance. “Reconstructed” does not mean inauthentic, however. Scholars and music historians are diligent in tracing the evolution of such pieces, and carefully compare every related manuscript to reconstruct obvious missing parts. The result in the case of this Oboe Concerto is stunning, a chance to hear a rarely performed work in its original—and best—form. Ms. Davol will also perform the Concerto for Oboe and Strings in g minor by Handel, always a popular composer on our programs.
Rounding out this program are two concerti grossi: Albinoni’s Concerto a cinque and Arcangelo Corelli’s Sarabande, Gigue & Badinerie are excellent examples of the Baroque concerto grosso featuring several solo instruments rather than a single one. The dialogue effect of solo instruments, in two’s, three’s or more, with the full ensemble, is a favorite form among Baroque composers and audiences—even today!
At the Ides of March, the Camerata Ama Deus will recreate a musical soirée of chamber music performed on Baroque instruments and presented for your listening pleasure. Come and enjoy the music composed for the nobility of the courts of Old Europe, in the special settings of two beautiful venues in Chestnut Hill and Paoli.