CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
The English Concert

Zankel Hall
Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 at 7:30 PM

“light, transparent, slightly earthy sound ... fl awless technique and innate cohesiveness”—Denver Post

One of today’s hottest countertenors, David Daniels joins forces with the highly polished chamber orchestra The English Concert to perform a program dedicated to the intriguing arias and orchestral gems of Bach and Handel. David Daniels’s recording devoted to Handel arias won the Gramophone Editor’s Choice Award for his “sensuous colours … which he sings with beguiling erotic ambiguity” (Gramophone).

The English Concert
Harry Bicket, Artistic Director, Harpsichord, and Organ
David Daniels, Countertenor

BACH Orchestral Suite No. 1
BACH "Vergnűgte Ruh," BWV 170
BACH "Qui sedes" from Mass in B Minor, BWV 232
BACH Sinfonia from Cantata No. 42, Ich habe genug
BACH "Schlummert ein," BWV 82
BACH "Erbarme dich" from St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244
HANDEL Concerto Grosso in A Major, Op. 6, No. 11
HANDEL "Ombra cara" from Radamisto, HWV 12
HANDEL "Furibondo spira il vento" from Partenope, HWV 27
HANDEL Passacaglia, Act II from Radamisto, HWV 12
HANDEL Mad Scene from Orlando, HWV 31

Encore:
HANDEL "Qual nave smarrita" from Radamisto, HWV 12

Program Notes:

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685–1750)
Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C Major, BWV 1066; “Vergnûgte Ruh” from Cantata No. 170, Vergnügte Ruh’, beliebte Seelenlust; “Qui sedes” from Mass in B Minor; Sinfonia from Cantata No. 42, Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats; “Schlummert ein” from Cantata No. 82, Ich habe genug; “Erbarme dich” from St. Matthew Passion

Bach often performed his orchestral suites at, of all places, Zimmermann’s Coffee House in Leipzig—a fashionable venue for his popular public concerts with the local music society. The concert goers and coffee drinkers of Leipzig never had it so good. Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C Major had something for everyone, especially lovers of all things French. The serious minded probably enjoyed the French overture the best, with its attention-grabbing opening and fast fugal section—always much longer and more intricate than in anybody else’s suites. But Bach was careful not to overload his listeners with too much detail, and every now and again he lightened the texture with charming solos for a trio of wind instruments.

There were many in Bach’s audiences who doubtless preferred the dances. Here Bach followed the French custom of writing them in pairs, the first of which was repeated after the second—Gavotte I, Gavotte II, Gavotte I—just like a Classical minuet and trio. The most unusual of the dances is the “Forlane,” which began life as a wild Venetian street dance accompanied by mandolins, castanets, and drums. The French tamed it and began including it in their ballets during the 1690s. But as you can hear from the outset, Bach put a bit of bite back into it.

In the summer of 1726 Bach must have had a particularly able alto soloist available because in the space of just a few weeks he composed three solo cantatas for him, starting with Cantata No. 170, Vergnügte Ruh’, beliebte Seelenlust (Contented rest, beloved soul's desire). Its opening aria, “Vergnügte Ruh,” celebrates the inner peace and contentment of the soul by using an idyllic musical language with a strongly pastoral character—a gently lilting 12/8-time and the husky tones of an accompanying oboe d’amore. Bach did not so much compose the Mass in B minor as compile it. Much of the music was borrowed and adapted from existing works. But the “Qui sedes”—which comes towards the end of the Gloria—may have been one of the few new movements. It’s a delicately scored duet for alto and obbligato oboe d’amore, with a strong dance-like flavor.

The Cantata No. 42, Am Abend desselbigen Sabbats (On the evening of that very same Sabbath), was written for the first Sunday after Easter in 1725. Perhaps because Bach wanted to give his singers a well-earned rest after all their hard work during Passiontide, he began the cantata not with the usual chorus but with a five-minute orchestral Sinfonia instead. Probably drawn from a now lost instrumental work, it is cast in simple da capo form with a warmly lyrical central section. The scoring matches the orchestral suite heard earlier, with a solo trio of oboes and bassoon in dialogue with the strings.

When Bach’s second wife, Anna Magdalena, was putting together her music library in the 1720s, of all the works she selected for her own pleasure, only one came from her husband’s rich store of cantatas—the hauntingly beautiful “Schlummert ein” from Cantata No. 82, Ich habe genug (I have enough). It was one of Johann Sebastian’s favorite cantatas too. He tinkered with it for over 20 years, rescoring it for different singers and a variety of accompanying instruments. The third version of the cantata was rewritten for an alto soloist and dates from sometime after 1735. In “Schlummert ein” the poet compares death with sleep, and Bach obliges with his finest, lilting lullaby cast in a reassuringly repetitive rondo form.

The alto soloist gets the lion’s share of the arias in the St Matthew Passion—there are five, including two with chorus. “Erbarme dich” is perhaps the most moving. Often treated as though it were a lament for the crucified Christ, it is in fact a private prayer for mercy and a reflection on Peter’s tearful repentance.


GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (1685–1759)
Concerto Grosso in A Major, Op. 6, No. 11; “Ombra cara” from Radamisto;
“Furibondo spira il vento” from Partenope; Passacaglia, Act II from Radamisto;
Mad Scene from Orlando

Handel composed his twelve Grand Concertos, Op. 6, in just over a month and issued them in London in 1739 to coincide, apparently, with the 25th anniversary of Corelli’s much-loved Concerti Grossi, Op. 6. As a form, the concerto grosso was perfectly suited to the resources of England’s many amateur music societies, since the ‘gentlemen amateurs’ who made up the body of the orchestra could play the easily manageable orchestral string parts (the ripieno), while the technically more demanding solo parts (the concertino) could be taken by a trio of more proficient players. The concertos of Corelli’s Op. 6 were the mainstay of England’s amateur concert life, and in modelling his set on Corelli’s, Handel was appealing directly to the taste of the emerging middle class who were now his main audience. The Concerto Grosso in A Major, Op. 6, No. 11 is a thorough rearrangement of his A-major organ concerto (No. 2 of the “Second Set”) in which the solo violins do particularly well out of the old organ part.

Handel was above all a man of the theater. His sixth opera for the London stage, Radamisto (1720), is unusually rich in ballet music. Act II ends with a huge Passacaglia in which observant listeners may detect 21 statements of an eight-bar pattern. Above all the opera is an exploration of marital love, and at its core is the desolate aria “Ombra cara” sung by Radamisto to his beloved wife Zonobia. Thinking her dead he vows to avenge her and then hasten to her. The longest aria of the opera, and written in Handel’s most poignantly lyrical vein, it demands intensification from a singer well versed in the art of expressive ornamentation.

Partenope (1730) was one of Handel’s most controversial operas. Its leading man Arsace was neither conventional hero nor villain, but a weak and morally flawed man who spends much of the opera being tormented by his vengeful, cross-dressing former lover. At the end of Act II he arranges her release from prison, but unaware of his efforts, she scorns and rejects him once more. In the aria “Furibondo spira il vento” Arsace gives voice to the conflicted emotions of “shame, honour, duty, love and soft compassion,” which form the “torture of despair” that bring him to the edge of insanity.

And that’s exactly where we find the miserable hero at the end of Act II of Handel’s magic opera Orlando (1733). Jealously obsessed with the beautiful but unfaithful Angelica, Orlando begins to lose his mind. Full of righteous vengeance he’s just about to seize her when she is abruptly spirited away by the magician Zoroastro. Orlando vows to follow her into the Underworld and imagines his journey in lurid detail. Handel’s music is an atmospheric juxtaposition of accompanied recitative, arioso and aria, held in check by strong harmonic foundations. In the final aria (‘Vaghe pupille’) Handel depicts Orlando’s confused mind by alternating a touchingly simple melody with two contrasting episodes, the first of which recalls the old-fashioned ground-bass laments of 17th-century opera (like that in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas).

—Simon Heighes

© 2009 by Simon Heighes

The English Concert
Harry Bicket, Artistic Director, Harpsichord, and Organ
Founded by the harpsichordist Trevor Pinnock, The English Concert is among the finest chamber orchestras in the world, with a reputation for inspiring performances of Baroque and Classical music in the concert hall and on CD.

In addition to extensive touring, it presents a prestigious series of concerts in London each season, at Wigmore Hall, the South Bank Centre and Cadogan Hall, appearing also at London festivals, notably the BBC Proms, the Spitafields Festival and the Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music. In the UK it visits the major summer festivals and has developed a particularly close relationship with St George’s Bristol. Internationally The English Concert performs on four continents. Since 2005 it has toured the US, Australia, Korea and Malaysia, in addition to many European countries, and since its foundation has appeared regularly on the world’s most famous stages, including the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Musikverein Vienna, the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in
Paris, the Philharmonie Berlin, the Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center New York, and the Grosse Festspielhaus Salzburg.

Among the most recorded of chamber orchestras, it has more than 100 recordings for Deutsche Grammophon Archiv Produktion to its credit, including many award winners, and a series of critically acclaimed CDs for Harmonia Mundi USA with violinist Andrew Manze, including a recital of Handel scenes and arias by Mark Padmore, which received a 2008 BBC Music Magazine Award.

Its latest recording is of Bach’s sacred arias and cantatas with Harry Bicket and David Daniels, for Virgin Veritas. Highlights of recent seasons include Heinrich Biber’s rediscovered Missa Christi Resurgentis, Mozart’s re-orchestration of Handel’s Alexander’s Feast for the BBC Proms, Jonathan Dove’s Köthener Mass for the Spitalfields Festival, a triumphant 13-city US tour in autumn 2006 featuring Mozart violin concertos, and the orchestra’s first visit to the United Arab Emirates, in January
2008, when Harry Bicket directed music by Bach, Handel and Geminiani in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Al Ain.

In September 2007 Harry Bicket became the third artistic director in the orchestra’s 34-year history. Bicket is renowned worldwide for his performances of Baroque opera and oratorio with many of the finest singers of the age, and future collaborators with The English Concert include Anna Caterina Antonacci, Mark Padmore, Diana Damrau and Alice Coote.

Highlights of the 2008–2009 season feature European and US tours with David Daniels, performances of Monteverdi’s Il Combattimento with Anna Caterina Antonacci at Wigmore Hall, concert series at the Victoria & Albert and Handel House museums in London, and the welcome return of the orchestra’s founder, Trevor Pinnock, as a guest director to conduct Handel and Purcell in November 2008. The English Concerts works regularly with leading guest directors, and in 2007–2008 appeared with oboist Alfredo
Bernardini, violinist Fabio Biondi, and harpsichordists Laurence Cummings and Rinaldo Alessandrini.

David Daniels, Countertenor
David Daniels is known for his superlative artistry, magnetic stage presence and a voice of
singular warmth and surpassing beauty. He has appeared with the world’s major opera companies and on its main concert and recital stages, and made history as the first counter-tenor to give a solo recital in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage of Carnegie Hall.

In the 2007–2008 season, David Daniels returned to Lyric Opera of Chicago in the title role of Giulio Cesare, and sang new productions of Handel’s Tamerlano at the Bayerische Staatsoper and Washington National Opera. He also made his Santa Fe Opera and role debut in a new production of Radamisto with frequent colleagues Harry Bicket and David Alden.

Highlights of recent seasons include Giulio Cesare at the Metropolitan Opera and at the Glyndebourne Festival, a new Mark Morris production of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice at the Met conducted by James Levine, his portrayal of Bertarido in Handel’s Rodelinda at the San Francisco Opera, his debut as Monteverdi’s Orfeo in the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Robert Carsen production, and his first performances in the title role of Handel’s Orlando at the Bayerische Staatsoper. In concert he has made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic performing Bach’s Mass in B minor, performed solo arias with the St. Louis and Seattle Symphonies, and toured several European cities with the Le Point du Jour ensemble and the Basel Chamber Orchestra.

As much at home in recital as on the stage, Daniels has an extensive concert repertoire, including 19th and 20th century literature not usually associated with his voice type. He has given recitals at Wigmore Hall, Avery Fisher and Alice Tully halls; at Munich’s Prinzregententheater and Vienna’s Konzerthaus; in Barcelona’s Teatre del Liceu; at the Edinburgh, Tanglewood and Ravinia Festivals; as well as in Ann Arbor, Chicago, Lisbon, Toronto, Vancouver and Washington. His French recital debut was at the Salle Gaveau in Paris.

Daniels is noted for his interpretation of Handel’s heroes, including Giulio Cesare, Arsace in Partenope, the title role in Tamerlano, Arsamene in Xerxes, David in Saul and the title role
in Rinaldo. Other notable Baroque credits include Nerone in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, and Orfeo in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice at Covent Garden.

David Daniels is an exclusive Virgin Classics recording artist, with many critically-acclaimed solo albums to his credit, including Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Berlioz’s song cycle Les Nuits
d’été, songs by Ravel and Fauré, and A Quiet Thing (with guitarist Craig Ogden). He has also recorded Handel’s Rinaldo for Decca in which he sang the title role opposite Cecilia
Bartoli. His debut disc was Handel: Opera Arias conducted by Sir Roger Norrington, followed by Sento Amor, with arias by Mozart, Gluck and Handel, and Serenade, a recital of songs by
Beethoven, Gounod, Poulenc, Schubert and others with his frequent piano partner Martin Katz.
David Daniels has been the recipient of two of classical music’s most significant awards: Musical America‘s Vocalist of the Year for 1999 and the 1997 Richard Tucker Award.