CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Ensemble Matheus

Zankel Hall
Thursday, February 7th, 2008 at 7:30 PM

Ensemble Matheus
Jean-Christophe Spinosi, Director
Jennifer Larmore, Mezzo-Soprano

HANDEL "Presti omai" from Giulio Cesare
HANDEL "Empio diro tu sei" from Giulio Cesare
VIVALDI Sinfonia from La fida ninfa
HANDEL "Dall'ondoso periglio...Aure, deh, per pietà" from Giulio Cesare
TELEMANN Concerto for Flute and Recorder in E Minor
VIVALDI "Oh ingiusti numi...Anderò, chiamerò" from Orlando furioso
GLUCK "J'ai perdu mon Eurydice" from Orphée et Eurydice
HANDEL "Dopo notte" from Ariodante
VIVALDI Concerto in D Major for Two Violins and Orchestra, RV 513
HANDEL "Venti turbini" from Rinaldo

Encore:
HANDEL "Ombra mai fu" from Xerxes

This concert and the Baroque Unlimited series are made possible, in part, by a grant from the E. Nakamichi Foundation.

Program Notes:

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL From Giulio Cesare : Presti omai and Empio dirò tu sei

Born February 23, 1685, in Halle; died April 14, 1759, in London.

Handel’s Presti omai and Empio diro tu sei were first performed on February 20,
1724, at the King’s Theater in London.

The biggest hit of the 1723–24 London season was Handel’s grand new opera Giulio Cesare in Egitto, based on a libretto by Nicola Haym. The opera featured the star castrato Senesino in the title role, as well as the recently arrived Cuzzoni singing the part of Cleopatra; one critic raved that they both shine[d] beyond all criticism in their performance. (He went on to say that in addition to that, the squabbles between the directors often provide the public with the most diverting scenes.) Senesino’s brilliant technique was described later by Quantz: He had a powerful, clear, equal, and sweet contralto voice, with a perfect intonation and an excellent trill ... He sang allegros with great fire, and marked rapid passagework from the chest, with delightful articulation. The role of Caesar was ideal for this imposing star, and his first aria comes at the very top of the show, after a chorus celebrating Caesar’s triumphant arrival in Egypt. The effect of Presto omai is made all the stronger by its brevity, since it doesn’t follow the usual A-B-A da capo aria form; Caesar makes his entrance, and immediately the drama has begun. The Egyptian King Ptolemy’s general presents a peace offering, which turns out to be the head of Caesar’s rival Pompey. Shocked by the barbarity of this gesture, Caesar launches into an impassioned denunciation, Empio dirò tu sei. In these two initial arias, we see several sides of Caesar’s character: heroism, courage, nobility—all expressed in vigorous coloratura passagework.


ANTONIO VIVALDI Sinfonia, from La fida ninfa

Born March 4, 1678, in Venice; died July 28, 1741, in Vienna.

Vivaldi’s Sinfonia was first performed on January 6, 1732, at the Teatro Filarmonico in
Verona.

Although Vivaldi has been best remembered for his huge output of concertos written for his students at the girls’ orphanage of the Pietà in Venice, he is now increasingly recognized as an opera composer. Vivaldi himself certainly regarded this as a significant part of his career. He claimed to have written 94 operas, but (as with many of his claims) this may well be exaggerated; in fact, some 21 operas have survived more or less complete. Vivaldi was deeply involved with the opera scene in Venice, working not only as a composer but as an impresario, and even for a period as a manager of one of the smaller Venetian opera houses. After his first opera was produced (Vivaldi was 35), his fame spread; soon he was overseeing productions of his operas in Mantua, Florence, Milan, and Rome. In 1729 he even traveled as far as Vienna and Prague, where several of his works entered the repertory.

Vivaldi’s reputation was such that when the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona had its grand opening in Carnevale 1732, it was with his La fida ninfa, to a libretto by Maffei. This spectacular opera house had been designed by the eminent Baroque stage architect Francesco Galli-Bibiena, and its construction took over a decade to complete. (It survived only 15 years before it was burned to the ground.) Vivaldi’s contribution to the opening festivities begins with a brilliant overture typical of Italian opera seria of the period; often called (interchangeably) sinfonia or overture, these multimovement works are the seeds for what will become later in the century the orchestral symphony.


GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL Dall'ondoso periglio ... Aure, deh, per
pieta, from Giulio Cesare

We return to the story of Giulio Cesare in Act III, after Caesar has escaped an assassination attempt with the help of Cleopatra, who has now fallen in love with him. Ptolemy believes Caesar has drowned in his escape, but in fact he is washed ashore by the waves. In an accompanied recitative (one of Senesino’s most striking moments, by contemporary accounts), he gives thanks for his survival and realizes that he is now completely alone; must the conqueror of the world wander alone on these sands? In this recitative and the subsequent aria, Caesar shows a gentler side to his heroism, as he calls upon the breezes to tell him where his love is. The soft slurring of the string writing, painting a picture of gentle waves and soft breezes, gives way to a strikingly contrasting B section in the aria, as Caesar gazes with horror on the dismal sands strewn with weapons and corpses.


GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN Concerto for Flute and Recorder in E Minor

Born March 14, 1681, in Magdeburg; died June 25, 1767, in Hamburg.

Georg Philipp Telemann’s first professional appointment was Kapellmeister to the Count of Promnitz, a music lover whose court was at Sorau (now Z˙ ary, in Poland). His new employer had recently returned from a grand tour to Italy and France, and had brought back with him the latest international developments in music. Through his employer’s trips to visit his various domains, Telemann discovered both Polish and Moravian folk music, and later wrote that its true barbaric beauty fascinated him: there is much that is good in this music, if one knows how to make use of it. It has served me well, even for many serious compositions. I wrote grand concertos and some trios in this style that I then dressed in Italian clothes by alternating adagio and allegro.

This is the language in which Telemann’s Concerto in E Minor is written. Its opening Largo begins with a highly rhetorical gesture: four emphatic chords from the orchestra, to which each soloist responds in turn. The movement is dominated by a rhapsodic duet for the flute and recorder, with the strings providing a spare accompaniment. The opening rhetorical flourishes return to bring the movement to a close.

With the Allegro, Telemann introduces a strong fugue subject, full of dynamic syncopations and answered by a contrasting countersubject; this ritornello rapidly gives way to brilliant exchanges between the soloists, with especially witty interjections from the strings. The third movement, another Largo, opens like the first movement with a Corelli-like series of rhetorical statements from the strings, before settling down to a thoughtful duet between the two soloists, accompanied by delicate pizzicatos from the strings. The concerto ends with a vivid Presto that includes all the tricks Telemann might have learned in the Polish countryside: drones, folk tunes in octaves, and ferocious off-beat accents. Telemann provides some virtuosic Vivaldi-like solo episodes to contrast with these orchestral outbursts; the result is one of Telemann’s most memorable inspirations.

ANTONIO VIVALDI O ingiusti numi ... Anderò, chiamerò, from
Orlando furioso

Vivaldi’s O ingiusti numi ... Anderò, chiamerò was first performed in the fall of 1727
at Teatro St. Angelo in Venice.

Some two years before Vivaldi inaugurated the new Verona opera house with his La fida ninfa, he produced a full-scale setting of the story of Orlando, using a libretto by Grazio Braccioli that was based upon Ludovico Ariosto’s famous epic poem, Orlando Furioso. Vivaldi knew this libretto well: in 1713, while working as the manager of the Teatro St. Angelo, the theater presented Ristori’s setting of this libretto, which was then revived the following year. This revival featured many new arias added by Vivaldi. When Vivaldi came to set the entire libretto for the same theater in 1727, he reworked some of his earlier contributions.

The opera has two powerful figures at its heart: the title character, who goes spectacularly mad in the course of the plot—thanks to his unrequited love for Angelica—and the evil enchantress Alcina. She herself has fallen in love with Orlando’s companion Ruggiero, and enchants him so that he does not recognize his love Bradamante. Orlando, in his madness, unwittingly breaks Alcina’s enchantments and destroys her power. Furious with rage, Alcina launches into a blistering accompanied recitative and aria.


CHRISTOPH WILLIBALD GLUCK J’ai perdu mon Eurydice, from
Orphée et Eurydice

Born July 2, 1714, in Erasbach, near Berching, Upper Palatinate; died November 15,
1787, in Vienna.

Gluck’s J'ai perdu mon Eurydice was first performed on August 2, 1774, at the Paris
Opera.

Gluck’s first great reform opera is better known today in its original Italian form as Orfeo ed Euridice, an opera that took Vienna by storm after its premiere in 1762. But Gluck was not only interested in taking on the challenges of reforming Italian opera seria; he was also extremely interested in developments in France, and he closely studied the operas of Rameau. He even had his Italian Orfeo published in Paris in 1762. It was not for another decade that he finally came to Paris to produce Iphigénie en Aulide, an opera especially written for the French operatic audiences. Its premiere in 1774 was a triumph, but the performances were curtailed by the death of Louis XV and the subsequent period of public mourning.

During this time, Gluck revised his popular Orfeo to suit the French opera, using a translation of the text by Pierre-Louis Moline, and adapting the title role (originally written for the castrato Guadagni) to the hautecontre range favored as the heroic voice-type in French opera. The original work had lasted only an hour, so he added several new movements, along with a good deal of dance music (an expected part of operas in France) to fill out the opera. More alarmingly for the chorus and dancers of the Paris Opera, he also demanded that the chorus move and the dancers sing along with the chorus in the dramatic interjections of No! from the Furies in Act II.

In both French and Italian versions of this opera, the title role was sung by a man; but when Hector Berlioz revived the opera in 1859, he used the distinguished contralto Pauline Viardot as his Orphée and restored the Italian range of the title role while keeping the French text. It is this version that will be heard tonight.


GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL Dopo notte, from Ariodante

Handel’s Dopo notte was first performed at Covent Garden Theater on January 8,
1735, in London.

Handel’s 1734–35 season was not at his usual King’s Theater but at a new and splendid opera house built by John Rich with the proceeds from his Beggar’s Opera. The Theatre Royal in Covent Garden (site of the current London opera house) alternated Handel’s operas with plays and pantomimes. Despite a number of financial setbacks in recent opera productions, Handel was in good spirits, having recently gone to a British spa to get rid of that dejection of the mind, which his repeated disappointments had brought upon him. Handel had a lot going against him: the rival Opera of the Nobility had not only Senesino, but the greatest castrato of the age, Farinelli, whose singing had caused a sensation in London. Handel waited until February to present his latest opera, Ariodante, and unleash his own find: a newly arrived castrato, Carestini, of whom the composer Hasse remarked, he who has not heard Carestini is not acquainted with the most perfect style of singing. Not only was his passagework superlative and his range much bigger than most castrati, but he was an excellent actor as well. The story of Ariodante is based on another episode of Orlando Furioso, a complicated series of disguises and love stories. Handel’s score is especially colorful, including several dance sequences for the French ballet star Marie Sallé and her troupe. Dopo notte is the triumphant aria that Ariodante sings in Act III after all the plot-difficulties have been resolved, a wonderful example of optimism and joy expressed through brilliant vocal passagework.


ANTONIO VIVALDI Concerto in D Major for Two Violins and Orchestra,
RV 513

Vivaldi’s most famous job was as music instructor to the orphaned girls of the Pietà, one of the Venetian orphanages that had been set up by the state, and one that was particularly famous for its musicians. The girls at the Pietà received one of the best musical educations in all of Europe, with the one stipulation that they could never perform outside the institution. Many of the talented musicians who had grown up in the orphanage chose to remain inside its walls for the rest of their careers, teaching the young girls and performing with the Pietà orchestra. The scores in the archives of the orphanage often bear indications of who played what in the orchestra, using only their first names, since the girls were often foundlings with no known family.

Vivaldi held the position of maestro di cappella at the Pietà on an irregular basis; he spent a good deal of his time traveling to oversee his operas or to tour, and the administration of the orphanage clearly found this a difficult situation to maintain. He was, however, in residence at the Pietà during the years 1735 to 1738, a period when he oversaw the publication of his VI concerti a 5 stromenti, in which the expansive double concerto RV 513 appears as number six of the collection. These concertos probably had their first airings with the Pietà orchestra, and their impressive range and virtuosic figuration speak highly of his soloists’ abilities. RV 513 opens with a long and detailed ritornello that encompasses several episodes before launching the two solo violins on their displays of fireworks; the breadth of this movement is characteristic of Vivaldi’s later style, and in striking contrast to the more epigrammatic concertos of his first publications. The affectingly chromatic Andante is surprisingly brief after this expansive opening Allegro molto, while the closing Allegro raises the level of virtuosity to an even higher degree: here Vivaldi even provides one of his rare written-out cadenzas for the two soloists.


GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL Venti, turbine, from Rinaldo

Rinaldo was Handel’s first opera in England; indeed, it was the first Italian opera specifically composed for the London stage, and was a huge success when it was first premiered in 1711 on Handel’s 26th birthday. The libretto, by Giacomo Rossi, is based on episodes from that other great Italian epic poem, Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata. The title role was sung by the castrato Nicolini, who had arrived in London three years before and had done much to make Italian opera popular. Addison called him the greatest performer in dramatic music that is now living or that perhaps ever appeared on a stage. His technical abilities (to judge by the parts Handel composed for him) were considerable, requiring exceptional breath control and agility.

One of Rinaldo’s most spectacular arias comes at the end of Act I, when the powerful enchantress Armida has stolen his love Almirena away from him. Rinaldo calls upon all the forces of nature to aid him in his revenge. Handel produces a virtuoso showpiece for not only the singer but for several members of the orchestra as well: the first violinist and the bassoonist are given impressive passagework to negotiate at high speed. With this aria, as with so much of this brilliant opera, Handel assured his success as an operatic composer in England.



Copyright © 2008 by The Carnegie Hall Corporation

Violinist Robert Mealy frequently contributes program notes to Carnegie
Hall, Symphony Hall in Boston, and other musical organizations.

Ensemble Matheus
Jean-Christophe Spinosi, Director
The Corsican Jean-Christophe Spinosi leads a double life as both violinist and conductor. In 1991, he founded the Quatuor Matheus; the group was a prizewinner at the International Van Wassenaer Competition at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw in 1993. This quartet, with the addition of other instruments, became the Ensemble Matheus.

Mr. Spinosi has collaborated with such prestigious soloists as Philippe Jaroussky, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Andreas Staier, Vivica Genaux, Jennifer Larmore, and Sara Mingardo. His recordings with the Ensemble Matheus have won several international prizes. He has appeared as a soloist and as a conductor with Ensemble Matheus in major festivals and venues in France as well as throughout the world.

For the ensemble’s first residence at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Mr. Spinosi received much acclaim for Rossini’s opera La pietra del paragone (staging by Giorgio Corsetti and Pierrick Sorin), which he also conducted for the 2006–07 season opening production at the prestigious Teatro Reggio da Parma (Italy).

Jean-Christophe Spinosi, a regular guest of the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, will soon debut with the Orchestre National de France, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Orquesta Nacional de España, and the Montecarlo Orchestra. In August 2007, he conducted the Scottish Chamber Orchestra at the Edinburgh International Festival in Vivaldi’s Orlando furioso, recorded by the BBC.

Next fall, he makes his debuts at the Paris Opera in 12 performances of Handel’s Alcina.

During the summer of 2008, he will conduct the Vienna Symphony in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at the Theater an der Wien, and in 2010 he will make his debut at La Scala, in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia (staging by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle). Other future engagements include performances with the Frankfurt Orchestra and the prestigious Boston Handel and Haydn Society.

Appointed Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture in 2006, Jean- Christophe Spinosi was awarded “best opera conductor in 2007” by the Académie du disque lyrique.

ENSEMBLE MATHEUS

Well known for its interpretation of the repertoire of Vivaldi, the Ensemble Matheus performs works spanning the 18th to the 21st centuries on period instruments.

In 2007 the Ensemble Matheus began its residency at the Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris) with Rossini’s La pietra del paragone. The ensemble’s favorite venue remains the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, which welcomed the group for its performances of both Vivaldi (Orlando furioso, La fida ninfa, and Griselda) and Mozart (“Coronation” Mass, Die Zauberflöte, Requiem).

Ensemble Matheus works regularly with esteemed singers, including Philippe Jaroussky, Verónica Cangemi, Jennifer Larmore, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, and Vivica Genaux.

Thrilling projects of the 2007–08 season include Alcina by Handel (staged by Robert Carsen) at the Paris Opera and at the Konzerthaus in Wien; Véronique by André Messager (staged by Fanny Ardant); a European tour with La fida ninfa by Vivaldi; and Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at the Théâtre du Châtelet.

Following the recordings of Vivaldi’s Concerti con molti strumenti, La notte, and La verità in cimento—all of which have won many awards in the press—the Ensemble Matheus recorded Orlando furioso for Naïve. This set was named “Editor’s Choice” in Gramophone and won the Deutscher Schallplattenpreis, the Victoire de la Musique Classique, and the BBC Music Magazine award for “best opera.” Griselda, also recorded for Naïve, received the Diapason d’Or award, the recipient of which is chosen by readers of the French magazine Diapason.

The Ensemble Matheus has made a CD of Vivaldi’s opera arias with countertenor Philippe Jaroussky for Virgin Classics. It has reached the top of the classical sales charts and received the Disque d’Or.

Releases in 2007 include a DVD from the Théâtre du Châtelet’s production La pietra del paragone by Rossini and Vivaldi’s Nisi dominus, and Stabat Mater with Philippe Jaroussky and Marie-Nicole Lemieux.

Jean-Christophe Spinosi and the Ensemble Matheus appear on the original soundtrack of Sofia Coppola’s film Marie-Antoinette, released in 2006.

The Ensemble Matheus receives support from the Conseil Régional de Bretagne, the Conseil Général du Finistère, the City of Brest, the French Ministry of Culture and Communication- DRAC Brittany, the Fondation d’Entreprise Orange, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Mécénat Musical Société Générale. The Ensemble Matheus has been Associated Ensemble at the Quartz in Brest since 1996.

Jennifer Larmore, Mezzo-Soprano
American mezzo-soprano Jennifer Larmore has parlayed operatic success in Europe into international stardom. Known for excelling in the coloratura roles of the Baroque and bel canto periods, she has also added Romantic and contemporary roles to her repertoire. Since the beginning of her career, Ms. Larmore has recorded widely for the Teldec, RCA, Harmonia Mundi, Deutsche Grammophon, Arabesque, Opera Rara, Bayer, Naïve, Chandos, VAI, and Cedille labels in over 70 CDs to date, earning her the distinction of being the most-recorded mezzo of all time.

Originally from Atlanta, Ms. Larmore made her professional debut in the l’Opéra de Nice production of Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito in 1986. During the same period, Jennifer sang her first Rosina from the Il barbiere di Siviglia in the Savary production of Strasbourg; Rosina has since become her signature role. Her vocal talents, energetic acting, and natural beauty quickly established her as an emerging star; during the next decade she performed dozens of leading roles with major European houses in Paris, Vienna, London, Edinburgh, Rome, Berlin, Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon, Brussels, Amsterdam, Geneva, Milan, Buenos Aires, and Salzburg.

In 1994 Larmore returned to the US in a triumphant Carnegie Hall appearance as Romeo in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi. This success was followed by winning the prestigious Richard Tucker award that same year, and a debut as Rosina at the Metropolitan Opera in 1995. Since then, she has been a regular performer at the Met, singing in productions including Handel’s Giulio Cesare; Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, La cenerentola, and l’Italiana in Algeri; Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann; Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus; Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel; and Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy.

With her frequent collaborator Antoine Palloc, she has made several international recital tours, including appearances in Amsterdam, Paris, Madrid, Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo, Vienna, London, San Juan, Prague, Melbourne, Brussels, Berlin, Rio de Janeiro, Lisbon, São Paulo, Athens, and Copenhagen, as well as all the major American venues.

Symphonic repertoire plays a large role in this mezzo’s career; works of Mahler, Schoenberg, Mozart, Falla, Debussy, Berlioz, and Barber feature prominently. Ms. Larmore has collaborated with such conductors as Muti, López-Cobos, Bernstein, Runnicles, Sinopoli, Masur, Dohnányi, Jacobs, Mackerras, Spinosi, Guidarini, Kalmar, Rudel, Barenboim, Queler, Bonynge, Maazel, and Ozawa.

Ms. Larmore’s Giulio Cesare on Harmonia Mundi received the Gramophone Award for best Baroque opera of the year. Her seven Grammy nominations include L’étoile, Call Me Mister, Amore per Rossini, My Native Land, Where Shall I Fly, and Bravura Diva.

In 2004 Ms. Larmore was the honored guest soloist at the 35th anniversary celebration of the landing on the moon by the Apollo 11 astronauts. A particularly unusual venture has been her satellite radio program, Backstage with Jennifer Larmore, on which she has proven herself a witty and insightful interviewer and commentator. Ms. Larmore has given master classes in prestigious national and international venues. She has appeared in numerous publications including Vogue, Dog Fancy (with her miniature schnauzer Sophie), and Opera News, as well on a variety of television programs around the world, including Good Morning America, Breakfast with the Arts, and the Classical Arts Showcase.

In recognition of her contributions to the world of music, Ms. Larmore received the honor of Chevalier des arts et des letters (2002) from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

An active humanitarian, Ms. Larmore supports the American Fund for UNICEF. Her focus is to raise awareness of the plight of under privileged children, and she often speaks and sings on behalf of this worthy cause.