Il Pomo d’Oro
Performers
Il Pomo d’Oro
Maxim Emelyanychev, Conductor and Harpsichord
Edgar Moreau, Cello
Program
RICHTER Adagio and Fugue in G Minor
VIVALDI Concerto in A Minor for Cello, Strings, and Continuo, RV 419
DURANTE Concerto for Strings in G Minor
PLATTI Cello Concerto in D Major
CORELLI Concerto Grosso in B-flat Major, Op. 6, No. 11
HASSE Sinfonia No. 6 in G Minor
BOCCHERINI Cello Concerto in D Major, G. 479
Encore:
BACH JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Sarabande from Cello Suite No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009
Event Duration
The printed program will last approximately two hours, including one 20-minute intermission.In honor of the centenary of his birth, Carnegie Hall’s 2019–2020 season is dedicated to the memory of Isaac Stern in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to Carnegie Hall, arts advocacy, and the field of music.
At a Glance
Musically speaking, the 18th century was an age of extraordinary ferment and innovation, as the clearly delineated harmonies, melodies, and rhythms of the Baroque gradually gave way to the more nuanced expressive language and expansive formal structures of the Classical style. If Arcangelo Corelli’s concertos represent a pinnacle of the older style, then Antonio Vivaldi paved the way for the transition with his virtuosic instrumental concertos in the brilliant Italian style, which inspired a legion of younger composers like Giovanni Benedetto Platti. The mid-1700s saw the rise of the elegant, melodious galant style, as represented by the work of Johann Adolph Hasse. Franz Xaver Richter’s Adagio and Fugue combines elements of the “learned” contrapuntal style with the simpler, airier, more playful galant idiom, while Luigi Boccherini’s Cello Concerto in D Major illustrates the florid, frothy style sometimes described as “rococo.”
As this afternoon’s program shows, the old and new styles coexisted and cross-fertilized during the middle decades of the century. As late as 1754, critic Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg equated counterpoint with “truth in music,” a timeless, time-tested technique that was “not based on the changeable style of the day and its wretched traits.” Yet such conservative views were increasingly challenged by modernizers like flutist and composer Johann Joachim Quantz, a follower of Telemann and friend of Hasse. Distinguishing between “eye music” and “ear music,” Quantz “resolved to keep in view the aim of always combining art with nature, to keep a steady balance between melody and harmony, and to look upon good invention and well-chosen ideas as the most essential thing in music.”
Bios
Maxim Emelyanychev
An outstanding representative of the younger generation of Russian conductors, Maxim Emelyanychev received his music education in his home city of Nizhny Novgorod before studying with Gennady Rozhdestvensky at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. Soon after his conducting debut at the age of 12, he was invited to perform with several Russian orchestras. In the last six years, he has become the principal conductor of the Nizhny Novgorod Soloists Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and Il Pomo d’Oro.
The 2016–2017 season was marked by a major international tour with Il Pomo d’Oro and Joyce DiDonato, and the release of their album In War & Peace, which received a Gramophone Award. That season, Mr. Emelyanychev made his debut at the Zurich Opera House and with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse. In the 2017–2018 season, he made his debut with the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Belgian National Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, and Antwerp Symphony Orchestra.
This season, Mr. Emelyanychev conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in two major institutions of the operatic world: Glyndebourne, performing Handel’s Rinaldo with Jakub Józef Orliński; and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, performing Handel’s Agrippina with Joyce DiDonato. He also returns to the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse in addition to making his debut with the Munich Philharmonic.
Mr. Emelyanychev’s recordings include Mozart sonatas on pianoforte, as well as an album of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, “Eroica,” and Brahms’s Variations on a Theme by Haydn with the Nizhny Novgorod Soloists Chamber Orchestra. In November 2018, Linn Records released his first recording with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra featuring Schubert’s Symphony No. 9, “Great.”
Edgar Moreau
Cellist Edgar Moreau won first prize at the 2014 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. He was awarded six special prizes after capturing—at the age of 17—second prize and the prize for Best Performance of a Commissioned Work at the XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition in July 2011.
Mr. Moreau made his orchestral debut at age 11 with the Orchestra Teatro Regio Torino. He has performed with Musica Viva and Alexander Rudin in Russia and Japan, the Mariinsky Orchestra and Valery Gergiev in Toulouse, and the Orchestre National de France at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. A dedicated chamber musician, Mr. Moreau has worked with the Pražák Quartet, Modigliani Quartet, Václav Talich, and Renaud Capuçon. His festival appearances have included performances at the Festival de Saint-Denis, Festival Radio France de Montpellier, Edinburgh International Festival, Festival Off Evian, Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, Mozartfest Würzburg, and Lucerne Festival. He has also given recitals with French pianist Pierre-Yves Hodique at St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre, Berlin’s Philharmonie, and Paris’s Auditorium du Louvre.
Mr. Moreau began playing cello at the age of four and piano at six. From 2008 to 2013, he studied with Philippe Muller at the Conservatoire de Paris; he currently studies with Frans Helmerson at the Kronberg Academy. An exclusive Warner Classics artist, he released his first album, Play, in 2014. His follow-up album, Giovincello, features 18th-century cello concertos recorded with Il Pomo d’Oro. Mr. Moreau plays a David Tecchler cello from 1711.
Il Pomo d’Oro
Il Pomo d’Oro was founded in 2012 and focuses on authentic, dynamic interpretations of operas and instrumental works from the Baroque and Classical periods. The musicians rank among the best performers of historically informed performance practice. The ensemble has worked with conductors Riccardo Minasi, Maxim Emelyanychev, Stefano Montanari, George Petrou, Enrico Onofri, and Francesco Corti. Concertmaster Zefira Valova has led the orchestra for many projects, and in 2016, Mr. Emelyanychev became its chief conductor.
Il Pomo d’Oro is a regular guest of prestigious concert halls and festivals all over Europe. It embarked on a worldwide tour with Joyce DiDonato of their 2016 release In War & Peace, conducted by Mr. Emelyanychev. Its discography includes several opera recordings: Handel’s Serse, Tamerlano, Partenope, and Ottone, and Vinci’s Catone in Utica. It has performed recitals with Jakub Józef Orliński, Franco Fagioli, Max Emanuel Cencic, Xavier Sabata, Ann Hallenberg, Francesca Aspromonte, and Emőke Baráth. The orchestra’s recordings of instrumental music—including Haydn’s violin and harpsichord concertos, as well as an album with cellist Edgar Moreau—have won multiple ECHO Klassik awards.
In 2018, several new recordings were released: Handel Arias with Franco Fagioli, Prologue with Francesca Aspromonte, Handel’s Serse with Mr. Fagioli, Anima Sacra with Jakub Józef Orliński, Bach: Violin Concertos with Shunske Sato, and Stradella’s La Doriclea with Emőke Baráth. Marking the occasion of Barbara Strozzi’s 400th birthday in 2019, the ensemble and Ms. Baráth released Voglio cantar.
Il Pomo d’Oro is an official ambassador of El Sistema Greece, a humanitarian project to provide free music education to children in Greek refugee camps.
The name of the ensemble refers to Antonio Cesti’s opera from 1666. Composed for the wedding of Emperor Leopold I and Margaret Teresa of Spain, Il pomo d’oro was one of the largest, most expensive, and most spectacular opera productions in the history of the young genre.