ACADEMY OF ANCIENT MUSIC 2017-18 SEASON
Bojan Čičić
director & violin
Rachel Brown flute & recorder
Rachel Beckett recorder
Alastair Ross
Reversed Fortunes
music by Bach and Telemann
harpsichord
Thursday 07 December 2017 Milton Court Concert Hall, London
Tuesday 12 December 2017 West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge
JS BACH
TELEMANN
TELEMANN
JS BACH
Brandenburg Concerto No.5 in D major BWV 1080 (1720-21)
Concerto for Flute and Recorder (1712) 20-minute interval
Overture-suite, “Burlesque de Quixotte” (1761)
Brandenburg Concerto No.4 in G major BWV 1049 (1719-20)
Reversed Fortunes
Academy of Ancient Music
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Welcome With the weather getting colder by the day, welcome to a warm and inviting programme of Bach and Telemann. Tonight tells the story of two well-known and respected composers and friends – Telemann, the more qualified and famous in his day, and Bach who endures as perhaps western classical music’s best known voice, though less popular in his own time. Both of these composers wrote beautiful and immaculately crafted music, and this evening’s concert allows us to hear them alongside each other. Later this season we continue to explore the works of Telemann 250 years after his death in a concert with the inspirational violinist, Nicola Benedetti, at the Barbican on 31 May 2018. We are very pleased to have been able to add two more performances of this programme with Nicola: Saffron Hall, Cambridgeshire (28 May), and Dorchester Abbey, Oxfordshire (30 May). I delighted that AAM has been announced as the Orchestra in Residence at the new Chiltern Arts Festival. We performed at their launch concert in September, and now look forward to returning to the main festival in February with a sparkling Bach and Vivaldi programme followed by a special encore performance with Nicola in May, as above.
This vibrant winter festival will bring first class music, art and literature to venues across the Chiltern Hills – AAM is proud to be a partner, and we wish founders Naomi Taylor and Chris Glynn every success with this new venture. As we head towards Christmas I am eagerly anticipating AAM’s Messiah (Barbican, 20 December). We’ve been hard at work with groups of school-children to ask what the Messiah story means to them and to encourage them to create their own words and music in response to Handel's masterpiece. I am thrilled that AAM has been able to work alongside composer Hannah Conway on this innovative project, and look forward to sharing the results with you over the festive season. Our performance of Handel’s Messiah features a fine line up of soloists with Mary Bevan, Reginald Mobley, Thomas Hobbs and Christopher Purves, all under AAM’s Music Director, Richard Egarr. I look forward to seeing you there and at AAM concerts in the New Year.
Alexander Van Ingen Chief Executive Academy of Ancient Music
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Surveying the Past Robert Levin, inaugural Hogwood Fellow, places tonight's music in context JS Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann were good friends: Telemann was the godfather of Bach’s son Carl Philipp Emanuel and founded the Collegium musicum in Leipzig that Bach took over and for which he composed and transcribed his concertos for one to four harpsichords. Whereas both composers masterfully absorbed the prevailing French and Italian influences of the day, Bach’s music distinguishes itself through the pervasive intellectual rigor of his textures and architecture and the ardour of his Lutheran faith. Telemann was the cosmopolitan; his music radiates a natural facility and stylishness borne of sophistication rather than piety. He is able to adopt effortlessly the trappings of French and Italian music, but his empathy would appear to tip towards France. The turning point in Bach’s musical development was the acquaintance with the harpsichord suites of Dieupart and in particular the concertos of Vivaldi, influences that had an electric effect on his creative energies. The set of six concertos that Bach dedicated to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg are designed to provide maximum variety of instrumental scoring and texture. In the case of the Fifth, the single-string scoring is reflected by the single violin in the tutti instruments rather than the standard two. It also exists in
two versions, the principal difference being that the earlier version has a considerably shorter harpsichord cadenza. The use of solo harpsichord and the autonomy of the cadenza broke new ground in the history of the instrumental concerto. Exhilarating as they are, the intensity of Bach’s imagination and structures demand considerable concentration from the listener. The two Telemann works on tonight’s programme are more inclined towards entertainment and charm. The soloists in the Concerto, often play together in thirds in the galant manner. The finale derives from the French Tambourin – a Provençal dance imitating a drumbeat. Telemann’s Overture-suite, “Burlesque de Quixotte” reflects the fondness of French composers of character pieces. The images delineated by the titled movements are explicit and evident to the listener. It is worth noting that French harpsichord composers preferred for the most part to give the individual movements of their dance suites evocative titles that referred to scenes, phenomena, or individuals. This French predilection was adopted by German composers, among them Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.
ACADEMY OF ANCIENT MUSIC 2017-18 SEASON
Bach and Telemann: concerto and suite In German lands during the early 18th century, the ritornello appear in different keys, returning to musical life was dominated by the contrasting forces the home tonality only at the end of the piece; this of Italian and French styles, admired by German allowed a sense of tonal tension and resolution to be travellers and imported by towns and courts keen extended across a whole movement. to show their cosmopolitan nature. For Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Philipp Vivaldi’s combination of musical Telemann, Italian and French styles drama and structural cogency I focused on Suites provided not only the basic language appealed greatly to Germans. for their compositions, but also a set His pieces were performed at the because [...] the court of conventions that they could then loved such pieces. Within Dresden court, and around 1713 develop or disrupt. Bach’s patron at Weimar brought two years I had composed back copies of Italian concertos The Italian style was exemplified by the 200 Ouverture-Suites. including Vivaldi’s L’Estro George Philipp Telemann concerto, which combined the visceral armonico. Bach immediately energy of virtuoso string-playing acquainted himself with these with dramatic effects borrowed from pieces by transcribing them for opera. Antonio Vivaldi’s concertos solo harpsichord or organ. also pioneered a new structure for instrumental music, using the ritornello (Italian for “little return”). Epitomising French taste, by contrast, was the Announced at the opening of the concerto by orchestral suite, modelled on the compositions the tutti orchestra, the ritornello is the theme (or of Jean-Baptiste Lully. In the late 17th century series of themes) which then alternates with the many German musicians travelled to Paris to episodes played by the soloists. The statements of study the compositional techniques of Lully and
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AAM Quick Pick the disciplined string playing of the royal orchestra he directed, the instrumental overtures and dances from his operas rapidly adopted by orchestras outside France. Thus was born the Ouverture-Suite, a sequence of movements starting with the dotted rhythms and upbeat flourishes of the French overture, and then continuing with various dances whose titles often reflected their dramatic context. Such suites were central to the musical output of Telemann, as he recounted in his autobiographical account of his time at the court in Sorau (present-day Żary, Poland): “I focused on suites, because the court had just come back from France and therefore loved such pieces. I got hold of the work of Lully [and] Campra ... and set myself to writing in the same style, so that within two years I had composed 200 ouverture-suites.’”
Each concert Lars Henriksson picks out one key thing to listen out for. The recorder was very popular throughout the baroque era, but was eventually usurped by its more flexible cousin, the flute, and by the end of the 18th century it was a phenomenon of the past. The versatility of the flute was particularly attractive to composers. Dynamically more apt and generally more supple, it was better equipped for growing orchestras. In Telemann’s amazing Concerto for Flute and Recorder we get a rare opportunity to hear these instruments performing together.
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Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
Brandenburg Concerto No.5 in D major BWV 1050 (1720-21) Allegro – Affettuoso – Allegro
When Bach began to write concertos in the late 1710s, he used his close familiarity with Vivaldi’s output as a starting-point for his own musical inventions. The first movement of Brandenburg Concerto No.5 begins like an archetypal Vivaldian concerto with a clearly delineated ritornello in energetic semiquavers for the strings. When the solo instruments enter, though, there is uncertainty about who is the soloist. Initially it sounds as if the transverse flute and violin will be the soloists, with the harpsichord doing little more than its usual role of accompaniment. Gradually, though, the harpsichord becomes more prominent, until all the other instruments drop silent for a keyboard cadenza of vast proportions. The ritornello is not heard again until the final bars of the piece. This virtuosic keyboard part was almost certainly played by Bach himself; it audaciously carves out one of the first concerto solos for a keyboardist. Indeed, some scholars have suggested that the composition was written for a contest between Bach and a visiting French
harpsichordist, Louis Marchand. Another theory is that the piece marked the acquisition of a new Mietke harpsichord by the Cöthen court, Bach’s workplace when he wrote the concerto. By contrast, the remaining movements are much more decorous than the opening, with a less extrovert part for the harpsichord. The Affettuoso is a delicate trio for the three soloists alone. The concluding Allegro again shows how Bach enriched the concerto by combining elements of different genres, in this case lively gigue rhythms with the more learned style of fugue.
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Georg Philip Telemann (1681–1767)
Concerto for Flute and Recorder in E minor (TWV 52:e1) (1712) Largo – Allegro – Largo – Presto
Telemann claimed in his autobiography that he was no great lover of the concerto, yet he wrote numerous such pieces, particularly for concerts in Frankfurt am Main and Hamburg. His Concerto for Flute and Recorder in E minor has an unusual combination of soloists, representing both older and newer branches of the woodwind family. Like most of Telemann’s concertos, it uses a fourmovement form, and the first three movements feature constant dialogue between the soloists. In the initial Largo the recorder and flute spin roulades like vocal soloists, while in the second movement a syncopated theme is passed from one instrument to another. After the singing woodwind lines and pizzicato accompaniment of the second Largo, the finale evokes a peasant dance. It opens with an effect like a hurdy-gurdy, with whirling and repetitive melodies over a drone, and this hurdy-gurdy music is interspersed with vigorous episodes for the two soloists. The minor key allows Telemann to emphasise jagged intervals similar to those in eastern European folk music.
Telemann had learned this style of music during his time at the Sorau court in the 1700s, when he also travelled to Kraków and to Pszcyna (in upper Silesia, now part of Poland). Here he heard Polish and Moravian folk music and began to appreciate what he called “its true barbaric beauty”. In taverns and at peasant dances he could “hardly believe the inventiveness with which the pipers and fiddlers improvise when the dancers pause for breath. An observer could collect enough ideas in eight days to last a lifetime. And if handled with understanding, this peasant music contains much good material. Indeed I have incorporated it in a number of concertos and trios, which I clad in an Italian coat with alternating Adagios and Allegros.” The Concerto in E minor exemplifies how Telemann dressed the Polish rustic melodies with Italian clothes. 20-minute interval
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Georg Philip Telemann (1681–1767)
Ouverture-suite, “Burlesque de Quixotte” (TWV55:G10) (1761) 1. Ouverture 2. Le réveil de Quixotte (The awakening of Don Quixote) 3. Son attaque des moulins à vent (His attack on the Windmills) 4. Ses soupirs amoureux après la Princesse Dulcinée (Sighs of Love for Princess Dulcinée) 5. Sanche Panse berné (Sancho Panza swindled) 6. Le galope de Rosinante (Galloping Rosinante) 7. Celui d’âne de Sanche (The gallop of Sancho Panza’s mule) 8. Le couché de Quichotte (Don Quixote at rest) Many of Telemann’s ouverture-suites have a pictorial element, reflecting the genre’s origins as incidental music for operas. Burlesque de Quixotte takes its inspiration from the antihero of Miguel de Cervantes’s 1605 novel. Don Quixote was a familiar figure in German popular literature of the early 18th century and appeared in stage entertainments, including an opera by Francesco Conti performed in Hamburg in 1722. Ouverture-suites normally opened with the swaggering rhythms of the French overture, used at the Versailles court to salute
the arrival of the king. Here, however, Telemann distorts the aristocratic conventions for comic effect: the dotted rhythms crash downwards, as if our antihero trips over, while the harmonies move sharpward in a hasty, uncoordinated fashion. The remaining movements use musical contrasts and incongruous juxtapositions to convey the comical nature of Don Quixote’s exploits. In “Le reveil de Quichotte”, the eponymous protagonist awakes to the decorous rhythms of a minuet, with a drone bass suggesting the earthier world of shepherds. The attack on the windmills (“Son attaque des moulins à vent”) borrows the demented manner of an operatic rage aria, with fiery figuration and battle rhythms in the bass. Wheedling and ingratiating slurred passages suggest Quixote’s love-sickness in “Ses soupirs amoureux après la Princesse Dulcinée”. In “Sancho Panse berné”, Quixote’s companion Sancho Panza is mocked for not having paid the tavern bill, with the string slides mimicking catcalls and mocking gestures. The horse and mule of Quixote and Sancho Panza are represented
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by the limping and swaying rhythms in “Le galope de Rosinante” and “Celui d’âne de Sanche”. Finally “Le couché de Quichotte” ostensibly represents the knight at sleep, but the demented rhythms and drone harmonies suggest he is gripped by a nightmare.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
Brandenburg Concerto No.4 in G major BWV 1049 (1719-20) Allegro – Dante – Presto
Bach put his stamp on the Italianate concerto in various ways: by using unusual combinations of soloists or by developing the ritornello principle pioneered by Vivaldi. In Brandenburg Concerto No.4, scored for two recorders and violin as soloists, Bach channelled his subversive energies into the structure of the first movement. This is
one of the longest Baroque concerto movements ever written; the opening ritornello alone would be a selfsufficient movement for some other composers. In the ritornello the three soloists play an equal role, with the swirling lines of the violin complementing the chirrups of the recorders; but in the episodes the violin becomes gradually more and more outlandish, with long stretches of figuration. The Andante recalls a French chaconne in its triple-time rhythms and falling bass-line. Here the soloists echo the tutti passages, but the violin – as if to pay for its showiness in the previous movement – now merely provides the bass-line supporting the recorders. The finale is a typically Bachian fusion of the learned technique of fugue with the on-rushing drive of Vivaldi. The fugue dissolves into breathless violin bariolage (string-crossing figuration) until finally everyone joins in the same syncopated rhythm. Programme notes © Stephen Rose
ACADEMY OF ANCIENT MUSIC 2017-18 SEASON
Bojan Čičić
© Nick Rutter
director & violin
Bojan Čičić specialises in repertoire ranging from the late 16th century to the Romantic period. He has appeared many times as a director with Academy of Ancient Music and the European Union Baroque Orchestra, and been a guest leader and soloist with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Budapest Festival Orchestra, working closely with conductors such as Frans Brüggen and Trevor Pinnock. Bojan has featured as leader on numerous recordings with ensemble Florilegium, La Nuova Musica, and the Arcangelo Consort. His recording of JS Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins with Rachel Podger was recently named the best available recording by BBC Music Magazine, and this year, his own group, the Illyria Consort, made their first disc with Delphian Records, a recording of Carbonelli's virtuosic violin sonatas. Future projects include directing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with the European Union Baroque Orchestra and performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with the Instruments of Time and Truth. Bojan plays a violin by Rugieri from the 1680s, kindly loaned to him by the Jumpstart Junior Foundation.
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Rachel Brown flute & recorder
Rachel trained as a modern flautist, giving premieres of works by Robin Walker, John Ogden and Judith Weir before her interest was captured by the baroque flute. Her recital discs of French baroque music established her reputation, and her recording of virtuosic works by Schubert and Boehm has been described as “a revelation”. Equally at home as an orchestral player, Rachel has had a long and distinguished career as principal flute with, among others, Academy of Ancient Music, the Hanover Band and Ex Cathedra. She has given masterclasses around the world, and is currently professor of baroque flute at the Royal College of Music. Rachel has launched her own recording label and publishing house, with highly acclaimed recordings of the Telemann Fantasias, Bach Sonatas and Arias, and Mozart Flute Quartets alongside a ground-breaking first publication of Quantz Sonatas. She is author of the Cambridge University Press Handbook to the Early Flute and contributed cadenzas to the Bärenreiter edition of Mozart Concertos. She is currently producing a film and handbook on Baroque Dance for musicians.
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Rachel Beckett
© Michael Niesemann
recorder
Rachel Beckett plays regularly with some of the most distinguished orchestras in the period instrument world and is a regular guest principal with the Academy of Ancient Music.
Alastair Ross harpsichord
As principal flute and recorder with the English Baroque Soloists, conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, she features prominently in their series of Bach Cantatas recordings which have met with great critical acclaim. The group has just concluded six months of touring the major European Festivals, ending in Chicago and Carnegie Hall, New York.
Alastair has worked as a freelance harpsichordist and organist for over 40 years. This has been a busy year for him with AAM, starting with several performances of Bach’s Italian Concerto in Frank de Bruine’s programme ‘Bach and the Italian Concerto’ in February. Alastair particularly enjoys playing Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No.5, with its flamboyant cadenza, and tonight’s programme has already seen a number of performances this year: twice in Spain in August, for the Chiltern Arts Festival in September, and in Truro last month.
Recent recordings include Monteverdi’s opera, Il Ritorno d’Ulisse, Bach’s B Minor Mass, St Matthew Passion, Magnificat and Cantata 151 Süsser Trost.
Alastair came to orchestral playing “from the wrong direction”, totally ignoring François Couperin’s instructions: “play solo pieces for two or three years before learning accompaniment”.
In addition to playing with AAM, Rachel is principal recorder f or the Orchestra of the Age of enlightenment. She also has a thriving teaching practice in her home town of Chesham.
He also plays with The Sixteen, the London Handel Orchestra and Canzona. With his wife, soprano Gilly, he directs Concerto delle Donne, a soprano group specialising in 17th-century Italian and French music, that has recorded CDs of Carissimi and Charpentier. He was also thrilled to play alongside his son George, a baroque cellist with the Consone Quartet, in AAM's recent concerts in Truro and British Museum.
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Academy of Ancient Music Violin I Bojan Čičić Sijie Chen Violin II William Thorp Iwona Muszynska Viola Alexandru-Mihai Bota
Cello Joseph Crouch
Harpsichord Alastair Ross
Double Bass Judith Evans
Keyboard Technician Malcolm Greenhalgh
Sponsored Chairs Principal Viola Richard and Elizabeth de Friend
Flute & Recorder Rachel Brown
Sub-Principal Viola Nicholas and Judith Goodison
Recorder Rachel Beckett
Principal Cello Dr Christopher and Lady Juliet Tadgell Sub-Principal Cello The Newby Trust
© Patrick Harrison
Principal Theorbo John and Joyce Reeve
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Our Team Music Director Richard Egarr Hogwood Fellow Robert Levin
Head of Concerts and Planning ChloĂŤ Wennersten
Chief Executive Alexander Van Ingen
Projects and Fundraising Co-ordinator Alice Pusey
General Manager Anthony Brice
Librarian Hannah Godfrey
Board of Trustees
Development Manager Ellen Parkes
Artistic Consultant Lars Henriksson
Programme Editor Sarah Breeden
Fundraising Assistant Leonore Hibou
Marketing Consultants Bethan Sheppard ChloĂŤ Priest Griffiths
PR Consultant WildKat PR
Finance Marianna Lauckner Palieskova
Development Board
Philip Jones* Hugh Burkitt Delia Broke Matthew Ferrey Hugh Burkitt Philip Jones (chairman) Elizabeth de Friend (chair) Graham Nicholson Andrew Gairdner MBE John Reeve Peter Hullah Terence Sinclair Roger Mayhew Madeleine Tattersall Annie Middlemiss* Janet Unwin Craig Nakan Honorary President: John Reeve* Christopher Purvis CBE
Chris Rocker* Terence Sinclair* Madeleine Tattersall* Janet Unwin* *Fundraising committee member
Council Adam Broadbent Kate Donaghy Jonathan Freeman-Attwood Carol Grigor Tim Harvey-Samuel Nick Heath Lars Henriksson Christopher Lawrence Sir Konrad Schiemann Rachel Stroud Dr Christopher Tadgell The Lady Juliet Tadgell
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Who we are and what we do Music
The Academy of Ancient Music is an orchestra and choir that perform music from the baroque and classical era in the way it was first intended.This means taking inspiration from the composers themselves; through careful research and using first edition scores as often as possible. Our historically informed approach was ground-breaking when the orchestra was founded in 1973 by scholar-conductor Christopher Hogwood and AAM remains at the forefront of the early music scene today, under the leadership of Music Director Richard Egarr.
Recordings
Originally established as a recording orchestra AAM has an incredible catalogue of more than 300 CDs which have won numerous accolades, including Brit, Gramophone, Edison and MIDEM awards. On its own in-house
label, AAM Records, the orchestra has released five critically acclaimed recordings. The most recent release, a stunning selection of instrumental works by Dario Castello, a Venetian composer from the early baroque period, was launched in October 2016.
Education
Since 2010 AAM has run its AAMplify education scheme, with the aim of nurturing the next generation of young artists and audiences. Working with partners around the country, AAM delivers workshops, masterclasses and other special projects for children and people of all ages.
2017-18 Season
The 2017-18 season began with a semistaged performance of King Arthur, the second instalment of AAM’s three-year Purcell opera cycle. Also this season the Choir of AAM takes centre stage at the
Barbican for performances of Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s St John Passion, joined by first class soloists; and Nicola Benedetti performs virtuosic Vivaldi and Telemann concerti on gut strings. In West Road and Milton Court concert halls, soloists from AAM feature in programmes exploring the musical impact of cross-European migration, and the "reversed fortunes" of Telemann and Bach. Soprano Carolyn Sampson celebrates English song from Dowland to Arne; and a programme of secular and sacred vocal music showcases the pairing of soprano Keri Fuge and countertenor Tim Mead. AAM is Associate Ensemble at London’s Barbican Centre and Orchestra in Residence at the University of Cambridge, at the Grange Festival and at Chiltern Arts. Visit aam.co.uk to find out more.
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Thank you The AAM is indebted to the following trusts, companies and individuals for their support of the orchestra’s work.
TRUSTS & FOUNDATIONS The Backstage Trust Constance Travis Charitable Trust Dunard Fund Garfield Weston Foundation Geoffrey C Hughes Charitable Trust The Goldsmiths' Company Charity Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation J Paul Getty Jr Charitable Trust John Armitage Charitable Trust Newby Trust Ltd The Nicholas John Trust The Polonsky Foundation Sir Siegmund Warburg’s Voluntary Settlement and other anonymous trusts and foundations
AAM SOCIETY The Chairman’s Circle Matthew Ferrey Mrs Julia Rosier The Hogwood Circle Christopher and Phillida Purvis * Terence and Sian Sinclair Dr Christopher and Lady Juliet Tadgell
Principal Patrons Richard and Elena Bridges Richard and Elizabeth de Friend Christopher Hogwood CBE, in memoriam * Ralph Hullah, in memoriam Mrs Sheila Mitchell and other anonymous Principal Patrons Patrons Lady Alexander of Weedon Clive and Helena Butler Alan J Clark Mr John Everett Malcolm and Rosalind Gammie Nicholas and Judith Goodison * Graham and Amanda Hutton Philip Jones David and Linda Lakhdhir Mark and Liza Loveday Roger Mayhew Graham Nicholson Nigel and Hilary Pye John and Joyce Reeve Chris and Ali Rocker John and Madeleine Tattersall Mr Anthony Travis Mark West and other anonymous Patrons Principal Benefactors Carol Atack and Alex van Someren John and Gilly Baker Mrs D Broke Jo and Keren Butler Kate Donaghy The Hon Simon Eccles Ed Hossack and Ben Harvey Mark and Sophie Lewisohn Steven Larcombe and Sonya Leydecker Mr and Mrs C Norton Mark and Elizabeth Ridley Sir Konrad and Lady Schiemann *
Julian and Anne Stanford Stephen Thomas Paul and Michi Warren Julie and Richard Webb Mr Andrew Williams Mrs R Wilson Stephens Christopher Stewart Charles Woodward and other anonymous Principal B enefactors Benefactors Dr Aileen Adams CBE Cumming Anderson Elise Badoy Dauby Professor John and Professor Hilary Birks Mrs Stephanie Bourne Mr and Mrs John Brisby * Adam and Sara Broadbent Hugh Burkitt Jonathan and Belinda Davie Marshall Field Michael and Michele Foot CBE Andrew and Wendy Gairdner The Hon William Gibson Mrs Noel Harwerth and Mr Seth Melhado The Hon Mr and Mrs Philip Havers Professor Sean Hilton Heather Jarman Mr Peter and Mrs Frances Meyer Chris and Valery Rees The Hon Zita Savile Dr Robert Sansom Ms Sarah Shepley and Mr Kevin Feeney Mr Michael Smith Peter Thomson and Alison Carnwath Mrs Janet Unwin Peter and Margaret Wynn Oriel Williams and Mick Stump and other anonymous B enefactors
Donors Angela and Roderick Ashby-Johnson Marianne Aston Elisabeth and Bob Boas * Lord and Lady Browne-Wilkinson Charles Bryant David and Elizabeth Challen Derek and Mary Draper Nikki Edge Christopher and Jill Evans Tina Fordham Mr Patrick Foster Charlotte Fox Michael and Margaret Garner Mrs Marilyn Minchom Goldberg Miles and Anna Hember Elaine Hendrie Mrs Helen Higgs Mr and Mrs Charles Jackson Alison Knocker Mr and Mrs Evan Llewellyn Richard Lockwood Richard and Romilly Lyttelton Richard Meade Annie Middlemiss Nick and Margaret Parker Mr Edward Powell Jane Rabagliati and Raymond Cross Jane and Robin Raw Mr and Mrs Charles Rawlinson Michael and Giustina Ryan Mahnaz Safa Dr Alison Salt Mr Peter Shawdon Professor Tony Watts Tony and Jackie Yates-Watson and other anonymous D onors * denotes founder m ember
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Meet the player: Rachel Brown flute
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& recorder
and enthusiasm. He set up a children’s orchestra and he gave me the flute parts to play on the recorder, so I felt I was already a flute player even before I had held an instrument! I remember playing Mozart Symphony No.40 and Schubert “Unfinished” and realising that I just had to play the flute! Later I was lucky to be given a scholarship to the Royal College of music Junior Department and there, although I was studying the flute, How did you start out on the baroque I was not allowed to give up the flute and recorder? recorder! Actually I loved playing in recorder consort every week and Like everyone else I took up the had very interesting recorder lessons recorder at school, aged 7, but very with Ross Winters, who was adamant soon my mum arranged for me to have private lessons with a wonderful that I should take up baroque flute. I teacher, Chris Nichols. He was actually resisted for a long time, and went on a violinist, trained as a botanist, but he to study modern flute with Trevor Wye was one of those amazing people who at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. However, eventually can capture children’s imagination
I heard Barthold Kuijken playing Rameau on the radio. I was transfixed: was life changing. I continue to play a huge range of instruments, including modern flute, though the historical flutes have become my specialism.
How do baroque flutes and recorders differ from the modern instruments? The baroque flute could be said to be half way between the recorder and the modern flute. In the 18th century, the flute and the recorder were both termed ‘flutes’ of one sort or another, but the recorder is really a different instrument, as the player doesn’t need to make an embouchure (the particular shaping of the lips when playing wind instruments), the instrument itself produces the sound. The baroque and modern flutes share many similarities, but have crucial differences. Internally
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they are completely different. The modern flute has a very slight taper at the top end of the head joint, but its body is completely straight. It has large holes, one for all twelve notes of the chromatic scale, and these holes are equal-sized and equally-spaced, so every note has the possibility to be equally rich and strong. The baroque flute has a straight head joint but the bore of the body tapers, getting narrower at the far end. Its six finger holes are much smaller than on a modern instrument and they are not at all equal in size or spacing. In addition, many notes have to share a hole, for instance F sharp and F natural, F natural being a flattened version of F sharp. Many such notes have almost all the holes closed, which produces a beautiful mellow quality. For me this is the beauty of
the instrument, as it offers colours you don’t hear from any other type of flute, or indeed, any other baroque instrument!
I heard Barthold Kuijken playing Rameau on the radio. I was transfixed: it was life changing.
What is your first musical memory? I came from a family with no other musicians, but my dad whistled a lot, especially when he gave me rides on the crossbar of his bike. As soon as I could walk I joined my sister’s ballet class and I’m sure that stirred up the musician in me. As a child I spent
hours dancing to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake.
What has been your most memorable experience with AAM? I joined AAM in 1985 and have so many great memories. The first American tour was wonderful, including a performance of Bach’s B minor Suite; playing Vivaldi concertos in La Fenice; chamber music in Potsdam with Chris Hogwood at the keyboard; Mozart piano concertos with Robert Levin; accompanying great singers such as Emma Kirkby, James Gilchrist and Cecilia Bartoli to name but a few. More recently, our recording of Handel Sonatas op. 1 was a major project for me, playing both flute and recorder. I have always loved playing in the wind section and wish our fantastic team did more together. continued...
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The theme of tonight’s concert is the “reversal of fortunes” of Bach and Telemann with the latter composer now perhaps unfairly overshadowed by his more famous contemporary. Which elements of tonight’s programme do you think demonstrate what 18th century audiences loved so much about Telemann? Telemann is one of the greatest under-rated composers! One of AAM’s former managers observed that if Telemann was on the programme, audience numbers fell; yet those who came would be crying out for CDs of his music after the concert! His music is infectious, especially when he is in Polish gypsy mode! He worked in Poland for a while and was deeply influenced by the haunting, daring and virtuosic folk music he heard
there, which he said gave him enough inspiration for a lifetime.
What are you particularly looking forward to playing at tonight’s concert? All the pieces are great favourites. It’s extraordinary to think that the manuscript of the Brandenburg concertos was never used by its dedicatee, then sold for a pittance and narrowly escaped destruction during World War II, when a train came under allied bombing and the brave librarian who was transporting it to safety escaped into the woods with the music under his coat!
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Explore If you enjoyed tonight’s concert, you may be interested in the following recordings:
Bach Brandenberg Concertos Nos. 1-6
Academy of Ancient Music / Richard Egarr [Harmonia Mundi, HMM902252]
Bach The Brandenberg Concertos
Academy of Ancient Music / Christopher Hogwood [Decca / L’Oiseau Lyre, 4557002]
Christopher Hogwood: The Bach Recordings
Academy of Ancient Music / Christopher Hogwood [20 CD set, Decca / L’Oiseau Lyre, 4821736]
Telemann Double & Triple Concertos
Academy of Ancient Music / Christopher Hogwood [Decca / L’Oiseau Lyre, 4119492]
Telemann Concertos & Ouvertures Freiburger Barockorcheste [Deutsche HM, 88697958802]
A Telemann Companion
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin / René Jacobs & Georg Kallweit, et al [Harmonia Mundi, HMX290878187]
ACADEMY OF ANCIENT MUSIC 2017-18 SEASON
Richard Egarr director & harpsichord
Mary Bevan soprano
Reginald Mobley countertenor
20
Thomas Hobbs tenor
Christopher Purves baritone
H A N D E L’ S
Choir of AAM
MESSIAH Wednesday 20 December 2017, 7.00pm Barbican Hall, London Box Office: 020 7638 8891 barbican.org.uk