VCHpresents Baroque Festival: Bach's Brandenburg Concertos

BAROQUE

FESTIVAL

Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos Part I & Part II

2 & 3 Nov 2023, 7:30pm Victoria Concert Hall

ANDREW ARTHUR harpsichord/conductor

A native of the UK, Andrew Arthur’s exceptional versatility as a musician sees him equally at home as a conductor, keyboard soloist, accompanist and continuo player. An acknowledged specialist in the music of the Baroque and Classical periods, Andrew Arthur is best known for his directorial work in historically informed performance and has appeared at prestigious venues and festivals across the UK, Europe, South Africa and the USA. He holds long-term positions as a Director and Principal Organist and Harpsichordist at the Carmel Bach Festival, California and as Associate Director of the internationally renowned Hanover Band, with whom he has undertaken over 200 performances. He also holds teaching positions as Fellow and Director of Music at Trinity Hall, Cambridge and as Affiliated Lecturer in the University’s Faculty of Music.

Andrew Arthur’s performances encompass solo organ, harpsichord and fortepiano literature, including an ongoing cycle of J.S. Bach’s organ works in the USA. As a continuo player, he has worked with leading UK periodinstrument ensembles including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, English Baroque Soloists, London Handel Players, Wallfisch Band, Canzona, Monteverdi Choir and Polyphony.

In 2002, Andrew Arthur founded Orpheus Britannicus, which was nominated in 2019 for an International Classical Music Award for their album with renowned baroque trumpeter Robert Farley. Recent releases include Mozart Sonatas for Violin & Fortepiano with violinist Peter Hanson, and J.S. Bach’s complete harpsichord concerti with The Hanover Band. A further collaboration with Peter Hanson of Schubert Sonatas is due for release next year.

www.andrewarthur.com

Photo by Jack Yam

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The SSO performs over 60 concerts a year at such venues as the Esplanade Concert Hall and Victoria Concert Hall in Singapore. Bridging the musical traditions of East and West, Singaporean and Asian musicians and composers are regularly showcased in its concert seasons. Its versatile repertoire spans all-time favourites and orchestral masterpieces to exciting cutting-edge premieres.

The SSO is part of the Singapore Symphony Group, which also manages the Singapore Symphony Choruses, the Singapore National Youth Orchestra, and the VCHpresents chamber music series, the Singapore International Piano Festival and the biennial National Piano & Violin Competition.

2 NOV 2023 BACH’S BRANDENBURG CONCERTOS PART I

PROGRAMME Singapore Symphony Orchestra Andrew Arthur harpsichord/conductor J.S. BACH Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F major, BWV 1046 SOLO VIOLIN Ye Lin FIRST VIOLIN Kong Zhao Hui Wei Zhe Cao Can

SECOND VIOLIN Tseng Chieh-An Wu Man Yun Marietta Ku VIOLA Guan Qi Dandan Wang

CELLO Ng Pei-Sian Christopher Mui DOUBLE BASS Wang Xu OBOE Pan Yun Carolyn Hollier Elaine Yeo

20 mins BASSOON Marcelo Padilla HORN Austin Larson Marc-Antoine Robillard

VIVALDI Concerto No. 11, RV 565 from L’estro armonico, Op. 3 SOLO VIOLIN Kong Xianlong Sayuri Kuru FIRST VIOLIN Kong Zhao Hui William Tan Cindy Lee

SECOND VIOLIN Tseng Chieh-An Yin Shu Zhan Margit Saur VIOLA Guan Qi Julia Park

10 mins

SOLO CELLO Ng Pei-Sian CELLO Wu Dai Dai DOUBLE BASS Wang Xu

Intermission

20 mins

J.S. BACH Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F major, BWV 1047

16 mins

SOLO VIOLIN Zhang Si Jing FIRST VIOLIN Kong Zhao Hui Duan Yu Ling Jin Li

SECOND VIOLIN Tseng Chieh-An Shao Tao Tao Hai-Won Kwok VIOLA Guan Qi Janice Tsai

CELLO Ng Pei-Sian Chan Wei Shing DOUBLE BASS Yang Zheng Yi SOLO TRUMPET James Nash*

SOLO FLUTE Jin Ta SOLO OBOE Rachel Walker

2 NOV 2023 BACH’S BRANDENBURG CONCERTOS PART I J.S. BACH Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV 1048 FIRST VIOLIN Kong Zhao Hui

FIRST VIOLA Guan Qi

SECOND VIOLIN Tseng Chieh-An

SECOND VIOLA Shui Bing

THIRD VIOLIN Foo Say Ming

FIRST CELLO Ng Pei-Sian

* Guest musician

11 mins

SECOND CELLO Jamshid Saydikarimov THIRD CELLO Zhao Yu Er DOUBLE BASS Yang Zheng Yi CONCERT DURATION: approximately 1 hour 30 mins (including 20 mins intermission)

PROGRAMME NOTES JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685 – 1750) Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F major, BWV 1046 I. [Allegro] II. Adagio III. Allegro IV. Menuet – Trio – Polonaise Bach’s Brandenburg Concerti, while written over a long period in his Cöthen and Weimar years, were only assembled as a set in 1721 and dedicated to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt.

As a set of chamber works, they are highly unusual in that they specify instrumentations that were not used in those combinations before.

Some scholars have considered this an attempt by Bach to tickle the patronal ear by experimenting with novel combinations of sound, but in an age where rhetoric and allegory were taken seriously, an examination of numbers and the symbolic associations of the instrumentation yields interesting results.

Six concerti - 6 was considered a signum perfectionis (number of perfection) by musical theorists, and triumphal processions in Classical Rome had six tableaux or spectacles (like the floats in a National Day Parade), thus Bach was honouring the margrave as an ancient hero with a musical triumph, with allusions easily understood by those with an education in classical rhetoric (much more common in those days).

The key to understanding the First Brandenburg Concerto is presence of the pair of horns. While we often

think of the hunting associations, the horn (the Roman cornu) was also associated with triumphal pomp and worldly glory. Thus, the Allegro first movement depicts a Roman triumphal entry (possibly the Triumph of Julius or Augustus Caesar), with the winds and strings playing the part of the crowds cheering as the procession makes its way with two ‘modern’ representations of the Roman cornu blaring out fanfares at the head of the procession from the Campus Martius (Square of Mars) to the Temple of Jupiter for thanksgiving prayers. In the Adagio, Bach gives us slow tremolo in both the strings and oboes, making for a hushed and reverent atmosphere, perhaps to suggest prayers.

The Allegro third movement is a reworking of the opening chorus of his secular cantata Verenigte Zwietracht, BWV 207, with the vocal parts being given to the solo violin, resulting in some challenging double-stopping.

The final movement Menuet – Trio – Polonaise may represent Nero Caesar, who was an amateur musical enthusiast himself, and played both the lyre and bagpipes. Bach naturally chose a violin to represent Nero’s lyre, and the solo part in the polonaise always sounds slightly manic, however well played – a reference to Nero’s madness? Oboes (the Greek aulos) could represent the bagpipes, and it may be no accident that the lyre/ violin is silent when the the oboes/ bagpipes play—the emperor could not play two instruments simultaneously!

In the second trio, the tutti violins are replaced by tutti oboes, giving us a humorous combination of Greek aulos and Roman cornu, vividly showing the brash Roman emperor dabbling in the arts of Ancient Greece.

ANTONIO VIVALDI (1678 – 1741) Concerto No. 11 in D minor for two violins, cello and strings, RV 565 (from L’estro armonico, Op. 3) I. Allegro – Adagio e spiccato – Allegro II. Largo e spiccato III. Allegro In 1711, Vivaldi published his L’Estro Armonico (“The Harmonic Inspiration”) Opus 3, a collection of 12 concerti for stringed instruments in various combinations. Vivaldi scholar Michael Talbot described the set as “perhaps the most influential collection of instrumental music to appear during the whole of the eighteenth century”.

RV 565 is a concerto for a trio of soloists—two violins and a violoncello—with the usual strings and basso continuo. The work begins Allegro with a duet between the two solo violins that turns into a prolonged chase of imitation, before the cello enters with the basso continuo to continue the frenzy. A brief threebar Adagio e spiccato follows to give us breathing space before we return to an Allegro where Vivaldi makes full use of his strings, divided into four violin and two viola parts, to give us a magnificent fugue. The slow movement marked Largo e spiccato features a smooth solo violin melody in dotted siciliano (‘Sicilian dance’) rhythms swaying above the detached (spiccato, ‘spiky’) quaver accompaniment of the ensemble almost without bass, which makes token appearances at the beginning and end of the movement.

In the final Allegro movement, the violins start their animated conversation before the manic cello

tries to take over the stage several times. Undeterred, the violins, supported by the ensemble, continue their rapid fire exchanges to the end. The curious sectioning of the movements, the fugal passages, and unusual writing of the work, almost like a small concerto grosso may have been what J. S. Bach found interesting enough in the work for him to later arrange it for organ as BWV 596.

J.S. BACH Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F major, BWV 1047 I. [no tempo indication; usually played at] Allegro II. Andante III. Allegro assai Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F major is scored for trumpet, recorder (played on flute tonight), oboe, and violin, in addition to strings and continuo. The trumpet in paintings represents Fame, heralding the arrival of the three great poets of the preModern age: Homer represented by the violin (he was depicted in Renaissance art with a violin), Virgil by the oboe (reed instruments had pastoral associations, and Virgil was the master of Roman bucolics), and Dante by the recorder (a symbol of passion in Baroque art, and Dante’s Divine Comedy is motivated by his love for the departed Beatrice).

Strings and winds symbolise reason and passion, and thus the entire tableau is clear: Fame, Homer, Virgil, and Dante on Mount Parnassus, the home of the Muses.

The opening Allegro, with its soliloquies and echoïng conversations between the various characters, featuring the trumpet prominently in the highest clarino register (extremely

difficult on Baroque trumpet), sets the stage with Fame leading the way up to Parnassus. The Andante gives Fame a break, while the three poets pay their flattering respects to the listener in an endless series of falling figures. The Allegro assai brings Fame back, and it should be noted that the high F trumpet for which Bach wrote was a straight trumpet, not the usual coiled baroque trumpet. The straight trumpet was a standard accessory for the figure of Fame in paintings - no contemporary listener would have missed the associations. By uniting the three poets and Fame, what better way to glorify and praise a ruler?

J.S. BACH Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV 1048 I. [no tempo indication; usually played at] Allegro II. Adagio III. Allegro The Third Brandenburg Concerto is essentially a meditation on the numbers three and nine: being scored for three groups of three violins, three violas, and three celli; the tutti are in three parts; the first movement is in three sections and its principal musical figure consists of three notes supported by quavers moving in thirds. Three was the image of the Trinity and hence a sort of perfection—in mediæval music triple metre was referred to as tempus perfectum. Three squared gives nine, and nine is the number of the Orders of Angels, the Spheres of the Ethereal Heaven, and the Muses. Bach’s own Goldberg Variations are based on an allegorical ascent through the nine spheres of Ptolemy’s cosmology.

The Allegro first movement seems to be a portrayal of the speculative series of three octaves, which to musical theorists and philosophers of the 16th and 17th centuries represented the universe, symbolised

by Apollo’s lyre, so Bach naturally wrote for a string ensemble, demonstrating the structure of the cosmos. Was Bach here depicting the Creation of the Universe? The Adagio second movement consists, on paper, of a single measure with two chords forming a cadence, and has puzzled both scholars and players alike. Performance practice for this has ranged from playing it as-is to improvised cadenze of varying lengths. What does this two-chord cadence mean? Bach scholar Philip Pickett thought it meant duality: Alpha and Omega.

The final Allegro is based on rapidly rising and falling figures, and the three celli play in unison throughout, effectively reducing the number of moving parts to seven. Seven was the number of Classical Planets in Astrology—the five planets visible to the naked eye (excluding Earth), plus the Sun and Moon. As such, the movement may represent planetary motion, or the Dance of the Heavens, appropriately following the burst of creative activity in the first movement.

What did this have to do with the Margrave? Cosmic harmony was a popular theme when speaking of peace and prosperity brought by wise rulers, and Bach may have meant this concerto both as a compliment and a subtle warning that for all of our earthly talents and greatness, we are still dwarfed by the grand design of the cosmos.

Programme notes by Edward C. Yong

3 NOV 2023 BACH’S BRANDENBURG CONCERTOS PART II

PROGRAMME Singapore Symphony Orchestra Andrew Arthur harpsichord/conductor J.S. BACH Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050

20 mins

SOLO VIOLIN Zhao Tian

VIOLA Manchin Zhang

DOUBLE BASS Karen Yeo

VIOLIN Chan Yoong-Han

CELLO Yu Jing

SOLO FLUTE Miao Shanshan

Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B-flat major, BWV 1051 SOLO VIOLA Manchin Zhang

SOLO CELLO Yu Jing

CELLO Wang Yan

SOLO VIOLA Gu Bing Jie

SOLO CELLO Song Woon Teng

DOUBLE BASS Karen Yeo

16 mins

Intermission

20 mins

Concerto for Harpsichord & Strings in F minor, BWV 1056

10 mins

FIRST VIOLIN Chan Yoong-Han

VIOLA Manchin Zhang

SECOND VIOLIN Michael Loh

CELLO Yu Jing

DOUBLE BASS Jacek Mirucki

Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G major, BWV 1049 SOLO VIOLIN Xu Jueyi FIRST VIOLIN Chan Yoong-Han Karen Tan Zhao Tian

SECOND VIOLIN Michael Loh Nikolai Koval Chikako Sasaki VIOLA Manchin Zhang Yang Shi Li

16 mins

CELLO Yu Jing Guo Hao

SOLO FLUTE Miao Shanshan

DOUBLE BASS Jacek Mirucki

SOLO FLUTE Roberto Alvarez

CONCERT DURATION: approximately 1 hour 30 mins (including 20 mins intermission)

PROGRAMME NOTES JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685 – 1750) Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050 I. Allegro II. Affettuoso III. Allegro Bach’s Brandenburg Concerti, while written over a long period in his Cöthen and Weimar years, were only assembled as a set in 1721 and dedicated to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt.

As a set of chamber works, they are highly unusual in that they specify instrumentations that were not used in those combinations before.

Some scholars have considered this an attempt by Bach to tickle the patronal ear by experimenting with novel combinations of sound, but in an age where rhetoric and allegory were taken seriously, an examination of numbers and the symbolic associations of the instrumentation yields interesting results.

Six concerti - 6 was considered a signum perfectionis (number of perfection) by musical theorists, and triumphal processions in Classical Rome had six tableaux or spectacles (like the floats in a National Day Parade), thus Bach was honouring the margrave as an ancient hero with a musical triumph, with allusions easily understood by those with an education in classical rhetoric.

Concerto Five is set for a trio of soloïsts: harpsichord, flute and violin, in addition to the usual strings and continuo. The concerto opens with the Allegro by giving us the image

of Hercules (harpsichord) sitting beneath a tree at the crossroads, choosing between Virtue (violin) and Vice (flute), each persuading him to follow her. The extended harpsichord solos represent Hercules’ indecisive state of mind as he considers both the allurements of Vice and the glories of Virtue. Naturally in the context of the Margrave, the hero Hercules represents the ruler who must choose wisely.

In the Affettuoso, scored only for the three soloists, Hercules continues pondering his path. It is worth noting that the concerto has elements of both French and Italian music—did Bach see himself as Hercules exploring the possibilities of two alternatives?

With our hero having chosen Virtue in the end, the final Allegro in 6/8 has our characters dance around in intricate counterpoint, as Bach combines the two styles in a model of stylistic versatility and gouts réunis.

Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B-flat major, BWV 1051 I. [Allegro] II. Adagio ma non tanto III. Allegro In the last of the set of six concerti, Bach gives the violins a break and our ensemble consists of two violas, violoncello, two violas da gamba (played on cellos tonight), violone, and basso continuo. Six instruments, not counting the continuo, brings us back to the Mediæval signum perfectionis (number of perfection) and the dark sombre tone of the low-pitched instruments hint at death (sackbuts, low voices, low strings were all standard for funerary music).

Bach used pairs of viols at sombre moments evoking mortality, notably in his Trauer-ode (1727), written for

the funeral of Christiane Eberhardine, Electress of Saxony.

In the opening of the Allegro, the repeated quavers conjure up the ticking of clocks—a standard symbol of mortality in vanitas paintings reminding us of the transience of life. This concerto was originally been written for his employer Prince Leopold of Cöthen, who played the viola da gamba (considered old fashioned at the time) and may have played one of the parts. What allegorical image is presented here?

Possibly The Meeting of the Three Quick and Three Dead, a popular theme in literary and visual sources of the 17th century. Three young princes (two violas and cello – all members of the violin family) are returning happily from the hunt and meet three cadavers (two viols and violone—all members of the viol family). The deathly figures warn the princes to repent, as earthly things such as power, wealth, and beauty will fade and all must die. The polyphonic conversation between the six voices is dense, and at various points the three violin-princes withdraw to discuss things between themselves.

The slow movement Adagio ma non tanto is all peace and joy—is this the bliss of the three princes after repentance? Only the three violin family instruments play here, perhaps the three ghosts have disappeared for the moment. In the final Allegro, the three laughing violin-princes dance in the joys of heaven, while the cadaver-viols merely punctuate jerkily (a nod to the Mediæval ‘Dance of the Dead’?). Nevertheless, the result is a perpetuum mobile of spinning bliss, like an image of the planets rotating around the sun.

Concerto for Harpsichord & Strings in F minor, BWV 1056 I. Allegro II. Largo III. Presto Recycling and upcycling are concepts en vogue now but have always been an important part of sustainability – even J. S. Bach practiced it! The Concerto in F minor for Harpsichord and Strings, BWV 1056 originally began life as a violin or oboe concerto (unfortunately now lost), written in the 1737–1739 period either when he was in Cöthen or Leipzig, and is in the Venetian style of Vivaldi – indeed he was to arrange concerti by Vivaldi into versions for harpsichord(s) and orchestra.

BWV 1056 is part of a set of six concerti (BWV 1052—1057) for keyboard, strings, and basso continuo, dating from Bach’s Leipzig years, and a good chunk of the concerti appear to be reworkings of earlier material.

Bach’s study of Vivaldi’s quirks may be seen in the opening Allegro, where the soloist breaks away for short solos during the tutti ritornelli, and in how the soloist’s line is mostly in triplets set against the ensemble playing in straight two-four time, giving an impression of irrepressible momentum.

The exquisitely serene Largo, with its expressive excursions into minor keys, is a piece that has appeared before for solo oboe and orchestra as the opening sinfonia of his cantata Ich steh mit einem Fuß im Grabe, BWV 156. The opening notes of the movement are virtually identical to those of the Andante from Telemann’s Flute Concerto in G major, TWV 51:G2 – Bach may have intended the quotation as an tribute to his friend

Telemann. A turbulent Presto forms the final movement, flying forward with Italianate fire in its sharp contours and dramatic sudden pauses.

Before Bach, the harpsichord was not much thought of as a solo instrument for concerti—even Vivaldi who wrote concerti for nearly every conceivable instrument (including 39 for bassoon!) did not. With this set of six concerti, Bach essentially invented and established the keyboard concerto.

Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G major, BWV 1049 I. Allegro II. Andante III. Presto Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G major is scored for violin, two recorders (played on flutes tonight), strings and continuo. A violin and recorder(s) were frequently included in paintings to represent the opposing forces of Reason and Passion.

Triumphal spectacles often had scenes of legendary competitions.

Seen through this lens, we see the Musical Contest between Apollo (inventor of the lyre, and hence stringed instruments in general) and the satyr Marsyas (satyrs played the

diaulos pipes, a double shawm, here represented by the phallic double recorders).

In the opening Allegro, the contest warms up with Marsyas and Apollo trying to outdo each other with fountain-like figures and self-indulgent episodes to impress the judging Muses, who favour Marsyas (with his pipes made by Athena herself). Note that the recorders often play passages and trilling in thirds or unisons, or with scales in one part against drones in the other, strongly evoking a double pipe. The Andante brings the passionate pastoral and countryside evocations of the double recorders to the front, showing the favour of the Muses. In the final Presto, the violin shows great moments of virtuosity, reminding us that Apollo had to resort to outrageous tricks - playing his instrument upside down, singing to his own accompaniment, and finally flattering the Muses with praise.

The echoës and flourishes make for rhetorical tour de force and true contest between virtuoso soloïsts.

Apollo’s violin definitely wins in the end, and as an image of the ruler, Apollo is always victorious.

Programme notes by Edward C. Yong

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