22|23: Interpreti Veneziani - Performance Program

presents

VENEZIANI

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2023 | 7:30 P.M. Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts

Program

Le Quattro Stagioni/The Four Seasons Antonio Vivaldi Concertos for Violin and Strings, Op. 8, Nos. 14

INTERMISSION

Concerto for Strings and Harpsichord in B-flat Major, RV. 167 Antonio Vivaldi

Concerto for 2 Violins, Cello, Strings, and Harpsichord RV. 578 Antonio Vivaldi Estro Armonico

Le Streghe for Violin and Strings Op. 8 Niccolò Paganini

PROGRAM NOTES

The Four Seasons, Concertos for Violin and Strings, Op. 8, Nos. 14 Antonio Vivaldi

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

Today, Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons is one of the most popular works of classical music, yet only around seventy years ago, hardly anyone had heard of it. A recording of it actually spurred the revival of interest in baroque music following World War II. The Four Seasons is made up of the first four concertos of a set of twelve that Vivaldi published in 1725 as Op. 8, titled Il cimiento dell’armonia e dell’inventione (The Battle between Harmony and Invention).

From 1704 to 1740, as director of instrumental music, composer, teacher, and violinist at a home for orphan girls in Venice, the Ospedale della Pietà, Vivaldi was required to compose at least two new concertos each month. The Ospedale was actually a home for the illegitimate female children of noblemen and their mistresses; it was well endowed by the anonymous fathers. The young girls were well cared for, and the musical standards there were very high. Vivaldi intended his works for performance by his many talented pupils: he wrote about 500 concertos for almost every imaginable combination of instruments, mostly intended for the girls.

When Vivaldi traveled to Rome he found a patron, Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, a great music lover, who had earlier been Arcangelo Corelli’s patron. Even while in Rome, Vivaldi remained in the service of the Ospedale della Pietà and sent two concertos per month to Venice, receiving a ducat per concerto. His presence in Venice was not expected, but a steady output of his concertos was.

Vivaldi holds an important place in the history of the concerto, as he helped establish the three-movement structure, its alternating tempi (fast-slow-fast), and the alternation in sound between orchestral tutti and solo parts (the ripieno and the concertino).

Il Cimento dell' Armonia e dell'invenzione (The Contest between Harmony and Invention) Op. 8 included twelve concertos, seven of which were descriptive: The Four Seasons, Storm at Sea, Pleasure, and The Hunt. These were enormously successful, particularly in France. King Louis XV was particularly enamored of Spring and had it performed often, giving Vivaldi commissions for further compositions from the Versailles court.

The Four Seasons, as the name of these four concerti grossi makes clear, represents the cycle of the four seasons.

Music representing the moods of the seasons was already popular in Vivaldi’s time. Other baroque composers had produced similar descriptive cycles of concertos, but none had created the multifaceted, accurate pictorial detail that Vivaldi gave his works. He ingeniously made the listener feel he is experiencing each season in turn.

Programmatically foreshadowing such works as Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, The Four Seasons is often credited for initiating a tradition of descriptive music, especially of symphonic works including such characteristics

as imitative birdsong and other aspects of nature. Vivaldi made great use of storm scenes, which were frequently evoked elsewhere in baroque music with established melodic, rhythmic, and dynamic terms to indicate them.

Each concerto follows the form Vivaldi uses for all his concertos: the first movement begins with a ritornello or refrain and returns frequently throughout the movement; in between the repetitions of the ritornello, the soloist displays florid, virtuosic music. The slow movement is usually a lyrical interlude, and the final movement, usually spirited and outgoing, frequently is written in dance forms.

In the published score, Vivaldi printed the four anonymous sonnets he intended his music to depict. Perhaps he wrote these sonnets, but no one knows for sure; the poems may have been written after the music was composed. Each poem evokes the pleasures and problems of the season. Vivaldi marked his scores at many points specifically referring to lines in the sonnets.

In the music itself, each musician’s part has a few words (given here in brackets) that indicate descriptive passages. Below are translations of the directives to the musicians as well as the sonnets themselves.

Spring, Concerto in E Major, Op. 8, No. 1, RV. 269

Spring begins joyfully; the solo violin plays trilling birdsongs and evokes the murmur of brooks and seasonal breezes. A thunderstorm occurs; the birds sing again after the storm. In the slow movement, a shepherd sleeps peacefully as his dog watches over him; the dog’s soft bark is evident in the violas. In the last movement, nymphs and shepherds dance something like a gigue. Spring comes to a close with a grave, dignified dance.

Allegro: Spring has come [Bird Songs], and the joyful birds greet it with merry song, and the brooks, in Zephyr's gentle breezes [Flowing Brooks], murmur quietly as they flow along. Then, hiding the sky with a black mantle [Thunderclaps], come both lightning and the thunder that announces it, and afterward, when these are silenced [Bird Songs], the little birds begin again their enchanting songs.

Largo [Sleeping Goatherd, Rustling Leaves, Barking Dog]: And later, in the sweetly flowering meadow, to the pleasant murmur of the leafy trees, the goatherd sleeps with his faithful dog at his side.

Allegro [Country Dance]: To the festive sound of the pastoral pipe, nymphs and shepherds dance under spring’s lovely sky and brilliant light.

Giunt' è la Primavera e festosetti

La Salutan gl' Augei con lieto canto, E i fonti allo Spirar de' Zeffiretti

Con dolce mormorio Scorrono intanto: Vengon' coprendo l' aer di nero amanto E Lampi, e tuoni ad annuntiarla eletti

Indi tacendo questi, gl' Augelletti; Tornan' di nuovo al lor canoro incanto:

Largo

E quindi sul fiorito ameno prato Al caro mormorio di fronde e piante Dorme 'l Caprar col fido can' à lato.

Allegro

Di pastoral Zampogna al suon festante Danzan Ninfe e Pastor nel tetto amato Di primavera all' apparir brillante.

Summer, Concerto in G Minor, Op. 8, No. 2, RV. 315 Summer, with its enervating heat, begins with a sun-depleted, halting refrain. The solo violin articulates various bird songs. Later, a shepherd boy seems to be upset and crying at the prospect of an upcoming storm. The slow movement paints more annoyances: buzzing mosquitoes and flies that can be heard alternating with bolts of thunder. In the final movement, the storm arrives. Thunder and quick flashes of lightning are evoked.

Allegro non molto [The Enervating Heat]: In the long scorching season of the sun, men and flocks languish, and the pine-wood catches fire. Allegro [Cuckoo]: The voice of the cuckoo sounds out, and soon [Turtledove and Goldfinch] so do the persistent songs of the little turtledove and the goldfinch. [Sweet Zephyrs] Zephyr blows sweetly, but [Various Winds] Boreas suddenly, unexpectedly moves into the neighborhood, and the little shepherd weeps [Weeping Shepherd], for he dreads the fierce storm that is fated for him.

Adagio: Rest is denied his weary limbs by fear of thunder and lightning, and by the angry swarm of flying insects, large and small.

Presto [Summer's Stormy Weather]: Ah, his fears are too well justified. The heavens rage and thunder, and hailstones beat down the corn and other grain.

Sotto dura Staggion dal Sole accesa

Langue l' huom, langue 'l gregge, ed arde il Pino; Scioglie il Cucco la Voce, e tosto intesa Canta la Tortorella e 'l gardelino.

Zeffiro dolce Spira, mà contesa Muove Borea improviso al Suo vicino; E piange il Pastorel, perche sospesa Teme fiera borasca, e 'l suo destino;

Adagio e piano – Presto e forte Toglie alle membra lasse il Suo riposo Il timore de' Lampi, e tuoni fieri E de mosche, e mossoni il Stuol furioso!

Presto

Ah che pur troppo i Suo timor Son veri Tuona e fulmina il Ciel e grandioso Tronca il capo alle Spiche e a' grani alteri.

Autumn, Concerto in F Major, Op. 8, No. 3, RV. 293

Autumn opens cheerfully with a peasants’ dance, which the solo violin takes up. When the peasants become drunk, the violin slides and staggers across its strings. The peasants collapse and fall asleep. The very beautiful slow movement depicts their sweet slumber. The final movement begins with the sound of hunting horns produced by the orchestral body. Vivaldi paints a vivid portrait of the hunt, with the game trying to escape, but finally collapsing and dying from their exhaustion at the pursuit.

Allegro [Dancing and Singing of the Peasants]: Dancing and singing celebrate the joys of a good harvest; [A Drunkard] and glowing with the liquor of Bacchus, many [Drunkards] finish by sleeping off their revelry. [Sleeping Drunkards].

Adagio molto [The Drunkards’ Sleep]: The air, tempered by pleasures, makes them all leave off their dances and songs. It is the time when everyone can enjoy sweet sleep.

Allegro [The Hunt]. The Hunters, at the crack of dawn, set off with horns, guns and hounds. [The Prey in Flight] The animal flees and they follow its tracks. [Guns and Hounds] Weary and frightened by the great noise of the guns and hounds, the endangered, wounded beast [Death of the Prey] tires in its flight, is cornered and dies.

Celebra il Vilanel con balli e Canti Del felice raccolto il bel piacere E del liquor de Bacco accesi tanti Finiscono col Sonno il lor godere

Adagio molto Fà ch' ogn' uno tralasci e balli e canti L' aria che temperata dà piacere, E la Staggion ch' invita tanti e tanti D' un dolcissimo Sonno al bel godere.

Allegro

I cacciator alla nov' alba à caccia Con corni, Schioppi, e canni escono fuore Fugge la belua, e Seguono la traccia; Già Sbigottita, e lassa al gran rumore De' Schioppi e canni, ferita minaccia Languida di fuggir, mà oppressa muore.

Winter, Concerto in F Minor, Op. 8, No. 4, RV. 297

The beginning of Winter effectively creates the sound of shiver from the cold; subsequently, the sound of vigorous stamping gives the impression of the movements of trying to keep warm. In the slow movement, a lyrical solo violin gives the impression of those warming themselves before a fire, while pizzicato strings supply the sound of raindrops falling.

In the last movement, the solo violin displays the impression of those walking on ice, before it shatters and strong winter winds howl; yet, at the end, Vivaldi depicts the feeling that the cold season can bring pleasure despite the cold.

Allegro non molto: Shivering in the chill of the cold snow, [Terrible Wind] and, in the harsh breath of the terrible wind [Running and Foot Stamping], hurrying and stamping the feet, [Cold Winds] with teeth chattering from the fierce frost;

Largo: Spending quiet, happy days by the fire while, outside, the rain drenches everyone;

Allegro: Walking on ice with slow steps for fear of falling [Walking Cautiously], going around carefully; running and sliding; [Falling] falling to the ground; getting up again to walk on the ice, and running fast [Running] when the ice cracks and breaks; [The Winds] feeling, through closed doors, Sirocco, Boreas and all the winds at war [Boreas and the Other Winds]; that's winter, but even so, what joy it brings!

Allegro non molto

Aggiacciato tremar trà neri algenti Al Severo Spirar d' orrido Vento, Correr battendo i piedi ogni momento; E pel Soverchio gel batter i denti; Largo

Passar al foco i di quieti e contenti Mentre la pioggia fuor bagna ben cento

Allegro

Caminar Sopra 'l giaccio, e à passo lento Per timor di cader gersene intenti; Gir forte Sdruzziolar, cader à terra

Di nuove ir Sopra 'l giaccio e correr forte Sin ch' il giaccio si rompe, e si disserra; Sentir uscir dalle ferrate porte Sirocco Borea, e tutti i Venti in guerra Quest' é 'l verno, mà tal, che gioia apporte.

Concerto for Strings and Harpsichord, in B-flat Major, RV. 167 Antonio Vivaldi

Concerto for strings and harpsichord, RV. 167 follows the traditional threemovement alternating form Vivaldi always used for his concertos: fast/slow/fast. The first movement of the Concerto for Strings and Harpsichord has a robust principal theme, characterized by octave leaps that reinforce the tonic key. In this initial movement, Allegro, Vivaldi takes material from the finale of his Violin Concerto in D Major, RV. 222.

In the concerto’s slow center, Andante, Vivaldi shapes the movement with a rarely used binary form. He gives the two violin parts contrasting rhythms: one has syncopation while the other has triplets. Again, in the final movement, rhythmic variety gives the movement distinction. Here he uses triple time.

for 2 Violins, Cello, Strings, and Harpsichord RV. 578, L’Estro Armonico

Antonio Vivaldi

Between 1705 and 1737, thirteen collections of Vivaldi’s instrumental compositions were published in several of Europe’s principal musical cities: Amsterdam, London, Paris, and Venice. They included thirty-six sonatas and eighty-four concertos of various kinds; each of the collections bore an opus number from 1 to 13.

The most popular collection was Opus 3, a grouping of twelve concerti, first published in Amsterdam by the printer Estienne Roger in 1711; it was acclaimed immediately. The work had twenty printings between 1712 and around 1745, issued with the title of L’Estro Armonico (The Spirit of Harmony or Harmonious Inspiration). Vivaldi dedicated the set to Ferdinando de’ Medici of Florence, son and heir of Cosimo III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, a patron of the girls’ orphanage Ospedale della Pietà, where Vivaldi taught music for a large part of his career. The dedication indicated Vivaldi’s desire to work for the Florentine court, but it does not explain what his relationship was at that time with the heir to the Grand Duchy. This set of concertos was groundbreaking and greatly influenced the evolution of the concerto form as it developed in the north of Italy. As Vivaldi’s music was already popular in northern Europe, these works contributed to the spread of his fame in Holland, England, and France. It was probably for strategic reasons that Vivaldi had the set of concerti published in Amsterdam, where printing techniques were superior to those in Italy. Other editions printed in London and Paris (and pirated editions) made Vivaldi's concertos some of the most influential music of the time. Vivaldi scholar Michael Talbot calls L’Estro Armonico “perhaps the most influential collection of instrumental music to appear during the whole of the eighteenth century."

J.S. Bach was so taken with the work that he made keyboard transcriptions of six of the twelve Op. 3 concertos, which he attested made a profound change in his musical thinking. Bach’s earliest biographer Nikolaus Forkel, in 1802, described Bach's admiration for Vivaldi's “chain of the ideas, their relation to each other, the variety of the modulations, and many other particulars.”

Bach’s interest in Vivaldi, in particular the concertos of L’Estro Armonico, helped draw attention to Vivaldi in the revival of interest in his music that occurred in the early 20th century. Scholars initially became interested in these works because of their influence on Bach and then discovered Vivaldi’s music, which had been neglected for centuries, for themselves.

Each of the concertos of L’Estro Armonico is a concerto grosso, in which one or more violin soloists are set against the main body of strings and harpsichord continuo. Vivaldi’s intent was not as much to create a virtuosic display as it was to make evident a vivid contrast between the solo instruments and the main body of strings.

Vivaldi composed the second work in the set, RV. 578, for two solo violins and cello and an orchestral ripieno of strings and harpsichord. At the heart of Vivaldi’s concerto design is the ritornello form (refrain form) in which a

distinctive and memorable refrain theme for the full ensemble (or the ripieno) alternates with more varied and often virtuosic solos.

Concerto No. 2 introduces the soloists, first individually, then in pairs, framed by a stately sarabande figure. The opening has been seen to foreshadow Winter from The Four Seasons, composed and published around fourteen years later. The opening Adagio e spiccato is more a prelude than an independent movement, with its three sequences of spiccato and crescendo chords as well as its haunting pianissimo final cadence. With a fugue-like theme and driving rhythm, the Allegro that follows features the soloists.

The poignant central movement, Larghetto, features the soloists’ tenderness as they play in thirds. The movement also includes large, serious fortissimo chord sequences. With its driving theme, the final Allegro recalls the initial Allegro, but the soloists’ sighing imitations harken back to the Larghetto. The solo cello joins the two violins for a dance-like gigue in the last movement. Vivaldi relies on repeated patterns of arpeggiation, bariolage, and scalar figures to create the energized style that is evident here.

Le Streghe for Violin and Strings Op. 8

Niccolò Paganini

Born October 27, 1782, in Genoa, Italy; died May 27, 1840, in Nice, France Niccolò Paganini, one of the greatest violinists in history, was a virtuoso who wrote his own music to play at his concerts. Those who witnessed Paganini's performances and his phenomenal technique were astonished by his feats of magic with both bow and fingers. Legends sprang up about the violinist’s powers; many even declared that he had taken lessons from the most potent and notorious of all fiddlers: the Devil.

Since Paganini was as much a showman as an artist, he did not deny the fantastic rumors and sometimes even encouraged them. When he heard that someone claimed to have seen the Devil standing behind him as he played at one of his concerts, Paganini suggested that this was not at all unlikely. Paganini's uncanny gifts, of course, had nothing to do with Satan. He was an imaginative, perceptive musician and technician who discovered new, unconventional ways of producing sounds from his instrument.

Much later, scientists explained and codified the mechanics and the acoustics of the effects with which Paganini had dazzled his listeners. Paganini’s musical style closely follows the Italian bel canto type of singing; his themes are lyrical and melodious, much like those written for vocal soloists of the day.

Paganini studied the violin first with his father, an amateur, and then with a violinist in the theatre orchestra, and with Giacomo Costa, giving his first public performance in 1794. In 1795, he began studying composition in Parma. In 1801, he moved to Lucca, where, four years later, he became a violinist to the ruler, Princess Elsa Baciocchi, Napoleon Bonaparte’s sister. At the end of 1809, he began eighteen years of travel throughout Italy, becoming very popular. In 1828, he made his first concert tour abroad, visiting Vienna, Prague, and the major cities of Germany; in 1831, he performed in Paris and London. He ended his

international career as a virtuoso in 1834, returning to Parma. With increasing frail health, he moved to Nice, where he died in 1840.

Many of Paganini’s compositions for the violin were unpublished during his life. He wrote a quantity of music for violin and orchestra, including six concertos. In 1826, in Naples, he wrote two concertos, Violin Concerto No. 2 and Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor. The third movement of Concerto No. 2 became known as La Campanella and was popular on its own.

Le Streghe (The Witches) is a virtuosic introduction and variations showpiece based on a melody that Paganini heard in a performance of a ballet in Milan in 1813. The ballet, Il Noce di Benevento (The Nut-Tree of Benevento), was a revision of an earlier ballet written in 1803 with music by Franz Xaver Süssmayr, Mozart’s student and assistant, most well-known for having finished Mozart's Requiem. In the legend pertaining to the nut tree of Benevento, well known since the 13th century, witches danced around a group of walnut trees near Avellino in Italy, where they also held banquets and orgies with spirits and demons in the form of cats or goats.

Paganini begins the work with an introduction that leads to the theme, based on the entrance of the witches in the ballet. Following the theme, the first variation begins with double stopping, but overall, is based on a staccato ascending scalar figure with trills. At the end, it returns to the double-stopping of the opening. The second variation features a left-hand pizzicato. The third has a passage on the G string and then some artificial harmonics. A recitativelike passage then introduces a cadenza and a final virtuosic feat in quadruplestopping.

INTERPRETI VENEZIANI

In 1987, Interpreti Veneziani made their debut and immediately gained a reputation for the “...exuberance and all-Italian brio characterizing their performances.” In a worldwide musical panorama, Interpreti Veneziani have reached their 35th concert season in Venice, which will include more than 60,000 viewers from around the world.

Interpreti Veneziani’s important achievements include appearances at the Melbourne Festival, the Bayreuth Festival, the Prague Music Festival with Václav Hudecˇek, a concert at Stockholm’s Royal Palace, participation in the World Vision Telemarathon at the Kirov Theatre to mark the reinstatement of the name St. Petersburg, a performance broadcast live on radio from the Osaka Symphony Hall, and concerts at Tokyo’s Suntory and Koji halls.

In 2013, the ensemble performed for the first time in India. They alternate touring in the United States, Japan, Canada, and Latin America with concerts in the most prestigious halls.

Interpreti Veneziani’s recording activity includes the production of their first compact disc with publishers Musikstrasse including music by Giuseppe Tartini. An additional 19 compact discs have been recorded with In Venice Sound (IVS), as well as an LP produced by the prestigious AIR Studios in London.

“A new ensemble on the Italian and international concert scene!”