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CHRISTMAS BAROQUE 1

Wednesday 18.12.2019 19.00 SEASON CONCERT 10
Sold out Espoo Cathedral
Silver 2020-2021
Wednesday 18.12.2019 19.00 Sold out Espoo Cathedral
Silver 2020-2021

Dubbed the queen of the Baroque violin, Rachel Podger returns to the Tapiola Sinfonietta for an expected visit. A programme of lovely and layered Baroque music leads the listener to the spirit of Christmas. Music by Bach is framed with Italian Baroque numbers.

Concert ends at 8.20 pm, no interval. SOLD OUT. The doors will be opened at 6.15 pm.

“Podger’s Bach has always been special: this is indispensable.” – BBC Music Magazine
“Rachel Podger lets the music shine – what unity of art and personality!” – Göttinger Tagelblatt

Listen in YouTube J.S. Bach´s Double Violin Concerto in D minor, part “Largo ma non tanto”, performed by Rachel Podger and Elizabeth Blumenstock.

www.rachelpodger.com

Artists

Rachel Podger Violinist- Conductor

Program

Francesco Maria Veracini

Ouverture no. 6 in G minor

Veracini was born into a family of violinists in Florence and studied with his uncle. He made a career for himself as a composer and a virtuoso violinist all over Europe: in Venice, Dresden and London, and from 1745 in Florence again. He is best remembered for his Violin Sonatas, but he also wrote violin concertos, recorder sonatas, orchestral suites, operas and oratorios.

Veracini wrote six orchestral suites, or Ouvertures, in Venice in 1716. He gave each of his six Ouvertures a distinctive overall form. Ouverture no. 6 in G minor has four movements and is a good example of Veracini’s intense and idiosyncratic expressive idiom. The woodwinds are used almost in concertante fashion. The work opens with a dramatic Allegro with scurrying triplet figures, followed by a steady Largo and a determined Allegro. The work concludes with a curious Minuet, where all instruments play the same melody in unison throughout the movement.

Shortened from Kimmo Korhonen's work presentation
Translation: Jaakko Mäntyjärvi

Johann Sebastian Bach

Violin Concerto in A minor BWV 1041

Johann Sebastian Bach was not only an organist but also an excellent violinist and was e.g. the leader of the court orchestra at Weimar from 1714 to 1717.Bach wrote three violin concertos that have survived – the Violin Concertos in A minor and E major and the Double Concerto in D minor for two violins – but he is known to have written more.

Bach’s principal influence as a concerto composer was Antonio Vivaldi, from who he adopted the three-movement overall form and the ritornello form for individual movements – the latter being a structure where more or less similar orchestral sections (ritornelli) alternate with solo passages.

Bach enriched this structure, and even in the rather formulaic opening movement of the Violin Concerto in A minor the orchestra plays a more active role in the solo passages than ever in Vivaldi’s concertos.
The slow movement is based on an ostinato figure introduced in the bass at the opening, above which the solo violin traces profoundly compelling melodic lines, sometimes venturing into a sombre minor key. The work concludes with a lively gigue in 9/8 time, which despite its minor key comes across as fresh and energetic.

Shortened from Kimmo Korhonen's work presentation
Translation: Jaakko Mäntyjärvi

Evaristo Felice Dall ‘Abaco

Concerto grosso in D major op. 5 no. 6

Evaristo Felice Dall’Abaco is a lesser known but none the less interesting composer of the Italian Baroque. Dall’Abacos principal influences as a composer were Vivaldi and Arcangelo Corelli, but he also absorbed influences from the French style while living in France. His output was limited compared to many of his contemporaries, comprising six collections of instrumental works.

Dall’Abaco’s opus 5, Concerti à più instrumenti, was published in Amsterdam between 1717 and 1719. The final work in opus 5, the Concerto grosso in D major, is a suite-like five-movement work comprising a lucid and airy Allegro, a melodic Aria (Largo e cantabile), a steadfastly progressing set of variations (Ciaconna), a brisk and light-footed Rondeau: Allegro, and a determined concluding Allegro.

Shortened from Kimmo Korhonen's work presentation
Translation: Jaakko Mäntyjärvi

Johann Sebastian Bach

Orchestral Suite no. 1 in C major BWV 1066

In the early 18th century, orchestral suites or overtures as they were known in French were the principal genre of orchestral music along with concertos. Bach wrote four such suites.

All of Bach’s orchestral Suites begin with a French-style overture where a slow introduction featuring dotted rhythms is followed by a fast, contrapuntal middle section, after which the introduction is repeated in modified form. This is followed by a string of movements, generally those described in French as galanteries (bourrée, gavotte, minuet, etc.) instead of the conventional ‘dance’ movements used in suites at the time (allemande, courante, sarabande, gigue).

In Suite no. 1 in C major, as in all the others, the weightiest movement is the ‘Overture’. Four of the other movements (‘Gavotte’, ‘Minuet’, ‘Bourrée’ and ‘Passepied’) are each built up of two dances of the same character, the first one being repeated after the second one has been completed. The second of the dances thus comes across as a Trio section, and in these the woodwinds are often given an independent role. Indeed, ‘Bourrée II’ is for three winds alone. The speciality in this Suite is the fascinating ‘Forlane’, the only instance of Bach referring to this northern Italian dance.

Shortened from Kimmo Korhonen's work presentation
Translation: Jaakko Mäntyjärvi

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