BAROQUE MASTERPIECES
(complete liner-notes from the CD)
by Richard Westenburg
The trumpet has a long history,
dating back literally thousands of years, and has always been associated with
moments and occasions of deep emotion and high festivity. Its sounds have been called upon to lead
armies and frighten foes, to celebrate coronations and to help consecrate
marriages. In the hands of an expert,
it can evoke a breadth of feelings perhaps more effectively than any other
instrument. The present performances do
just that.
Dominic Derasse and his gifted
colleague, organist Kenneth Bowen, have put together a performance of great
interest and excitement, both sonically and artistically.
The Organ at the Collegiale
Notre-Dame de Vernon, heard here, is worthy of special note. It was originally built in 1610-15 by Jean
Ourry, and many of the original stops have been retained. There were significant alterations,
additions and upgrades in the 18th, 19th and 20th
centuries, but each was respectful of the clarity and transparency of Ourry’s
original conception. In addition, the
church is supportive to the organ’s innate sound: it possesses atmosphere
without muddy reverberation and permits a blossoming of sound with little loss
of transparency. The organ is the
perfect complement to the trumpet, especially when a distinguished instrument
is played as commandingly as it is here and is recorded in a way that captures
both the clarity and the spaciousness of the original sound.
Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688-1758) Concerto in D Major (Allegro-Largo-Allegro
Moderato)
Fasch
was born near Weimar, Germany, a town so important to Bach’s youth. He studied with Krieger and later with
Kuhnau at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig.
While his dates are similar to J. S. Bach’s, his style was more
forward-looking, and anticipates Classical compositional elements more so than
his contemporaries. It is said that
Fasch refused, out of respect, to compete against Bach for the position of
Cantor at St. Thomas when the position was open in 1723, and it is also said
that the respect was mutual, as five suites by Fasch were found amongst Bach’s
collection of scores when he died. His
compositions included much vocal music: passions, masses, Psalms and cantatas.
The
Concerto in D Major was written for trumpet solo and an orchestra of oboes and
strings. Its opening movement is one of
high energy, exploring repeated notes in both the solo and the
accompaniment. This is contrasted by a
second movement of melodic beauty, and finally, a third movement with a
distinctly dance-like quality.
Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739) Concerto (for oboe) in C Minor (Allegro
moderato-Adagio-Allegro)
After 1711, Marcello lived and
worked in Venice, where he became one of Italy’s most respected musicians. In
addition to oratorios and cantatas, he wrote many sonatas and concertos. The practice of transcribing and adapting
works for instruments and combinations not originally intended, was commonplace
in the Baroque Era, as was the practice of ‘borrowing’ others’ compositions. Indeed, Bach’s clavier concerto (BWV 974),
one of many such examples, is his adaptation of Marcello’s oboe concerto in D
Minor.
It should be mentioned that
playing oboe music on the trumpet presents a challenge. The oboe requires less volume of breath than
other wind instruments, and the trumpet needs more; therefore, slow music for
oboe, when played by a trumpeter, requires uncommon control of breath (a
challenge beautifully met in this recording).
Here, as in the works by Albinoni and Tartini, the able and creative
organ transcription is by Mr. Bowen.
The present concerto is in the
familiar fast-slow-fast model.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Bach’s life was geographically
confined, spent almost entirely in the Saxony province of Germany. He did not enjoy the wide celebrity and
travels of contemporaries such as Handel and spent most of his adult life in
one job at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig.
The core of his musical output was understandably sacred and included
not only large works such as Passions and the B Minor Mass but
more than 200 church cantatas and numerous works for organ based on chorale
melodies. He also left a rich
repertoire of purely instrumental secular works including organ works, solo
concertos, suites, inventions, fantasias – the list is long and even the
thematic catalog of his works is over two inches thick, and the collection of
his complete works takes up several feet of shelf space.
Bach’s compositions provide
immense variety, and the suite of pieces chosen for this recording provides an
exploration of that array.
Sinfonia 8 is a work originally for keyboard, in three lively and playful
imitative voices. Sheep May Safely
Graze is the title by which the soprano aria from the birthday cantata
(No. 208) is familiarly known. Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring is
from Cantata No. 147; here, the trumpet plays the chorale melody while the
organ plays the orchestral accompaniment. The variation in the trumpet melody
was provided for Mr. Derasse by David Horowitz. Invention 13 is one of fifteen two-part pieces for keyboard
– a part for each hand – in which the parts imitate, or converse with
one another. The trumpet parts for Sinfonia 8 and Invention
13 were both transcribed by Dominic Derasse for this recording
Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770)
Concerto in D Major (Allegro moderato-Andante-Allegro Grazioso)
Tartini’s was a story book
life. He attended school in Padua,
Italy, and studied theology and literature, but at age 18, he eloped with the
niece of a Cardinal, who ordered Tartini’s arrest and sent her to a
convent. After years of violin study in
Rome and Cremona, he learned of his lady’s pardon, and returned to her in
Padua. Amidst this and other of life’s
dramas, Tartini composed an immense body of works, including over 130 concertos
and more than 220 sonatas. He was also
a prolific author, writing on violin technique, ornamentation and theory; and
in 1714, he discovered the acoustical phenomenon of the combination tone.
The present concerto, originally
for violin and orchestra, opens with a veritable study of rhythmic figures,
which are passed back and forth between trumpet and organ. After a melodic
middle movement, the final movement is elegant and somewhat playful, and
presents, because of its speed, a technical challenge for both artists, that is
even greater than other demanding works on this CD.
Tommaso Albinoni (1671-1750) Concerto in B-flat Major (Allegro-Andante-Allegro)
Best known for his famous Adagio,
Albinoni was the son of a wealthy Venetian paper merchant, who, recognizing his
son’s extraordinary talent, specifically absolved him in his will from the expected rigors of running the family
business, thus freeing him to compose.
His works received a wide renown through publishing houses in Amsterdam
and London.
Again, the fast-slow-fast shape
of the concerto is heard, but here with an especially broad, almost Handelian
middle movement.
Giambattista Martini (1706-1784)
When Mozart was a teenager, he made several trips to Italy
with his father. On one of them, he
studied counterpoint with Martini, also known as Padre Martini. Because of these efforts, Wolfgang Amadeus
was able to pass the composition test and become a member of the Bologna
Philharmonic Society, the usual age requirements having been waived. Martini’s
other students included J. C. Bach and Gluck.
Thus, his legacy is as much related to teaching, and to music’s
theoretical side, as it is the compositional side. The present four pieces were originally written for organ and
were adapted for trumpet and organ by Marie-Claire Alain.
Louis Claude
Daquin
(1694-1772)
Daquin’s most famous works were his variations on familiar
noels, three sets of which are heard here. It was a genre shared with Dandrieu,
Balbastre and others. Daquin was
organist of the Chapelle Royale and became the organist at Notre-Dame Cathedral
in 1750. As we have noted, much Baroque
music was not conceived to be limited just to the instrument the composer had
in mind when he wrote a given piece.
These Noels, while written for the organ, contained, on their title
page, a composer’s note that “most of them can be played on violins, flutes and
oboes” as well as the organ. Daquin’s
popularity as an organist was so profound that he drew enormous crowds when it
was known that he would be playing at Notre-Dame, and there were occasions on
which police had to be called out to restore order out of the crowd’s
enthusiasm. The performances here give
a clue as to what those times must have been like, as these pieces demand a
virtuosic degree of dexterity. In each,
the noel is first stated simply, then followed by several variations. In organ music, composers sometimes
indicated registrations, and sometimes, as with Cesar Franck, they were quite
specific. In a practical sense, these
indications are usually just indications of the kind of sound that was
imagined. In these Daquin performances,
though, the situation is quite different.
Not only were specific stops suggested, but Mr. Bowen was able to follow
the suggestions with an unusual degree of integrity, since the organ used here
is not only French, but contains registers of the same kind, and importantly,
stops from the same period, as Daquin.
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