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Acclaimed harpsichordist Jory Vinikour performs works by masters of the Baroque era, J. S. Bach, Rameau and Handel, streaming live from Benaroya Hall October 22 at 8pm PT on Seattle Symphony Live.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2021, AT 8PM
From Bach to Rameau
BAROQUE & WINE SERIES

Jory Vinikour, conductor & harpsichord
Eduardo Rios, violin
Jeffrey Barker, flute
Seattle Symphony
 

HANDEL    Selections from Rodrigo

RAMEAU    Selections from Hippolyte et Aricie

INTERMISSION

J. S. BACH    Keyboard Concerto No. 1

J. S. BACH    Brandenburg Concerto No. 5

Eduardo Rios' position is generously underwritten as the Clowes Family Associate Concertmaster.

George Frideric Handel is best remembered for taking London by storm, a major cultural figure who became a naturalized British subject in 1727. What made Handel popular was not only his distinct musical voice but how he merged that voice with the stylistic traits and innovations of the Italian school. Italy was the classical music epicenter in the latter decades of the Baroque era and Handel’s home from 1706 to 1709. His opera Rodrigo was his first all-Italian opera, premiering in Florence in 1707.

Rodrigo tells the story of the short and contested reign of Spain’s last Visigoth king (710–711). Handel’s Roderigo does not meet a violent end like his real-life counterpart. Instead, Rodrigo must face and push through love, war, betrayal, and succession, themes that would remain popular in operas for centuries to come.

The Ouverture moves between stately and whimsical, a theme in triple time passed through the ensemble. The Gigue’s texture is sparse, featuring a polyphonic interplay between the soloists. With the Sarabande, the music returns to a stately character with the soloists and basso continuo. The entire ensemble reenters with the Matelot, a movement with exuberant energy and motion. A return to a sparser texture in a transitional Menuet connects the Matelot to Bourée 1 & 2, just as exuberant and playful. Another Menuet transition sets up the stately, introspective Passacaille, which features moments of group cohesion and back and forth between soloists and the larger group.

For music lovers and scholars, the name Jean-Philippe Rameau may be more synonymous with music treatises rather than compositions. But what better way to explore and define your ideas about music than to write it yourself? Rameau was born in Dijon, France and pursued music education in his home country and Italy. After several decades of work as a performer, even succeeding his father as organist for Dijon’s main church, Rameau decided to direct his energies to composition. He would become a major figure in French classical music as a composer, music theorist, and harpsichordist, though not without some growing pains. His first opera, Hippolyte et Aricie, follows the love and accompanying political turmoil between Hippolytus, son of Theseus and Aricia, daughter of Theseus’ enemy, Pallas. The opera was met with great controversy, magnifying the stylistic rifts between the “old" and “new” guards at Rameau’s unconventional approach to operatic structure and narrative.

The Ouverture establishes a stately and morose character, with short, breathy articulations in the supporting strings and brief scalar runs in the first violins and woodwinds. Marche is cheerful and elegant, barely lasting a minute. Gavotte 1 & 2 merges the cheerful elegance with a more subdued, intimate character offsetting the yearning and uncertainty of the Rossignols amoureux. Can Hippolytus and Aricia’s love prevail? The Chaconne may sound conventional to modern ears familiar with Baroque-era music and performance practices. It is stately and formal, but not without lightness and playful interaction between orchestral sections.

It is hard to come across a composition by Johann Sebastian Bach that is not familiar. You may have heard it in the concert hall; on a commercial; as a ring tone. Such is the case with the opening to Bach’s Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in D minor, BWV 1052. Pre-20th century, there was considerable speculation that this keyboard concerto was a transcription of a lost concerto for a different instrument. Scholarly consensus now leans towards this keyboard concerto being written and conceived for harpsichord.

Bach completed versions of all three movements by the late 1720s, while employed as cantor at St. Thomas in Leipzig, Germany. The Keyboard Concerto No. 1, like all his keyboard works, is inventively idiomatic, balancing virtuosity and ensemble interaction. In the first Allegro, the layering of soloist and ensemble illustrates this through use of counterpoint, homophony, and communication between the soloist and ensemble. The Adagio centers the soloist more, going off on improvisatory passages as the orchestra gentle nudges and guides, a reminder of how big improvisation was in classical music practice in the Baroque period. The final Allegro is buoyant, featuring tonally and timbrally engaging parts for the soloist, who returns as interpretive and directional guide for the rest of the concerto.

Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos were completed in either the late 1710s or the early 1720s; he presented them as a gift to Christian Ludwig, the Margrave (military commander) of Brandenburg-Schewdt in 1721. Though not quite as popular as the No. 3, the Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050 is a close second. With its scalar passages, counterpoint, and interaction between the solo violin and flute, the Allegro is an energetic dive into the work’s character. The texture thins in the Affettuoso, highlighting the blending, communication, and improvisational capabilities of the flute, basso continuo, and solo violin. The final Allegro provides another immediately recognizable melody, embracing virtuosity through short, fast rhythms and fugue form. Through these features, one of Bach’s many strengths is highlighted — using complex pieces to create a cohesive whole — a musical tapestry that is just as enjoyable hearing it for the first time as it is the hundredth.

© 2021 A. Kori Hill