Ravinia 2024 Issue 6

Rondo finale is never boisterous, but filled with elegance and panache. GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (1685–1759) Concerto Grosso in A minor, HWV 322 (op. 6, no. 4) Scored for solo violin I, violin II, and cello (concertino), orchestral strings (ripieno), and basso continuo An advertisement in the London Daily Post (October 29, 1739) solicited subscribers to a new set of concerti grossi even before Handel penned his final work. “This day are Publish’d, Proposals for Printing by Subscription, With His Majesty’s Royal License and Protection, Twelve Grand Concertos , in Seven Parts, for four Violins, a Tenor [viola], a Violoncello, with a Thorough-Bass for the Harpsichord. Compos’d by Mr. Handel .” In this announce- ment, the London printer John Walsh made a grand, public leap of faith, for the royal privi- lege was not formalized until October 31. Handel composed these 12 concertos for strings and basso continuo with amazing speed, com- pleting the first concerto on September 29 and the last (actually, No. 11) on October 30. Even more remarkable than the swiftness of creation was the remarkable variety of instrumental colors extracted from these limited resources. (Handel later added oboe parts to four concer- tos, but these were not published until recent- ly.) The op. 6 collection stands alongside Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos as two monuments of late-Baroque orchestral music. With the publication of his magnificent collec- tion, Handel entered into direct competition with the 12 Concerti grossi , op. 6, of violin- ist-composer Arcangelo Corelli (1653–1713). Es- tienne Roger in Amsterdam published Corelli’s collection posthumously in 1714, though the concertos originated decades earlier, possibly in George Frideric Handel by Balthasar Denner (c.1726–28) the 1680s. Handel likely heard some of Corelli’s Concerti grossi during his year in Rome (1707–8). The popularity of Corelli’s op. 6 spread from the Italian peninsula to the London stages, where they were mainstays of orchestral concerts in the 1730s: “To the musicians, like the bread of life,” according to Roger North, a lawyer, amateur musician and music theorist, and chronicler of music in England. Corelli’s op. 6 remained stan- dard repertoire into the 19th century. Handel composed his op. 6 concertos for the 1739–40 concert season at the Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre. They functioned as instrumental diver- sions during intermissions, often with the com- poser leading the ensemble from the harpsichord. Thematic connections between the concertos, or- atorios, and operas—a form he eventually aban- doned in 1741 in favor of the oratorio—became ever more complex, as instrumental themes reap- peared in vocal guise, and vice versa. The Concerto No. 4 in A minor was completed on October 8. Styled after the sonata da chiesa , this piece has four movements with a slow–fast– slow–fast pattern of tempos. The Larghetto affet- tuoso serves as a prelude to the fugal Allegro . The Largo e piano employs imitative writing, similar to sacred vocal polyphony. Handel borrows a theme from his penultimate opera, Imeneo (the second-act aria “È si vaga del tuo bene”), in the concerto’s final movement. WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Symphony No. 38 in Dmajor, K. 504 (“Prague”) Scored for pairs of flutes, oboes, bassoons, horns, and trumpets, timpani, and strings Mozart conquered the proud and music-loving capital of Bohemia—the self-proclaimed Praga regina musicae (“Prague, the queen of music”)— with performances of The Abduction from the Seraglio in 1783. His next major triumph came with the National Theater’s production of The Marriage of Figaro , which opened on Decem- ber 10, 1786. Franz Xaver Niemetschek, a Czech philosophy professor and Mozart’s first biogra- pher, described the furor ignited by his music: “It seemed to us that what we had heard and known hitherto was not music at all. Everyone was carried away, everyone was transported by the new harmonies and the original move- ments for wind instruments, the like of which had never before been heard.” Professional mu- sicians and skilled amateurs rushed to acquire any available piece of Mozart’s music. His tunes were whistled and hummed on the city streets. The Prague love affair was underway. News of Figaro ’s success quickly reached Vien- na, where the opera had received a disappoint- ingly short run of only nine performances. Mo- zart, who already had announced his intention to visit London during the Carnival season, canceled all plans and traveled to Prague with his wife and their brother-in-law, the violinist Franz de Paula Hofer. The trio arrived on Janu- ary 11, 1787, and accepted lodging at the palace of Count Johann Joseph Anton Thun-Hohenstein. Eight days after arriving, Mozart gave a public concert of his works in the Nostitz Theater on January 19. The featured work—a new sympho- ny in D major, completed on December 6 specif- ically for Prague—was followed by piano im- provisations. The audience demanded an encore, and Mozart obliged with a dozen im- promptu variations on “Non più andrai” from The Marriage of Figaro . Few forgot this magical evening, according to Niemetschek: “Surely just as this celebration was unique of its kind for the people of Prague, so for Mozart this day ranked among the most beautiful of his life.” Mozart returned to Vienna sometime around February 8 with 1,000 florins in hand and a commission for the following opera season. Eight months later, he returned with another masterpiece for Prague— Don Giovanni . Mozart designed the “Prague” Symphony to capitalize on the current rage for his Italianate operatic music. Its three-movement structure reflects the symphony’s southern European or- igins in the Italian opera sinfonia ; the “missing” minuet belongs to the German symphonic tra- dition. Other operatic associations emerge in the accentuated opening chords and extreme dynamic contrast. This slow music, which grad- ually transforms from major to minor, prefaces a sizable essay in fast tempo. (The forthcoming Overture to Don Giovanni adopts a comparable structure.) Throughout, Mozart writes promi- nent lines for the woodwinds, a Czech specialty. The Andante moves in gentle siciliano rhythm as it expands to the composer’s famed “heavenly length.” In the finale, a playful and light opening melody coexists with bold theatrical gestures. –Program notes © 2024 Todd E. Sullivan Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by Barbara Krafft (1819) RAVINIAMAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2 – SEPTEMBER 15, 2024 70