|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
“Fire & Finesse”: A Royal ConcertCantatas & Chamber Music from the Time of the Sun KingWritten for the glittering court of Versailles, this concert of cantatas and chamber music showcases the vibrancy and elegance of this remarkable period.
Catherine Webster soprano Marc Destrubé violin
Tickets for either performance at $35 (students & seniors $3 discount) can be ordered on-line via our secure connection. They can also be ordered by phone (604 732-1610) from the office of Early Music Vancouver. Tickets are also available at Sikora’s Classical Records. Rush Seats for Students with valid ID on sale for $10, at the door only, from 7:00 pm on the evening of the concert. These concerts are included in our “Bring a Youth for Free” programme.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elizabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre (1665-1729):
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
During his long reign Louis XIV (1638-1715) solidified France’s dominant influence in Europe, by consolidating political power and establishing himself as an absolute monarch. He also strove to demonstrate the power of the state through promoting artistic activity. He became patron of the Académie Française, supported writers, visual artists and musicians, and used support of the arts as a tool for political gain (Canadian politicians please take note!), demonstrating the splendour of the French court to visiting rulers and dignitaries through lavish spectacles involving dance and music. A skilled dancer himself, he was known to have danced around eighty roles in forty ballets. His most famous role was in the Ballet Royal de la Nuit (1653)in which he appeared as the Rising Sun (hence his being later referred to as the ‘Sun King’), dancing alongside Jean-Baptiste Lully, an accomplished violinist as well as dancer. Lully went on to become a central influence in the musical life at Versailles and in Paris, in charge of musical and theatrical performance in its various forms, and composing music for the Comédies-Ballets of Molière, thus developing a distinctly French musical style. Alongside the grand public events, regular concerts of new music were performed in the king’s apartments at Versailles. One composer who caught Louis XIV’s attention was the young harpsichord prodigy Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre; he invited her to live and be educated at court, later honouring her with the ‘privilège’ of dedicating her compositions to him. When the court moved from Paris to Versailles in 1682 she remained in Paris, marrying an organist, Marin la Guerre, and enjoyed a very successful career as teacher, performer and composer whilst remaining under the king’s patronage. Her trio sonatas were among the first such pieces to be composed in France and her sonatas for obbligato harpsichord with violin were ground-breaking, and perhaps a model for Rameau’s Pièces de clavecin. Marin Marais played in the court orchestra under Lully, also studying composition with him. He was the foremost viol player of his day, having studied under Monsieur de Ste. Colombe (the story is well-known from the feature film Tous les Matins du Monde), and composed a rich repertoire for the viol as well as trio sonatas and four operas. He is one of the earliest composers of ‘programme’ music, having included a tempest scene in his opera ‘Alcyone’, as well as writing a work for viol and harpsichord describing a surgical operation. The ‘Sonnerie‘ on this programme depicts the bells of the abbey church of Ste. Geneviève-du-Mont, near the Pantheon in Paris. Although the violin has the initial melody above a repeated passacaille bass-line, the viol soon breaks free of the bass line and has considerable displays of virtuosity. Of Marais’ personal life little is known other than that he fathered 19 children. After the death of Lully in 1687, Jean-Philippe Rameau became the predominant composer of French opera, but only long after first establishing his reputation as a music theorist. His first opera, ‘Hippolyte et Aracie’, (1733) was strongly criticized by Lully’s supporters because of its revolutionary use of harmony, considering the work an attack on the French musical tradition. The two camps, the so-called “Lullistes” and “Rameauneurs”, fought a pamphlet war over the issue for the rest of the decade. Ironically, later in life Rameau was criticized for being too conventional and not adapting enough to the newly in-vogue Italian opera buffa style. Rousseau was a major participant in this second great quarrel, the so-called Querelle des Bouffons. Rameau’s music was considered old-fashioned and too complicated and ‘un-natural’. The Pièces de clavecin en concert were written in 1741 during a period of semi-retirement. Unlike in the prevalent trio sonata form, where the harpsichord embellishes a basso continuo line, here Rameau gives the harpsichord a central function and the other instruments a more accompanying role. The movements are primarily genre pieces rather than dance movements. They are his only chamber music works. François Couperin’s compositional life falls roughly between that of Lully and Rameau. In 1693 he succeeded his teacher as organiste du roi (still Louis XIV), and was appointed Ordinaire de la musique de la chambre du Roi in 1717. When Couperin composed the ‘Concerts Royaux’ in the years 1714 and 1715, the Grand Siècle was at its height, but was soon to founder and gradually disintegrate. Molière, Lully and Charpentier were dead, and the Court of Louis XIV, totally indifferent to the abject poverty and suffering of the people, attempted to stave off imminent decline. Couperin's ‘Concerts Royaux’ are chamber music in the most literal sense: they were composed for performance in the king's chambers, the king summoning his musicians to perform on a Sunday afternoon in the grands apartements. When he later published them, Couperin noted that these pieces “are of a kind quite different from those I have previously published”, adding that “They may be played not only on the harpsichord, but also the violin, the flute, the oboe, the viol, and the bassoon”; he leaves the instrumentation of each piece up to the performers. He also tells us that “These pieces were executed by Messieurs Duval, Philidor, Alarius and Dubois: I myself played the harpsichord”. Although Couperin was preoccupied with the reconciliation of the French and Italian styles (most notably through his two works ‘L’Apothéose de Lulli’ and ‘L’Apothéose de Corelli’), his music remains the epitome of French grace and refinement. He is perhaps the finest example of a poet-musician, and he said of himself: “I willingly admit that I much prefer what moves me to what surprises me.” It is perhaps for this reason that he was such an important influence on later composers, such as Brahms (who was involved in the publication of Couperin’s complete works, Richard Strauss (who wrote transcriptions of Couperin keyboard works), and Ravel (who wrote a suite for piano, ‘Le Tombeau de Couperin’). Although Jacques Duphlydied one day after the storming of the Bastille in 1789, when the classical style was already well established (Haydn’s symphonies were already being printed in Paris by 1764), Duphly remained true to his chosen instrument and to composing in the style of his musical ancestors Couperin and Rameau. Being the last of a line that had gone on for almost two centuries allowed him to exploit the style to the fullest, resulting in forty-six beautiful solo harpsichord works. ‘La Forqueray’ is a tribute to Antoine Forqueray, one of the two great French viol virtuosi (the other being Marais). His music was lost in the chaos of the Revolution, only to be rediscovered in the late 20th century. The French solo cantata as a musical form quite distinct from Italian and German models flourished in the first half of the 18th century. ‘Invented’ by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in 1706 by the fact that he was the first French poet to write cantata librettos, they were so popular that an anonymous writer was led to say:
Fine examples exist by Bernier, Campra, Clérambault, Montéclair and Jacquet de la Guerre. Michel Pignolet de Montéclair (he added de Montéclair to his name later, after a fortress in his hometown of Andelot) was a bass player in the Paris Opera. He developed a reputation as an innovative and well-respected teacher (he taught the daughters of his contemporary, François Couperin), published pedagogical works, and is credited with introducing orchestral effects such as offstage horns into his operas; his inventive orchestration is considered to have strongly influenced that of Rameau. ‘La Mort de Didon’ is one of twenty-four cantatas he wrote between 1706 and 1728. The myth of Orpheus has been a popular theme throughout musical history and is portrayed in no fewer than eleven French cantatas of the first half of the 18th century. Although the date of composition of Rameau’s seven cantatas is uncertain, Orphée was likely written around the time of his move to Paris in 1721, shortly before writing his influential theoretical treatise ‘Traité d’Harmonie’. The cantatas allowed him to make a first foray into composing dramatic music using only modest forces while he was still relatively unknown as a composer; in Orphée he demonstrates his affection for the viol by giving it an independent line in some sections. He went on to become the composer of the finest French baroque operas, writing his first only at the age of fifty. — Marc Destrubé, 2013
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
PLEASE NOTE: Catherine Webster soprano
Active also in contemporary music, Webster has appeared with The Kronos Quartet in Terry Riley’s Sun Rings and with Theatre of Voices and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in John Adam’s Grand Pianola Music. Catherine Webster is a frequent collaborator with baroque opera directors Stephen Stubbs and Paul O’Dette, appearing under their direction in Early Music Vancouver’s production for the 2013 edition of Festival Vancouver in Monteverdi’s L'Incoronazione di Poppea and the premiere of Mattheson’s Boris Goudenov for the Boston Early Music Festival. She has recorded for Harmonia Mundi, Naxos, Musica Omnia, Analekta and Atma. Catherine holds a Master's in Music from the Early Music Institute at Indiana University and has been a guest faculty member and artist for The San Francisco Early Music Society’s summer workshops and the Madison Early Music Festival. She has recently moved to Vancouver with her husband and two daughters..
Marc Destrubé violin
Jacques Ogg’s current activities include solo recitals on harpsichord or on fortepiano, concerts with flautist Wilbert Hazelzet as a duo as well as in a trio-formation either with viola da gamba player Jaap ter Linden or with cellist Christiaan Norde. He is a member of the Orchestra of the 18th Century and has performed regularly with Concerto Palatino. He is frequently invited to conduct masterclasses and summer courses, among others in Juiz de Fora (Brazil) and Buenos Aires, in Mateus (Portugal), Salamanca (Spain) as well as in Cracow (Poland), Prague and Budapest. He was invited as a juror in competitions such as “Bach Wettbewerb” (Leipzig) and “Prague Spring”. Jacques Ogg is artistic director of the Lyra Baroque Orchestra in Minneapolis/Saint Paul.
She has played with many ensembles in Canada and the U.S., including New World Consort, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Seattle and Portland Baroque Orchestras, Les Voix Humaines, Voix Baroques, the Burney Ensemble, Seattle’s Baroque Northwest and others. She has toured throughout Canada, the U.S. and Europe, playing in various cities such as New York, Boston, San Francisco, at London’s Wigmore Hall, Paris, Cologne, Strasbourg, Utrecht and Bologna, among others, and has recorded for Radio France, German Radio, BBC, CBC, and NPR. She is a member of Pacific Baroque Orchestra, the 17th century string band “La Cetra”, Les Coucous Bénévoles, and Early Music Vancouver’s Bach Cantata Project players, and frequently appears in Early Music Vancouver’s summer Festival, and MusicFest. Natalie has an ongoing interest in new music and performs newly commissioned works both as a soloist and with the ensembles of which she is a member. Natalie has a Masters of Liberal Studies from Simon Fraser University, and continues to be active in organizing conferences, scholar retreats and lectures covering a breadth of disciplines. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
for details and ticket information for this matinée performance.
Soprano Catherine Webster is engaged regularly by many leading early music and chamber ensembles in North America. She has appeared as a soloist with Tafelmusik, Tragicomedia, Theatre of Voices, Netherlands Bach Society, Apollo's Fire, American Baroque Orchestra, Magnificat, Musica Angelica, El Mundo, Four Nations Ensemble, Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montreal, Ensemble Masques, Les Voix Baroques, Early Music Vancouver, and at the Vancouver, Berkeley, Montreal and Boston Early Music Festivals.
Canadian violinist Marc Destrubé is equally at home as a soloist, chamber musician, concertmaster or director of orchestras and divides his time between performances of the standard repertoire on modern instruments, and performing baroque and classical music on period instruments. He has appeared as soloist and guest director with symphony orchestras in Victoria, Windsor and Halifax as well as with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Lyra Baroque and Portland Baroque Orchestra. He is first violinist with the Axelrod String Quartet, quartet-in-residence at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., a member of the Turning Point Ensemble in Vancouver specializing in 20th century music and new music, and first violinist of the newly-formed string quartet Microcosmos. He is also co-concertmaster of the Orchestra of the 18th Century (Amsterdam) with whom he has toured the major concert halls and festivals of Europe, North America, Japan, China and Australia, including as soloist and leader. He was artistic director of the Pacific Baroque Orchestra from its founding in 1991 until 2007. He is a frequent guest on the Early Music Vancouver concert series. 
Jacques Ogg is a performer and recording artist on both harpsichord and fortepiano, as well as a conductor. He teaches at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He was born in Maastricht (The Netherlands) and studied harpsichord in the city of his birth with Anneke Uittenbosch. In 1970 he went to study with Gustav Leonhardt at the Amsterdam Conservatory, from which he graduated in 1974. 
Natalie Mackie studied cello at the Conservatoire de Musique (Québec), followed by a degree from the School of Music, University of British Columbia. While at UBC, she began playing viola da gamba and pursued further studies at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague.