Friday, June 21 – 7:30 pm – “Evolution”

Join us for a musical tour from German baroque to twentieth century South American

Georg Philipp Telemann: Sinfonia Spirituosa in D major

Johannes S. Bach: Concerto for 2 Violins in D minor, BWV 1043

featuring Nigel Armstrong and Gabriella Peña

Alberto Ginastera: Concerto for Strings

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)

Sinfonia Spirituosa in D major, TMV 44:1

Telemann was remarkably productive, holding the title of “Most Prolific Composer” by the Guinness Book of World Records. The existing Telemann canon underestimates his output since half of his estimated 3,000 compositions have been lost. During his lifetime, he was influential with major contemporaries such as Handel and J.S. Bach, who are known to have purchased his music and adopted some of his innovations.

The Sinfonia Spirituosa was composed in 1733, when Telemann was the pre-eminent music director in Hamburg, serving the five largest churches. Although much of his music is the product of church employment, Telemann also wrote diverse material for the theater and concert hall. 

The first movement uses the basic structure of a baroque chaconne with a repetitive bass line underneath the harmonic variations of the strings. The pattern of alternating sections resembles the sonata structure, a demonstration of Telemann’s role as a bridge between the Baroque and Classical eras. The Largo movement, in a lighter aria style, has three related but contrasting motifs. The third movement is a lively rhythmic dance-like finale.

Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, BWV 1043

J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

I. Vivace in D minor

II. Largo ma non tanto in F major

III. Allegro

     Solo Violin – Nigel Armstrong  Gabriela Peña-Kim 

In 1721, Telemann arrived in Hamburg but encountered opposition to his secular music activities by the churches that employed him. He applied for the newly vacant position of Thomaskantor in Leipzig. He got the job, but turned it down because it didn’t pay enough. The job eventually went to another aspiring composer, Johann Sebastian Bach.

The Double Concerto in D minor was composed in 1730 for a concert series in Leipzig. The lively beginning and concluding movements feature the violin soloists as complementary performers, contrasting with the orchestra. The structure includes fugue variations and counterpoint. The lovely second movement is one of the most recognizable of Bach’s compositions. In this Largo, the violins are truly the stars, with the orchestra as an accompaniment. A haunting four note descending motif and its variations appear multiple times in the movement.

Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983)

Concerto for Strings, Op. 33

I. Variazioni per i solisti  

II. Scherzo fantastico 

III. Adagio angoscioso 

IV. Finale furioso

Argentinian Alberto Ginastera (the composer preferred the Catalan pronunciation of his surname: GEE nuh STER ah) was educated and taught music in Buenos Aires. One of his students was Astor Piazzolla who popularized the tango and elevated the genre to serious music. In the post-war 1940’s, Ginastera studied with Aaron Copland at Tanglewood.

Musicologists divide Ginastera’s body of work into three periods: Objective Nationalism, Subjective Nationalism, and Neo-Expressionism. Tonight’s performance is from the third period which began in the 1950’s and lasted the rest of his life. The style is avant-garde, with irregular tempos, random gimmicks, and aggression. The music is full of feeling—anger, excitement, urgency—with tremendous vitality.

The first movement, Variazioni per i solisti, features string instrument solos scattered throughout an orchestral landscape of atonality and irregular rhythms. The scherzo playfully uses the orchestra’s apparently random string plucks and instrument thumps characteristic of the Neo-Expressionist style. The adagio’s apt descriptor, Agnoscioso, means “distressing,” or “harrowing.” The movement begins ominously, accelerates into turmoil, finally settling into a weary exhaustion. The self-explanatory Finale furioso is a rapid, rhythmic, headlong rush to its conclusion.

    Violin I – Gabriela Pena, Ingang Han, Igor Khukhua, Clinton Dewing, Piotr Szewczyk

    Violin II – Nigel Armstrong, Victoria Stjerna, Ann Hertler, Scott Jackson

    Viola – Jorge Pena, Romona Merritt, Erika Lauren Burns Hodges

    Cello – Jin Kim, Betsy Federman, Sarah Huesman

    Bass – Paul Strasshofer

    Harpsichord – Evangeliya Delizonas-Khukhua

    Trumpet – Kevin Karabell