Red Priest
Saturday, April 29, 2017
8:00 PM
Bethel United Methodist Church Hall, Lewes, DE
VIVA BAROQUE!
PROGRAM
MESSIAH VARIATIONS:
Overture
Comfort Ye
Every Valley
Georg Frederick Handel
(1685-1759)
Prelude
Largo
Passacaglia
Shepherds and Angels
Eternal Source of Light
The Jaws of Darkness
The Blind Man
The Harmonious Blacksmith
Siciliano Pedicuro
The Raging Nations
Breaking the Bonds
The Potters Vessel
Hallelujah
INTERMISSION
THE FOUR SEASONS:
Antonio Vivaldi
(1678-1741)
Concerto in E major “La Primavera” (“Spring”)
Allegro (Spring has arrived; birdsong; a bubbling stream; April storm; birdsong)
Largo (sleeping shepherd with waving grasses and a barking dog)
Allegro (pastoral dance)
Concerto in G minor “L’Estate” (“Summer”)
Allegro non molto (languishing in the heat; a cuckoo; a dove; a goldfinch; balmy winds;
violent winds; shepherd cries and dog barks, in fear of the storm)
Adagio/Presto (uneasy rest with mosquitoes and thunder)
Presto (violent summer storm)
(continued)
Concerto in F major “L’Autunno” (“Autumn”)
Allegro (harvest celebration with dancing peasants; drunkards; dozing revelers)
Adagio molto (sleeping drunkards)
Allegro (the hunt arrives; the stag flees in terror; rifle-shots and hounds; the stag dies
and rises to heaven)
Concerto in F minor “L’Inverno” (“Winter”)
Allegro non molto (bitter frost; cruel winds; stamping feet in the cold; howling wind;
chattering teeth)
Largo (dreaming peacefully by the fire with rain outside)
Allegro (walking cautiously on ice; falling down; skating; the ice breaks; the Sirocco
wind; violent winds)
Red Priest appears by arrangement with Lisa Sapinkopf Artists, www.chambermuse.com
Harpsichord from Cembaloworks of Washington
RED PRIEST
Piers Adams – recorders
David Greenberg – violin
Angela East – cello
David Wright – harpsichord
Insert Bios, Photos, etc. here
Program Notes
Tonight’s programme brings together two of the greatest works of the Baroque era—Handel’s
Messiah and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons—in festive arrangements for just four instruments.
Such transcriptions were commonplace in the Baroque era, if nothing else as a means of
hearing large scale works in a domestic setting well before the age of recorded music!
Vivaldi’s seminal work appeared in no fewer than 80 editions during his lifetime and in the
decades afterwards, including an improbable arrangement for solo flute, and another for
recorder, violin, harpsichord, viol and hurdy-gurdy—the inspiration for our own transcription.
Although no similar precedent can be found directly for Handel’s Messiah, it is certainly the
case that Handel himself reused many of his melodies from orchestral and choral works in
solo and chamber settings.
As composers, performers and publishers continued to adapt, expand, elaborate and
generally personalise works by the great masters, one could legitimately argue that the very
idea of attempting to perform music in fixed interpretation, exactly as the composer would
have done (upon which concept the entire "authentic performance" movement of recent times
is based) is a fallacy; in Baroque times the personal whim and creativity of the performer was
paramount.
In our Messiah Variations we have chosen to intersperse scenes from the great work with
other works by Handel to create a colourful tapestry of music, showing his genius as a
composer across many different genres–from the highly dramatic depiction of biblical
passions to beautiful adagios, zesty harpsichord improvisations and thrilling variations.
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons remain to this day an object lesson in creative composition, depicting
in vivid technicolour a year in the Italian countryside, complete with a menagerie of songbirds,
dogs, horses, goats and stags, every aspect of weather from gentle breezes to violent
tempests, from sultry heat to bitter cold, and a range of seasonal activities from ice-skating to
hunting to a raucous drunken party.
The balance between authenticity and innovation is always a delicate one when performing
music of the past. An ensemble such as ours, with a fixed instrumental line-up, would have
had limited purchase in the Baroque era, and a touring career would have been out of the
question. Music was much more a product of its time and place, and outside of the formality
of church services, was largely a casual affair: people would walk in and out, drink, talk,
gamble; farmers were even known to pass through the church or concert hall with their goats!
The music often went on for hours and hours . . . so today’s formal concert set-up—90
minutes of music performed to a silent audience seated in rows—is entirely inauthentic. For
this reason we always err on the side of innovation, and hope in the process to capture a little
of the raw, earthy spirit of the Baroque!
~ Program Notes from Red Priest