The Atlanta Baroque Orchestra
John Hsu, Artistic Director
Viennese Chamber Music
for Winds & Strings
Sunday 11 May 2008
3:00 p.m.
Peachtree Road United Methodist Church
3180 Peachtree Road NW
Atlanta, Georgia
Viennese Chamber Music
For Winds & Strings
made possible by the sponsorship of Peter & Pat DeWitt
Divertimento (Feld-Parthie) in C Major, Hob. II:7
Allegro
Menuetto
Adagio
Menuetto
Rondo: presto
Franz Josef Haydn
(1732–1809)
Serenade: Andante cantabile
from String Quartet in F (published as Haydn’s Opus 3, no. 5)
Roman Hoffstetter
(1742–1815)
Mozart: Divertimento No. 13 in F Major, K. 253
Thema mit Variationen (andante)
Menuetto
Allegro assai
Wolfgang Amadé Mozart
(1756–1791)
Intermission
Mozart: Divertimento No. 12 in E-flat Major, K. 252
Andante
Menuetto
Polonaise: andante
Presto
Wolfgang Amadé Mozart
String Quartet in F Major, Op. 77, No. 2
Allegro moderato
Menuet-Presto
Andante
Finale-Vivace assai
Franz Josef Haydn
THE ATLANTA BAROQUE ORCHESTRA
John Hsu, Artistic Director
String Quartet
Karen Clarke, violin I
Shawn Pagliarini, violin II
Melissa Brewer, viola
Brent Wissick, violoncello
Harmonie
George Riordan, oboe I
Lara Lay, oboe II
Keith Collins, bassoon I
Kelsey Schilling, bassoon II
Celeste Holler, horn I
Russell Williamson, horn II
The Atlanta Baroque Orchestra was founded under the leadership of Lyle Nordstrom, along with
founding-members Catherine Bull, Jeanne Johnson, Daniel Pyle, and Eckhart Richter, who felt the
need for a permanent, professional, historical-instrument orchestra in the Southeast. The unique,
transparent sheen of “early” instruments, coupled with their capability of a delightful variety of
articulations, allows voices and instruments to blend into a unified, yet clear, sound that is very difficult
to achieve with “modern” instruments. Since its founding in 1997, the ABO has been applauded for its
freshness and verve, and for its delightful, convincing performances of a wide range of earlier works.
The Orchestra received initial generous support from the Atlanta Early Music Alliance and a variety of
individuals, and has also depended on donations of time and money from the musicians themselves.
The ABO is a not-for-profit corporation based in Atlanta, and is 501(c)3 (tax-exempt). Contributions,
which are tax-deductible, are greatly appreciated and are central to the survival of a venture such as
this. If you would like to support the ABO and its future programming, please send checks made out to
“The Atlanta Baroque Orchestra,” 303 Augusta Avenue SE, Atlanta, GA 30315. There is also a great
opportunity for friends of the arts in the community to serve on the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra board.
Please visit our website at www.atlantabaroque.org for more information on the ABO.
John Hsu is the Old Dominion Foundation Professor of Music Emeritus at Cornell University, where he
taught for 50 years (1955-2005). He was the founder and conductor of the erstwhile Apollo Ensemble
(a period instrument chamber orchestra) and a renowned virtuoso player of the viola da gamba and
baryton. As both a conductor and an instrumentalist, he has been awarded grants by The Fund for
U.S. Artists at International Festivals and Exhibitions, a public/private partnership of the National
Endowment for the Arts, the United States Information Agency, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the
Pew Charitable Trusts. He has performed throughout North America and Europe, and made awardwinning recordings. Among them are his CD of Haydn Baryton Trios (with violist David Miller and cellist
Fortunato Arico), which was chosen Winner in the Music Retailers Association's Annual Award for
Excellence in London, 1989; and his CD Symphonies for the Esterhazy Court by Joseph Haydn (with the
Apollo Ensemble), which was nominated for the 1996 International Cannes Classical Music Award. In
recognition of his edition of the complete instrumental works of Marin Marais (1656-1728), the most
important composer of music for the viola da gamba, and for his performances and recordings of
French baroque music for the viola da gamba, the French government conferred on him the
knighthood Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in May of 2000.
He is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, which awarded him the Honorary Doctor
of Music degree in 1971, and the Outstanding Alumni Award in 2003. He is also Artistic Director
Emeritus of the Aston Magna Foundation for Music and the Humanities, the pioneering musical
organization in the historical performance movement in this country, founded by Albert Fuller in 1972.
Program Notes
The works for small wind band that you will hear today were referred to as “harmoniemusik”
in the last half of the 18th Century, when Haydn and Mozart were active. Groupings of pairs
of wind instruments were commonly employed to perform outdoors in serenades, or indoors
as tafelmusik (literally table music), that is, dinner music for a special occasion. Pairs of wind
instruments commonly included oboes, horns and bassoons, as on this concert; pairs of
clarinets could either be added to form an octet, or substituted for the oboes. Flutes, English
horns or basset horns could also be added or substituted.
Oboes, horns and bassoons were an integral part of the Classical-period orchestra; for example,
Haydn employed them in all of his 100-plus symphonies, except for one, where he substituted two
English horns for the oboes. In the Classical symphony, the wind band would play a number of
functions: they would often play chordal harmonies (thus the term “harmoniemusik”) while the
strings performed melodic acrobatics; individual wind players or groupings might suddenly play
solos; or the wind band would be called upon to play harmoniemusik-inspired passages, as in
Haydn’s “Military” Symphony No. 100, Mozart’s opera Abduction from the Seraglio or his piano
concertos, or the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Perhaps the best-known piece of
harmoniemusik is the “Chorale St. Antonii” that Brahms attributed to Haydn, and that serves as the
basis of his orchestral work Variations on a Theme of Haydn.
The three harmoniemusik works on today’s program were written by Haydn and Mozart early in
their careers, as music that served specific functions: to serenade or as diversions for their
employers, perhaps to help them forget the cares of their daily affairs and to relax around the
dinner table. As such, they were designed to please, to be simple and direct (or “innocent,” in the
words of musicologist Alfred Einstein).
Haydn’s Divertimento (or Feld-Parthie, literally, “field party”) in C Major seems to have been
written in 1760 or 1761, just prior to the time that his Bohemian patron, Count Morzin, had to
disband his little band due to financial problems, and just before Haydn went into the service of
Prince Esterhazy of Hungary, where he would remain part of the court for most of the remainder of
his creative life. Haydn had begun writing symphonies shortly before he composed this and six
other similar serenades; in this harmoniemusik we can see in miniature some of the hallmarks of
the budding genius that would shape our concept of the symphony. Unlike the symphony, though,
this brief divertimento is in “arch” form, with fast outer movements, and two minuets (dances)
bracketing a central adagio.
Mozart composed six divertimenti for the combination of pairs of oboes, horns and bassoons, all
between 1775 and 1777; he produced many other divertimenti and serenades for various
instrumentation, all early works. Mozart scholar Alfred Einstein characterizes these as
…written for summer nights under the light of torches and lamps, to be heard close by
and from afar; and it is from afar that they sound most beautiful. Mozart remembered
such sounds of wind-instruments in Don Giovanni and in Così fan tutte, in the former as
table music, in the latter as garden music. … 1
These two Mozart divertimenti are interesting in certain respects. The F Major Divertimento (No.
13, K. 253) begins with a leisurely theme and variations, rather than the customary allegro, while
the E-flat (No. 12, K. 252) opens with a stately andante, with the third movement a polonaise, a
Polish dance.
Perhaps this harmoniemusik, while pretending to be profound, is nonetheless pleasing and
beautifully crafted, and we hope it provides you not only with an insight into the oeuvre of two of
our favorite composers, as well as a perfect diversion for Mother’s Day.
George Riordan
1
Alfred Einstein, Mozart: His Character, His Work, translated by Arthur Mendel and Nathan Broder, (New York, 1945), p. 201.
Although Franz Josef Haydn was not the first composer to write for an ensemble consisting
of two violins, viola, and violoncello, he is generally acknowledged to be the “Father of the
String Quartet” just as he is the “Father of the Symphony.” In the course of his long and
productive career, Haydn produced no less than sixty-eight works for the combination, and in
the process he established it as the pre-eminent type of chamber-music and as the ultimate
test of a composer’s craft.
Haydn’s first music for a quartet of strings were his first published works, Opus 1 and Opus 2
in 1762. These early works are more like divertimenti, light and pleasing works for
entertainments in noble or wealthy houses. (About his Opus 3 quartets there will be more
below.) But with the publication of his Opus 9 set in 1769, he codified the format which
became the standard for not only the string quartet but also the symphony: four movements
with a fast opening movement in sonata-form and lively final movement, surrounding a slow
movement (often theme-and-variations) in a contrasting key and a minuet-and-trio. He also
composed for the ensemble in such a way that the four instruments became equal partners in
the unfolding of the music, through the interplay of motives and themes passed from one part
to another — rather than having a single dominant melodic part (the first violin) merely
accompanied by the other three, as one finds in lighter genres. It was this polyphonic web of
equal voices that elevated the quartet from a purveyor of pleasant background music to the
vessel for a composer’s most serious thoughts, requiring from its audience in turn the most
serious listening.
Nevertheless, Haydn being who he was, even his most serious compositional efforts are
invariably filled with good humor and sharp wit. (Perhaps it is these very characteristics that
have caused later artists and thinkers, like those of the Romantic and our own post-Romantic
modernist times, who can only associate profound art with anguish and neurosis but never
with humor and wit, to overlook Haydn’s profound importance in the development of
Western music. )
The two string quartets that make up Haydn’s Opus 77 are the last completed instrumental
compositions from the master’s hand. After he returned from the second of his trips to
London in 1795, having completed the last of his symphonies, Haydn devoted the remaining
years of his life primarily to vocal and choral music. These are the years that witnessed the
composition of the six great Masses for the princely chapel at Esterhaza and the two
oratorios, The Creation (completed in 1798) and The Seasons (completed 1801). At the same
time that he was working on The Creation, Haydn was composing his six quartets Opus 76
completed 1797 and published 1799). Concurrently with work on The Seasons he was asked by
the music-loving nobleman Prince Lobkowicz to compose a set of three string quartets. By
1799 Haydn had completed two, but feeling the pressure of advancing age he went ahead with
publication in 1802 of the incomplete set (he was, after all, 70 years old by that time;
eventually the unfinished third quartet was also published, separately, with the opus number
103).
This same prince, Joseph Franz Maximilian Lobkowicz, was also one of Beethoven’s greatest
supporters. Beethoven dedicated his first set of string quartets to him — in fact, Beethoven was
composing his Opus 18 quartets at the very same time that Haydn (his former teacher) was
creating his last two sets of quartets. The compositions for quartet of both teacher and pupil
were almost certainly premiered by the same ensemble, Prince Lobkowicz’s quartet led by
Ignaz Schuppanzigh, in the same palace and before the same listeners. It was in this same palace
that four years later, in 1806, Beethoven would turn the musical world upside-down with his third
symphony, the “Eroica.”
Haydn’s Quartet in F, opus 77 no. 2, opens with fast movement in sonata-form. The exposition
seems typically elegant, but in the central development section Haydn explores the far reaches of
harmonic modulation, going into the dark corners that are usually associated with Beethoven. The
return of the calm warmth of F major in the Recapitulation is so different from the wanderings in
the Development as to be shocking in itself. The Menuet-and-Trio, which is usually the third
movement, here comes second. It is very fast, far to fast to be danced, and in its irregular and
unexpected accents as well as its speed it anticipates the Scherzo movements of Beethoven.
The third, slow movement is in the form of theme-and-variations. The theme is stated very austerely
at first, no more than a melody for the violin accompanied only by a bass-line in the cello.
Thereafter, each member of the quartet is given a chance to carry the main melody: in one variation
the viola soars above both violins, and in another the cello is given the melody in the alto range
while the viola becomes the bass voice and the second violin becomes the tenor. One very
remarkable feature of the slow movement is that it is in D major, a third away from the main key of
F of the other three movements — such a movement would ordinarily have been in C or B-flat. As a
result of this bold departure from normal practice, there is another shocking moment when the
final chord of the third movement, with its F-sharp, is succeeded by the F-major chord which begins
the final movement.
When Haydn was only in his early thirties, around 1772-74, he was already recognized as the
foremost composer of his generation. This meant that unscrupulous publishers often sold music
under his name that he had never composed — probably never even seen or heard. One such
fraudulent publication was a collection of six string quartets that appeared in 1774 as Haydn’s Opus
3. An examination of the plates from which the publication was printed reveals that the name of the
actual composer had been scraped off and Haydn’s name engraved in its place. It has since been
ascertained that the actual composer was a German-born monk, Roman Hoffstetter. Hoffstetter
was a known admirer of Haydn’s music and had obviously studied it seriously. The “Serenade” is
the slow movement of the best-known of this set of quartets, which was incorrectly catalogued as
Opus 3 no. 5 in the list of Haydn’s works. This list was supposedly reviewed and approved by Haydn
in the last years of his life; it is not sure that he actually examined the list in detail, and even if he
did, considering the huge amount of music he produced in a career over 50 years in length, we can
hardly fault him if he let this one slip by. But the engaging qualities of Hoffstetter’s music is not
diminished in the slightest by having his name rightly restored to it.
Daniel Pyle
Embellish A Melody!
Bach Club ($1.000 +)
An anonymous donor
An anonymous donor
An anonymous donor
Cathy Callaway Adams
Dr. & Mrs. David Bright
Peter & Pat DeWitt
Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta
Janie R. Hicks
Martha J. R. Hsu
Douglas A. Leonard
William E. Pearson III
Lois Z. Pyle
Dr. & Mrs. Eckhart Richter
Donald E. Snyder
Larry Thorpe & Dr. Barbara Williams
Susan Wagner
Vivaldi Club ($250-499)
Anne P. Halliwell
Dr. & Mrs. Ephraim R. McLean
Mary Roth Riordan
Telemann Club ($100-249)
Tom & Joan Althouse
John & Linda Austin
Mr. & Mrs. Roger S. Austin
Beth Bell & Stephen Morris
Mr. & Mrs. Roy B. Bogue
Stratton H. Bull
Susan K. Card
Moncure and Sandy Crowder
Jeffrey & Martha Freeman
Dr. Alan Goodman
Dymples E. Hammer
Mr. & Mrs. Allan R. Jones
Virginia Ware Killorin
Hans & Christa Krause
Rich & Caroline Nuckolls
Rebecca M. Pyle
Hans & JoAnn Schwantje
Handel Club ($500-999)
Donald N. Broughton & Susan L. Olson
Dr. & Mrs. William P. Marks, Jr.
John & Zoe Pilgrim
Dr. George Riordan & Karen Clarke
Season Sponsors ($2,500 or more)
Anonymous Donor
Anonymous Donor
Peter & Pat DeWitt
Janie R. Hicks
William E. Pearson III
Lois Z. Pyle
Donald Snyder
Larry Thorpe & Dr. Barbara Williams
The Atlanta Baroque Orchestra would like to thank the following persons and establishments
For contributing their time, talents, and energy in regard to the details of ABO concerts.
Atlanta Early Music Alliance (AEMA)
Janice Joyce & Chris Robinson
Janie Hicks
Peter and Pat DeWitt
Peachtree Road United Methodist Church: Scott Atchison
and Camilla Cruikshank
Eckhart & Rosemary Richter
Russell Williamson
Valerie Prebys Arsenault
Sid & Linda Stapleton
Susan Wagner
Linda Bernard & RyeType Design
Cathy Adams & The Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta
The ABO would also like to acknowledge the several thousand dollars worth of rehearsal time that has been graciously given to the
orchestra by its members. These concerts could not be given without their enthusiasm and support.
ABO Board of Directors
President: Eckhart Richter
Vice President: William E. Pearson III
Vice President for Development: Janie Hicks
Secretary: Susan Wagner
Treasurer: Peter DeWitt
Resident Director: Daniel Pyle
Cathy Adams
Dr. Alan Goodman
Janice Joyce
Ephraim McLean
Melanie Punter
Larry Thorpe
Coming up next season!
all-Vivaldi concert, including the “gloria”
Symphonies for the Prince Esterhazy
by Haydn
(200 anniversary of Haydn’s death)
th
Bach Cantata 106 “Actus Tragicus”
and more!
Watch our web-site at
WWW.ATLANTABAROQUE.ORG
These concerts are made possible in part by a gift from