REBEL
with the Deutsche Naturhorn Solisten

Concert Program
Program Notes
Biographies

Music of the Royal Hunt
Saturday, November 5, 2005
8 PM, Synod Hall

Wilhelm Bruns & Jean-Sebastien Salm — hunt horns
Debra Nagy, Stephen Bard, Virginia Brewer — oboes
Jörg-Michael Schwarz & Karen Marmer — piccolo violin, violins & directors
Amelia Roosevelt — violin; Peter Bucknell — viola
John Moran — violoncello ; Andrew Schwartz — bassoon
Anne Trout — double bass; Dongsok Shin — harpsichord

Georg Philipp Telemann 1681-1767	Ouverture-Suite in F-major 2 hunt horns, 2 oboes, bassoon, strings & B.C. Ouverture: Lentement-Allegro-Lentement, Rondeau, Sarabande, Menuet avec le trio, La Badinerie, Gigue, Réjouissance avec le Trio, Fanfare
Johann Sebastian Bach 1685-1750	Sinfonia in D major 2 oboes, bassoon, strings & B.C. Allegro-Adagio-Allegro
George Frideric Handel 1685-1759	Concerto in F-major from: Water Music (1717) 2 horns, 2 oboes, bassoon, strings & B.C. Allegro, Air, Alla Hornpipe
Intermission
Georg Philipp Telemann	Ouverture in D-major (ca. 1735) 2 hunting horns, bassoon, strings & B.C. Ouverture: [Gravement-Vite-Gravement], Les Janissaires, Menuet I & II, Espagniole, Carillon, A la trompette, Bourree
Georg Philipp Telemann	Concerto in B-flat-major 3 oboes, 3 violins & B.C. Allegro, Largo, Allegro
Johann Sebastian Bach	Concerto I in F-major (1720) “dedicated to the Margrave of Brandenburg” 2 hunting horns, 3 oboes, bassoon, violino piccolo, strings & B.C. [Allegro moderato], Adagio, Allegro, Menuetto - Trio I - Polacca - Trio II

Program Notes

The horn owes a debt of gratitude to the taste of Franz Anton Count von Sporck (1662-1738). In addition to setting up his own printing press to spread philosophical and theological writings and to encourage the poets of his country, the Imperial Privy Counselor, Viceroy of Bohemia was an ardent statesman and man of culture. His two greatest passions were music and hunting. Like any aspiring central European noble with cultural and political pretensions, he spent time at Versailles. It was during his stay there in 1680 that he came to know the French hunting horn (cor de chasse) the object that simultaneously embodied his two favorite entertainments. The horn brought music to the hunt and had the potential to bring the hunt into the realm of music. He was so taken with the instrument that he had two of his employees, Wenzel Sweda and Peter Röllig, learn the instrument. He then was able to bring instruments and players back to Bohemia, probably providing the earliest models from which Nuremberg trumpet makers were able to begin making horns in the 1680s. Unlike other noble houses where clear distinctions between indoor and outdoor instruments still reigned, Sporck's musical establishment is said to have included horns with the strings from earliest times. Sporck is therefore often credited with the introduction of the French hunt horn to German-speaking countries and to chamber and concert use in general.

In the late spring of 1718 Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen brought several of his musicians and his Capellmeister, Johann Sebastian Bach, with him to the resort town of Carlsbad, a town which filled a role for central Europe analogous to the role of Jackson Hole, Wyoming in America today. Nobility and royalty in the company of their houses would gather here not only to game and take the waters, but also to be seen and entertained. Musicologist Christoph Wolff claims that Carlsbad at this time was in effect the “earliest summer festival of the performing arts.” Prince Leopold would have brought a retinue of his finest musicians not just for his own pleasure but to impress his peers. Count Sporck of Prague was one of the earliest regular visitors to this retreat, so it was probably here that Bach had his first encounter with Sporck and became aware of the instrument's virtuosic potential. By 1720 Saxony and neighboring Bohemia had developed the two strongest traditions of horn playing in Europe.

Too little evidence survives for us to date the Telemann pieces on this program with any certainty. What is clear is that they all stem from the confident hand of a master. Telemann wrote in a range of styles as diverse as his varied influences. According to his own autobiography, as a student in Leipzig he was able to benefit from frequent opportunities to hear the Hannover and Wolfenbüttel orchestras. He credits the former for acquainting him with French taste and the latter with the Italian and theatrical tastes, while from both he learned the “diverse natures of the different instruments”, a skill truly necessary to the mastery of composition. How far Telemann came in his mastery is made clear by his inventive and idiomatic writing for all the different instruments in these pieces and his ability to pit dissimilar instrument families against each other on their own terms. This is very clearly heard in the F major Suite, TWV 55 F3, where he carefully balances the three choirs: horns; double reeds; and strings and continuo. Because of the nature of their sound and technique, the horns are given the most individual treatment, always playing their own idiomatic material against the other two choirs which tend to blend with and imitate each other, but somehow always integrating the three into something greater than the sum of their parts.

That Bach and Sporck maintained connections over the years is attested in various small ways, but most poignantly through a note in Bach's hand in the autograph score to the Sanctus from the B minor Mass, which contains an arresting obbligato horn part, stating “NB the parts are in Bohemia with Count Sporck”. The parts were never returned and eventually had to be recopied. The Sinfonia in D major, BWV 42, is taken from the cantata Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats written in 1725. The “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 1 in F major has little in common with the Vivaldian concerto. With its succession of contrasting movements, ending in a dance sequence it seems closer in character to the German ouverture-suite. Like Telemann in his F major Ouverture, Bach here employs the three choirs for contrast, using the instruments every bit as idiomatically as Telemann, but in a more idiosyncratic way, so that the ways thematic material is transferred from one group to another are both more fluid and less predictable.

Like Bach and Telemann, Handel was a native Saxon and equally heir to that country's great horn-playing tradition, so it is no wonder that he wrote such prominent parts for the horns in his “Water Music”. With his “Water Music” Handel belies his Saxon heritage in that he composed the first orchestral music written in England requiring horns crooked in both D and F.

— Notes by John Moran

Biographies

REBEL
Michael Schwarz & Karen Marie Marmer — directors

Hailed by the New York Times as “Sophisticated and Beguiling” and praised by the Los Angeles Times for their “astonishingly vital music-making”, the New York-based Baroque ensemble REBEL(pronounced “Re-bel”) has earned an impressive international reputation, enchanting diverse audiences with their unique style and their virtuosic, highly expressive and provocative approach to the Baroque and Classical repertoire.

The core formation of two violins, recorder/traverso, cello/viola da gamba and harpsichord/organ expands with additional strings, winds, theorbo and vocalists, performing on period instruments. REBEL is currently in residence at historic Trinity Church, Wall Street in New York City, collaborating with Trinity Choir in works ranging from the cantatas of Bach to the major oratories of Handel, Bach, Mozart and Haydn.

Named after the innovative French Baroque composer Jean-Féry Rebel (1666-1747), REBEL was originally formed in The Netherlands in l99l. In the Fifth International Competition for Ensembles in Early Music, Utrecht 1991 (now the van Wassenaer Competition) REBEL was awarded first prize. Since then the ensemble has performed at European venues such as the Holland Festival Oude Muziek, Tage Alter Musik Berlin, the Resonanzen Festival (Vienna), La Chapelle Royale (Versailles), Internationale Festtage für Alte Musik Stuttgart, Tage Alter Musik Regensburg and the Händel Festspiele (Halle an der Saale, Germany), amongst others.

REBEL has appeared to critical acclaim at distinguished American venues such as the Da Camera Society, the Schubert Club, Friends of Music Kansas City, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, Library of Congress, Caramoor, Chautauqua Institution, Stanford Lively Arts, University of Chicago Presents, University of Arizona (Tucson) Presents, the Shrine to Music Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Boston and Berkeley Early Music Festivals and Music Before l800 in New York City.

REBEL has collaborated with renowned vocalists Max von Egmond, Derek Lee Ragin, Suzie Le Blanc, Daniel Taylor, Peter Kooy and Barbara Schlick; in 2005 REBEL appeared in collaboration with Renée Fleming at Carnegie Hall to critical acclaim. The ensemble has recorded for all the major European national radio networks and has been showcased in performance and interview on BBC's Radio 3. Arguably the most aired American Baroque ensemble in the U.S. today, REBEL has been regularly featured on NPR's Performance Today and NPR's St. Paul Sunday. In 1999 REBEL became the first and only period instrument ensemble to be awarded an artists' residency at National Public Radio.

REBEL has recorded for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Dorian Recordings ('Rossi and his Circle; Concerti di Napoli; Telemann alla Polacca), ATMA Classique (Giuseppe Sammartini: Sonate e Concerti in collaboration with Ensemble Caprice, Montréal) and Hänssler Classics (Haydn: Two Masses with REBEL Baroque Orchestra & Trinity Choir). Forthcoming CDs include Antonio Vivaldi: Shades of Red (Bridge Records); Corellisante: Trio Sonatas by A.Corelli & G.Ph.Telemann, Haydn: St.Nicolai Mass & Grand Organ Mass and Biber: Harmonia Artificiosa -Ariosa.

The REBEL Baroque Orchestra first gained wide recognition in 2001 for its acclaimed performance of Mozart's Requiem with Trinity Choir under the direction of Dr. Owen Burdick, broadcast nationally over National Public Radio in memoriam of the victims of September 11, and for its annual performances of Handel's Messiah and the sacred choral works of Haydn, which have been broadcast live over WQXR-FM in New York City and over XM Satellite Radio, as well as internationally over the Internet since December 2001.

Jörg-Michael Schwarz, a prizewinner in several international violin competitions, has performed as soloist and chamber musician throughout the Americas, Asia, Australia and Europe. A recipient of numerous grants and scholarships, he studied violin with Max Rostal and Berta Volmer in Cologne, Germany, and with Dorothy DeLay and Jens Ellerman at the Juilliard School. Early on in his career Mr. Schwarz concentrated on chamber music, studying with the Melos, Amadeus and Juilliard Quartets as well as Felix Galimir. As soloist he has appeared with the Scottish Chamber Symphony under Yehudi Menuhin, the Berne Symphony Orchestra, the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra and the Heilbronn Symphony Orchestra, amongst others. Co-founder of the Ravel Quartet Köln (1978-81), the Orfeo Chamber Soloists (1979-82) and the Monadnock Quartet (1984-88), he was concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra (1984-85) and the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra (1984-88).

He has performed with Marie Leonhardt, Jaap Schroeder, Albert Fuller, Reinhard Goebel, the English Baroque Soloists, the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Anima Eterna, the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra and Musica Antiqua Köln. A co-founder of the award-winning baroque ensemble REBEL, with whom he performs extensively, he has also served as concertmaster of the Connecticut Early Music Festival Orchestra (1990-92), the Barockorchester Stuttgart (1992-96), Grande Bande (New York), the New York Collegium, American Bach Soloists and the Portland Baroque Orchestra.

He has played under the batons of Gustav Leonhardt, Frans Brüggen, Ton Koopman, Philippe Herreweghe, John Eliot Gardiner, Roger Norrington and Fabio Biondi. Mr. Schwarz has been a featured performer at early music festivals throughout the world, including those in Boston, Berkeley, Utrecht, Herne, Stuttgart, Regensburg, Halle, Bruges, Vienna and Ambronay (France).

His recording of the Vivaldi Four Seasons was released in 1992 on Chesky Records; he can also be heard on Channel Classics, ERATO, Sony, Smithsonian Press, Arabesque, PGM, Vox Classics, ATMA Classique and Koch International. With the baroque ensemble REBEL he records for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Hänssler Classic and Dorian Recordings.

Mr. Schwarz is an avid wine enthusiast and collector of antiques.

Karen Marie Marmer studied violin at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College with Israel Chorberg and Ruth Waterman and at the Yale School of Music with Syoko Aki. Her baroque violin studies were with Jaap Schroeder at Yale, Marilyn MacDonald at the Baroque Performance Institute at Oberlin and with Lucy van Dael at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.

Praised for her playing as “subtle and supple” (Cleveland Plain Dealer) and as possessing “great temperament and color”(St. Paul Pioneer Press), her international career has included collaborations with Capriccio Stravagante (Paris), the Nederlandse Bach Vereniging (The Netherlands), Ensemble Baroque de Mateus (Portugal), the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra (Washington, D.C.), Les Idees Heureuses (Montréal), the American Bach Soloists, the New York Collegium and the Stuttgart Baroque Orchestra, of which she served as co-concertmaster from 1991-96. She has performed under the batons of Ton Koopman, Frans Brüggen, William Christie, Philippe Herreweghe, Reinhard Goebel, Frieder Bernius and Gustav Leonhardt, and has concertized throughout Europe with Marie Leonhardt.

A co-founder of REBEL, Ms. Marmer concertizes extensively in Europe and North America, and has recorded for most major European radio stations as well as National Public Radio in the U.S. She has been heard at early music festivals in Boston, Berkeley, Utrecht, Bruges, Halle, Regensburg, Herne, Stuttgart, Vienna and Ambronay (France). Her recording credits include Vox Classics, PGM, Chesky, Koch International, ATMA Classique, Hänssler Classics, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi and Dorian Recordings.

While at Yale, Ms. Marmer was the artistic director and producer of an innovative series of chamber music concerts which brought together students from the undergraduate, graduate and alumni sectors. In the year 2000, Ms. Marmer founded the Westchester, New York-based chamber music series, MUSICA ANTIQUA NOVA, of which she has been producer since its inception. In addition to her duties as REBEL's manager and publicist, as a passionate cultural advocate she has served on the adjudicating panels of the Westchester Arts Council and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Alongside music, Ms. Marmer's interests include environmental and historic preservation, the diverse spiritual traditions of the world and mysticism with a special focus on the Kabbalah. Trained in several modalities, Ms. Marmer is a practitioner of the healing arts.

Wilhelm Bruns commenced his musical career on hunting horn at the age of ten as a member of several groups of “hunting horn orchestras” (Jagdhorn bläser gruppen). During his professional studies with Hermann Baumann at the Folkwang-Musikhochschule in Essen he began focusing intensively on natural horn. In 1987 he won first prize in the Naturhorn Wettbewerb (Natural Horn Competition) in Bad Harzburg and has since concertized as soloist and chamber musician with Concentus Musicus Wien, Capella Coloniensis, La Stagione Frankfurt, the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and Neue Düsseldorfer Hofmusik among others.

In 1985 Mr. Bruns founded the Deutsche Naturhorn Solisten. The critically-acclaimed, one-of-a-kind ensemble records for the MDG label (Detmold, Germany), focusing on horn concerti as well as trio and quartet music for natural horns. Their CD (in conjunction with Neue Düsseldorfer Hofmusik) of Telemann Horn Concerti received the Echo Klassik prize from the German Phono-Akademie in October 2002.

Since 1988 Wilhelm Bruns has been principal horn of the Nationaltheater Orchester in Mannheim, where he also teaches at the Akademie Mannheimer Schule. Since 2000 Mr. Bruns has been on the faculty of the Musikhochschule Frankfurt, and in July 2003 he founded the Internationale Naturhornakademie Bad Dürkheim (International Natural Horn Academy), a facility that includes a 200-seat concert hall and a small hotel.

Mr. Bruns' latest recording of the complete horn concerti of Mozart with the Mozartorchester Mannheim will be released during Mozart's anniversary year in 2006.

Born into a musical family, Jean-Sébastien Salm began piano studies at age 6 and horn studies at the age of 9. During his studies under Marie Louise Neunecker in Cologne, Mr. Salm was two-time prizewinner in the prestigious Jeunesses Musicales Competition in Germany. Continuing his studies with Professor W. Gaag in Munich and Professor Chr. Lampert in Frankfurt, he also studied natural horn with Wilhelm Bruns, and participated in masterclasses with Erich Penzel, Dale Clevenger and Barry Tuckwell, amongst others.

Mr. Salm has performed with the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Pacific Music Festival, Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra, UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra and the National Hungarian Philharmonic Orchestra of Budapest under the respective batons of Edo de Waart, Zoltan Kocsis, Kent Nagano, Valerie Gergiev, Bernhard Haitink and James Levine, a.o. Since 2004 Jean-Sébastien Salm holds the position of second horn in the Nationaltheater Mannheim and is a member of the Deutsche Naturhorn Solisten.