Program
Program Notes

Stephen Schultz, Andrew Appel,
and Chatham Baroque

April in Paris

We stroll the Champ-Elysées with our dear friends, flutist Stephen Schultz, Chatham Baroque, and harpsichordist Andrew Appel. La soirée française will include Telemann’s Paris Quartets, his tribute to France, as well as some tasty French delights.

Programme

April in Paris

Quartet No. 5 in A Major         Prélude (Vivement)         Gai         Modéré         Modéré         Pas vite         Un peu gai	Georg Philip Telemann (1681-1767)
Fantasie No. 9 in B Minor (für Violin ohne Baß)         Siciliana         Vivace         Allegro	Telemann
Quartet No. 6 in E Minor         Prélude (À discrétion—Tres vite—À discrétion)         Gai         Vite         Gracieusement         Distrait         Modéré	Telemann

Intermission/Entracte

Troisieme Suite for Flute in G Major         Allemande “La Cascade de St. Cloud”         Sarabande “La Guimon”         Courante “L’indiferente”—Double         Rondeau “Le Plaintif”         Menuet “Le Mignon”         Gigue “L’italienne”	Jacques-Martin Hotteterre (1674-1763)
Prélude         Tombeau de Mons. de Blancrocher	Louis Couperin (1626-1621)
Quartet No. 3 in G Major         Prélude (Un peu vivement)         Légèrement         Gracieusement         Vite         Modéré         Gai         Lentement—Vite	Telemann

PROGRAM NOTES

April in Paris

Our program centers on one of the great composers of the late Baroque period. Georg Philip Telemann is often mentioned in the same breath as J. S. Bach and George Frederick Handel. To be sure, Telemann was a contemporary and friend to both of these men, but today, it seems, he is mentioned as an afterthought—as though he played third fiddle to Bach and Handel. Largely because he composed and published so much music (perhaps more than any other composer), and also because much of his chamber music was intended for amateur, though very competent, musicians, he has a reputation today a bit like light beer. Telemann tastes great, but is a little less filling than Bach and Handel.

But Telemann’s light and fluffy reputation is not entirely deserved. He wrote works of great depth, imagination, variety, and humor in almost every genre. In his day, he was widely admired as perhaps the greatest composer of his generation, and even beat Bach himself for a position at St. Thomas Kirche in Leipzig. He was also among the most entrepreneurial musicians of his day, publishing many works that he engraved himself, and selling them through subscriptions that he advertised. In this way, his reputation grew throughout Europe.

Among Telemann’s best chamber works are the so-called Paris Quartets, or as they were known in their day, the Nouveaux Quartours. The unusual instrumentation of flute, violin, viola da gamba, and basso continuo gives these pieces a unique sound unlike other sonatas of the time. The first set of six Paris Quartets was published in Hamburg in 1730. Partly because of the success of these pieces in the French capital and elsewhere, and partly because his music was being pirated by unauthorized Parisian publishers, he traveled to Paris in 1737, where he spent eight months.

We know from Telemann’s autobiography of 1739 that he heard his first set of quartets performed by some of the preeminent professional musicians of Paris including the flautist Blavet, violinist Guignon, gambist Forqueray (the Younger) and cellist Edouard.

The admirable manner in which the quartets were played by Messrs Blavet, Guignon, Forcroy jun. and Edouard would deserve to be mentioned here, if indeed words were adequate to describe it. They won the attention of the
court and the city to an unusual degree and procured me an honorable
reception everywhere.

This success in Paris led to the publication of a second collection of six Nouveaux Quartours being published in Paris in1738. This collection attracted a good number of subscribers from Paris as well as the rest of Europe. Among the 237 subscribers was J. S. Bach. The new set showed great advancements from the 1730 collection, with heightened virtuosity and independence for each of the three solo instruments. All three quartets performed here come from the collection of 1738.

Part of Telemann’s great strength as a composer was his mastery of French, Italian, and even Polish styles of music, and his ability to synthsize these disparate styles into appealing works. As a young man, Telemann was exposed to the French style when he became Kapellmeister at the court at Sorau in 1705. Shortly thereafter, he visited Paris in 1707, where he must have met such musicians as flautist-composer Jacques-Martin Hotteterre, whose Suite in G Major from the Piéces pour la flûte traversière, et autres instruments, avec la basse-continue . . . oeuvre second (Paris,1708) is performed here. Hotteterre was known for his talent playing and teaching the transverse flute, an instrument for which he wrote two books of solo works with basso continuo, a book of trio sonatas (two flutes with basso continuo), and three suites for two unaccompanied flutes. He also wrote theoretical works and is credited with making some important improvements in the design and construction of the transverse flute.

The movements in Hotteterre’s suite in G Major, as was the custom of the day, have names attached. The opening movement, entitled “La Cascade de St. Cloud” represents the fountains at a famous chateau outside of Paris. The emotional highlight of the suite is the Rondeau “La Plaintif” (the sad one). The hauntingly mournful melody is heard three times, each with increasing ornamentation.

Although Telemann would not have known Louis Couperin (he died in 1661 before Telemann was born), he would have been familiar with music by French composers of his generation. Louis Couperin is known as one of the great harpsichordist-composers of the seventeenth century, though today his nephew, François Couperin le grand is the more famous. Louis died at age 35. His Prélude in F Major is typical of the many unmeasured introductory pieces that appeared in the seventeenth century—a practice that was begun by the French lutenists, and perfected by clavecinists such as Couperin. An unmeasured Prélude is an introductory piece that contains no barlines, with a good deal of rhythmic freedom, and is designed to sound as though the player is improvising. The Prélude sets the mood and key for a suite of dances that follow in the same key. The Tombeau is a mournful piece written in memory of a particular person, in this case a Mons. de Blancrocher.

Scott Pauley