Program
Program Notes
Biographies

Voices of Music
An Evening with Bach

Saturday, February 19, 2011     8:00 pm Synod Hall

These acclaimed San Francisco area musicians use their large variety of instruments to paint a warm musical spectrum, while soprano Laura Heimes brings her own shining sound. The program highlights the genius of Bach’s lyrical musical invention, including the beloved Air on a G String.

Programme

An Evening with Bach

Voices of Music
Laura Heimes, soprano
Louise Carslake, traverso & recorder
Elizabeth Blumenstock & Katherine Kyme, baroque violin
Lisa Grodin, baroque viola
William Skeen, baroque cello
David Tayler archlute
Hanneke van Proosdij organ, harpsichord & recorder

Air on the G string BWV 1068 Schlafe mein Liebster BWV 213 Bist du bei mir BWV 508 Sonata for violin in G major BWV 1021 Adagio–Vivace–Largo–Presto Schafe können sicher weiden BWV 208

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750)

Intermission

Sonata in A Major BWV 1015 Dolce, Allegro, Andante un poco, Presto Prelude from Suite in D minor BWV 1008 Archlute solo Cantate Ich Habe Genug BWV 82 Aria Ich Habe Genug Recitative, Ich Habe Genug Aria Schlummert ein Recitative, Mein Gott! Wann kömmt das schöne: Nun! Aria Ich freue mich auf meinen Tod

PROGRAM NOTES

Continental Connections: Musical Channel Crossing

Please join us for an evening of music which reflects both the lyrical side of Bach’s compositional genius as well as the wide variety of his musical invention.

We begin our journey with the Air on the G string from his third Orchestral Suite BWV 1068. The nickname which has affixed itself to this piece derives from a later transcription for solo violin where the tune was played entirely on the lowest string of the violin. For those who would like a preview, hear us play this beautiful movement with images from the European Space Agency on youtube— just look for “Bach under the Stars.”

In Schlafe mein Liebster Bach demonstrates his formidable musical invention. The music seems deceptively simple; yet the way in which small, mobile melodic fragments are spun together and take on the role of a ritornello is quite remarkable. We will perform Bach’s rarely heard original version from the Hercules cantata BWV 213; the work was first which was performed by Bach and his student Collegium Musicum in Zimmermann's Garden on the afternoon of September 5, 1733 for the birthday of Crown Prince Friedrich of Saxony. Bach later rescored this extraordinary aria with the addition of reeds for one of the cantatas of the Christmas Oratorio.

Bist du bei mir, from the Notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach, is most likely an arrangement by either Anna Magdalena or Bach himself from a popular aria by the composer Gottfried Stölzel. Bach also included a work of Stölzel, with additions of his own, in his collection of keyboard music for Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. It is possible the Bachs knew Stölzel’s music from the inventory of the Leipzig Opera which had gone bankrupt in 1720, more likely it was a favorite tune for informal performance at home. Compared to the wide range and variety of works in the Cantatas, the number of pieces by Bach for chamber ensemble that survives is astonishingly small. Bach scholar Christoph Wolff theorizes that the obituary inventory for Bach that refers to “a quantity of other instrumental things, of every kind and for every kind of instrument” undoubtedly refers to lost works for chamber ensemble. Typical of works from the Leipzig period, the sonata for violin in G major BWV 1021 creates a happy marriage of the violin and keyboard owing to Bach’s facility on both instruments, and challenges the performers both on musical and technical levels.

The first half of the program concludes with the aria Schafe können sicher weiden (Sheep may safely graze). This work benefits greatly from a return to the original performance forces: a simple yet perfect melody supported only by two recorders and an affetuoso bass line.

Bach's Sonata in A Major for solo violin and obbligato harpsichord BWV 1015 opens with a cantabile movement characterized by serene beauty and elegant imitation in three parts; we are then abruptly transported into a rollicking allegro in triple time which begins with imitation but which eventually dissolves into rapid arpeggios in the violin part. The musical palate is then refreshed by a dense and intriguing andante in which the harpsichord adopts the figuration of the baroque lute players of Bach's time, and the concluding fugal allegro is reminiscent of Bach's sonatas for viola da gamba, with its persistent alternation between fugal development and closely related motivic episodes. Bach wrote several types of violin sonatas, and the A Major is at first glance in the form of an organ trio: the contrapuntal basis is always three individual parts; however, these pieces are not idiomatic to the organ--the counterpoint is framed to suit the unique characteristics of the violin and harpsichord.

Some of Bach’s finest and most beautiful music may be found in his cantatas, most of which were designed for performance in the church. The cantata Ich habe genug BWV 82 was written in Leipzig for the Feast of the Purification. We will perform the soprano version of this sublime cantata which is slightly different from the well-known bass version. This version in E minor, featuring a soprano soloist with flute obbligato, dates back to 1731 and was a favorite in Bach’s family circle. Anna Magdalena Bach herself made keyboard reductions for the third and fourth movements. In this cantata Bach delivers a poignant portrait of Simeon, who realizes that his life has been fulfilled when he beholds the infant Jesus, and he now can serenely look forward to the end of his life. The opening aria is slow, dark and beautiful in which the ritornello takes on the dual role of a litany on the text “Ich habe genug” as well as provide a sense of an inexorable march around the circle of the fifths. The central aria schlummert ein is in the form of a lullaby and contains some of Bach’s most poignant and beautiful music—here the repetition of the sleep metaphor most likely refers both to Simeon’s death as well as the sleeping of the child. The last movement, in a frolicking minor mode, provides rhythmic relief from the sublime middle aria; the music neatly underlines the text: "With joy I greet my death; would that it were here already; then I shall escape the distress which afflicts me here on earth".

—David Tayler, Ph.D.

   

Biographies of the Performers

Voices of Music, directed by David Tayler and Hanneke van Proosdij, is hailed for their passion, artistry and technical brilliance. Featuring some of the best performers in Early Music, the ensemble is dedicated to the idea of the importance of the individual voices of the musicians in performance. Performances are one on a part, with an emphasis on combining both instrumental and vocal styles of interpretation and ornamentation. In addition to the Concert Series in the San Francisco Bay Area, Voices of Music sponsors the Young Artist Recitals, which are specifically designed to work with the next generation of singers and musicians. Voices of Music is an affiliate of the San Francisco Early Music Society.

The musicians of Voices of Music

Baroque violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock is widely admired as a performer of compelling verve and eloquence. She is a regular concertmaster with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra , American Bach Soloists, the Göttingen Händelfestspiel Orchestra, the Italian ensemble Il Complesso Barocco and she is a member of several period-instrument chamber ensembles, including Musica Pacifica, Arcadian Academy, and Trio Galanterie. Blumenstock has performed throughout the United States and abroad. An active and enthusiastic teacher, Blumenstock is instructor of baroque violin at the International Baroque Institute at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is on the teaching staff of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She has also taught at the Baroque Performance Institute at Oberlin and the Austrian Baroque Academy, and has coached baroque ensembles at Roosevelt University, the University of Virginia, and at the School for Music in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Louise Carslake is well known to American audiences as a performer on baroque flute and recorder. She is a member of the Baroque ensemble Music's Re-creation, the Farallon Recorder Quartet, and Magnificat, and has performed widely in her native Britain, as well as in New Zealand, Poland, Ireland, China and the Netherlands. She has recorded for radio and television internationally, and has made recordings for the Meridian, Centaur, Intrada, and Pandore labels. Louise teaches Baroque flute at U.C. Berkeley, and early music ensembles at Mills College.

Lisa Grodin is a tenured player with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, in which she has frequently played principal roles on violin and viola for over twenty years. She has performed in the U.S. and abroad with Les Arts Florissants, Capella Savaria, La Cetra, Collegium Cartusianum, American Bach Soloists, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, Santa FePro Musica, and the Del Sol Quartet. Ms Grodin studied at Oberlin Conservatory and was awarded a fellowship at Eastman School of Music, where she earned her masters degree. Since 2004 she has been the Music Director at The Crowden School, and also teaches at U.C. Berkeley’s Young Musicians Program.

Laura Heimes (still to follow)

Katherine Kyme received her musical training at UC Berkeley and Yale University. She became a member of the Seattle Symphony in 1979, but after a year’s leave to study baroque violin in Vienna, she began to specialize in music before 1850. She is a founding member of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the American Bach Soloists, the Arcadian Academy and the Artaria Quartet, performing throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia, and has made dozens of recordings. A passionate chamber music player, she performs with The Streicher Trio, the modern quartet String Circle, and the recently formed New Esterhazy Quartet, which is preparing to perform all sixty-eight of the Haydn string quartets. She conducts the Junior and Intermediate orchestras of the California Youth Symphony.

Hanneke van Proosdij performs regularly as soloist and continuo specialist with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Festspiel Orchester Goettingen, Voices of Music, Concerto Palatino, Magnificat and American Bach Soloists. She has appeared as a guest artist with Hesperion XX, Concerto Koln, Chanticleer, Orchestre dAmbronnay, Gewandhaus Orchester and the Arcadian Academy. She received her solo and teaching diplomas from the Royal Conservatory in The Hague where she studied recorder, harpsichord and composition. She has recorded over fifty discs for Magnatune, BIS, Koch, Musica Omnia, Carus, AVIE and Delos. Hanneke teaches recorder at UC Berkeley and has been guest professor at Stanford, Oberlin, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, University of Wisconsin and the University of Vermont. Hanneke enjoys reading books and downhill skiing.

William Skeen regularly performs with American Bach Soloists, Philharmonia Baroque in the Bay Area, and Musica Angelica in Los Angeles. He also has appeared as solo cellist with the Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle baroque orchestras. Mr. Skeen is a notable and frequent continuo cellist at major American opera houses such as Chicago Opera and San Diego Opera. A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music and the University of Southern California, Skeen has gone on to join the faculty at USC. where he has taught baroque cello and viola da gamba since 2000. In addition, he performs with the New Esterhàzy Quartet, El Mundo, Galanterie, and La Monica, which he co-founded in 1999. William is associate principal 'cellist of the Stockton Symphony and was, for eight seasons, a member of the Carmel Bach Festival orchestra. He has recorded for Koch, Delos, BIS, Hannsler, Sono Luminus, and Pandore records. Mr. Skeen makes his home in the Berkeley Hills with his wife Ondine, and two children, Talia and Liam.

David Tayler received his B.A. in music and interdisciplinary studies from Hunter College and his M.A. and Ph.D. in musicology from the University of California at Berkeley. David is a member of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the Festspiel Orchester Göttingen and the Arcadian Academy, and has appeared with American Bach Soloists, Tafelmusik, the San Francisco Opera & Symphony, the Dallas Bach Society, the Oregon Bach Festival and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Concerto Köln, among others, and has recorded for BIS, Magnatune, harmonia mundi USA, Koch International, ORF, Sony, Reference, Arabesque, BMG, RCA, Musica Omnia and Teldec. As a specialist in the art song of the early seventeenth century he has performed in lute song recitals throughout Europe and the United States.