The Real Quill

Bach and Time – New Year's Eve 2011

2011-12-20T20:47:00.007-06:00

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup o’kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup,
and surely I’ll buy mine!
And we’ll take a cup o’kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

Every New Year’s Eve at midnight, millions of revelers the world over stumble through these famous words by the Scottish bard Robert Burns. Last week in New York, I encountered them under glass (literally, thanks to Pierpont Morgan’s eccentric collecting habits) and marveled again at their universality: they seemed somehow less corny in the original manuscript and earliest prints. Remembering “old times” — more precisely, the unique character of past events, things, and people — is crucial. Without memory, there is no culture.

On New Year's Eve 2011, Ars Lyrica Houston will savor a few of the greatest moments in our collective musical past, with major works by J. S. Bach on the subject of time. Then we party! Please note that our 2011 New Year’s Eve Gala is upstairs in the Grand Lobby of Sarofim Hall, not the Founder’s Club as in previous years. Good luck to all at the silent auction — may everyone win at least a “pint cup,” as Burns’ lyrics suggest!

Bach and Time program:

"Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit," BWV 106

Suite in D Major, BWV 1068

"Ehre sei dir, Gott, gesungen" (Christmas Oratorio Pt. V), BWV 248/5

Program notes for Bach and Time:

Like most of us, Johann Sebastian Bach understood time to operate in multiple dimensions. His weekly responsibilities as the cantor and chief composer for Leipzig’s principal churches surely made him efficient with his own day-to-day time, since such a position required a new cantata every week. On a more spiritual level, Bach’s orthodox Lutheran milieu also conceived of time within a specifically Christian framework, encompassing everything from creation to eternity. God’s time (to use the locution of BWV 106: “Gottes Zeit”) is eternal, whereas human time is demarcated by salvation history, whose broad outlines are the giving of the Law, the revelation of the Gospels, and the obligation to live a moral life in the here and now.

Bach and his anonymous librettist juxtaposed all these ideas about time to great effect in Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit (“God’s is the best time”). An intimation of eternity seems present from the opening notes of the Sonatina, whose archaic scoring for two recorders and two violas da gamba must have struck even its first hearers as an oddly quaint way to set such expressive and modern musical figures. Four singers then take center stage, for a cantata whose various sections announce that God’s time is eternal, that ours is brief, and that belief eventually leads us to a better place.

Unlike later cantatas organized around freestanding recitatives and arias, Cantata 106 looks backwards towards 17th-century models in its seamless shuttling from one kind of musical figure and scoring to another for each sentence or section of text. Given its old-fashioned form and its text, scholars have long assumed that Bach wrote this work for a funeral, most likely in 1707, at the very beginning of his career as a composer of church pieces. Its subtitle, “Actus Tragicus,” suggests a potentially broader purpose as well, in keeping with the German tradition of Trauerspiel or morality plays. Here, the tragedy is that of the human condition, which is overcome only in death through faith.

Bach’s Christmas Oratorio is actually a series of six separate cantatas for the Christmas – New Year season, each of which borrows considerable material from older compositions. Cobbled together in 1734, according to the autograph manuscript, this “oratorio” relies on the same alternation of text types and musical textures as do Bach’s passion settings, with Gospel narration by a tenor Evangelist, reflective arias for solo voices, and big “choral” movements leavened regularly by simple four-part chorales.

Part V (Ehre sei dir, Gott, gesungen), intended for the first Sunday after the New Year, begins in an irresistibly cheerful mood, with two oboes d’amore, strings, and voices tossing around the most joyous of musical ideas. The rest of this cantata focuses on the multifaceted role of the Star in the Christmas story: as signal to the Wise Men, as a light to the Gentiles, as a sign of danger for Herod, and as a beacon that continues to shine.

Perhaps the most timeless feature of this program is the beloved “Air” from Bach’s third “orchestral” Suite. Though the larger work otherwise follows a familiar French sequence of movements, complete with an initial “Ouverture” and some very fashionable dances, its best-known part is a humble little tune that Bach slips in just after an imposing opening movement—an unexpected little gift, perfect for this time of year!

© Matthew Dirst

Paradise Found program notes

2011-09-14T09:47:00.002-05:00

To whet your appetite for "Paradise Found" -- Sept 22 in Bryan, Sept 23 in Houston, and Sept 26 in Alexandria, LA -- here are my notes on this program. Looking forward to seeing many of you at this special set of concerts, featuring the amazing French-Italian soprano Céline Ricci.

"Paradise Found" takes us on a journey comparable to that of Milton's masterpiece, from a Scarlatti cantata’s despairing tones to the heavenly rapture of Handel’s Gloria. In between these vocal “bookends,” instrumental works from the same era illustrate how some of the finest Baroque composers shuttled seamlessly between these emotional extremes, in music that is at once affecting and transformative.

Like his father Alessandro Scarlatti and his contemporaries Handel and Vivaldi, Domenico Scarlatti composed dozens of Italian cantatas for the delectation of aristocratic and royal patrons. Though the genre’s heyday had passed, this master of the newfangled keyboard sonata retained a keen interest in the cantata across a long and productive career. The attraction appears to have been both practical and aesthetic: a genre eminently suited to the intimate cultural pleasures of the Portuguese and Spanish courts (which Scarlatti served from 1719 to the end of his life), the cantata also offered the opportunity for formal experimentation and great subtlety in expression.

Metastasio’s libretto for Pur nel sonno suggests a date of composition sometime during Scarlatti’s tenure at the court of Philip V and Maria Barbara in Madrid. This great poet, the leading opera librettist of the 18th century, had begun his literary career in Rome’s Arcadian Academy, from whose pastoral verse he borrowed stock characters for this cantata. Its “story” is delivered from the unlucky suitor’s point of view, and from the outset, the mood is dark: an Introduzione in two parts—something one might expect only at the head of a full-length opera or oratorio—is by turns aggressive and pensive. The sinewy first aria introduces a world-weary lover, one rejected by the unattainable Phyllis but unable to forget her, even in sleep; his passion remains sadly one-sided. A highly dramatic recitative follows, as the protagonist’s dream veers from lovely visions to fear and shame. His final realization—that he’ll never be free again—is given full vent in a tour-de-force concluding aria with abundant vocal fireworks.

Rameau’s harpsichord music comprises both original works and transcriptions of orchestral dances and character pieces from his popular stage works. The Air pour les Bostangis and the Gavotte are both examples of the latter type. Excerpts from Rameau’s opera-ballet Les Indes Galantes (1735), the first of these charming pieces accompanies a dance by gardeners of the seraglio (the “bostangis”), whose proprieter (the “Gracious Turk” of Act I) is but one of Rameau’s colorful “Indians.” Les Tendres Plaintes and La Joyeuse, by contrast, are more idiomatically conceived for the harpsichord. These two gems encapsulate, within the gently recursive French rondeau form, the two emotional poles of this evening’s program: from “tender complaints” to joy.

Couperin’s La Sultane would also seem, by virtue of its title, to transport us to the Orient; but this is a decidedly Parisian sultan, not an exotic harem-keeper. One of several works Couperin wrote as a kind of French response to the wildly popular Italian trio sonata, La Sultane features unusually full scoring—for two violins, two violas da gamba, and continuo—and a classic sequence of sections in contrasting tempi. Its grandiose and powerful beginning leads to a faster fugue, whose primary theme is nearly identical to that of the opening movement. A tender air and sections in contrasting quicker meters lighten the mood considerably toward the end, as all four instruments engage in concerto-like figuration.

The setting of the Gloria now attributed to Handel came to the world’s attention in 2001. Newspapers heralded its discovery as a major event, despite lingering doubts about its authenticity. If Handel wrote it, he surely did so between 1706 and 1708 in Rome, where such a blatantly theatrical solo setting of this liturgical text would have been well received by patrons who loved opera but were frequently denied it because of recurring papal prohibitions. Its seven discrete movements follow the typical divisions of the “Gloria in excelsis” portion of the mass ordinary. Handel’s virtuosic treatment of the solo voice in the joyous outer movements is noteworthy, as is the highly expressive “Qui tollis,” which makes vivid with tortuous chromatic melodies the “sins of the world.” Because the Gloria lacks a free-standing overture, we have simply borrowed one in the same key from the same composer: the three-movement sequence that introduces Esther (1718), Handel’s first English-language oratorio. ©Matthew Dirst

Summer Festivals

2011-07-07T11:55:00.002-05:00

The biennial Boston Early Music Festival is always a wonderful opportunity to hear some great music, browse through exhibits, and socialize with friends and colleagues from around the world. This year Ars Lyrica offered its first program on the festival fringe, for a very enthusiastic audience at Old South Church’s Gordon Chapel. (Watch for the review in the next issue of Early Music America.) Soprano Melissa Givens and countertenor Ryland Angel were the stars of our show, in music by Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti. Bravo to our prima donna, primo uomo, and a terrific band that included violinists Adam LaMotte and Sean Wang, cellist Barry Sills, and guitarist/theorbo player Richard Savino!

Both of the BEMF operas were on my dance card, and they were something to behold. Steffani’s “Niobe, Queen of Thebes,” though not destined for standard-rep houses anytime soon, proved a marvelous vehicle for superstar countertenor Philippe Jarrousky and his hapless queen, soprano Amanda Forsythe. The score abounds in short virtuosic arias and ensembles, and contains some of the oddest music I’ve ever heard: King Anfione (Jarrousky’s role) sings an aria while dying that defies description – more chromatic weirdness that I’ve ever before heard in a Baroque opera. BEMF also revived its much-praised production of Handel’s “Acis and Galatea” to a very grateful audience. I can’t imagine a more thoughtful and right-on-target production for this delicious score. The singing was pretty incredible, too, with Aaron Sheehan, Teresa Wakim, and Douglas Williams giving outstanding performances in the leading roles. Gilbert Blin, who staged both productions, could IMHO stage the Boston phone book and we’d be enthralled.

San Francisco was next on my itinerary, where I spent a few delightful days in the cool breezy weather that this city is famous for in the summertime. (During my grad school days at Stanford I regularly took both a sweater and a jacket with me on warm days when headed to SF for the evening – things haven’t changed!) While there I saw “Siegfried” at SF Opera (thanks to Birgitt VanWijk and Rudy Avelar) in a marvelous production by Francesca Zambello, with gorgeous playing by the orchestra under Donald Runnicles, and a great cast, too.

Off to the Tetons Festival in a few weeks to play a program with Nic McGegan, then to Santa Fe to see “Griselda” and “Wozzeck.” Stay tuned for a post on the latter – can’t wait to get my Santa Fe fix with this summer’s oddest couple, Vivaldi and Berg!

A match made in Venice

2011-05-24T19:20:00.004-05:00

Here's a great pic of Ars Lyrica performing "Monteverdi and the Venetian Style" at the opening of "Titian and the Golden Age of Venetian Painting" at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Houstonians, put this exhibit on your calendar (it closes in August); the art is simply staggering. This was a truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity -- not that I wouldn't happily put together a Monteverdi program on the slightest pretext. Here's hoping it made the gods happy, too!

Ars Lyrica's 2011-12 Season: Transformations

2011-05-18T09:45:00.005-05:00

I'm thrilled to announce our 2011-12 season, which explores the idea of transformation — in bodily, spiritual, and various musical senses — in a wide variety of repertory, from early Baroque madrigals through early Classical chamber works. Highlights include the Houston débuts of some fantastic musicians, including sopranos Céline Ricci and Gillian Keith and violinist Ingrid Matthews, plus the New York Baroque Dance Company in a new production of two major works from Monteverdi's 1638 Madrigals of Love and War. There are a number of special subscription offers that expire on June 10, so visit Ars Lyrica Houston and get your tickets now.

In addition to our Houston series, we'll be visiting Alexandria LA and Austin TX this coming season, and making our second recording for Sono Luminus. The latter features Jamie Barton, Brian Shircliffe, and Joe Gaines in Domenico Scarlatti's hilarious "La Dirindina," which opened our 2010-11 season last September, and a solo cantata by the same composer with Céline Ricci.

One other quick note: Ars Lyrica is taking its final subscription program of the current season to the Boston Early Music Festival Fringe on June 15 at noon, at Old South Church's Gordon Chapel. Forbidden Pleasures should be great fun -- either in Houston on June 10 or in Boston on June 15 -- so come join us!

Baroque Festival in San Miguel de Allende

2011-04-22T14:28:00.004-05:00

Many thanks to Melissa Givens for the following report and pics from last month's Baroque festival in San Miguel de Allende, at which quite a few Ars Lyrica regulars (myself included) had a great time! The pics are from our San Miguel production of Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas." - Matthew

Melissa writes:

Kinga and Matthew asked me to tell you a little bit about our recent trip to Mexico for the Baroque Music Festival in San Miguel de Allende. The very short version is that it was an amazing week or so of hard work and rewarding performances, and lots of great camaraderie!

For many of us, this was our first time to participate in the Festival and also our first time in Mexico. I traveled down and back with Matthew, Gerrod, and Lynelle Rowley, and the fun began as soon as we met up at IAH on Sunday afternoon (good company will do that)! There is no airport in San Miguel, so we flew into the Guanajuato/León airport and were met by a van and driver.

I have lived in Houston for over 20 years and have made my share of complaints about driving here. Let me tell you, I was cured of that by our 1.5 hour trip to San Miguel! Remember, this is mountain country and we arrived after dark. The road was narrow, with one lane in each direction and full of twists— and there wasn’t a lot of road lighting. Our driver barreled up and down the hills at breakneck speed. At one point a truck in the oncoming lane veered just a bit too far over and clipped our van at around 80 mph. The driver gamely drove on, only stopping at the next wide spot to survey the damage. Fortunately, the side-view mirror was the only casualty— unless you count our nerves.

Once we arrived in San Miguel, after discovering that a stop sign isn’t even viewed as a suggestion, we were deposited with our hosts. Mine was a lovely American retiree named Roberta, who lived in a gated complex of villas with stunning roof-top terraces. It was a wonderful place to call home during my stay.

Rehearsals began bright and early Monday. We had been warned by Festival alums that the pace of things was, shall we say, slower and more fluid, and this was certainly in evidence. The Dido rehearsals were scheduled in the theater where the show was to be performed, except it was yet bereft of a stage. So, going with the flow, Our Fearless Leader, Tara Faircloth, took us to the adjacent outdoor amphitheater that would be our rehearsal space until Wednesday.

The cast was evenly split between American (Baritone Michael Kelly, one of our team of dream colleagues, joined us there) and Mexican principals, and the wonderfully prepared and enthusiastic chorus was from Mexico City. The Second Witch, Linda Gutierrez, had recently been a winner in a Mexican opera reality show/competition. The Sailor was a sweet tenor from Monterrey named Enrique Guzmán, who wants to study opera in Houston. Our technical crew was split between Mexico City and Monterrey. The sets and costumes also came from those two cities and were delayed by a) the overturning of one truck (thankfully, no casualties) and 2) the banning of the remaining truck from the small, narrow streets of San Miguel. This would require the acquisition of a smaller truck to ferry the cargo from the outskirts of town to the Obraje Theater.

Much hilarity ensued as the production progressed and some of it was even intentional! Despite any challenges we encountered, the production was quite the success and very well received. Our Assistant Director, Rafael Felix, was a great guy who hosts a classical music internet talk show. He did a live-streaming interview with me from the lobby of his hotel. Tara Faircloth is a truly amazing director and was hugely instrumental in making the show beautiful and believable. The band was, of course, fabulous, and Matthew kept the whole thing moving and musical.

Meanwhile, the chamber music concert rehearsals were humming along, but only while there was daylight! The chapel of the Obraje was a beautiful, clean space. It had one of the most remarkable bathrooms I have ever seen, but it did not have electricity for most of the week. That and the game of musical harpsichords again required the gang to go with the flow, but these amazingly talented and professional musicians made it work and then some.

In a week of surprises, the biggest was revealed on Tuesday. Our Wednesday “Mostly Monteverdi” concert was not to be held in the Felipe Neri church as we believed, but outside, in the cloister! This is one of those things that seems ideal in theory, but proved to be rather a challenge in practice. We were fortunate to have clear, beautiful weather (save for a pop-up storm Monday afternoon), but as the sun went down, so did the temperatures, while the wind picked up. The net effect on the audience was fairly minimal, but it did make for some unintended drama on the stage (which was also being built as we arrived!) with flying scores.

We rehearsed through most of the other Festival concerts, and my interview with Rafael kept me from making the “Age of Magnificence” concert that our musicians gave, but I heard that it was as spectacular as I knew it would be.

When we weren’t rehearsing or performing, we did our best to improve the local economy, shopping, taking over restaurants and bars, meeting in small groups in and around the central park area (the Jardin), and having a memorable gathering at the home of Michael Leopold’s hosts on our last night in San Miguel. As they had been unable to attend the opera, we (Michael, Gerrod, Lynelle, and myself, with the occasional vocal continuo stylings of Matthew Dirst) presented an impromptu, 25-minute, highly expurgated version of Dido and Aeneas. It was more fun than I can tell you and quite a shame that it went unrecorded and lost to posterity! Or perhaps not...

Our San Miguel experience ended with an equally wild van ride back to the Guanajuato/León airport, only this time the drama was heightened by an empty gas tank. The van originated in Mexico City earlier Tuesday morning and needed a fill-up to get to León. Because he was running late, the driver skipped the last gas station in San Miguel, planning instead to stop at a station on the way. We eyed each other skeptically as the trip got underway. Our skepticism grew as the gas station at the half-way point was closed. As the indicator moved past E, skepticism evolved into not-quite-panic as the little towns we passed failed to yield a gas station. We were certainly on fumes as we finally got to a station just outside of León, getting us to the airport with minutes to spare for Michael’s flight.

All in all, it was a wonderful experience and I think we are all hoping to return for next year’s Festival.

I was also asked to give you an update on my life outside of Ars Lyrica. I am thisclose to finishing my doctoral degree at UH Moores School of Music and will graduate in December. Next week, I will be one of the soloists in Brahm’s Ein Deutsches Requiem with the Houston Civic Symphony under conductor Brian Runnels. Teaching voice at Houston Baptist University (I am also the area coordinator) continues to be a joy in my life and we are in the midst of end of year concerts and recitals and heading into voice juries. Our Opera Workshop just finished a run of a sterling production of scenes from Leonard Bernstein’s stage works, and this week, we are hosting renowned composer Morten Lauridsen. He is working with our select choir, Schola Cantorum, which is performing his Lux Aeterna with the First Presbyterian Church Chancel Choir on Good Friday.

Schola is also preparing to be the resident choir for the Summer Classical Music Festival in Eisenstadt, Austria. It will be the first time many of them travel out of the country. I am helping them raise funds for the trip by presenting a benefit recital on Monday, May 9 at 7:30 in Belin Chapel at the HBU Morris Cultural Arts Center. I will be singing songs and arias from the late 19th century to the modern era. I hope you can join me and help support our choir. Tickets are free, with a suggested donation of $15.

Grammy Report

2011-02-16T11:45:00.004-06:00

The 53rd Annual Grammy Awards were quite a weekend: three ceremonies, including the televised extravaganza, plus two huge parties, all in the space of about 30 hours. The sheer number of awards is kind of staggering: there are 109 different categories, including Best Norteño Album (what's that?), Best Banda Album, Record of the Year and Album of the Year (huh?), Best Surround Sound Album (are people still doing that?), seven different categories in Gospel music (classical music gets twelve!), plus a separate set of awards for technical and lifetime achievement in various areas.

The Grammys are primarily about celebrity and secondarily about music, and once one accepts that, it's possible to have a great deal of fun watching all the famous people do their thing -- and we did! I even thought some of the pop awards were well deserved: Esperanza Spalding is a fantastic musician, whom we got to hear at the Sunday afternoon awards ceremony in a terrific number with Bobby McFerrin. Not sure what to make of Lady Gaga, but she certainly knows how to make a spectacle of herself -- though I found her leather get-up much more interesting than the big egg. And what a hoot to see Mick Jagger prancing around like he's still in his 30s!

We didn't win but were pleased to see the opera award for "L'amour de loin" be accepted by Daniel Belcher, a former HGO studio artist who is doing wonderful work these days, both in Houston and elsewhere. Sixto put together a slideshow that includes pics of three of the four Ars Lyrica nominees: myself (as conductor), Keith Weber (producer) and Ava Pine (soprano), but without Jamie Barton (mezzo-soprano), who was singing in San Diego that day instead.

Notes for "Musical Resolutions" -- New Year's Eve 2010

2010-12-27T18:48:00.003-06:00

For those who like to read these in advance, here are my notes for "Musical Resolutions," Ars Lyrica's New Year's Eve 2010 program. Looking forward to seeing many of you this coming Friday night at the Hobby Center, to ring in the new year!

Tonight’s program offers “musical resolutions” of various sorts: the integration of various national styles in the Bach and Telemann works, plus the firmly resolved (though famously frustrated) love of Apollo for Daphne. The latter work also continues our current season’s exploration of the Baroque teatro mundi, with a gorgeous if sobering mythological drama.

Italian cantatas like Apollo e Dafne allowed music-loving Romans of Handel’s day to have their cake and eat it, too—by conjuring the gods, goddesses and sound world of Baroque opera but on a smaller scale and without the distractions of (and papal prohibitions against) the opera house. Such works mine the theater of our interior imagination, as they seduce, distract, and entertain us with the ravishing sounds of voices and instruments. In contrast, the Bach and Telemann selections deliver less explicit stories but equally alluring soundscapes.

Bach’s so-called “Orchestral Suites” are in fact suites for a fairly small ensemble, consisting perhaps of just single or a few players per part. Long assumed to have been written during Bach’s service at the court of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen, certain movements may predate his time there (1717-1723) while others may reflect the larger instrumental resources available to him in Leipzig after 1723. In any case, these four works, among the most familiar in Bach’s output, reflect the widespread popularity of French dance movements during his lifetime and likely represent just the tip of the iceberg: Bach surely composed other such Ouvertures (as he called them) that are lost to posterity. Among the cleverest assimilations of the two dominant instrumental genres of Bach’s day, these works resolve the inherent tension between binary-form dances and ritornello-based concerto writing in movements that incorporate soloistic display within the predictable formal schemes of Baroque dance movements.

The German ensemble suite typically begins with its most imposing movement: an overture modeled on those of Jean-Baptiste Lully, with a majestic opening section and a faster, imitative second section. The dances that follow mimic the flow of a classic divertissement in French Baroque opera. In the C-major Suite, Bach includes a number of paired dances whose unconventional scoring creates some surprising effects: note the odd inversion of the violin’s typical lead role in the second gavotte, for example.

Like Bach, Telemann assimilated Italian and French styles in his music but on a scale that dwarfed his now more famous contemporary. This most prolific composer of the late Baroque (and perhaps of all time) produced dozens of concertos in the Italian style, including several that feature multiple wind soloists. Better perhaps than anyone else, Telemann grasped the peculiarities of Baroque wind color and how to write for such instruments. His E-minor Concerto cleverly pits the old (the archaic recorder) against the new (the fashionable transverse flute), in four movements whose joyful thumping and tender expressiveness make it one of his most popular works.

Apollo e Dafne is one of the richest sources of Handelian compositional “leftovers”: he re-used all but one of its arias and duets in later operas or oratorios, some multiple times. Its poignant lesson—of the inevitable choice between love and duty, passion and reason—has always been popular with opera composers: in addition to the well-known setting by Richard Strauss, both Jacopo Peri and Heinrich Schütz wrote Daphne operas in the 17th century. Handel began his cantata in 1706 or 1707 and finished it several years later, perhaps after his departure from Italy. Long admired for its creative orchestration, the work is a masterpiece of well-calibrated emotional expression: from Apollo’s proud vanity in the opening scene to his plaintive final promise, or from Daphne’s initial childlike innocence to her ultimate embrace of destiny.

The story, in brief, goes as follows. As described in Ovid, Cupid has decreed that the god Apollo shall fall for the beautiful nymph Daphne, but his love cannot be returned since she is bound by her devotion to the goddess Diana and can love no man. When Apollo’s attempts at seduction backfire, Daphne escapes by returning to nature: Mother Earth turns her into a tree. Fashioning a fragrant wreath from its laurel leaves, Apollo consoles himself and vows never to forget her. © Matthew Dirst

A Grammy Nomination!

2010-12-03T13:39:00.005-06:00

Woke up yesterday morning to a wonderful surprise: a Grammy nomination for Ars Lyrica's recent recording of Hasse's "Marc Antonio e Cleopatra" on the Dorian-Sono Luminus label. Congratulations to all involved in this project, especially soprano Ava Pine, mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, and producer Keith Weber. The Grammy nominees for best opera (category 99) includes some serious competition, from all over the world, with ours the sole American recording so honored. If you're a voting member of the Recording Academy, thanks for your vote!!

1610 Vespers Reviews

2010-11-20T23:43:00.002-06:00

The buzz on our Monteverdi Vespers has been great. If you haven't yet seen the reviews, check out the Dallas Morning News and the Houston Chronicle plus a really nice blog post. Many thanks to all who came and enjoyed the program!

Stay put, you'll be glad you did!

2010-11-07T21:33:00.006-06:00

Leaving before the last act is sometimes all too tempting. Kings and queens did it regularly, and presidents still do. Well, they're busy folk, and who among us hasn't taken the opportunity to duck out of something you felt obliged to attend but for which you couldn't muster any enthusiasm in the first hour? But are such things the inevitable result of bad art or evidence of our ever-shorter attention spans?

Or are we willing patrons of the arts only when we get what we know?

Case in point: Houston Grand Opera's current production of Peter Grimes. At last night's performance there were more empty seats after each intermission. Sadly, those who left missed some of the most amazing moments in a truly magical work, including the heartbreaking Act II quartet and Grimes' searing final soliloquy, sung with astonishing intensity by Anthony Dean Griffey.

Those who perform unconventional repertoire greatly appreciate listeners who like to be challenged occasionally. What can we do to motivate others to give unfamiliar music a chance?

Organ-mania in Houston!

2010-10-30T14:33:00.006-05:00

Who'd have thought it possible? New organs at St Philip Presbyterian and the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Houston have drawn capacity crowds to dedicatory recitals and other events this year, and people are coming back in droves for more! Last night's crowd at the Co-Cathedral, for a recital by Philippe Lefebvre from Paris, was nearly as big as that for David Higg's program a few weeks ago, and the recent Concert for Peace at St Philip had its largest crowd ever this fall, too.

Remembering back to the thirteen (or was it more?) times that Clyde Holloway had to play the opening recital on the big Fisk/Rosales at Rice, I guess there is considerable interest here in the organ. It just takes an amazing new instrument to bring people out of the woodwork. Churches and music schools take note: this is an excellent way to get people excited about your programs!

And to that end, the next opportunity to hear the new Fritts organ at St Philip: Friday, Nov 19, with Prof. Martin Jean from Yale University at the console. Details: Music at St Philip

And the next recital on the new Pasi organ at the Co-Cathedral: my UH colleague Robert Bates on Dec 7. Details: Opus XIX

Monteverdi Vespers on Nov 13

2010-10-28T17:30:00.002-05:00

Looking forward to a couple of performances of Claudio Monteverdi's magnificent 1610 Vespers very soon: on Nov 13 in Houston and Nov 14 in Dallas, with Ars Lyrica, the Orpheus Chamber Singers, and the Whole Noyse. Here are notes on that upcoming program, hot off the press.

NOTES ON THE VESPERS

Though published relatively early in his career, Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine is his most spectacular sacred work. Part of a larger 1610 Venice publication (dedicated to the Virgin Mary) that begins with a Mass setting, the 1610 Vespers, as it has come to be known, comprises far more than one actually needs for Vespers, prompting all manner of speculation as to the composer’s intent and the origins of this collection. Its contents—big psalm settings, smaller-scale motets, a lavishly scored sacred concerto, and two differently scored settings of the Magnificat—certainly cover all the standard parts of the Vespers liturgy, but whether they were meant to be performed as a whole is doubtful.

Like Bach’s equally monumental Mass in B Minor, Monteverdi’s Mass and Vespers are less solitary works than compilations of various items. Their publication may have served as a kind of musical calling card: by 1610 Monteverdi was no longer satisfied with the terms of his employment in Mantua, and the publication of a Mass and Vespers in Venice may well have led to his eventual position at St. Mark’s Basilica in that city. In any case, the sheer range of musical styles in the Vespers, from grandiose psalm settings to intimate motets, is striking, as is Monteverdi’s practical ingenuity: in the print he provides directions for performing the various movements either with groups of string and wind instruments or with organ alone. Most modern performances (like ours) give the score its full due with a rich panoply of instrumental color.

The 1610 Mass and Vespers summarize the shifting sands of musical style in the early seventeenth century: the Mass is set contrapuntally, in the style of a Palestrina, while the Vespers combines mostly prima prattica psalms with more modern seconda prattica motets. Within the psalm settings one finds a variety of compositional techniques, from the venerable block chordal style of psalm recitation (falsobordone) in “Dixit Dominus,” to various contrapuntal treatments of a slow-moving cantus firmus in the “Magnificat a 7” and elsewhere, even variations on the Romanesca (a secular ground bass) in “Laetatus sum.” The motets are by no means impoverished by their leaner scoring; their reduced forces permit greater vocal display, from the delicate intertwining of two sopranos in “Pulchra es” to the exuberant flights of fancy for three tenors in “Duo seraphim.” These latter movements especially have much in common with the theatrical music of this era: Monteverdi’s own Orfeo, for example, whose ardent song is not so different from these love songs to the Virgin Mary.

Of all the great monuments of music literature, the 1610 Vespers is one of the least familiar, perhaps because of the exotic performing forces the “full dress” version requires. Once one locates the necessary cornetts, sackbuts, theorbos, agile tenors, low basses, and altos with seemingly endless lungs, there are still many issues to consider: Should the piece be given in a liturgical context? Should the “Lauda Jerusalem” and “Magnificat” movements be transposed downward by as much as a fourth? Should instruments double the vocal lines and, if so, where? How much embellishment should one apply to the individual parts? Did the composer intend a performance of the various movements in the published order of the partbooks? Attempting to steer a course somewhere between the latest musicological findings and practical reality, ours is a concert performance of the whole work (without interpolated plainsong antiphons) in the order of the 1610 partbooks, with transposed “Lauda” and “Magnificat” movements, and occasional doublings of the parts and embellished solo lines. ©Matthew Dirst

Scandalous opera: next Friday at Zilkha Hall!

2010-09-18T10:00:00.002-05:00

PROGRAM NOTES AND SYNOPSIS for "LA DIRINDINA"

A Scarlatti opera usually means a work by Alessandro, the Neapolitan master of both opera and oratorio and father of Domenico, whose strikingly original sonatas continue to fascinate, regardless of medium. But the younger Scarlatti, following in his father’s footsteps, composed some fourteen stage works during his youth, only a few of which survive. Leaving his native Italy in 1719, Domenico Scarlatti spent the rest of his life in Portugal and Spain, where he served as music master to Princess Maria Barbara and composed more than 500 keyboard sonatas. To opera — the genre that defined Italian music for generations — he never returned, despite keen dramatic instincts and the lure of great fame.

La Dirindina is, technically speaking, an intermezzo — or, as its original subtitle announces, a “musical farce” — and like all works in this subgenre, it’s both comic and compact. Intermezzi typically feature a pretty young girl, a father figure (which could be an uncle, teacher, or guardian), and some kind of love interest. Designed to lighten the mood of a full-length Italian opera, at whose intermissions its two parts were heard, the intermezzo gave companies the opportunity to cut loose and poke fun at not only stock character types but the entire edifice of serious opera. Strongly satirical works like La Dirindina became more common later in the eighteenth century, after Domenico Scarlatti had abandoned the opera house for more stable employment.

Set to a libretto by Girolamo Gigli, La Dirindina was intended to serve as a companion piece to Scarlatti’s Ambleto, a three-act opera seria, at its Roman première in 1715. The censors intervened, however, banning La Dirindina from the stage on account of its racy libretto — with the collusion, it seems, of the original cast, who feared they would look ridiculous. Not to be outmaneuvered, Gigli got his naughty little satire published elsewhere, and it quickly became a “must-have” among the cognoscenti.

The story concerns a wily but gifted young singer, Dirindina, and her teacher Don Carissimo, whose interest in his pupil is more than a little untoward. As the curtain goes up, a singing lesson is underway, and it is clear that neither student nor teacher are much interested in the day’s lesson plan. Dirindina’s independent spirit and her ability to sing (when she wants to) annoy Don Carissimo, who is further vexed by the appearance of Liscione, a famous castrato who brings some surprising news: the Milan theater wants to engage Dirindina as its prima donna. Don Carissimo flies into a rage, stammering his way through a highly amusing (and forward-looking) aria, only to see that his pretty pupil is now flirting openly with the castrato. An obligatory ensemble, with Dirindina and Liscione in musical and dramatic opposition to Don Carissimo, brings Part I to a close.

Part II opens with the unctuous Liscione plying Dirindina with a little minuet, which manages simultaneously to flatter the young singer’s ego while lampooning the fashionable but shamelessly sentimental manners of the aristocracy. Dirindina responds with perhaps the oddest aria in the work, full of syncopations and serpentine melodies that cheekily invoke various bodily fluids, with which she promises to seduce the Milanese public. The ensuing “play within a play,” a mock enactment of the tragic Dido’s rejection of the feckless Aeneas, is witnessed by Don Carissimo, who fails to get the joke and thinks that his ward is not only with child but ready to commit suicide. As with all good comedies, the joke’s on him: the finale is both outrageous and touching, as the capon and the hen are joined in hand by a thoroughly deceived old man.

The two concertos on this evening’s program come from a set of twelve arrangements made by English organist and composer Charles Avison from Scarlatti keyboard sonatas. Published in 1743, these concerti fed the craze for such works, launched by Geminiani’s arrangements of Corelli sonatas just a few years before, and helped to popularize Scarlatti’s music in England. Scored for two concertino (solo) plus two ripieno (tutti) violins plus viola, cello and continuo, these concerti respect the content of the original sonatas while adapting them idiomatically to string instruments. © Matthew Dirst

Sneak Preview Party on Sept 12

2010-08-24T22:57:00.007-05:00

Join Ars Lyrica on Sunday, September 12th between 3-5 pm at Frank's Chop House (on Westheimer near Wesleyan) for a "sneak preview" of the 2010-11 season. Enjoy samplings of food and wine and a taste of what’s in store for the upcoming season, including artist performances and special promotions. Celebrate the release of Ars Lyrica's recording of J. A. Hasse's "Marc Antonio e Cleopatra" on the Dorian label and yours truly's recording of harpsichord works by François and Armand-Louis Couperin on the Centaur label. Both these recordings are now available from Ars Lyrica or online or in record stores worldwide.

Hasse CD on Dorian

2010-06-11T19:28:00.003-05:00

I'm delighted to announce that Dorian-Sono Luminus has picked up Ars Lyrica's next CD recording: the world première of Johann Adolf Hasse's "Marc Antonio e Cleopatra," featuring the fabulous duo of mezzo Jamie Barton and soprano Ava Pine, with yours truly and the Ars Lyrica ensemble. The record is due out soon -- in August, so stay tuned for information on the release party. We recorded this piece, Hasse's first significant work in Italy, over the New Year's holiday this past season, and performed it on New Year's Eve 2009 at Zilkha Hall. I'm very pleased with how it turned out and am delighted we can share it with you soon!

Notes for "Roman Holiday"

2010-05-01T10:05:00.004-05:00

Here are my notes for the upcoming Ars Lyrica "Roman Holiday" program, featuring Handel's delightful "Clori, Tirsi e Fileno" and three of my favorite singers. Ticket info at Ars Lyrica

Handel composed Clori, Tirsi e Fileno in Rome the fall of 1707, probably for the Marchese Francesco Maria Ruspoli, in whose household the young composer served for a few years while perfecting his skill with opera and cantata in the land that produced those genres. With its full orchestral scoring and two parts, each containing more than a dozen “numbers,” Clori is the longest and most sumptuous of Handel’s Italian cantatas. One might call it a chamber opera, though “opera” for Handel implied three full acts, numerous characters and competing story lines. Italian cantatas, on the other hand, were usually solo vehicles on pastoral or amorous texts, and rarely involved more than just one voice and continuo players.

Clori, Tirsi e Fileno stands somewhere between these two generic poles. Its familiar pastoral characters include the beautiful nymph Clori and two love-struck shepherds, Tirsi and Fileno. The same characters appear in countless other Italian cantata libretti from this time (and innumerable paintings), most of which make us understand — with barely concealed winks and nods — that Clori permitted certain pleasures before she withheld them. With Clori, Tirsi e Fileno Handel and his anonymous librettist transformed such stock situations into a more dramatic kind of piece, with an overture and at least three distinct scenes. Such extended works were highly valued by Roman connoisseurs especially: various popes were forever banning opera and closing public theaters, leaving wealthy Roman patrons to take upon themselves the commissioning of all manner of operatic substitutes. The polite pastoral garb of Clori, Tirsi e Fileno surely fooled no one at its première in Ruspoli’s palace: this is a tale of love, lust, and betrayal, entirely in keeping with the norms of the Baroque opera house — and Roman society from its founding onwards.

Tirsi sets the stage at the beginning of Part I with healthy amounts of both self pity and denial: he realizes Clori is unfaithful, but his passion for her remains. Once Tirsi has made his misery plain, he hides, just as Clori enters with Fileno, whose heart is just as battered. Responding to Fileno’s complaint that she loves another, Clori announces that her pity has turned to love. The onstage lovers rejoice as Tirsi slinks off unnoticed, muttering curses under his breath.

Part II opens with Clori in pursuit of a jilted and angry Tirsi, who understandably wants nothing further to do with such a fickle woman. After much bickering, Tirsi relents, accepting Clori’s explanation that she was simply playing a joke on Fileno. As Clori leaves, Fileno reappears and the two men realize they’ve both been duped by a woman they find hopelessly irresistible.

In the original duet ending for the work, Tirsi and Fileno foreswear women and affirm the ostensibly more durable nature of male companionship. In the trio Handel wrote for a subsequent performance in Naples (where the oblique allusion to same-sex love might have caused a stir), Clori returns to join Tirsi and Fileno, all cheerfully observing that “to live and not to love…is not possible.” Since both endings offer undeniable musical charms, we thought it desirable to offer both. And thankfully, neither the imperfect sentiment of the duet nor that of the trio will get Handel in trouble today! © Matthew Dirst

St Philip Dedication Events

2010-04-05T21:58:00.003-05:00

Inaugural recital (by yours truly) on Saturday, April 17 at 7 pm, featuring works by François and Louis Couperin, Eustache du Caurroy, J. P. Sweelinck, J. S. Bach, Herbert Howells, Rudolf Maros, and Olivier Messiaen. Dedication service on Sunday, April 18 at 11 am, featuring Benjamin Britten's "Rejoice in the Lamb" with the St Philip Choir.

Fritts Organ at St Philip nearly complete

2010-03-13T15:57:00.004-06:00

The new Fritts organ at St Philip is nearing completion, and it's a delight to both the eye and ear. Dedication events include an inaugural recital (by yours truly) on Saturday, April 17 at 7 pm, and we're expecting a crowd, so put this date on your calendar now.

A mechanical-action instrument of three manuals and pedal and 48 stops, the Fritts is Northern European in conception but versatile enough to play a wide repertoire of organ and church music. It's been a delight to have new stops playing every week since mid-January, and I'm very eager for the last ones to be completed so that I can spend some time practicing before April 17!

Program notes for "Springtime in Paris"

2010-03-13T15:55:00.003-06:00

For those of you who like to read these in advance of the actual event, here are the program notes for "Springtime in Paris," Ars Lyrica's next subscription program (on Sat March 20) at the Hobby Center. Looking forward to seeing many of you there!

Scion of a distinguished family of musicians, François Couperin “le Grand” began his career while still in his teens by succeeding his father as organist at Saint-Gervais in Paris, an important post that came with one of the capital’s finest instruments. In 1693 he became one of four organists at Versailles, where he also taught members of the royal family how to play the harpsichord, and after the turn of the century acquired the posts of composer and master of King’s chamber music. Unusually for his time, Couperin had little interest in theatrical music; instead, he was quite content to devote his considerable compositional energies to chamber and harpsichord works plus intimate motets for the church. The former especially, with their extraordinary richness and delicate surface filigree, are the musical zenith of the French Baroque.

Couperin, like many of his contemporaries, was fascinated by the modish Italian genre of the trio sonata. As popularized by Corelli especially, this genre posed a problem for French composers: how to reconcile its obvious attractions — virtuosic display, movements with formal logic, and its much-admired “southern expressivity” — while not abandoning the highly stylized dance suite, France’s greatest contribution to Baroque instrumental music. Couperin’s solution to this problem was a set of instrumental suites entitled Les Goûts Réunis, which ostensibly “reunited” the Italian and French tastes. Another collection entitled Les Nations, composed with the general purpose in mind, consists of four large suites that are headed by an Italianate sonata. La Françoise, the first of these, epitomizes Couperin’s inimitable style in its noble grandeur, tender melancholy, and a kind of innocent freshness. The remainder of our Suite in E includes subsequent movements from La Françoise plus a few movements from two of the Concert Royaux, all of which allow performance on whatever instruments one has at hand.

Jean-Baptise Lully’s instrumental trios, by contrast, are all excerpts from his stage works, some presumably countenanced by the composer himself and others arranged by other hands. Our Suite in C embraces both sides of this tonal center (major and minor) and features four binary dance movements plus a concluding chaconne, whose repeating harmonic pattern is put through some surprising twists and turns.

Armand-Louis Couperin, second cousin to François, composed in the same genres but in a much less rigorous manner. His harpsichord works (publ. c1751) span the gamut from intimacy to exhibitionism and reflect the simpler musical tastes of the mid-eighteenth century. Les Cacqueteuses (The Cacklers) is an amusing if unflattering musical portrait of a familiar character type, while l’Arlequine reflects the French fascination with all things Italian in the early 18th century, in particular the Harlequin figure so essential to the madcap antics of the commedia dell’arte.

The cantata was likewise appropriated from the Italians and given a kind of makeover à la Française. The new genre of the French cantata follows the same general outline as its model (a sequence of recitatives and airs) and, as in Italy, was cultivated not at court but instead in the newly fashionable world of the literary-musical salon. In the cantata the elegant ladies and gentlemen of Paris’ leading households found not only an ideal musical genre but a wonderfully plastic poetic form, one far removed from the staid sensibilities of the grand siècle. Classical mythology provided the subject matter for contemporary poets, who turned out verses that enterprising composers set with great attention to detail. Even when things turn out badly for the protagonists, the French mined these tales for their moral lessons. Montéclair’s Pan and Syrinx, for instance, reminds us that we may not always get what we want, but Love sometimes has something else in store for us: Pan’s pursuit of the lovely Syrinx ends with her transformation into a reed, which he fashions into his eponymous instrument, the pan-pipe, thus preserving her memory whenever he makes music.

Finally, the genre of the lute song or air de cour reaches just a bit further back into French history, to the age of Henri IV (d. 1610) and Louis XIII (d. 1643), providing a useful frame for the more familiar late French Baroque repertoire. During the first half of the 17th century, solo songs were a part of both large-scale court ballets and smaller domestic entertainments, and were by far the most popular kinds of musical publications in France. Guédron’s airs, the earlier chronologically of the two sets on this program, give us a glimpse of this genre at its birth, with simple but highly expressive settings of strophic poems. The songs of Le Camus show how this genre developed into more rhetorical mode of expression, with melody and bass lines that seem to follow their own muse, coming together only occasionally to punctuate the evocative verse. © Matthew Dirst

Organ debuts tomorrow

2010-01-16T16:52:00.004-06:00

Here's the new Fritts organ at St Philip, as it looked on Wednesday of this past week, just after the last carvings on the facade were installed. Visually it's really stunning, and will look even better once we get the side walls and the ceiling repainted a slightly darker color in the next few weeks.

It's started to make some noise, too! Tomorrow will be the first day to use a few ranks of pipes in church, and we'll be hearing steadily more of it over the next two months, as tonal finishing progresses.

It's Here!

2010-01-07T22:45:00.003-06:00

The new Fritts organ for St Philip Presbyterian arrived on Sunday, and a very eager crowd of St Philippians plus a number of local friends spent the afternoon unloading the truck, bit by bit, until the sanctuary was covered in organ parts. The instrument is now taking shape rather quickly in the rear gallery, thanks to Paul Fritts, Bruce Shull and the rest of their hardworking crew. I was delighted to see the top go on the case today; it fit under the ceiling by about 5 inches. Good measuring, Paul!

Houstonians are welcome to stop by and observe the progress over the next week or so. Everything should be in the case by next weekend, then the process of voicing begins. The latter should be finished by mid-March, with any luck, and we'll be sampling the finished stops every Sunday morning during church.

"Antony & Cleopatra" on New Year's Eve

2009-12-23T21:41:00.007-06:00

Just finished the program notes for Ars Lyrica's upcoming performance of Johann Adolph Hasse's "Marc'Antonio e Cleopatra," and thought I'd post them here for anyone who is interested in finding out more about this remarkable work before the program on New Year's Eve. Tickets are going fast, so get yours now by visiting Ars Lyrica

PROGRAM NOTES

In 1721 a young German tenor by the name of Johann Adolph Hasse traveled to Italy to hone his craft and seek his fortune. His work at the Hamburg Opera and at the Brunswick court assured entrée into Italian musical circles, and he quickly found opportunities in Rome, Venice, and Florence, much as the youthful Handel had done just a few years earlier. Settling in Naples, he studied composition with Alessandro Scarlatti, the grey eminence of Italian opera and oratorio, and began to write seriously for the stage. By 1730 he produced at least seven operas, eight intermezzi, and three serenate, the most significant of which is Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra.

As a genre, the Italian serenata (or “serenade”) falls somewhere between solo cantata and full-length opera seria. Owing perhaps to the long tradition of lover’s serenades, the Baroque serenata typically sets a familiar love story and was often used as a kind of compositional gift for an important patron, though the dimensions and scoring of such works vary considerably. Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra was written for a Neapolitan banker, at whose palace the work was first performed in 1725 by two of the greatest singers of the age: castrato Carlo Broschi (aka Farinelli), who took the role of Cleopatra, and contralto Vittoria Tesi, who sang as Marc’Antonio. Though today such cross-casting seems bizarre, in Baroque opera gender-bending reinforced the artificial nature of the theatrical experience (naturalistic acting styles had not yet been invented, either).

The libretto, by poet and impresario Francesco Ricciardi, begins with Antony’s great military loss to Octavian’s superior forces. Rather than submit to Rome, he and Cleopatra jointly decide that they’ll be better off in the next world. Hasse’s score makes vivid their complex emotions in eight arias and two duets, the whole preceded by an introductory Sinfonia in two movements. Though the work is scored for just strings and continuo, in several movements we’ve added various woodwind colors (oboes, recorders, flute, and bassoon), which render even more colorful Hasse’s imaginative and supple ideas.

Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra likely had several performances in Naples and elsewhere and was mentioned by German theorist Johann Joachim Quantz (in 1755) as one of Hasse’s most successful works. It brought him considerable fame in Italy, where Hasse was henceforth known as “il Sassone” (the Saxon composer). The work likely resonated deeply with Neapolitans — who, like our famous lovers, faced the unpleasant prospect of domination by a foreign power. But unlike Antony and Cleopatra, who choose death over captivity, Naples had grown so accustomed to Hapsburg rule that even this serenata has an obligatory bow (in its final recitative) to Emperor Karl VI and his consort Elizabeth.

From 1730 onwards Hasse served as Kapellmeister to the Saxon court in Dresden and was widely admired for his superior understanding of the lyric style. His operas were among the first seen by the young Mozart, and though Gluck’s reforms threatened to put an end to Italian opera seria, Hasse continued to produce his works in Vienna, Venice, and other major cities until the early 1780s. He and his wife, the great soprano Faustina Bordoni, were perhaps the first “power couple” in operatic history!

© Matthew Dirst

Jan 3 Organ Arrival!

2009-12-14T17:32:00.002-06:00

Friends in Houston (and especially organists) are cordially invited to drop by St Philip Presbyterian Church on Sunday, Jan 3 anytime after 12:30 pm or so to help unload the new Paul Fritts organ. The case, action, and pipes will be taken off the truck and spread around the interior of the church, and the next day the organ builder and his crew begin the process of putting it all back together in the rear gallery. Reassembly will take about 10 days, then 6-8 weeks of voicing follow, since all the pipes must be tonally finished in the church. We'll be able to use the various stops as they are finished on Sunday mornings, so St Philippians will get to know the wonderful new sounds of the Fritts gradually. Completion is expected by mid-March at the latest, with inaugural festivities planned for Sunday, April 18.

Fritts Organ for St Philip

2009-11-18T22:34:00.002-06:00

It's almost here: the new Paul Fritts organ for St Philip was feted at an open house at Paul's shop this past Sunday and is due to arrive in Houston on Jan 3. It's looking and sounding fabulous, and we're eagerly awaiting it at the church (we've already sold the mighty Johannes electronic substitute!). The case is being painted a slightly darker, creamier off-white before it leaves Tacoma, the carvings will get some painted highlights as well, and a few facade pipes are still being made, but these pics should give a pretty good idea of the magnitude of the project. It's a great step for St Philip, and a very significant addition to the local musical scene. Inaugural festivities are already scheduled for Sunday, April 18 -- mark your calendars and come join us!

Red Priest red hot!

2009-10-27T23:15:00.003-05:00

Red Priest gave an amazing performance tonight for Houston Early Music, complete with their trademark rearrangements of famous Vivaldi concerti and Halloween-inspired shenanigans. These four players, led by recorder virtuoso Piers Adams, have been compared to the Rolling Stones (among other groups), and now I see why. They play with an enthusiasm that goes well beyond the familiar swaying and ducking of even the most physical of early music practitioners. It's a fascinating combination of both spot-on playing with the imagination -- and sheer nerve -- of the best jazzers or rock musicians. Utterly fascinating, though some of the music -- particularly the Corelli "Folia" at the end -- came completely apart in their hands, though no one there (myself included) seemed to mind!

A Gramophone Review!

2009-09-26T17:18:00.004-05:00

Ars Lyrica's debut CD on Naxos, with music by Alessandro Scarlatti, has gotten good reviews so far, including a great notice in the October issue of Gramophone, the leading magazine of the classical recording industry. Only sorry I can't put a link to it here, since Gramophone chooses not to make its monthly content available online unless you subscribe. So go to your local bookstore, get a copy, and read all about soprano Melissa Givens' "impassioned performance of strongly characterised and eloquent music," cellist Barry Sills' "exemplary skill and taste," and my own "impressive" work with a Scarlatti toccata. And if you haven't yet bought the CD, get one from us at Ars Lyrica.

New Solo Bach CD

2009-09-13T13:34:00.006-05:00

I'm delighted to announce my just-released recording of Bach Organ Works for the Christmas Season, on the Centaur label. The disc was recorded on the Fisk-Nanney organ at Stanford Memorial Church. The Fisk, one of several organs in Stanford's "Mem Chu," can be seen in the center of this picture; surrounding it are the twin cases of the indestructable 1900 Murray Harris instrument -- which has survived numerous major earthquakes! The Stanford Fisk is a marvelous vehicle for Bach especially, since it plays in two historical temperaments and has a wide variety of German Baroque colors.

This new disc is available from Ars Lyrica or from Centaur. Enjoy!

2009-09-13T12:08:00.004-05:00

Yesterday Ars Lyrica joined Block 7, a new local wine bar and retail shop, for a wine tasting and preview of the 09-10 season. It was great to see many of our supporters there, and even better to meet so many new people. Here's a toast to Ars Lyrica's new publicist, Monica Danna, and our fearless executive director, Kinga Ferguson, for organizing such a wonderful event!

The season gets underway in just a week, with "A Musical Offering" on Sunday Sept 20 at 5 pm, in the Hobby Center's Zilkha Hall. This program, the first stop on our season-long "Musical Grand Tour," offers music of Bach and Telemann written for princely patrons and famous cities. We'll sample from Telemann's "Paris Quartets" and hear a joyous birthday cantata Bach wrote for Prince Leopold of Cöthen, among other works. Good seats are still available, but we're filling up fast, so get your tickets at ArsLyricaHouston.org

St Philip organ update

2009-08-06T20:17:00.005-05:00

The new Paul Fritts organ for St Philip is coming right along, with installation scheduled for the end of this year. Here's a computer model of how it will look in the space, with the proposed painted walls and ceiling of the rear bay. The exact color is to be determined, to complement the mosaic wall in front of the church. Thanks to Sixto for his work on this model! More pics from our recent visit to Paul's shop in Tacoma are at St Philip organ.

Judith Leyster at the National Gallery

2009-08-01T15:03:00.004-05:00

Our nation's capital had an abundance of 17th-century art on display last week, from Monteverdi at Wolf Trap to the beautiful Judith Leyster exhibit at the National Gallery. Leyster was a rarity for her time: a prodigiously gifted female artist, who left only a handful of pieces. This self-portrait suggests a spirited and fun-loving character, one who might have done more had she not gotten married and run a household. At the very least, her work puts in perspective that of her contemporaries, by whom she is lovingly surrounded in this wonderful show. It's on view until the end of November, so if you happen to be in DC...

Monteverdi at Wolf Trap

2009-08-01T13:53:00.007-05:00

A new production of "Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria" at Wolf Trap was reason enough for a quick trip to Washington DC this week. Standouts among the huge cast of singers were Ava Pine and Jamie Barton , two Ars Lyrica favorites who return to Houston for our New Year's Eve program this coming season. Jamie gave a powerful performance as Penelope, the long-suffering spouse of the absent Ulysses, while Ava sparkled as Minerva, one of the gods who does mischief and good deeds in more or less equal measure in this complicated story of love and patience. Here are pics of both in action.

I was also delighted to see UH graduate Carlos Monzon in the cast, as one of Penelope's suitors in a hilarious bit of theatrical naughtiness in Act III. Tuesday's show was, alas, the final performance of this amazing work, but Houston friends will have the opportunity to hear Ava and Jamie soon!

Our amazing ears

2009-06-24T22:08:00.005-05:00

Here's a piece from the NY Times Science page that caught not only my eye but my ear. "When an Ear Witness Describes the Case" tells a fascinating story: our ears are not only supremely sensitive to auditory information, they actually process it faster than our eyes process what we see! Useful to remember the next time you're at a concert and are a long way from the stage or have an obstructed view, or you're sitting in church and can't see the organist flailing away at his Bach fugue. Focus on what you're hearing instead: your ears are telling you a much more interesting story than your eyes can.

BEMF chamber opera double-bill

2009-06-14T17:17:00.006-05:00

"Venus and Adonis," John Blow's operatic masterpiece, is the first of its kind in the English language. The Boston Early Music Festival's production, smartly paired with Marc-Antoine Charpentier's "Actéon," made for an achingly beautiful evening last night at Jordan Hall. Both are short "chamber operas" of less than an hour each, and both treat myths having to do with the hunt, and they were written in the same decade (the 1680s), so it made sense to have both on the program. The same small group of singers and players delivered both, in a brilliantly effective semi-staging by Gilbert Blin with period choreography by Lucy Graham.

Standouts in "Venus and Adonis" included mezzo Mireille Lebel, whom Houston friends may remember from her wonderful solo work in "Messiah" this past year at Jones Hall, and the melting soprano of Amanda Forsythe, who had a busy week in both this production and in "Poppea." Aaron Sheehan, a nobly effective "Actéon," spent the last several minutes of this opera wearing a large stag's head, one of several animal heads used in both operas and worn by not only the adults but some of the cutest kids in Boston! The little ones were utterly adorable in both operas: dressed to the hilt in 18th-century finery, complete with blond curly tresses, they were hilarious as hunting hounds.

Tragicomedia then took the stage for a late-night program of mostly Monteverdi madrigals aptly entitled "Here I am, ready for kisses" ("Eccomi pronta ai baci"). This kind of music is what makes casual early music fans turn into raving maniacs: it's amazing stuff, and was delivered with great humor and stage presence by one of the best continuo ensembles in the business and a group of first-rate young singers.

Now back for a few weeks to the Houston heat, much refreshed by several days of superlative music-making and some nice cool Boston weather. Yesterday was glorious: 70 degrees, sunshine, and even a festive Gay Pride parade!

Les Arts Flo and Poppea

2009-06-13T07:50:00.006-05:00

Here's a bust of the real Poppea -- enough to banish your empress forever? That's what Nero thought...but then they both came to rather bad ends. Monteverdi's public didn't seem to mind, and neither did the audience here in Boston last night, who ate up this naughty historical tale in a beautiful period production by Gilbert Blin. Gillian Keith is wonderful in the title role, and Steve Stubbs and Paul O'Dette have worked their usual magic with both orchestra and cast. Other standouts were Laura Pudwell (Arnalta) and Stephanie Houtzeel (Ottavia), who commanded the stage with great aplomb, and Zachary Wilder (Nutrice), whose crotchety old lady act is hilarious.

Yesterday afternoon I caught the Oberlin production of Charpentier's "Les Arts Florissants," one of the many the BEMF "Fringe" events. It was great to see this group of talented undergraduates convey a real sense of style in their singing, playing, and even Baroque dancing! Their lovely performance of this brief piece left us all wanting more -- something which doesn't happen often enough in this business!

Boston Early Music Festival

2009-06-12T08:57:00.003-05:00

Arrived in Boston yesterday for a few days at the most ambitious early music festival on this side of the Atlantic. Last night's program was spectacular: the Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Ensemble played a program of "orchestral delights" that included three works for three oboes and bassoons (plus strings and continuo) by Fasch, Zelenka, and Telemann. Amazing stuff, which one hardly ever hears -- ever tried to get three first-rate baroque oboists plus a virtuoso baroque bassoon player in the same room at the same time? Kudos to the wind players especially -- Gonzalo Ruiz, Debra Nagy, Kathryn Montoya, and Dominic Teresi -- for their terrific playing!

I'm hearing "Poppea" tonight and a double-bill of "Venus and Adonis" and "Acteon" on Saturday. This is a baroque opera lover's paradise for the next few days!

Subscribe now and win free tix on Continental!

2009-05-19T21:51:00.006-05:00

Ars Lyrica Houston patrons and fans take note: if you subscribe to our 2009-10 season by June 15, you'll have a chance to win TWO FREE TICKETS ANYWHERE IN THE USA ON CONTINENTAL AIRLINES. Many thanks to our corporate sponsor, Continental Airlines, and the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts for making this generous offer possible. To subscribe: visit Ars Lyrica or call the Hobby Center box office at 713 315-2525. And do it today to get your chance at those free tickets on Continental!

MFAH Lecture on May 7

2009-05-01T14:16:00.003-05:00

Yours truly gives a free lecture on Baroque Allegory -- with live music, thanks to sopranos Ava Pine and Melissa Givens -- at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston next Thursday, May 7, at 6:30 pm in the Brown Auditorium. For those who are planning on attending the May 10 Ars Lyrica performance of Handel's "Il Trionfo del Tempo" at the Hobby Center, this is an excellent opportunity to learn something about the work before experiencing it live. It's sensational music, and there's some very beautiful art to look at during the lecture as well, including this "Allegory of Prudence" by Luca Giordano.

Verdi Requiem as Concert-Drama

2009-05-01T14:06:00.002-05:00

Tonight the Moores School offers an intriguing take on the Verdi Requiem. It's inspired by performances of the work given by prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II, and uses footage of interviews with survivors plus documentary clips from that era, including some fascinating though repellant propaganda. I attended the dress rehearsal last night and found the historical angle quite interesting, though the production was more like watching the History Channel than seeing a piece of musical theater. Dramatizations of major works are a challenge: the addition of new elements to a well-known score can either distract us from the music or add to our understanding of it...and I'm still sorting out which this is! I'd be interested to hear from readers what their views are, especially if they've seen the work.

Guns on campus

2009-04-14T22:24:00.004-05:00

The Texas Legislature is at it again, and Molly Ivins is no longer around to defend us! The latest crazy proposal: to allow concealed weapons on public university campuses in Texas, where they are presently prohibited (as they are in every other state except Utah). Those in support of this change in the law say that students have a right to defend themselves against violent crime, but virtually everyone who has studied this issue in depth says that more guns = more violence. It doesn't take a genius or a PhD to figure this out: people who have guns use them, and on college campuses where there's living in close quarters, pressure and stress, there have been far too many recent shootings by people who obtained guns legally. What we need is not more guns, it's intelligent gun control. How many more of us will have to die in campus shootings before the NRA loses its total and complete grip on American politics?

If you live in Texas, please contact your state representatives and state senators and urge them to vote NO on this dangerous proposal. It's easy to do online: go to TXLegislature to contact your elected officials and let them know how you feel!

So Last Century...

2009-03-17T22:05:00.006-05:00

I'm doing something kind of unusual (for me) this Friday: an entire program of contemporary music! Yours truly is appearing with mezzo Sonja Bruzauskas, cellist Erika Johnson, and flautist Daniel Alexander at the Rothko Chapel for a song salon program entitled "So Last Century..." which explores how old instruments are used in contemporary work, how old genres and forms get new sounds, etc. More details at Divas World Productions, the sponsor of this free event. There will be music by David Ashley White, Edmund Rubbra, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, and Samuel Adler, plus wine and cheese and an opportunity for the audience to participate in the discussion following the program. Hope to see some of you there!

Musical Pleasure Garden program postponed

2009-03-13T11:24:00.002-05:00

Due to bad weather, the Ars Lyrica/MSM Collegium "Musical Pleasure Garden" program at Bayou Bend has been moved from tomorrow (March 14) to Sunday, March 22 at 5:30 pm. The location remains the same: the lovely grounds at Bayou Bend, which will be just as beautiful on the 22nd, and hopefully rain-free then!

Naxos Scarlatti disc now available online!

2009-03-02T22:42:00.006-06:00

I'm delighted to announce that Ars Lyrica's first commercial recording is now available online from Naxos. The official release date is March 31, when the CD will be available in record stores worldwide. You can also purchase one directly from Ars Lyrica at our next event. Stay tuned for news of a CD release party in early April!

Ariadnes at Zilkha Hall

2009-02-15T16:33:00.008-06:00

Ars Lyrica's upcoming "Women on the Verge" program this Friday features three different settings of the Ariadne myth, so I thought I'd post a summary of the tale, for those who (like me) need a refresher from time to time about matters ancient and sublime. The painting is Titian's "Bacchus and Ariadne," one of the most famous of the many canvases devoted to this evocative lady. Her story in brief: Having killed the Minotaur in Crete, Ariadne and her lover Theseus flee to Naxos, where they live happily for a while -- that is, until Theseus has to do the "man thing" and get back on his ship and sail away with his army. His departure causes Ariadne much grief, though she eventually weds Dionysus (aka Bacchus in the Roman-influenced painting). Friday's program features three musical settings of this tale, from Monteverdi’s famous Lament, said by a contemporary to have “moved the whole theater to tears,” to a Montéclair cantata and Haydn's well-known dramatic scena.

St Philip Organ Update

2009-01-31T16:46:00.010-06:00

Here's the latest pic, from organ builder Paul Fritts, of the instrument his shop is currently building for St Philip Presbyterian Church. It's very exciting to see it under construction, after several years of planning and patiently waiting for our turn in line. Some pics are indeed worth the proverbial thousand words, and this one's worth quite a bit more in actual $$. For more images of the organ case and chests in Paul's Tacoma shop, see St Philip Organ. This gives you an idea of the instrument's size: the side pedal towers and central tower will reach to within a few inches of the ceiling in the St Philip rear gallery. The swell enclosure is visible near the top of the case, as are a few of the walkboards and windchests. Delivery is scheduled for November of this year, so stay tuned for more updates.

Favorite singers on view downtown

2009-01-26T19:04:00.005-06:00

For those who haven't yet seen it, the current production of Britten's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at Houston Grand Opera is well worth it. It's a charming production and a winning cast, which features two favorite singers: soprano Laura Claycomb and mezzo-soprano Marie Lenormand. Laura was around for our New Year's Eve bash (see the photos at ALH New Year's ) and Marie joins us on Feb 20 for "Women on the Verge," singing Haydn's marvelous setting of "Arianna auf Naxos." In the meantime, go catch both of them at the Wortham Center for a gorgeous account of the Britten.

Purcell concert

2009-01-18T19:41:00.004-06:00

Houston Early Music patrons were fortunate indeed to have heard last night the viol consort Fretwork, with mezzo-soprano Clare Wilkinson, in a program of Purcell's Fantazias and Songs. I was in heaven: the counterpoint in these pieces is nothing short of stupendous for its time, always interesting and always fresh -- and oftentmes very surprising! And Ms Wilkinson is about as good as it gets in this repertoire. Kudos to Houston Early Music for inviting them to Houston; let's hope they come back soon!

Hats off, Henry!

2009-01-15T21:53:00.005-06:00

2009 marks Henry Purcell's 350th birthday, and to celebrate, Houston Early Music is sponsoring an all-Purcell program featuring the viol consort Fretwork along with mezzo-soprano Clare Wilkinson. The concert is this Saturday, Jan 17 at 8 pm at Christ Church Cathedral. Yours truly gives the pre-concert lecture at 7 pm in the cathedral's chapel (between the Cathedral and the Great Hall). The program includes Purcell's still astonishing Fantasies for Viols from 1680 -- one of my "desert island" collections -- and various songs, including "Music for Awhile" and the great Lament from the end of "Dido and Aeneas." For more information on the concert: Houston Early Music Hope to see you there!

It's that time of year again!

2008-12-27T22:12:00.008-06:00

After a quick family visit in the frozen tundra of central Illinois, I'm back in Houston rehearsing BACHANALIA, Ars Lyrica's all-Bach program for New Year's Eve 2008. The festivities begin at 9 pm Wednesday evening, with a program that features the divine duo of soprano Melissa Givens and bass-baritone Timothy Jones, plus Baroque oboe virtuoso Kathryn Montoya, a complement of strings and yours truly in a couple of Bach wedding cantatas and concertos. A gala reception (with champagne and yummy hors d'oeuvres and sweets) and a silent auction follows, so be sure to bring your checkbook! We've got some wonderful items up for bids this year, all proceeds of which benefit Ars Lyrica. Join us for the classiest New Year's celebration in town, and take home something special for yourself or a friend!

A Prop 8 Christmas Gift

2008-12-22T21:49:00.009-06:00

Though the passage of Prop 8 in California was hardly a nice present for the gay and lesbian citizens of the Golden State, a wonderfully funny musical spoof of Prop 8 and its effects has recently appeared on the web. See Prop 8 Musical and prepare to laugh out loud...a lot!

Here's hoping that the California Supreme Court does the right thing in the next few months and allows the nearly 20,000 gay and lesbian couples who got married over the last year to remain so. A democratic government should not bestow such a basic right and then yank it away from an entire segment of a population; that's the stuff of tyrants and dictators.

TX license plates support the arts!

2008-12-11T09:27:00.007-06:00

Texas residents and lovers of the arts: the perfect holiday gift awaits you through the Texas Commission on the Arts. Personalized license plates actually benefit arts organization throughout Texas. Read more about it at TCA and get your plates now! Who knew that supporting the arts in our fair state could be so easy -- and you'll never again forget your license plate number.

This Thursday at Beaver's

2008-12-02T23:05:00.003-06:00

Come join Ars Lyrica musicians, staff, and friends for "Cultured Cocktails" with Ars Lyrica & Spacetaker, on Thursday, December 4, from 5-10pm at Beaver's: 2310 Decatur Street (just south of Washington at the corner where the "Pigstand" used to be). A portion of the proceeds from "Cultured Cocktails" menu benefits Ars Lyrica, and the event is a great social opportunity for us. Hope to see you there!

When in Padua...

2008-11-15T18:30:00.002-06:00

Never been to Padua? If you're in Houston next Sunday, Nov 23, you can at least hear what a 17th-century Vespers service sounded like in this magnificent Duomo. The program is at 6 pm at Christ the King Lutheran Church (Greenbriar at Rice Blvd), and features the Moores School of Music Collegium Musicum (yours truly, director) and members of Ars Lyrica, all conducted by DMA candidate Richard Robbins. At 5:30 pm, Richard lectures on this program, which will be the first modern performance of several large psalm settings by Leandro Gallerano, a contemporary of Monteverdi who lived and worked in Padua for most of his career. Come join us for an Italian feast!

Hats Off to Eastman and UNT

2008-10-26T22:15:00.013-05:00

I'm just back from engagements at two major conferences, both celebrating the installation of new organs, at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY and the University of North Texas in Denton, TX. Hats off to the conference organizers and those responsible for the splendid new instruments, which include (in Rochester) a copy of a late 18th-century German instrument by a builder named Casparini, plus Paul Fritts' latest instrument (at Sacred Heart Cathedral) and a new Taylor & Boody Tannenburg-style organ, which I played last weekend in a pair of recitals at the First Presbyterian Church in Pittsford, NY. Details on the Eastman conference can be found at EROI, aka the Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative, founded several years ago to build a significant collection of historic and historically-inspired instruments at this legendary school of music, which has always been a major presence on the worldwide organ scene.

The conference at UNT came about because of the new Helmuth Wolff organ in the Murchison Performing Arts Center (see pic above), which opened nearly a decade ago and is now finally finished with a spectacular-looking instrument. The building itself is equally distinctive: if you're driving by Denton on I-35, it's the building that looks like a very large armadillo!

I was delighted also to have the opportunity to deliver papers at both conferences, on continuo practice in the Bach circle (at EROI) and on the cultural significance of the organ music of J. S. Bach at UNT. Many thanks to the conference organizers for some very stimulating sessions, and memorable music-making!

Chron review of "Legendary Lovers"

2008-09-23T10:32:00.004-05:00

It was great to see so many of you at "Legendary Lovers" on Friday evening. I'm delighted that we were able to put this program on, despite complications from the hurricane. Many thanks to St Philip Presbyterian Church for accommodating us on such short notice!

The Houston Chronicle review is available online: Ars Lyrica Performance Radiant

The Show Will Go On!

2008-09-15T16:07:00.006-05:00

"Legendary Lovers" will go on Friday evening at 7:30, but the venue has changed, since the Hobby Center just announced today (Thursday) that they must close for the weekend. So we'll be giving the concert at St Philip Presbyterian Church, 4807 San Felipe (at West Loop 610) at 7:30 pm.

The Houston curfew order has been changed from 9 pm to midnight, so there's no worry about being stopped going home from the concert. Parking for St Philip is on the east side of the church grounds, between the sanctuary and Yia-Yia Mary's Greek Restaurant. Hope to see many of you Friday evening for one of the only cultural events actually happening this weekend in our fair city!

In OutSmart

2008-09-02T22:00:00.011-05:00

Check it out: yours truly is featured in this month's issue of OutSmart, the glossy zine catering to Houston's gay, lesbian, bi and trans communities. The article is a nice summary of both professional and personal activities over the last several years here in Houston (no salacious revelations here, just good clean fun). Guess I'm really out now...Happy reading!

Joel's Classical Relocating

2008-09-02T20:55:00.005-05:00

Music-loving friends in Houston will want to know this bit of recent news: Joel's Classical Shop is relocating to 3514B S. Shepherd @ Richmond, as of next weekend. The old shop on Bissonnet is already closed. His phone number and email remain the same.

Houston is lucky to have such a wonderful classical CD store. Here's hoping the new location brings him lots of business and many good years. A toast to Joel and his new shop!

Bach next Tuesday at UH

2008-08-21T09:01:00.003-05:00

On Tuesday, Aug 26 at the University of Houston my colleague Robert Bates will play Bach's Clavier-Übung Pt. III. Yours truly gets things started at 7:30 pm in Dudley Hall with a lecture on same; the concert follows directly in the Organ Hall next door. For those who've never been: both halls are located in the Fine Arts Building, which is directly across the wooded grove (to the east) from the Moores School of Music, campus entrance no. 16 off Cullen Blvd.

The pic is the newly reconstructed organ at the Frauenkirche in Dresden, where Bach may well have played these pieces for the first time in 1736. The church, though destroyed in WWII, has recently been restored to its original Baroque splendor.

Vibrato strikes again!

2008-08-15T18:32:00.009-05:00

Those of us who study and teach historical performance practice are forever confronting the vibrato bugaboo. Getting beyond the fear is usually the first (and often the only) order of business: yes, you too can sing or play with less (or more!) vibrato, and it sounds just fine when you do it -- that is, as long as you're doing everything else correctly. It's the "everything else" that's usually the problem: intonation, breath support, a flexible bow arm, etc.

Over the last decade or so, the leading lights of period-instrument performance have been working to expand the reach of this kind of musical practice, both for themselves and the ensembles they conduct. Period-instrument Mozart or Beethoven is now far less controversial than it was in 1990. But vibrato-less Elgar? That's what the London Proms promises this year, as reported in yesterday's NYTimes

I'm particularly struck with Norrington's comment about his love of the pure, vibrato-less string sound, despite his admission that Elgar probably put up with "a fair bit" of it. Once again, taste trumps history. A chacun son goût!

Opera in Santa Fe

2008-08-11T23:26:00.004-05:00

Just back from Santa Fe, where opera is the main attraction in the summertime. Here's what the stage of this magical indoor/outdoor theater looked like this past Saturday night, just before the curtain of Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro." Anyone who saw Rameau's "Les Boreades" a few years back at BAM will remember the sea of flowers stuck into the stage, which were maniacally pulled out during the prologue. Similar plastic posies were put to great use in the Santa Fe Figaro, especially during the final "garden" scene, and during the overture the stage was plucked in a very genteel manner. Luxurious casting, including Mariusz Kwiecien and Luca Pisaroni as the Count and Figaro, respectively.

In addition to the Mozart, some Houston friends and I saw Handel's "Radamisto" and Kaija Saariaho's latest, "Adriana Mater," in its American première. I went expecting to like the Handel, and who can resist David Daniels, Laura Claycomb, and Heidi Stober, who all sang up a storm. The real surprise for me was the Saariaho work, which was riveting. The libretto (by Amin Maalouf) is both timely and poignant, and the music sensational. Highly recommended!

And it's a good thing the weather and hiking are so good in Santa Fe this time of year, because we did more than our fair share of eating! Are there any bad restaurants there?

Starlets of the coming season

2008-07-25T18:08:00.010-05:00

If you didn't catch the interview about our upcoming season on KUHF 88.7 FM this afternoon, you can still listen to it by clicking on The Front Row

And I'm delighted to share some other news. Both Ava Pine and Jamie Barton, our two soloists for the Sept 19 Ars Lyrica season opener, have been getting rave reviews for their summer opera work around the country. Ava is currently appearing in the Wolf Trap Opera production of Handel's "Alcina," which you can read about in the Washington Post and the
Ionarts Blogspot.

Jamie's Susuki in "Madame Butterfly" in St Louis got some great press as well. Read all about it in the Dallas Morning News and
the St Louis Post-Dispatch.

And here's a marvelous picture of Ava, as the Angel in "Angels in America" in Fort Worth earlier this summer.

A Turkish Holiday

2008-07-15T21:15:00.005-05:00

Just back from a couple of weeks in Turkey, which Sixto and I highly recommend for anyone who has never been. We were on the Mediterranean coast for the better part of a week with some good friends from Houston: Robin Angly and Miles Smith, plus her sister Phoebe and son Hart, and their step-sister Allison. We all spent several days in Istanbul as well, and Sixto and I stopped for a few days in Amsterdam on the return.

The pic is of me, Robin and Allison at Saklikent Gorge, which offers a spectacular hike through some icy cold (and fast-moving!) water amid great rock formations.

The scenery on the coast reminded me of the Amalfi coast in Italy, though Turkey has Hellenistic and Roman ruins virtually everywhere you turn. The beaches are wonderful, as is the water and the food. Istanbul is a paradise for historical tourism and shopping; the mosques and the Grand Bazaar have to be seen to be believed! (Yes, we bought rugs and leather jackets...great prices for wonderful things!)

For the complete tour, go to Sixto's gallery of the trip: www.picasaweb.google.com/sixwag

A New Organ for St Philip

2008-06-12T18:33:00.000-05:00

As promised below (see earlier post), here's a drawing of the new Paul Fritts organ currently under construction in Tacoma, WA, and due to be installed at St Philip Presbyterian here in Houston in Fall 2009. I'll have more details and pics as things progress, but wanted to give Houstonians especially a little peek at our new instrument.

The casework will include pipeshade carvings (not shown) and will likely combine some natural-finished wood with painted and/or gilded surfaces. This is just an initial rendering of the shape, using the wood color found in the church. With three manual divisions and pedal and 48 stops, this will be a major addition to the local scene.

Old reedy things...

2008-06-09T18:02:00.000-05:00

Having fielded several questions at the "Duelling Divas" reception about the wind instruments used during that program, I thought I'd devote a few blogs to that topic this summer. I got these photos just recently, from someone in France who is trying to sell an 18th-century bassoon. It's always surprising to see a surviving wind instrument from this era, since they are prone to self-destruction on account of the humidity that eats away the interior of old oboes, bassoons, flutes et al. This one looks pretty well preserved, but I've no idea whether it's playable.

The key different between a baroque bassoon and a modern one is the lack of many keys on the baroque instrument. Notice the fairly large fingerholes, which (as on a recorder) are the means by which a bassoonist changes from one note to the next. This is a three-keyed instrument, which was typical in the 18th century. The sound of an instrument like this is both earthier and quieter than a modern bassoon, and it blends beautifully with the quirky sound of the baroque oboe and fits seemlessly with cello and bass in a continuo line of a baroque orchestra.

The case is also quite extraordinary, a beautiful piece of furniture in its own right!

Organ News

2008-05-31T14:49:00.000-05:00

At St Philip Presbyterian Church in Houston (where I'm the organist), we're eagerly anticipating the Fall 2009 delivery of a new pipe organ from Paul Fritts of Tacoma, WA. His most recent opus is currently on its way to Sacred Heart Cathedral in Rochester, NY. You can read all about it in a wonderful article from the Tacoma paper:
www.thenewstribune.com/soundlife/story/363703.html

The new instrument at St Philip, of approximately the same size as the Rochester instrument, will have a more contemporary case to harmonize with our more modern-looking sanctuary, which was recently renovated from top to bottom. The new acoustics and enlarged choir/organ gallery at St Philip make a perfect home for the new Fritts organ. With three manual divisions and pedal and 48 stops, it will be a major addition to the local scene -- and Paul's first instrument anywhere in Texas!

Stay tuned for images of the new instrument, which I'll be posting once we have them from the builder.

Summer's here!

2008-05-25T16:21:00.000-05:00

Summer always brings music festivals and travels, and this year is no exception. Yours truly will be off to Turkey in a month, and can't wait to see Istanbul, the Aegean Sea, the mosques, the rugs....

Keeping track of musician friends this time of year is a special challenge, but for the intrepid, here's a quick list of some websites that will tell you where to hear your favorite singers this summer:

www.avapine.com
www.melissagivens.com
www.marielenormand.com
www.singjones.com
www.josephgaines.com

Happy surfing!

Ars Lyrica in Beaumont

2008-05-18T23:07:00.000-05:00

Just back from Beaumont, where Ars Lyrica played an all-Italian chamber program this afternoon at First United Methodist Church. Performers included Melissa Givens (soprano), Gerrod Pagenkopf, (countertenor), Alan Austin (baroque violin), Brady Lanier (baroque cello) and yours truly on the wire machine. Check out their great sanctuary windows and the article about us at http://firstbeaumont.org/

Many thanks to Eduardo Garcia-Novelli, the church's director of music (and a former student: DMA in choral conducting from the Moores School), and to the Leland Best Council for the Arts at FUMC Beaumont for the opportunity to share some of our favorite pieces with you!

Reviews of "Duelling Divas"

2008-05-13T23:46:00.000-05:00

Well, the divas had their duel and I'm delighted to report that there were no casualties! In fact, it was one of the more enjoyable evenings we've spent on the Zilkha Hall stage. If you haven't yet seen it, here are the links to Chas Ward's review in the Houston Chronicle and Holly Beretto's review in Arts Houston:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/arts/classicalmusic/5773659.html
http://www.artshouston.com/article.php?article_id=700

Many thanks to all who made "Duelling Divas" such a great evening!

The lowdown on Phoebus...

2008-05-01T16:30:00.000-05:00

Just when you thought you'd heard it all...some interesting news about a Bach cantata.

Bach's "Phoebus and Pan" (on the upcoming May 11 Ars Lyrica program) has gotten some attention recently on a website that's never before dabbled in Bach criticism or research. At least one writer considers Phoebus' big aria as a rare example of homoeroticism in Bach. Here's the link: www.androphile.org/preview/Library/History/jsbach/bach.htm While the author of this article is correct as far as the old legend goes, I wonder how many of us are prepared to admit of such goings-on in Bach. Not many in the Bach industry, or so it would seem!

I'll be interested to know how this colors your hearing of the work on our "Duelling Divas" program at Zilkha Hall. See you there!

A Saint-Saens Weekend

2008-04-15T20:55:00.000-05:00

Yours truly returns to Jones Hall this weekend for another go at the Saint-Saens' "Organ Symphony," with the Houston Symphony and conductor Louis Langrée. Here's hoping the HSO has rented an electronic organ powerful enough to compete with the orchestra in this masterpiece of the symphonic literature. Also on the program: one of Saint-Saens' violin concertos with Karen Gomyo, violinist, and Messiaen's "Les offrandes oubliées." I'm also doing the prelude lecture before each performance. Check the HSO website for more details: www.houstonsymphony.org

A Marian Feast Notes

2008-02-28T07:50:00.000-06:00

Our program this coming Saturday is devoted to Baroque music on Marian themes. Tor those who like to read the program notes in advance, here they are. See you at Zilkha Hall on Saturday night!

Marian Feast Program Notes:

History has not always been kind to great composers. But with the advent of a historically conscious mode of performance, we’ve gotten to know most of the movers and shakers of the Baroque period, even if our judgment of their worth is sometimes a bit skewed. The Scarlatti family is a case in point. All keyboard players know a sonata or two by Domenico Scarlatti, but how many of us have ever heard an opera by his father Alessandro? In the eighteenth century this situation was neatly reversed: Domenico was known mostly by reputation, since he worked for a reclusive Spanish court and traveled little, while Alessandro was widely revered as the greatest master of Italian vocal music. As Michelangelo had done in the Renaissance for virtually all areas of the visual arts, Alessandro Scarlatti perfected the major musical genres of the Italian Baroque. His prodigious output, which includes 100 operas, 600 cantatas, and 30 oratorios, has only recently begun to make its way back into the repertoire.

Scarlatti wrote most of his sacred works for either wealthy churchmen or religious organizations known as confraternities. One such group, the Knights of the Virgin of Sorrows in Naples, commissioned his Stabat Mater in 1724 (they would later commission Pergolesi’s famous setting of the same text). This venerable text, of thirteenth-century Franciscan origins, conveys in twenty rhyming strophes a timeless message: the Virgin Mary’s grief at Jesus’s crucifixion is shared by mankind, which through this sacrifice is redeemed. It was sung regularly as a Gregorian sequence hymn until the Council of Trent (c1550), which suppressed it until the early eighteenth century, when it reappeared in the Good Friday liturgy and at other penitential times. The text was set by many Renaissance and Baroque composers, including Domenico Scarlatti, who used it to create a tour-de-force work with ten independent vocal parts. Alessandro’s setting has all the hallmarks of his individual style: noble yet quirky melodies, expressive yet unpredictable harmonies, and refined though never fussy embellishments. Its scoring, for two treble solos plus two violins and continuo, reflects the modest resources of the Neapolitan confraternity.

Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber was one of the greatest virtuoso violinists of his day. While in service to the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, he compiled a collection of violin sonatas unmatched for their time in both originality and in sheer technical demands. Like the Catholic Rosary, these “Rosary” or “Mystery” Sonatas include a series of “joyful,” “sorrowful” and “glorious” mysteries: five sonatas in each category, fifteen in all. These works were meant to accompany devotions, and each offers something for the eye as well: in the manuscript, elegant little copper engravings before each depict the mystery mentioned in the sonata’s title.

In the end, the descriptive titles are more allusive than descriptive of what actually happens during these sonatas. The “Annunciation” Sonata alludes to that moment, commemorated in countless artworks, when the Angel Gabriel brings Mary the news that she will give birth to the Messiah. The “Assumption,” another important Marian feast, celebrates the passage of both her body and soul into Heaven. The former uses the violin’s normal tuning, while the latter uses a mild scordatura, or deliberate mistuning of the violin’s strings. While conceptually challenging, the scordatura actually enables the violinist to play the notes that Biber wrote more efficiently, with fewer awkward fingerings and string crossings that would be required to play these notes with the normal setup of a violin’s strings.

The Oratorio on the Conception of the Virgin Mary is one of only two surviving Latin oratorios by Scarlatti. First performed in Rome in 1703, the work recycles music from one of the composer’s earlier Italian-language oratorios: I Dolori di Maria Sempre Vergine (Naples, 1693), which is no longer extant. Its modest scoring, for SATB soloists plus two violins and continuo, contrasts with the standard four-part string complement of most oratorios from this time. Its libretto, in contrast, was utterly pertinent in 1703: La Concettione promotes the doctrine of Mary’s immaculate conception, which at the dawn of the eighteenth century was not yet a settled issue.

This doctrine, whose theological roots go back to the Middle Ages, became a kind of theological lightening rod in Counter-Reformation Rome, which sought to distinguish itself in the strongest possible terms from the heresies of the Protestants. At its core was the idea that Mary, though conceived “in the way of all flesh,” was born without original sin. During the seventeenth century especially, this doctrine was challenged both from within and from without, leading to several papal pronouncements on the matter and a number of sympathetic artistic treatments of the issue, including musical compositions.

Lingering doubts about the state of Mary’s fetal soul were effectively silenced by Pope Clement XI (Giovanni Francesco Albani), who in 1708 made the Feast of the Immaculate Conception a holiday of obligation, thus insuring compliance (i.e., attendance at mass on this day) among the faithful. As luck would have it, Albani shared a common history with Scarlatti: they were both active at the artistic Accademia founded by the exiled Queen Christina of Sweden, whom Scarlatti served as maestro di capella from 1679 to 1684. Scarlatti’s theatrical ambitions kept him elsewhere for most of the next two decades, but in 1703 he returned to the Eternal City, where he found the theaters shuttered by papal decree. Like most of his contemporaries, Scarlatti turned to oratorios and cantatas on commission for wealthy ecclesiastical patrons like cardinals Ottoboni and Pamphili. La Concettione della Beata Vergine was probably first heard at one of their palaces, or perhaps at the Oratorio del Crocifisso in the Church of San Marcello, the epicenter of Roman oratorio performances since the early seventeenth century.

Oratorios from this time tend to comprise two more or less equal parts. This work is no exception to that general rule, though its two parts are quite brief, with barely five arias apiece and just a few short ensembles. In comparison to Scarlatti’s other works in this genre, La Concettione della Beata Vergine seems like only half an oratorio; and indeed, the sources suggest that its lost predecessor was longer. The final chorus of La Concettione (the only movement that involves all four singers) was clearly meant to conclude this work; its emphatic quatrain, with deliberately inverted syntax at the end, precludes any more text: “Quae est hodie concepta/a crimine immunis/laetitia communis/triumphat Maria.” But most of the surviving parts arrive at the final word of text and then fall silent on a dominant chord (necessitating the invention of a few bars of music for this performance), while the continuo part cadences, then continues in a new meter and key. Whoever adapted the old music to the new libretto seems to have realized, only after copying out several bars of the next section from the lost earlier work, that he had gone too far. Why he failed to correct the mistake and supply a final cadence in the other parts remains a mystery.

One other inevitable problem with a contrafactum (a work whose music originated with another text) is the sometimes awkward fit of old music and new words. Most problematic in this regard in La Concettione are arias like “Conceptam Virginem,” whose languid melody and dark key of B minor is at odds with the song of praise announced in its text.

The anonymous libretto is allegorical, not dramatic, and hews closely to the central points of a doctrine dear to the Catholic faith. At the outset Grace (alto) asserts that Mary, from the moment of her conception onwards, was untainted by original sin. The Serpent (bass), finding this notion preposterous, taunts Grace and throws down the gauntlet: Heresy (tenor) will do his bidding on earth, sowing doubt and discord among the faithful. The Archangel Michael (soprano) intervenes, reinforcing Grace’s doctrinal line, which is developed mostly by the latter in a series of arias. In the end, both Heresy and the Serpent reluctantly capitulate, much as those who doubted the doctrine (including sizeable numbers of clergy) were forced to acquiesce as the Church pressed its case for Mary’s immaculate conception.

Ars Lyrica's first CD on Naxos

2008-01-31T23:21:00.001-06:00

Audiences and critics alike have been enthusiastic about Ars Lyrica programming in general and the Alessandro Scarlatti programs in particular. We are pleased to announce that a recent Ars Lyrica recording of Scarlatti's music will be available on the NAXOS label later this year. The disc features two major works of Scarlatti that have never before been recorded: Euridice dall'Inferno and La Concettione della Beata Vergine (plus his Sonata in C minor for cello and continuo and Toccata in A major for solo harpsichord).

Read what critics say about Ars Lyrica's performance of Scarlatti's music:

"Dirst led a vigorous performance that revealed the brilliance and depth of Scarlatti's music very well. Every singer poured great intensity into the music [and] the accompaniment by the continuo group was exquisitely sensitive and colorful."
Houston Chronicle on l primo omicidio

"Ars Lyrica's presentation came as close to opera as I've ever seen with three sterling singers, crisp articulation from the period-instrument string-and-continuo band, and intelligent, detailed direction."
Arts Houston on La Giuditta

Free Concert at the Museum of Fine Arts

2008-01-31T23:09:00.000-06:00

MFAH "Artful Thursday" presentation

Learn more about Alessandro Scarlatti's masterpieces in a lecture presentation by yours truly, with musical illustrations by Ars Lyrica's singers.

Lecture recital: A Marian Feast

Thursday, Feb 21, 2008, at 6:30 pm, MFAH Brown Auditorium

Featuring:
Matthew Dirst, lecture
Kinga Ferguson, soprano
Gerrod Pagenkopf, countertenor

Co-sponsored by KUHF 88.7 FM.

The program will be followed by a reception

Pictures from New Year's Eve celebration

2008-01-31T22:55:00.000-06:00

We are happy to report that our New Year's Eve celebration was a great success.
The concert had the largest audience to date, and the party and the auction were also well attended and received.

For pictures from both events, please visit:
http://web.mac.com/jamiferg/Site/Photos.html

Early Music a luxury item again!

2008-01-12T14:41:00.000-06:00

Have a look at the January issue of Houston Modern Luxury magazine for the latest sign that Kinga Ferguson, Ars Lyrica's executive director, is finding creative new ways of getting the word out. There's a profile of yours truly just inside the back cover, with the obligatory glam photo. It's a great piece of publicity, though I'll admit that the pic is kinda scary. Houston Luxury can be found in high-end shops, hair salons, restaurants, etc and is available for free at those locations.

After years of jokes about harpsichordists and their granola and birkenstocks, it's interesting to see that early music is once again a luxury item -- which is, after all, precisely what it was during the 18th century and before.

Clandestine Classics Notes

2007-12-26T21:14:00.000-06:00

Clandestine Classics, our New Year's Eve program, includes four little-known gems of Bach and Handel, one of which is addressed to St Cecilia, patron saint of musicians. I adore this painting of her (by Guido Reni, 1606) for what it seems to suggest about the nature of artistic inspiration: the music seems to pass directly from heaven into her violin!

For those of you curious to know a little about this music in advance, here are my program notes. Enjoy, and see you New Year's Eve at Zilkha Hall!

Though concerti for multiple soloists were invented by the Italians, German Baroque composers developed a special fondness for this kind of piece, partly because such works welcomed the kind of busy counterpoint they regularly wrote. The Germans also had a predilection for colorful sound combinations, such as one finds in the Brandenburg Concerti, each of which calls for a different group of soloists. Bach’s Triple Concerto pits two melody instruments (violin and flute) against the harpsichord, whose typical role in such works is to supply necessary harmonies and not much else. But as in the Fifth Brandenburg, the harpsichord is a stealth soloist here: its part eventually rises above the others to dominate the texture, culminating in non-stop figuration and elaborate cadenzas for the continuo player. Like many of Bach’s keyboard concerti, the Triple Concerto is a transcription. The outer movements derive from an earlier prelude and fugue for solo harpsichord, while the central Adagio elaborates on a movement from one of Bach’s organ trio sonatas.

Bach composed Ich habe genug in 1728 for the Feast of the Purification, the annual liturgical celebration of Jesus’ presentation in the temple. Originally scored for solo bass, oboe, strings and continuo, the work seems to have been a personal favorite of the composer. Around 1735, Bach returned to it, transposing it up a third and rescoring the solo parts for high voice and flute. Tonight’s performance features this later version of the cantata.

Echoing the aged Simeon’s poignant words (“Lord, now let your servant depart in peace”), the anonymous libretto of Ich habe genug longs for death as both the final exit from worldly suffering and the beginning of a glorious afterlife. Bach’s treatment of the three aria texts especially marks this as one of his finest creations. The plaintive opening number, with its yearning melody, seems to encompass all the world’s sadness while affirming (paradoxically) that beyond the beauty of temporal notes lies a yet more beautiful eternity. A “slumber” aria of heartbreaking loveliness follows. Taking his cue from operatic “sleep scenes,” Bach here turns worldly sleep into an eloquent depiction of eternity, through the use of conventional lullaby figures and an unusual formal design. The final aria celebrates the end of life with joyous, dance-like figuration in the voice and instrumental parts, in utter defiance of death.

The setting of the Gloria now attributed to Handel came to the world’s attention in 2001. Newspapers heralded its discovery as a major event, despite lingering doubts about its authenticity. If Handel wrote it, he surely did so between 1706 and 1708 in Rome, where such a blatantly theatrical solo setting of the Gloria would have been well received by patrons who loved opera but were frequently denied it. The seven discrete movements follow the typical divisions of the Gloria text. Handel’s virtuosic treatment of the solo voice in the joyous outer movements is noteworthy, as is the highly expressive “Qui tollis,” which makes vivid with tortuous chromatic melodies the “sins of the world.”

St Cecilia, the patron saint of musicians, did rather well following the restoration of the English monarchy in the late 17th century. Annual celebrations of her feast day (Nov 22) began in London in 1683, necessitating yearly Cecilian odes by Purcell and his contemporaries. As inheritor of this tradition, Handel was obliged to contribute a piece or two, including Cecilia vogli un sguardo (“Cecilia, turn your gaze”), scored for soprano, tenor, strings and continuo.

One of his last Italian cantatas, Cecilia was first given in 1736 as a curtain-raiser to the second part of Alexander’s Feast, an English-language oratorio likewise devoted to the theme of music’s power. At its première, Cecilia seems to have had a more practical purpose as well: it gave the evening’s two star Italian singers, Anna Strada del Pò and Carlo Arrigoni, choice arias to sing in their native tongue. (One wonders how they negotiated the English of John Dryden’s Alexander’s Feast.) Although Cecilia’s libretto is hardly great poetry — it’s a middlebrow muddle of familiar platitudes and dutiful patriotism — its inspired music should encourage even skeptics that a Cecilian kind of virtue is a worthy goal, perhaps even a good New Year’s resolution!

NYC in December

2007-12-17T10:08:00.000-06:00

Brrr...it's cold in New York this time of year! A great opportunity for a Texan to rummage through the closet for warm clothes and the big coat, which came in handy this past weekend in NYC. Sixto had a two-day meeting, so I went along for the ride -- and the nice Midtown hotel room, directly across 51st St from Rockefeller Center's famous Christmas tree!

On Friday I saw my first Gluck opera, "Iphegenie en Tauride" at the Met. metopera.org It's a wonderfully gloomy production, gorgeously sung by Susan Graham in the title role, with great support from tenors Paul Groves and Placido Domingo. Rationalist opera was a tough sell, however, on this customer. Though Gluck's reform efforts were surely appreciated by his enlightened contemporaries, I found myself longing for a bit more excess and gratuitous display. On the other hand, his music focuses your attention on the drama and the words. Nicolas-Francois Guillard's libretto (after Euripides) is a beautifully consise telling of this classic tale, and was well served by this composer and this production.

Looking forward to seeing many of you on New Year's Eve!

Doing the seguidilla in Pittsburgh

2007-11-12T11:49:00.000-06:00

This past weekend I had the great pleasure of playing with El Mundo, a group run by Richard Savino, who plays lute and guitar with us frequently. The program, entitled Zarzuela y Opera!, was for the Renaissance and Baroque Society of Pittsburgh: rbsp.org

The music -- by Sebastian Duron, Domenico Zipoli and others -- is full of infectious rhythms and melodies. For me, it was kind of a baptism-by-fire in Spanish Baroque, complete with improvised fandangos and seguidillas!

And on another subject: if you need a good laugh (at Pachelbel's expense), have a look at youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM

Having just spent the weekend realizing such bass lines -- Spanish music has lots of ostinatos for the continuo players -- I can definitely relate, though I'm much fonder of Duron, Zipoli and all the rest than this guitar player is of poor Pachelbel!

"Love and War" review

2007-11-12T11:41:00.000-06:00

If you haven't yet seen it, the Houston Chronicle's review of "Love and War" is up on their website:

blogs.chron.com/aboutlastnight/2007/11/ars_lyrica_makes_the_case_that.html

Bravi a tutti!

"Love and War" this Sunday at 5!

2007-10-29T21:22:00.000-05:00

The upcoming Ars Lyrica program contains some of my favorite music ever: Monteverdi's "Madrigals of Love and War." If you've never heard these remarkable works, you're in for a real treat. And if you're junkies like me, you need at least one good Monteverdian "fix" per year. We're happy to provide: this coming Sunday, Nov 4 at 5 pm at Zilkha Hall. For tickets: 713 315-2525.

For those who like to read them in advance, here are the notes for this program. Hope to see you on Sunday afternoon!

Over the course of an exceptionally long career, Claudio Monteverdi composed some 250 madrigals that range from the comic and satirical to the plangent and war-like. This large and diverse repertory, published in some nine books between 1587 and 1651, is the best witness to the composer’s idiosyncratic and constantly evolving ideas about musical composition. Unusually for their time, these madrigals served as neither domestic music nor polyphonic showpieces but instead as highly expressive, supple works in the modern (mixed) style for professional singers.

In his madrigals Monteverdi simultaneously paid tribute to and gave new life to a genre whose day had clearly passed. The polyphonic part song par excellence of the previous century, the madrigal encompassed for Monteverdi and his contemporaries everything from extended scena in the new theatrical style to relatively short works that move with astonishing speed from one emotion to another. An intense focus on the words was paramount, oftentimes to the detriment of good counterpoint: the theorist Artusi’s complaint about one such piece caused Monteverdi to mount one of the first public relations campaigns in music history. From this dispute came the famous distinction, crucial for the early Baroque, between the prima prattica (the contrapuntal style of the 16th century) and the seconda prattica (the melody-dominated style of the early 17th century).

From Monteverdi’s Madrigals of Love and War (Book VIII, 1638) our program incorporates eight works: seven concerted madrigals plus an introductory sinfonia for instruments alone. The madrigali guerrieri (madrigals of war) are especially noteworthy for their striking and wholly avant-garde treatment of the idea of armed combat. Searching for a modern musical equivalent to the ancient Greek warlike genus in music, Monteverdi invented the stile concitato (the “excited style”), in which instruments and singers simulate the sound of war by repeated hammering of the same notes. Stark contrasts with sections in either the “languid” or the “temperate” styles (following Monteverdi’s own classifications of the human passions) remind us of the sometimes perilously short path from love to war. As the composer himself explained: “When [the poetry] speaks about war, it must imitate war; when it speaks about peace, imitate peace; about death, death, and so on, afterwards the transformations and imitations will happen in a brief moment.”

We open and close with two Monteverdi settings of Petrarch sonnets, both of which require a full complement of singers, continuo players and two violins. The triptych known as the Lamento della Ninfa, set to verses by Ottavio Rinuccini, begins and ends with a trio that provides essential commentary on the central dramatic lament, whose ostinato pattern of just four notes (the classic descending “lamento bass”) supports a plaintive melody, one that Monteverdi instructs must be sung not “to the time of the hand” (in strict meter) but instead “in time with the emotions of the mind.” In both Altri canti di Marte and Hor ch’el ciel Monteverdi’s characteristic war-like sounds — the fast repeated notes of the stile concitato — are hard to miss, but there are passage of striking beauty in both as well. The remaining three Monteverdi works on this program, though scored for smaller forces, are just as unpredictable and expressive as their larger neighbors.

Like Monteverdi, Purcell’s musical and dramatic instincts far outclassed those of his contemporaries. His solo songs have charm, elegance, humor, and a certain earthiness about them—qualities that have made these little gems eternally popular with both young and experienced singers. Purcell and his (mostly unknown) poets found the twin topics of love and war just as irresistible as had their Italian forebears, though what they did with those ideas was uniquely English. Most of the Purcell songs on tonight’s program are individual works, but at least two are from larger stage works. The most familiar of the lot, “I attempt from Love’s sickness to fly,” comes from the end of the third act of Indian Queen, as a chorus of spirits descend to warn mere mortals of the many dangers of love.

The violinist and composer Salamone Rossi, whose time at the Mantuan court overlapped with Monteverdi’s tenure there, was among the first composers to write sonatas in the soloistic style of the early Baroque. His Venetian contemporary Biagio Marini was a virtuoso violinist and composer of great inventiveness. Dario Castello was active in Venice in the first half of the seventeenth century as a wind player. His two collections of sonatas for either violin, recorder, or cornetto show the influence of the new style of vocal writing on instrumental composition; these are highly rhapsodic, almost free-form compositions with occasional countrapuntal episodes.

So what's "Wired Bach" about?

2007-10-02T11:31:00.000-05:00

This weekend's "Wired Bach" Ars Lyrica program is an all-Bach affair, with lots of wires (two harpsichords and five string instruments) plus some highly caffienated music. You won't need to stop at Starbuck's before this one!

Concert info: Saturday, Oct 6 at 7:30 pm
at St Philip Presbyterian Church (San Felipe just outside West Loop 610)
Tickets available at the door only.

Here are some notes on the program by yours truly:

J. S. Bach wrote his first keyboard concertos between 1717 and 1723 during his service to Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen. Concerti for multiple harpsichords followed during Bach’s long tenure in Leipzig, perhaps as a means of sharing the spotlight occasionally with his gifted sons, all of whom eventually entered the family trade (Bach would surely have played one of the solo parts himself). Most of these concerti, including those for solo harpsichord, are transcriptions of earlier works for other instruments, and yet that doesn’t render them somehow less idiomatic than other keyboard concerti. Bach had no trouble transferring musical ideas from one medium to another, and some of his transcriptions are arguably more successful pieces than their originals. Of the two double-harpsichord concerti on tonight’s program, the first (BWV 1060) will be familiar to some as a violin and oboe concerto.

Bach’s concerti usually follow the Vivaldian model, with two fast movements surrounding a highly embellished slow movement. In the C-minor double concerto the strings are integral to the articulation of the ritornello (refrain) passages in the outer movements and they accompany the extensive solo writing in a variety of ways. The C-major concerto, on the other hand, had no string parts in its earliest incarnation. Though a late addition, the strings are welcome one, for they help to reinforce important cadential points and add their distinctive warm color to a what is otherwise a fairly wiry texture.

The two violin sonatas on this program are formally similar but they reflect two different ways of treating the harpsichord during the Baroque. The G major Sonata (BWV 1021) for violin and continuo has just two lines of music: a melody line for violin and a bass line with figures that indicate the harmonies to be realized above it. The A major Sonata (BWV 1015), on the other hand, is for violin and harpsichord obbligato, meaning that the right-hand part is fully realized by the composer. It is one of a set of six such pieces that are among the first to treat the keyboard in this more modern manner.

Bach’s six suites for unaccompanied cello pay homage to the traditional Baroque dance suite (allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue) while incorporating more modern dances (minuets, bourrées) and imposing introductory preludes as well. The second of these begins with a marvelously ruminative exploration of the dark D minor tonality; its dances are by turns pensive and perky. Like its sister suites, it demonstrates with particular eloquence how Bach (to quote a late 18th-century writer) managed to “make melody out of harmony, and harmony out of melody.”

Much of this music was first heard on programs of the Leipzig Collegium Musicum, an ensemble made up primarily of university students, whose direction Bach assumed in the mid 1720s. Performances by this ensemble took place at a coffee-house and occasionally at an outdoor garden owned and operated by Gottfried Zimmermann. Their convivial and highly caffienated atmosphere was conducive to informal programs that freely mixed instrumental and vocal chamber works: Bach’s famous “Coffee Cantata” was intended for just such an occasion. The instrumental music Bach wrote for such programs is similarly “wired”: it’s unambiguously cheerful, with busy contrapuntal lines going seemingly every which way but always with a final goal in mind.

Off and Running!

2007-09-11T08:54:00.000-05:00

Thanks to our hardworking musicians, staff, board, and a great audience for a terrific opening night this past Friday at Zilkha Hall. If you haven't read the review in the Houston Chronicle, check it out:
blogs.chron.com/aboutlastnight/2007/09/ars_lyrica_sets_the_standard_i.html

And mark your calendars now for the rest of our season: www.arslyricahouston.org

Program Notes for "Mad Women" on Sept 7

2007-08-23T21:43:00.000-05:00

For those interested in reading the program notes in advance of "Mad Women" on Sept 7, here they are. Program information is available on the Ars Lyrica website: www.arslyricahouston.org

Long a staple of the opera house, mad scenes have been around since the ancient Greeks, who used them for moments of eerie introspection or crazed virtuosity in their tragedies. One reason why mad scenes became so popular — not only in Greece but in Rome, where they served as ironic comic relief — was the fact that such moments, in which a character becomes irrational and imagines all manner of weirdness, heighten the drama’s separation from reality and the audience’s awareness of that separation. Baroque opera and cantata, with their larger-than-life characters whose identities, lovers, and even sexualities are extraordinarily fluid, proved even more effective vehicles for mad scenes. The period label itself nicely summarizes the effect of such moments: “baroque” was a pejorative in the 18th century for bizarrely shaped pearls.

During this era a detailed knowledge of myths and fables was essential for anyone who hoped to keep good company. Interestingly, both the stories themselves and the language used to tell them were recognized as highly artificial. Such discourse was indispensable, however, since it served to reinforce social boundaries while providing equals with a kind of coded language, whose implications they alone understood. Composers and librettists across Europe took advantage, supplying a steady stream of works that borrow freely from literary (and sometimes actual) history. Though the web of allusions for some of these pieces may be lost, the best settings have a musical power that transcends the circumstances of their creation and initial reception.

Women in Baroque opera and cantata are more reactive than proactive: their primary responsibility, in other words, is to respond to things done to them. And the things they have to endure! Euridice’s confinement in the underworld, Aeneas’s abandonment of Dido, Jason’s betrayal of Medea — it’s hard to imagine more compelling dramatic material than these women who love too well. In contrast, “mad scene” lyrics for songs and chamber duets tend toward the more abstract (Cesti's "Disperato morirò") or to singular characters (Purcell's "Bess of Bedlam") whose striking eccentricities make the listening process seem almost voyeuristic. Even instrumental music reflects this fascination with madness during the Baroque. The “folia,” originally a dance so energetic that it was said to induce madness, was well established as a ground bass pattern well before Corelli wrote his famous variations on it.

Louis-Nicholas Clérambault brought the cantata to prominence in France during his service to Madame de Maintenon, longtime mistress to Louis XIV. Adapting what had been an exclusively Italian genre to his own ends, Clérambault kept the basic formal outline of alternating recitatives and arias, while infusing the former especially with poignant melodic turns, highly charged declamation, and frequent instrumental obligatos. With its virtuosic display both for the voice and the accompanying ensemble, Médée is among his finest works in the genre. Though no blood is actually spilled in this cantata, Medea’s vengeful intentions against Jason and their children are made plain.

Most of Handel’s solo cantatas are the product of his youthful sojourn in Italy (1706–1710), during which time he perfected his craft and enjoyed the patronage of a number of highly literate aristocratic churchmen. Quite a few of early works are set to emotionally charged, sometimes even bloodthirsty librettos, in contrast to the gentle pastoral imagery favored by Handel’s Italian contemporaries. La Lucrezia tells a story from antiquity: the title character, the wife of a Roman general, has been raped by Sextus Tarquinius, son of the last Roman king. Handel’s gutsy heroine seeks not only vengeance but the restoration of her family’s honor; her mad scene thus runs the gamut from plaintive suffering to noisy suicide.

Handel also wrote mad scenes for a number of operas and at least one oratorio. Hercules centers on the eponymous hero’s triumphal return from battle and his wife Dejanira’s suspicion of his infidelity. After causing his death, she literally comes apart in the last act, exclaiming in desperation: “Where shall I fly / where hide this guilty head?” The mad scene from Imeneo, on the other hand, is a ruse concocted by the heroine Rosmene as she is forced, in the opera’s final scene, to choose between duty and love. Having spent the entire opera vacillating between the two, she first feigns madness then agrees to marry Imeneo (who fell in love with her in Act I) instead of her beloved Tirinto. Given such a context, the lovers’ tender final duet is a marvel of discretion.

So what’s “Real Quill”?

2007-07-30T22:31:00.000-05:00

Like others in this business, I tend to separate the instruments of the baroque band into three general types: blowers (winds), scrapers (strings) and pluckers (harpsichords, lutes, harps et al). We pluckers need some means of plucking our strings, and that’s where bird quill enters the picture.

The harpsichord’s mechanism is very simple. When depressed, a key makes a wooden jack rise and pass by a metal string. Attached to that jack is a little thing called a plectrum that plucks the string. Releasing the key causes a bit of felt at the top of the jack to damp the string, so that the “ring” of one string won’t interfere with the plucking of the next one.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, all plectrum were made of bird quill, just like old-fashioned writing pens except a much smaller piece of same. When the harpsichord was revived in the 20th century, builders thought they could do better with a plastic substance known as delrin, which mimics the characteristics of real quill but lasts longer. Only recently have leading builders and players decided that the real stuff is actually better: more musical, less prone to brittleness, and it even feels better underneath the fingers!

And as you’ve probably guessed by now, I’m a recent convert. The three harpsichords in Houston I use most often — all built by John Phillips of Berkeley, CA — all now have real quill: turkey vulture and Canadian goose, to be exact. Have a look at his website for more information on the instruments: www.jph.us

So when you’re in a park or stretch of wilderness that’s frequented by big flyers (no sparrows or robins, please), gather up a few sturdy feathers and give them to a harpsichordist!

Round Top 7/14/07

2007-07-18T11:00:00.000-05:00

Greetings from the Texas Hill Country! The Festival-Institute at Round Top, TX, is a place I love to visit, especially during the summer season when the place is literally crawling with musical talent. For those of you who’ve never been, have a look at www.festivalhill.org and plan a visit sometime soon. Festival Hill regulars will know that this is a place for not only great music but wonderful food and frequent surprises: from neo-Roman ruins and whimsical fountains to harpsichordists who dabble occasionally in contemporary chamber music. Vive la difference! (and Happy Bastille Day!)

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of playing an organ recital and eucharist for a national conference of Lutheran church musicians at Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church in Houston. Having grown up in that faith, I knew that Lutherans could sing, and (as some of you know) the Fisk organ at Palmer is not shy. I only hope the walls at Palmer are still standing, because I’m pretty sure we blew off the roof!

Speaking of organs and organists, it was great to see so many friends and colleagues recently at the American Guild of Organists convention in Dallas, and at the Boston Early Music Festival earlier in June. Lully’s “Psyché” (the BEMF centerpiece) was a triumph, well worth the trek to Boston.

I hope you’re enjoying the new Ars Lyrica website, and I look forward to introducing you to our new Executive Director, Kinga Ferguson, in the fall. Meanwhile, stay cool and enjoy summer’s many distractions!