Some Very Artificiall & Good Musick

Theosophical Hall, Marion Street, Wellington, Saturday 16 December 2017

 

Trio sonata in D minor, op. 1, no. 11                            Arcangelo Corelli

              Grave – Allegro          

              Adagio – Allegro

 

Trio sonata in G minor, no. 8 (1697)                                  Henry Purcell

              Adagio – Canzona

              Grave – Largo – Vivace

 

Trio sonata in G minor, op. 3, no.11                             Arcangelo Corelli

              Grave – Presto

              Adagio – Allegro 

 

from Delirio Amoroso, HWV 99                      George Frideric Handel

              Recit, Ma fermati pensier – Aria, Per te lasciai la luce

              Recit, Ma siamo giunti in Lete – Entrée   

              Recit, Si disse Clori – Minuet, In queste amene piaggie serene

 

Trio sonata in G minor, op. 2, HWV 391          George Frideric Handel

              Andante – Allegro

              Arioso – Allegro 

 

 

  RESTORATION

  Bronwen Pugh & Graham McPhail (violins)

  Emma Goodbehere (cello) & Robert Petre (harpsichord)

  with Rowena Simpson (soprano)

 

Although Corelli’s music was not published till the turn of the 18th century, it had been composed and performed thoughout Europe for at least 20 years before then, so it represents the essense of the late 17th century Italian style.  These two very short sonatas are typical of Corelli – succinct, classical, and direct. All three voices participate in the dialogue. In each sonata, a declamatory and rhetorical opening is followed by a faster fugal section, often incorporating chromaticism and chains of suspended dissonances.  The slow middle movement is more homophonic, even choral, and the final allegro features bright and quirky rhythms. 

Purcell published one set of trio sonatas in 1683, and another set (including the sonata we play here) was published by his widow in 1697 after his untimely death – but both sets were clearly composed about the same time, when he was just 24 years old.  The sonatas are all extraordinary demonstrations of Purcell’s genius – clearly based on the fashionable Italian model, but with an English turn of phrase and harmony which Purcell takes to extremes, revelling in his expressive chromaticism and sheer mastery of form.  This was the ‘artifice’ which Roger North and his contemporaries so admired, but they were even more in awe of its powerful musical effects – as are we today.  This G minor sonata starts by exploring organ-like diatonic sonorities, but soon winds its way into a chromatic labyrinth.  Next comes a fugal Canzona based on a lyrical chromatic theme with a lighter counter-subject.  A very short Grave introduces the tour-de-force, a long elegant dance movement in triple time in the style of a chaconne. It is based on a 5-bar theme which recurs 17 times in one or other of the voices, passing through a range of moods and interspersed with a brighter folk-dance section.  The final short vivace is a solo for the bass instruments – its running movement and cross-rhythms characteristic of the dance the English called a paspy and the French a passepied.  

Handel wrote his cantata Delirio Amoroso in 1707 during his early years in Rome where he was supported by patrons such as Cardinal Pamphili, who wrote the text for this cantata.  It is a large elaborate work for multiple strings and wind (and probably dancers) – we present here only the second aria, a full operatic da capo with a solo part for the cello, and the final section of the work.  In a reversal of the more familiar Orpheus and Euridice story, in this cantata Cloris descends into Hades to rescue her dead lover, Thyrsis.  Though his ghost rejects her, she takes him to the Elysian fields. The work ends not with the grand finale we might expect today, but with a noble and serene minuet, repeated at sufficient length to allow a complete performance of the standard couple dance.  Handel concluded many of his works, even whole operas, with a minuet or gavotte.

Handel’s G minor trio sonata HWV391 was first published in 1730 as his op.2 no.6.  It begins with a lyrical duet for the violins above a text-book Corellian walking bass (andante).  A bright fugal movement follows, with a proud opening theme and a startling shift in the middle of the movement to the unexpected key of B flat minor.  The arioso begins as a gentle folk-tune which makes a couple of attempts to explore more adventurous territory before returning home safely, and then leads directly into the final exuberant Italian-style giga or jig.  

Notes by Robert Petre