|
If it ain’t Baroque,
don’t fix
it!
Carl Rahkonen, viola Edwin Fry, piano Works by: Henry Eccles Marin Marais Johann Sebastian Bach Monday, October 27th, 2014 8:00 pm Gorell Recital Hall |
| PROGRAM Sonata
in G minor
Henry Eccles Five Old French Dances Marin Marais
arr.
by Maud E. Aldis and Louis T. Rowe
L’Agréable (Rondeau) INTERMISSION Italian
Concerto BWV 971 Johann Sebastian Bach 1. [Without tempo indication]
Largo Edwin
Fry, piano
Carl Rahkonen, viola |
A
Baroque
Recital--Program Notes
by Carl Rahkonen
The term Baroque was used to describe the highly decorated
style of 17th
and 18th century architecture in Italy, Germany and Austria and has
also been
applied to the visual arts of that era. In music, Baroque has been used
to describe a style of Western art
music composed from
approximately 1600 to 1750. This
period saw the emergence of the sonata, the suite, and the concerto,
all of
which are represented on this program.
Henry Eccles (b. 1675-1681--d. 1735-45) was born
into a
family of well know musicians and composers in England, which included
an older
Henry, either father or uncle to the younger Henry, grandfather Solomon
Eccles,
and the more famous composer John Eccles, his uncle.
By 1720 young Henry was living in Paris,
where he published a set of 12 violin sonatas, 18 movements of which
were
borrowed from Giuseppe Valentini’s works.
The Sonata in G minor is by
far the best known work of Henry Eccles, and its many arrangements have
become
standard literature for viola, cello and double bass.
Marin Marais (1656-1728) was a French composer and
viola da
gamba player, who became one of the central figures in French Baroque
music. He composed at least five operas
and five books of Pièces de viole
containing mostly dance suites with basso continuo.
The Five
Old French Dances have been selected from Pièces
de viole and have become a staple of viola literature,
performed on many recitals and recorded by such eminent violists as
Yuri
Bashmet.
Johann Sebastian
Bach (1685-1750) is perhaps the most renowned Baroque composer. His Italian Concerto,
BWV 971, originally entitled Concerto nach
Italienischem Gusto
(Concerto after the Italian taste),
is a three-movement concerto for two-manual harpsichord solo and
published in
1735 as the first half of Clavier-Übung II (the second half being
the French
Overture). The Italian Concerto has
become popular among Bach's keyboard
works and has been widely recorded both on the harpsichord and the
piano.
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) is well known as one of “the
most prolific
composers of all time” (Guinness Book of Musical Facts and Feats,
p.80). He composed his Viola
Concerto in G Major TWV 51:G9 sometime between 1716 and
1721. It is one of the first
concertos
composed for viola and is also one of the most popular.
It has been recorded at least twice with two
different ensembles by Pinchas Zukerman.
Every viola player learns the Telemann early in their study like
a “rite
of passage.” I, too, learned this
concerto while still in high school, but I have never played it
publicly. So I consider it a great
privilege now to be
able to play it now, forty years later.
We give a very special thanks to Nancy Pipkin-Hutchinson, for making
the
evening truly Baroque. Once again I
am
deeply indebted to Edwin Fry, my friend and playing partner, for his
willingness to perform our seventh recital together.
Finally I give my deepest gratitude to my
wife, Sharon Franklin-Rahkonen, for her continuing support of my
musical
activities.
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Rahkonen. © 2014- Last
modified 12/14/15
Comments and/or
suggestions may be e-mailed to: rahkonen@.iup.edu.
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