DownWithTyranny!: [11/21/2010] Sunday Classics: As the names remind us, the concerto and the sonata (and the sinfonia and the opera) came out of Italy (continued)

Simon Preston plays the first two movements of Handel's The Cuckoo and the Nightingale Concerto with Trevor Pinnock conducting the English Concert. The "cuckoo and nightingale" movement begins at 2:50. (The rest of the concerto can be found here.)

Let's proceed with this basketful of concertos by our "adoptively Italian" masters.

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750)

For anyone who's heard tell of a major triad, Bach launches this concerto with, pure and simple, the E major version of this most basic building block of Western classical harmony. And yes, it really is possible to generate memorable melodic material from the E major triad! At the other end of the glorious Largo is a rollicking chase-finale.

BACH: Violin Concerto No. 2 in E, BWV 1042

i. Allegro, ii. Adagio, iii. Allegro assai
Vienna Symphony Orchestra, David Oistrakh, violin and cond. DG, recorded June 1962

And here it is in a more "authentically Baroque" setting.

i. Allegro, ii. Adagio, iii. Allegro assai
Christoph Poppen, violin; Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, Helmuth Rilling, cond. Hänssler Classic, recorded May 1999

GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN (1681-1767)

Last night, when we heard that magical little concerto for four violins by Telemann, I promised you a Telemann concerto that I fell in love with on an old Musical Heritage Society LP of assorted concertos by the composer. That disc featured the excellent Baroque conductor Kurt Redel and his Munich Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, with Georg Schmid playing the G major Viola Concerto. As I noted, somehow I got separated from that record acquired the Viola Concerto on a later MHS Telemann LP built around violist Philipp Naegele (who switched to violin for the four-violin concerto).

I see that the Telemann G major Viola Concerto is now all over the place, and it's not hard to understand why. Each of its four movements (in the slow-fast-slow-fast configuration that comes out of the Italian sonata da chiesa, or church sonata) is a compact gem, melodically and rhythmically irresistible and memory-implanting. We had a video clip of the lovely opening movement; here's the Naegele recording of the whole piece.

TELEMANN: Viola Concerto in G

[0:00] i. Largo, [3:11] ii. Allegro, [6:11] iii. Andante,
[9:52] iv. Presto
Philipp Naegele, viola; Heidelberg Chamber Orchestra. Musical Heritage Society

For a change of pace, here's a pretty decent recording of the concerto I've got on a cheap CD called Pachelbel Canon and Other Baroque Masterpieces.

i. Largo, ii. Allegro, iii. Andante, iv. Presto
Gubert Adomaitis, viola; Baltic Festival Orchestra, Michael George, cond. Madacy Entertainment

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (1685-1759)

Handel appears to have composed 12 organ concertos in all, published in two sets of six (Opp. 4 and 7) with a catch-all volume of the remaining four. The concertos are obviously popular with organists, who have nothing else quite like them to play, but also among music-lovers who relish the enormous personality -- witty and engaging but also, when called for, searingly songful -- that comes through them.

As Op. 7, No. 4 -- again, in the four-movement slow-fast-slow-fast form -- begins, maybe it's just a brief illusion, but the opening Adagio places me in, of all places, the world of Boris Godunov! And yet, without relenting on the grief, Handel works us round to the major for a jolly Allegro. After a brooding organ solo (a typical format for these concertos, which were generally written for use during before and between acts of Handel's oratorios, labeled "Aria," we finish with a fast movement in the minor.

HANDEL: Organ Concerto No. 10, Op. 7, No. 4

A word about the performances. The wonderful Biggs series of the 16 concertos with Sir Adrian Boult conducting was made for the bicentennial of Handel's death in 1959, on an organ that Biggs tracked down in Warwickshire on which Handel was known to have played. Marie-Claire Alain's Erato recordings with Jean-François Paillard represent a lither, spritelier approach, while the performances by Franz Haselböck and Pál Nemeth are stylistically more "authentic" in approach.

With regard to the slight differences in pitch among our performances, remember that the accompanying instruments have to be tuned to the pitch of the organ -- you can't change its pitch!

i. Adagio, ii. Allegro, iii. Organo ad libitum: Aria, iv. Allegro
E. Power Biggs, organ; London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult, cond. Columbia/CBS/Sony, recorded 1959

[0:00] i. Adagio, [5:44] ii. Allegro, [10:27] iii. Organo ad libitum: Aria, [13:37] iv. Allegro
Marie-Claire Alain, organ of the Église des Maronites (Paris), Jean-François Paillard Chamber Orchestra, Jean-François Paillard, cond. Erato, recorded c1960

i. Adagio, ii. Allegro, iii. Organo ad libitum: Aria, iv. Allegro
Franz Haselböck, organ; Capella Savaria, Pál Nemeth, cond. Hänssler Classic, recorded April 1993

ENCORE: THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE CUCKOO

I can't resist throwing in -- call it an encore -- at least the "cuckoo and nightingale" movement, with its lovely echo and bird-song effects, of the F major Organ Concerto known as (what else?) The Cuckoo and the Nightingale.

HANDEL: Organ Concerto No. 13 in F (The Cuckoo and the Nightingale): ii. Allegro

E. Power Biggs, organ; London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult, cond. Columbia/CBS/Sony, recorded 1959
Marie-Claire Alain, organ of the Église des Maronites (Paris), Jean-François Paillard Chamber Orchestra, Jean-François Paillard, cond. Erato, recorded c1960
Franz Haselböck, organ; Capella Savaria, Pál Nemeth, cond. Hänssler Classic, recorded April 1993