W. F. Bach: Sonata for two flutes in E minor F. 54, arr. for two clarinets
Program Notes
W. F. Bach: Sonata for two flutes in E minor F. 54
The eldest son of Johann Sebastian Bach, Wilhelm Freidmann Bach (1710-1784) began his musical training with his father, studying composition and organ in Leipzig, where he also was a student at the Thomasschule. Later, at the age of 16, Wihelm went to Merseburg to study violin. Throughout his career, he composed a number of harpsichord concertos and sinfonias, church cantatas, harpsichord sonatas as well as chamber music, including trio sonatas and flute duets.
W.F. Bach is the unsurpassed master of the Baroque flute duet. Both parts share great equality, and the technical and artistic demands indicate that Bach had great virtuosi in mind when writing this work. This first sonata in E Minor is full of clarity, sincerity and lightness. Tonight’s version for two clarinets is arranged by Stas Chernyshev and Ann Hung.
Joseph Haydn: Divertissement No. 2, Op. 100
Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) was one of the most prominent masters of the Classical period. He wrote 107 symphonies, 83 string quartets, 26 operas, 62 piano sonatas, amongst countless other scores. Prolific as he was, he did not write much for solo winds, so his contributions to the woodwind repertoire mostly lie in skillful ensemble and orchestral writing. The six divertimentos for flute, violin, and cello, written in 1784, are Haydn’s first pieces of chamber music to expressly call for the flute. Straightforward and full of Haydn’s esprit, they are a treasure trove for all lovers of chamber music. These cheerful pieces are full of stylistic variety, reflecting their earlier models, Haydn’s Baryton trios and his opera ‘Il Mondo Della Luna’ (The World on the Moon).
Friedrich Kuhlau: Flute Trio in G minor, Op. 13, No. 2
Born in Germany, Friedrich Kuhlau spent the latter part of his career in Denmark, where he became the most renowned Danish composer of the time. Kuhlau’s final years were marred by a fire that not only destroyed his house, but also incinerated his unpublished manuscripts and caused a chest ailment from which he never recovered. His surviving compositions frequently use the flute, with his sonatas for flute and piano earning him the nickname ‘the Beethoven of the Flute’. Other works pieces include duos, trios and quartets for unaccompanied flutes. This version is arranged by Stas Chernyshev and for flute and two clarinets.
W. A. Mozart: Divertimento in E flat major, K. 563
At the end of the summer of 1788, after finishing his final three symphonies, Mozart followed those remarkable orchestral works with another no less remarkable piece in the realm of chamber music. This was the towering string trio, K. 563, that came to be labeled a divertimento. He composed the work for his Masonic lodge brother Johann Michael Puchberg, from whom he was desperately borrowing money at the time. In the following spring of 1789 it was performed not in drawing rooms, but in public halls alongside two, or perhaps all three, of his new symphonies. It is the only original composition for this combination of instruments that he carried to completion and is, as Alfred Einstein put it, "one of his noblest works.” Einstein also noted, "it is a true chamber-music work, and grew to such large proportions only because it was intended to offer . . . something special in the way of art, invention, and good spirits. . . . Each instrument is primus inter pares, every note is significant, every note is a contribution to spiritual and sensuous fulfillment in sound.”
W. A. Mozart: Flute Quartet in D major, K. 285
Amateur flutist Willem Britten de Jong, who was according to Mozart, “a gentleman of means and a love of all the sciences”, met the young composer in Mannheim at the end of 1777. De Jong had heard of the 21-year-old musician’s extraordinary talent for composition from mutual friend and flutist Johann Baptist Wendling of the legendary Mannheim Orchestra, and soon commissioned Mozart to write three concertos and at least three quartets containing strings for his instrument.
The D Major Quartet (K. 285) opens with a crystalline sonata-form movement. Initiated by the flute, it presents a dashing principal melody. By the time the piece arrives at its second theme, a rising scalar configuration in triplet rhythms, the flute is endowed with concerto-like prominence in this movement. In the central development section, the solo flute relinquishes its leadership in favor of some more democratic motivic discussion with its companions. The expressive B minor Adagio is a nocturnal cantilena for the soloist, couched upon a delicate cushion of plucked string sonorities. Alfred Einstein’s biography on Mozart stated that this movement, suffused with “the sweetest melancholy, [is] perhaps the most beautiful accompanied flute solo that has ever been written”. Closing with a buoyant rondo, this irresistible Quartet is enlivened by frequent dialogues of the flute and the violin.
Program notes by Stas Chernyshev.
The eldest son of Johann Sebastian Bach, Wilhelm Freidmann Bach (1710-1784) began his musical training with his father, studying composition and organ in Leipzig, where he also was a student at the Thomasschule. Later, at the age of 16, Wihelm went to Merseburg to study violin. Throughout his career, he composed a number of harpsichord concertos and sinfonias, church cantatas, harpsichord sonatas as well as chamber music, including trio sonatas and flute duets.
W.F. Bach is the unsurpassed master of the Baroque flute duet. Both parts share great equality, and the technical and artistic demands indicate that Bach had great virtuosi in mind when writing this work. This first sonata in E Minor is full of clarity, sincerity and lightness. Tonight’s version for two clarinets is arranged by Stas Chernyshev and Ann Hung.
Joseph Haydn: Divertissement No. 2, Op. 100
Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) was one of the most prominent masters of the Classical period. He wrote 107 symphonies, 83 string quartets, 26 operas, 62 piano sonatas, amongst countless other scores. Prolific as he was, he did not write much for solo winds, so his contributions to the woodwind repertoire mostly lie in skillful ensemble and orchestral writing. The six divertimentos for flute, violin, and cello, written in 1784, are Haydn’s first pieces of chamber music to expressly call for the flute. Straightforward and full of Haydn’s esprit, they are a treasure trove for all lovers of chamber music. These cheerful pieces are full of stylistic variety, reflecting their earlier models, Haydn’s Baryton trios and his opera ‘Il Mondo Della Luna’ (The World on the Moon).
Friedrich Kuhlau: Flute Trio in G minor, Op. 13, No. 2
Born in Germany, Friedrich Kuhlau spent the latter part of his career in Denmark, where he became the most renowned Danish composer of the time. Kuhlau’s final years were marred by a fire that not only destroyed his house, but also incinerated his unpublished manuscripts and caused a chest ailment from which he never recovered. His surviving compositions frequently use the flute, with his sonatas for flute and piano earning him the nickname ‘the Beethoven of the Flute’. Other works pieces include duos, trios and quartets for unaccompanied flutes. This version is arranged by Stas Chernyshev and for flute and two clarinets.
W. A. Mozart: Divertimento in E flat major, K. 563
At the end of the summer of 1788, after finishing his final three symphonies, Mozart followed those remarkable orchestral works with another no less remarkable piece in the realm of chamber music. This was the towering string trio, K. 563, that came to be labeled a divertimento. He composed the work for his Masonic lodge brother Johann Michael Puchberg, from whom he was desperately borrowing money at the time. In the following spring of 1789 it was performed not in drawing rooms, but in public halls alongside two, or perhaps all three, of his new symphonies. It is the only original composition for this combination of instruments that he carried to completion and is, as Alfred Einstein put it, "one of his noblest works.” Einstein also noted, "it is a true chamber-music work, and grew to such large proportions only because it was intended to offer . . . something special in the way of art, invention, and good spirits. . . . Each instrument is primus inter pares, every note is significant, every note is a contribution to spiritual and sensuous fulfillment in sound.”
W. A. Mozart: Flute Quartet in D major, K. 285
Amateur flutist Willem Britten de Jong, who was according to Mozart, “a gentleman of means and a love of all the sciences”, met the young composer in Mannheim at the end of 1777. De Jong had heard of the 21-year-old musician’s extraordinary talent for composition from mutual friend and flutist Johann Baptist Wendling of the legendary Mannheim Orchestra, and soon commissioned Mozart to write three concertos and at least three quartets containing strings for his instrument.
The D Major Quartet (K. 285) opens with a crystalline sonata-form movement. Initiated by the flute, it presents a dashing principal melody. By the time the piece arrives at its second theme, a rising scalar configuration in triplet rhythms, the flute is endowed with concerto-like prominence in this movement. In the central development section, the solo flute relinquishes its leadership in favor of some more democratic motivic discussion with its companions. The expressive B minor Adagio is a nocturnal cantilena for the soloist, couched upon a delicate cushion of plucked string sonorities. Alfred Einstein’s biography on Mozart stated that this movement, suffused with “the sweetest melancholy, [is] perhaps the most beautiful accompanied flute solo that has ever been written”. Closing with a buoyant rondo, this irresistible Quartet is enlivened by frequent dialogues of the flute and the violin.
Program notes by Stas Chernyshev.