Program Book

Saturday, October 23, 2021 at 3PM & 8PM and Sunday, October 24, 2021 at 3PM
Calderwood Studio at GBH, Boston, MA

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Boston Baroque
Martin Pearlman, Music Director

This performance is dedicated in memory of Thom Moore.

Program Notes
by Martin Pearlman

Handel, Water Music Suite in G

At about 8:00 on the evening of July 19, 1717, according to a contemporary newspaper, King George I "took to the water at Whitehall in an open barge. . . and went up the river towards Chelsea.  Many other barges with Persons of Quality attended."  An orchestra accompanied the party on a separate barge, playing "the finest Symphonies, composed express for this Occasion, by Mr. Hendel; which his Majesty liked so well, that he caused it to be plaid over three times in going and returning. At Eleven his Majesty went a-shore at Chelsea, where a Supper was prepar'd, and then there was another very fine Consort of Musick, which lasted till 2; after which, his Majesty came again into his Barge, and return'd the same way, the Musick continuing to play till he landed."

It is now generally accepted that what has come down to us as the Water Music -- the autograph manuscript has not survived -- is actually a collection of three suites in different keys and for different combinations of instruments.  Two of the suites, those with horns and trumpets are outdoor music and call for a larger orchestra.  The suite in G major, featuring flute and recorder with strings, has the lightest texture of the three and would presumably have been performed indoors during the dinner at Chelsea. 

Handel, Concerto Grosso, Op. 6, No. 1

In the fall of 1739, immediately after finishing his Ode for St. Cecilia's Day, Handel began composing twelve concerti grossi, completing the entire set within the astonishing space of one month. The dates of completion written at the ends of the concertos range from September 29 to October 30, an average of one concerto every 2-1/2 to 3 days.

His publisher John Walsh had invited him to compose a set of concertos along the lines of those of Corelli and Geminiani, which were popular in England. A new collection by Handel could be expected to sell very well, but Handel no doubt also had another purpose in mind. As he was beginning to turn toward writing English oratorios, it would be a great attraction to an audience to be able to hear new instrumental compositions during the intermissions:  concerti grossi, as well as organ concertos in which he himself could be the soloist. Indeed, we know that some of the concerti grossi in his Opus 6 were later advertised as part of oratorio performances ("two new Concerto's for several Instruments, never perform'd before").  Since the oratorios already included oboes, Handel added oboe parts for the occasion to several of his concertos. This concerto is one of those, but we are performing the work today with its original ensemble of strings and continuo.

The first concerto of Opus 6 is one of the brightest and most outgoing of the set. The stately music of the opening movement, drawn in part from an earlier version of Handel's overture to Imeneo, leads directly into the following Allegro. This pair of movements is followed by the similarly paired third and fourth movements, to which Handel adds an extra Allegro movement to end the work. That final dance-like Allegro draws a good deal of its inspiration from Scarlatti's Sonata in G Major for harpsichord, K. 2, which had been published in England the year before, as well as some of Georg Muffat's recently published harpsichord pieces. An inveterate borrower of other composers' works, Handel ingeniously reorders various motives of the Scarlatti sonata, preserving its binary form but producing in the process an essentially new work.

Rebel, Les Élémens

Jean-Féry Rebel, a virtuoso violinist and highly respected musician in the courts of Louis XIV and Louis XV, came from a family of musicians who held posts in the French court for over 100 years.  Les Élémens (The Elements) was written in 1737, when he was asked to come out of retirement to compose another of the "choreographic symphonies" for which he was best known in his later years.  These extended programmatic pieces for dancers inspired some of his most imaginative music. 

The opening movement of Les Élémens is one of the most daring works in all of French Baroque music.  Entitled "Le Cahos" (Chaos), it depicts the four classical elements--earth, air, fire, and water--inextricably mixed together before the moment of creation.  It opens with a shocking dissonance, in which all the notes of the scale are sustained together in one cluster.  In the course of the movement, the four elements, represented by different musical motives, can be heard trying to separate themselves, but they continually fall back into chaos.  On their seventh attempt, they do manage to separate, and it is only then that the music conclusively settles into the key of D major, where it remains for the rest of the suite.

With the elements now separated into their proper spheres, we hear the "Air pour l'Amour," a simple trio for violins and flute dedicated to Love, the force that brings the elements into harmony.  The element of air is heard in a short, fleeting piece for high instruments:  piccolos and violins.  Water and earth are then both heard in the following movement, the heavier music of the strings depicting earth and the lighter, flowing music of the flutes the water.  That piece leads without a break into "fire," a lively, virtuosic chaconne. 

Here, as in his earlier works, Rebel mixes the graceful qualities of French music with the more fiery ones of the Italians.   His countryman Le Cerf de la Viéville remarked:  "Rebel truly has a part of the Italian genius and fire, but he has had the taste and the sense to temper them by the French wisdom and tenderness, and he has abstained from the frightening and monstrous cadenzas which are the delight of the Italians."

Handel, Music for the Royal Fireworks

When the War of the Austrian Succession came to an end in October of 1748, it inspired the most spectacular and widespread fireworks celebrations Europe had ever seen.  George II, the last British monarch to lead his troops into battle, took a special interest in the military conduct of the war, and when it was over he took a personal interest in celebrating the peace.  For the festivities he imported the Chevalier Servandoni from the continent to design a fireworks display, and he commissioned Handel, then 64 years old and at the height of his popularity, to compose the music.

Servandoni was well known for his design work at the Paris Opera and for the spectacular scenic machinery he created for royal wedding celebrations.  For this commission, he designed a fireworks machine 114 feet high and 410 feet long, which, according to the official printed program, was "adorned with Frets, Gilding, Lustres, Artificial Flowers, Inscriptions, Statues, Allegorical Pictures, etc."   It took five months to build.  Also brought in for the occasion was a team of Italian pyrotechnicians who were to operate the huge -- and enormously expensive -- fireworks display.  (The rockets alone numbered more than 10,000.)

For this grand occasion, Handel originally planned music for an orchestra of strings, winds and percussion; but the king, who was personally supervising the preparations, insisted instead on a very large ensemble of only "war-like instruments" -- i. e. an orchestra without strings but with only winds and percussion.  The Duke of Montague, charged with overseeing the music for the event, became the unhappy intermediary in the musical stand-off between Handel and the king.  In the duke's correspondence, we find the composer intent on including strings and on reducing the desired number of winds, and we see him acceding to the king's wishes only at the last moment.  (A month later, Handel did have the chance to perform his Fireworks Music as he had originally conceived it -- i. e. with an orchestra that included strings and had fewer winds.) 

On April 21, 1749, there was an open rehearsal of Handel's new work in Vauxhall Gardens, in which, according to varying descriptions, between 50 and 100 wind and percussion instruments participated. Public interest in this grandest -- and, as it turned out, last -- of Handel's orchestral works was enormous.  The rehearsal reportedly drew an audience of 12,000 and created a traffic jam that tied up London Bridge for hours.

The actual performance took place in Green Park on the evening of April 27.  First, Handel's "grand overture of warlike instruments" was played for the crowd, while the king and his entourage toured Servandoni's machine.  Then came the firing of 101 brass cannon, which, we are told, alternated with music.  Finally, the fireworks began at 8:30.  From this point, things did not go smoothly.  Inside the machine, English and Italian technicians argued about safety.  There was an explosion, and the north pavilion caught on fire.  The fire was brought under control, but, in his frustration, the Chevalier Servandoni drew his sword and had to be disarmed and arrested.

The display, wrote Horace Walpole, "by no means answered the expense, the length of preparation, and the expectation that had been raised."  Although the machine was "worth seeing," the fireworks themselves were a mixed affair and "lighted so slowly that scarce anybody had patience to wait for the finishing."  At midnight, the display was stopped, with a good deal of the fireworks still unused.  Newspapers were sarcastic about the show.  Only Handel's music had been a complete success. 

The brilliant and lengthy overture forms the bulk of Handel's suite and creates its most massive sound, with winds in threes, rather than in the usual pairs.  The overture is then followed by a series of smaller movements, some of which (e. g. the Bourrée) are delicately detailed. Possibly these smaller pieces were the music that alternated with the firing of the cannon.  In a nod to the military origins of this music, we add an ad libitum military field drum to some of the movements.

Boston Baroque

The orchestra performs on period instruments.

Livestream Director
Matthew Principe

Projection Designer
Seághan McKay