Gavin Black on harpsichord
Works of J.S. Bach and J.J. Froberger
2:30 pm, 11 May
St Luke’s Cathedral Chapel, 147 State Street Portland
Today’s program is made up of works by Johann Jakob Froberger (1616-1667) alternating with selections from The Art of the Fugue by J. S. Bach (1685-1750). Froberger was one of the seminal harpsichord and organ composers of the mid-sixteenth century. He was very widely travelled – studying in Italy and France, and spending time in England, Austria, and Germany. He was, more than anyone else of his time, responsible for spreading throughout Europe the different compositional style of far-flung musical centers. He was a friend and colleague of the great French lute composers of his day – and much of his harpsichord music is highly lute-influenced. In Italy and from his great teacher Frescobaldi he learned to write vocally-inspired keyboard counterpoint, and also discovered, and himself greatly developed, the toccata form, in which continuity and momentum are achieved through contrast and surprise. Froberger was, above all, known for the emotional content and expressive freedom of his music.
Bach’s Art of the Fugue is a monumental, unified work in twenty movements. Even though it was left unfinished at the composer’s death, it has a powerful and convincing overall shape. However, it is also fascinating to juxtapose parts of this work with works of the earlier Froberger, whose music Bach knew well and studied. The two are different stylistically but heading in similar directions with respect to expressiveness and intensity of purpose.
This afternoon’s program is chosen to create an overall shape of its own – albeit one devised by the performer, not directly by either of the composers. The harpsichord used was made in 1978 by Keith Hill. It is an instrument in the German style, creating sounds similar to some of those that each of these composers would have known.
Tickets at the door: $15; $10 for seniors; students free.
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Baroque Sounds and Echoes, with ScheckMate
Raffael Scheck, baroque and romantic cello
Timothy Burris, Baroque lute, archlute, and guitar
with special guest Adelia Scheck, cello
2:30 pm, 28 September
St Luke’s Cathedral Chapel, 147 State Street Portland
ScheckMate will present a program of Baroque works along with works of other periods that contain echoes of Baroque forms and language.
Antonio Caldara and J.S. Bach both left us a large body of ensemble vocal works, both sacred and secular, that form a core of the Baroque catalog. But each also produced instrumental works of great quality, including the D major sonata by Caldara on this program. Among J.S. Bach’s signature instrumental works are six solo suites for cello, including the prelude to the first of the cello suites. Bach contemporary, lutenist Silvius Leopold Weiss produced a few ensemble works, but he is best known for his 80-plus solo sonatas for baroque lute; movements from two of the sonatas are presented here.
F.A. Kummer is unfamiliar to present-day audiences, but in his day he was the best known of a musical family prominent in 18th- and 19th-century Saxony. Concluding the program is an echo of the Baroque period in the form of Bachianas Brasileiras #5, originally a work for vocal soloist accompanied by eight celli! Among its numerous incarnations is the cello and guitar version presented this afternoon. The guitar reduction of the accompaniment is by the composer.
Tickets at the door: $15; $10 for seniors; students free.