Recordings & Background Info

Here are links to recordings of pieces for the upcoming concerts, as well as some background information.

PLEASE NOTE: Naxos and Classical Music Library links may only work on campus.

Monteverdi Vespers (10/29/10)

• http://unt.naxosmusiclibrary.com/streamw.asp?ver=2.0&s=30872%2Funtnmlpaid04%2F9266
• http://unt.naxosmusiclibrary.com/streamw.asp?ver=2.0&s=30872%2Funtnmlpaid04%2F193457
• http://unt.naxosmusiclibrary.com/streamw.asp?ver=2.0&s=30872%2Funtnmlpaid04%2F123982
• http://clmu.alexanderstreet.com/View/84447
• http://iii.library.unt.edu/record=b3057246~S12
• http://iii.library.unt.edu/record=b2071088~S12
• http://iii.library.unt.edu/record=b3474383~S12
• http://iii.library.unt.edu/record=b1985114~S12

Iain Fenlon: "The Monteverdi Vespers: Suggested Answers to Some Fundamental Questions." Early Music 5/3, Jul. 1977, pp. 380-381+383+385+387.  http://www.jstor.org/stable/3126093

Andrew Parrott: "Transposition in Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610: An 'Aberration' Defended." Early Music 12/4, Nov. 1984, pp. 490-516.  http://www.jstor.org/stable/3137979

The Splendor of Dresden (11/2/10)

• Pisendel Symphony in B-flat major: http://unt.naxosmusiclibrary.com/streamw.asp?ver=2.0&s=30872%2Funtnmlpaid04%2F302464
• Schein Suite X: http://unt.naxosmusiclibrary.com/streamw.asp?ver=2.0&s=30872%2Funtnmlpaid04%2F245198
• Weckmann Sonata à 4: http://unt.naxosmusiclibrary.com/stream.asp?s=30872%2Funtnmlpaid04%2Fqd2905%5F001
• Fasch Trio Sonata in D minor: http://unt.naxosmusiclibrary.com/streamw.asp?ver=2.0&s=30872%2Funtnmlpaid04%2F288018
• Hasse Sonata II in D minor: http://clmu.alexanderstreet.com/View/92605
• Heinichen Concerto Grosso in G major: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR8vP8qNv8o

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dresden

Excerpts from the Grove article on Dresden, by Wolfram Steude, et al:

The most glittering period in the history of music in Dresden began in 1694 with the accession of Elector Friedrich August I of Saxony (1670–1733), a member of the Wettin dynasty who converted to the Catholic faith in 1697 in order to acquire the Polish crown.  As King August II (known as ‘der Starke’) of Poland, he became ruler of two domains, a situation that was to end abruptly in 1763 with Saxony’s defeat in the Seven Years War and the deaths of his successors, the electors Friedrich August II (1696–1763, King August III of Poland) and Friedrich Christian (1722–63).  However, during a period of some 70 years architecture, art and music were cultivated at the court of Dresden with a unique magnificence that cannot be accounted for solely by an absolute monarch’s need for display.  The phenomenon must also be seen as an expression of the personal artistic inclinations and interests of the princes, their wives and other members of their families.

The records of the Dresden Hofkapelle show that the Capell- und Cammer-Musique grew steadily, and around 1710 already had an orchestra equipped with the most up-to-date instruments of the time.  The instrumentalists were highly qualified musicians who for the most part – in contrast to the usual practice of other Hofkapellen – specialized in a single instrument, so that the quality of performance was exceptionally high. Among the standard instruments available in the Kapelle were the ‘modern’ string instruments – violin, viola, cello and double bass – wind instruments including the transverse flute, oboe, bassoon and horn, and continuo instruments including lutes, pantaleon (an instrument resembling a dulcimer), harpsichord and organ.  The continuo players, who included such masters as L.S. Weiss and Pantaleon Hebestreit, were usually also chamber or church composers and responsible for providing the musical repertory.  The court trumpeters and drummers formed an ensemble of their own, the highest-ranking of its kind in the Holy Roman Empire, but also played in the Hofkapelle when required.  The standard instruments were on occasion supplemented by the recorder, chalumeau, oboe d’amore, viol and viola d’amore.

The instrumental Kapelle was an international ensemble.  Many wind players, for instance, were of the French school, while the Flemish-born J.B. Volumier (Woulmyer), who was leader of the orchestra from 1709, was also trained in France and brought his young orchestra to a remarkable level of technical accuracy, especially after the introduction of uniform bowing.  The violin virtuoso J.G. Pisendel, who had been trained in the Italian style by Torelli in Ansbach, joined the Kapelle in 1712 and succeeded Volumier as leader in 1728, a post he held until his death in 1755.  He had studied with Vivaldi in Venice in 1716–17, while accompanying the crown prince on his Grand Tour, an encounter that was to have a profound effect on the musical landscape of central and northern Germany in the following decades.  Pisendel made Dresden and its Hofkapelle the major centre outside Italy for promoting the works, and above all the concertos, of the famous Venetian composer.  The cultivation of Vivaldi’s music in Dresden had a crucial influence on many native composers, including Bach, Fasch, Pisendel himself, Quantz and the Graun and Benda brothers.

During his stay in Venice in 1716–17 the crown prince, himself an ardent admirer of Italian music, engaged a number of famous instrumentalists and singers to form an Italian opera company in Dresden – a decision finally ratified by his father, although the elector’s taste inclined much more towards French drama and music.  The only German musician among them was J.D. Heinichen (1683–1729), who was also the only one of the musicians recruited in Italy to stay in Dresden for the rest of his life.  Heinichen had originally been appointed as Lotti’s deputy Kapellmeister with the opera, but his duties soon included the provision of serenatas and cantatas for court festivities.  However, although he remained a Protestant, his principal task was to supervise and direct the Catholic Hofkirchenmusik, to which he devoted himself as energetically as his poor health allowed.  

Until 1763 the large Hofkapelle comprised not only instrumental players but also the singers of the Italian opera and the Catholic Hofkirche (with the exception of the pupils in the boys’ school of the Kapelle, founded in 1708).  In effect, the Hofkapelle was divided into its three distinct components after 1717. The Italian opera, while involved in court festivities in the autumn and during the carnival season, attracted the most public attention, since anyone ‘suitably dressed’ could have free entry to its performances. At first the great majority of the Protestant population showed little interest in the music of the Hofkirche. However, it grew in reputation in the second half of the century, after the dedication of Chiaveri’s new church in 1751, and eventually became a notable musical attraction in the city. The third element of the Hofkapelle, the court chamber or ‘concert’ music, comprising music for instrumental ensembles of various sizes and vocal music ranging from solo cantatas to serenatas for large numbers of singers, was exclusively for court society, and it was a great honour for foreign visitors to be allowed to listen to performances from a neighbouring room.  The scale of its musical activity ensured the Hofkapelle a dominant position in the musical life of Dresden in the 18th century, and it is not surprising that it tended to eclipse other musical activities in the city.

The cosmopolitan nature of the Kapelle was a determining factor in Dresden’s becoming a centre of what Quantz described as the ‘mixed or German style’.  This was not merely a synthesis of the Italian, French and German styles, but also included galant and folk elements, the latter derived from the popular comic intermezzos performed by French and Italian comedians, and the traditional music of Poland and Bohemia cultivated by musicians from those countries who were active at the Saxon court.

Hasse had immense influence both as composer and Kapellmeister, and was notably adept at gauging and, in turn, forming the musical tastes of his court audiences.  The productions of his opere serie increasingly became sophisticated syntheses of the arts, equally remarkable for the quality of singing and orchestral playing and for the lavish scenery created by such leading stage designers as Andrea Zucchi, Giuseppe Galli-Bibiena and G.N. Servandoni.  The elector’s birthday on 7 October was always celebrated by the première of a new opera by Hasse in the wooden theatre (destroyed in 1763) at the castle of Hubertsburg, near Wermsdorf.  After 1764, when Hasse was discharged and moved to Vienna and later to Venice, he still retained the title of Oberkapellmeister of the Electorate of Saxony and maintained contact with Dresden; his last three masses (1779, 1780 and 1783) were all written for the city.