Trio Sonatas

Thursdays, July 21 & 28, 3:00 PM

Stephen Schultz, baroque flute; Gonzalo Ruiz, oboe; Annabeth Shirley, cello; Dongsok Shin, harpsichord

GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN  Trio Sonata in E minor, TWV 42: e2
(1681–1712) Affettuoso
Allegro
Dolce
Vivace
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH  Sonata in A Major for Flute and Harpsichord, BWV 1032
(1685–1750) Vivace
Largo e dolce
Allegro
Stephen Schultz, flute
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH  Sonata in C for Oboe and Continuo, BWV 1035
(1685–1750) Adagio ma non tanto
Arr. Gonzalo X. Ruiz Allegro
Siciliano
Allegro Assai
Gonzolo X. Ruiz, oboe
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH  Prelude and Fugue in D Major, BWV 850
(1685–1750) Well Tempered Clavier, Book 1
Well Tempered Clavier, Book 1
Dongsok Shin, harpsichord
GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN  Trio Sonata in D Minor, TWV 42: d4
(1681–1712) Largo
Allegro
Affetuoso
Presto

 

Program Notes

This Trio in E Minor was included in Telemann’s most famous collections of tafelmusik, which he titled Musique de table — a curious choice of title for the German-born composer. This collection of music was the equivalent to an event playlist in the Baroque era. It contained an array of ensemble combinations and styles but all intended to entertain the wealthy at elaborate parties, banquets, and the like.

Trio sonatas were a thriving genre during Telemann’s day, and he wrote more than 100 of them. The standard trio sonata form of four dance movements, slow-fast-slow-fast, was a familiar format to those in high society during the Baroque era, which made it simple for composers to write accessible and enjoyable music for their clientele.

This Trio sonata in E Minor opens with a tender Affettuoso, featuring hocketed melodies between the flute and oboe. The through- composed Allegro showcases the flute and oboe’s virtuosity with flurries of sixteenth notes which wander dangerously close to the relative G Major. One can feel Telemann’s eagerness to move to a brighter key, in anticipation of the next movement. The third movement, Dolce, is in the standard binary dance form but is curiously set in the parallel E Major rather than the relative G Major. Dolce opens with a lilting flute melody and is then joined by the oboe in a delicate canon. Vivace, also in binary form, returns to e minor with an unbridled anxious quality. Although this piece is written in the traditionally melancholy key of e minor, it exudes a joyful pride that is quintessentially Telemann.

Bach’s Sonata for Flute and Harpsichord in A Major is full of mysterious, intriguing harmonic language. The piece is characterized by sudden harmonic shifts and the unsettling darkness of the second movement. To create these effects,

Bach made deliberate choices to write in unusual ways, just around the rules to offer a uniquely intriguing sonata.

The first movement is exuberant and crowded with exciting embellishments. Right away, the second movement feels especially dark after the effervescent first movement. This is because Largo e dolce is written in A Minor rather than F-sharp Minor as one would expect. The two movements share A as their tonic, which creates a kind of auditory illusion as its relationship to the notes around it shift. The third movement begins in A Major, reminiscent of the uncomplicated first movement, but the rest of the movement is nuanced and subtly subversive. This movement follows an early iteration of the sonata form, which became popular at the end of Bach’s lifetime. At the end of the sonata’s exposition where the music typically modulates to the dominant — in this case E Major — the movement resolves the section still firmly in the original key, A Major. After a brief rest, Bach shifts to C-sharp minor, an unexpected and creative harmonic journey only Bach could execute.

It is common for instrumentalists to borrow Baroque sonatas from one another because the music is of high quality. Bach wrote BWV 1035 for the flute originally, but it has been transcribed and adapted for many instruments. The original version was dedicated to Frederick the Great’s private secretary, Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf, an amateur flutist with ties to famous Baroque flute-maker Joachim Quantz. This transcription from Bach’s Flute Sonata in E Major was completed in 2005 by the Festival’s Principal Oboist, Gonzalo X. Ruiz.

The Baroque oboe adds an array of colors to this beloved flute sonata. Breathing new life into the Adagio ma non tanto, the opening movement is at once joyous, mesmerizing, and nostalgic. The Allegro is a celebratory dance, featuring a vivacious theme with colorful twists of dissonance. The third movement is arguably one of the most stunning sonata movements in the Bach sonata catalogue. Like an aria in a tragic opera, Siciliano musically articulates an inexplicable pain or passion. In the finale, Bach introduces a series of charming motives which blossom as the movement progresses.

The Prélude and Fugue in D Major, BWV 850 is the fifth work in the first book of The Well Tempered Clavier, a series of 48 préludes and fugues by the composer. Each book contains works in all 24 major and minor keys, composed as Bach stated, “for the profit and use of musical youth desirous of learning, and especially for the pastime of those already skilled in this study.” In the preludes, Bach’s fertile imagination is on vivid display, while the fugues are mathematical tours de force. In contrast to the discipline Bach had to employ in his church compositions, here he could abandon himself to his compositional genius without worrying about deadlines.

In his Trio in D Minor for Flute, Oboe, and Continuo, it’s obvious why Telemann’s compositions are celebrated even today. Within constraining, formal rules Telemann manages imaginative approaches and even misleads the audience for maximum shock value as the piece progresses.

The Largo begins simply with the oboe and continuo playing a lovely melody. But, before long, the flute joins and a series of evaded cadences ensue, stringing the ear along without a satisfying cadence until the unison arrival in the final measure. In the following movement, Telemann doesn’t rely solely on the enlivened tempo to pique interest. In the Allegro he layers hocketing, syncopation, and chromatic inflection in a flamboyant display of his counterpoint skills. Then he writes the Affettuoso in six-eight time — which could be interpreted almost as tongue-in-cheek since the meter is more commonly used in upbeat dance movements — and ends on a suspenseful, anti-climactic half cadence. Finally, the Presto is a carefully crafted canon with the melody introduced first by flute. When familiar hocketing effects, Telemann adds another twist by writing both voices of the hocket in the oboe and flute lines in an emboldened reiteration. As the work picks up speed, one can feel the piece barreling toward its conclusion. Telemann writes a grand pause — only an eighth note, but the brief silence feels novel or even jolting in this context — followed by a powerful unison to close out the work.

–Jennifer Candiotti

Tags:

Director

Stephen Schultz
Stephen Schultz

Date

Jul 28 2022

Time

3:00 pm

Starting at

$31.00

Featuring

  • Gonzalo X. Ruiz
    Gonzalo X. Ruiz
    Principal Oboe

    Born in La Plata, Argentina, Gonzalo X. Ruiz is one of the world’s most critically acclaimed baroque oboists. He performs as principal oboist and soloist with groups such as Philharmonia Baroque, Ensemble Sonnerie, Boston Early Music Festival, The English Concert, Wiener Akademie, and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. He has collaborated with conductors McGegan, Savall, Pinnock, Rattle, Egarr, Manze, Leonhardt, Hogwood, Hassellböck, and many others.

    His playing is featured on dozens of recordings including his 2010 Grammy™-nominated recording of reconstructions of the four orchestral suites and the concertos of J.S. Bach. In addition to frequent appearances in recital and with chamber ensembles, his groundbreaking work in new music with American Baroque earned the ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming and the WQXR Record of the Year Award.

    Ruiz was appointed to the faculty of The Juilliard School in 2009 and for many years prior taught at Oberlin Conservatory’s Baroque Performance Institute and the Longy School’s International Baroque Institute and has given master classes at many of the best American and European conservatories. His former students now fill most of the key oboe positions in baroque ensembles across this country. Ruiz is an acknowledged expert in reed design, and examples of his work are on permanent display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In his free time he enjoys playing guitar and dancing tango.

  • Stephen Schultz
    Stephen Schultz
    Principal Baroque Flute

    Stephen Schultz, called “among the most flawless artists on the Baroque flute” by San Jose Mercury News and “flute extraordinaire” by New Jersey Star-Ledger, plays solo and Principal flute with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Musica Angelica, the Carmel Bach Festival, and Bach Collegium San Diego. He has also performed with other leading Early music groups such as Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Wiener Akademie, Chatham Baroque, Cantata Collective, and at the Oregon Bach Festival.

    Concert tours have taken him throughout Europe, North America, and South America with featured appearances at the Musikverein in Vienna, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Royal Albert Hall in London, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Carnegie Hall, and the Library of Congress. A graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Holland, Schultz also holds several degrees from the California Institute of the Arts and the California State University of San Francisco. Currently he teaches Music History at Carnegie Mellon University and is director of the Carnegie Mellon Baroque Ensemble.

    Mr. Schultz has also been a featured faculty member of the Jeanne Baxtresser International Flute Master Class at Carnegie Mellon University and has taught at the Juilliard School and the International Baroque Institute at Longy School of Music. In 1986, Mr. Schultz founded the original instrument ensemble American Baroque. This unique group brings together some of America’s most accomplished and exciting baroque instrumentalists, with the purpose of defining a new, modern genre for historical instruments. The group’s adventurous programs combine 18th-century music with new works, composed for the group through collaborations and commissions from American composers. As a solo, chamber, and orchestral player, Schultz appears on over sixty recordings for such labels as Dorian, Naxos, Harmonia Mundi USA, Music and Arts, Centaur, NCA, and New Albion. Schultz has produced and edited forty CDs for his colleagues and has also performed and recorded with world music groups such as D’CuCKOO and Haunted By Waters, using his electronically processed Baroque flute to develop alternative sounds that are unique to his instrument.

    He has been very active in commissioning new music written for his instrument and in 1998, Carolyn Yarnell wrote 10/18 for solo, processed Baroque Flute and dedicated it to Mr. Schultz. The Pittsburgh composer Nancy Galbraith wrote Traverso Mistico, which is scored for electric Baroque flute, solo cello, and chamber orchestra. It was given its world premiere at Carnegie Mellon University in April 2006 and this highly successful collaboration was followed in 2008 with Galbraith’s Night Train, Other Sun in 2009, Effervescent Air in 2012, Dancing Through Time in 2016, Rustic Breezes 2018, and Transcendental Shifts in 2019. In March 2018, Stephen released a highly acclaimed CD of Bach Sonatas for Flute and Harpsichord with Jory Vinikour, on the Music and Arts label. Their new recording of Couperin’s Concerts Royaux was just released in August 2021 and has made the best seller list of Classical music on Billboard.

  • Annabeth Shirley
    Annabeth Shirley
    Cello

    Cellist Annabeth Shirley, a native Oregonian, performs regularly with ensembles throughout the Pacific Northwest, including Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Vancouver Early Music, the Oregon Bach Festival, Baroque Music Montana, and Portland Baroque Orchestra, where she is honored to hold the Ruth K. Pointdexter Chair. Past performances in Europe include concerts with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Nederlandse Bachvereniging, and Le Concert d’Apollon, as well as multiple appearances in the Utrecht Early Music Festival.

    She teaches in workshops including the Seattle Baroque Flute Summer Workshop and Baroque Music Montana’s Period Performance Workshop. Annabeth holds a bachelors and masters degree in Baroque Cello from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and bachelors degrees in Cello Performance and Biology from the University of Michigan. She plays a cello of anonymous origin from approximately 1830, and she currently resides in Salem, OR, with her husband, bassoonist Nate Helgeson.

  • Dongsok Shin
    Dongsok Shin
    Harpsichord

    Dongsok Shin was born in Boston and studied modern piano with his mother, Chonghyo Shin, and with Nadia Reisenberg at the Mannes College of Music. He converted exclusively to early keyboard instruments in the early 1980’s. He received international recognition as music director of baroque opera productions with the Mannes Camerata and has been a member of the internationally acclaimed baroque ensemble REBEL since 1997.

    He has appeared with early music groups all over the United States, including the Carmel Bach Festival, American Classical Orchestra, ARTEK, Concert Royal, Early Music New York, and Pro Music Rara; has toured throughout the Americas and Europe; and has been heard on numerous radio broadcasts. He has accompanied Renée Fleming, Rufus Müller, Rachel Brown, Jed Wentz, Marion Verbruggen, and Barthold Kuijken in recital. In addition to his performing career, he is a recording engineer, producer, and editor of early music recordings for many labels, as well as a producer of music videos.

    He is a curator of the antique keyboard instruments at the Flint Collection in Delaware, a tuner of early keyboards at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City, and the early keyboard technician for the Metropolitan Opera. Videos produced by the Metropolitan Museum of Dongsok demonstrating early fortepianos, including the earliest known Bartolomeo Cristofori piano from 1720, have garnered over 400,000 views.

Location

All Saints' Episcopal Church
All Saints' Episcopal Church
Dolores St between 9th and 10th Ave, Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA 93921
Website
https://www.allsaintscarmel.org/

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