Baroque triple concertos from Germany
(Dr Stephen Rose wrote the following programme note for the AAM’s performances in September-October 2005. These performances were directed from the harpsichord by Richard Egarr, with violinist Rachel Podger, flautist Rachel Brown and — for the Telemann triple — cellist Joseph Crouch.)
Since the nineteenth century the concerto has generally been conceived as a piece for a heroic soloist who strives against the orchestra. Even in the early eighteenth century, many concertos were showcases for the virtuosity of a single soloist, as in the solo violin concertos of Antonio Vivaldi. Yet in the Baroque period there was also a rich tradition of concertos for multiple soloists, where a duo, trio or even a whole ensemble interacted with the rest of the orchestra.
The triple concerto was particularly favoured in Germany. The use of several soloists allowed for the contrapuntal style of writing that was valued by many composers. Germans were also keen to combine different families of instruments — strings, wind, brass — partly because of a predilection for richer sounds, and partly on account of the array of instruments that were cultivated by virtuosi at courts and towns. Many German composers experimented with unusual and innovative groups of concerto soloists. One famous example is the set of Brandenburg Concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach; Georg Philipp Telemann showed equal imagination by using such solo groups as two oboes d’amore plus cello, or flute, oboe d’amore and viola d’amore.
Johann Sebastian Bach became interested in the concerto during his time at the Weimar court between 1708 and 1717. Here he encountered Vivaldi’s concertos and was inspired by their rhythmic drive and punchy harmonies, and the formal coherence achieved by alternating episodes with a recurring theme (ritornello). But Bach did not have many opportunities to write concertos at Weimar, instead performing many transcriptions of orchestral music on the organ. It is often supposed that he began writing concertos in earnest during his time at the Cöthen court between 1717 and 1723. Recent scholarship, however, has linked many of Bach’s concertos with his work for the Leipzig collegium musicum in the 1730s.
The collegium musicum was a group of students and other musicians who gave weekly concerts in Leipzig, during winter in Zimmermann’s coffee house and during summer in the coffee garden; Bach directed the ensemble between 1729 and 1737, and again around 1739—40. Bach wrote numerous harpsichord concertos for the ensemble, perhaps intending one of his sons as soloist; intriguingly, almost all of these pieces were arrangements of earlier works. The Triple concerto for violin, flute and harpsichord in A minor BWV1044 is no exception. The outer movements of this work derive from a harpsichord prelude and fugue (BWV894), here considerably elaborated to allow interplay between the soloists and tutti. But just as the original movements rise to a peak of harpsichord virtuosity towards their end, so too in the concerto does the harpsichord gradually become more prominent before the closing ritornello. By contrast, the middle movement is scored for soloists only, and here the instruments take a more equal role. This movement is adapted from an organ trio sonata (BWV527), and Bach adorns the lyrical lines of the original with a pizzicato filigree for violin, which is transferred to the flute in the repeat of each section. The varied origins of the concerto make for a piece of unusual colour and structure.
By contrast, the Violin concerto in A minor BWV1041 is a highly coherent essay in the solo concerto form. The first movement draws on the rhythmic energy of Vivaldi’s music and gives it a characteristically Bachian twist by ensuring constant rhythmic momentum wherever possible. The upbeat pattern of the initial theme is elaborated in the solo violin part, creating a sense of similarity between all the themes of the movement. Bach frequently pushes the music to a climax, marked by chromatic harmonies and the use of instruments at the extremes of their register. In the Andante the soloist spins a lyrical melody, while the continuo interjects regularly with a rhythmic figure in various keys, almost as an ostinato. All the interest is in the outer parts, and the other instruments merely fill out the harmony. Then the finale is a fugal gigue; later the solo part becomes flashier, culminating in figuration over an expectant pedal before a pause; and then the fugal opening returns, adorned by solo bariolage. It is uncertain where or when Bach wrote the concerto; the piece has been attributed to his Cöthen days, but the latest evidence is that it was performed, and perhaps also written, in Leipzig in 1730. Bach himself was a violinist, of course, but the piece was probably intended for a local or visiting virtuoso.
The career of Georg Philipp Telemann shows several parallels to that of Bach. He belonged to the same generation, being born four years before Bach, and he likewise held court jobs during his mid-twenties and early thirties. Subsequently both Telemann and Bach moved to major merchant cities. Here they could enjoy more independence, not being bound to the whims of a single patron, and they could also pursue opportunities in music-publishing and in promoting concerts to an urban audience. Thus Telemann resigned a court position at Eisenach to work first as civic director of music in Frankfurt am Main, and then from 1721 as musical director for five of Hamburg’s churches. Here he also became involved in the city’s opera and in publishing his own music. In Bach’s case, he left the Cöthen court for the position of Thomaskantor in Leipzig, a post for which Telemann had been the favoured candidate until his Hamburg employers offered him a higher salary.
Yet if Telemann’s career took a similar trajectory to Bach’s, his attitude to the concerto was strikingly different. Whereas Bach was intoxicated by Vivaldi’s concertos, Telemann showed apparent disdain for the genre, to judge from his autobiography of 1718. He recalled that during his time in Eisenach, ‘I also began to write concertos, because it was a pleasant change. Yet I must confess that deep down I did not care for them, although I have composed a great many...’ Telemann probably meant that he did not care for the overt virtuosity of the Vivaldian style. Certainly his concertos often take a different approach, being less a showpiece for the soloist, more a pleasurable exploration of varied sonorities. Rather than use the three-movement form of Vivaldi or Bach, Telemann preferred to use four movements; often there are hints of the French orchestral suite, notably in the prominent dance rhythms or the tendency to write all movements in the same key. Indeed, as Telemann himself observed in his 1718 autobiography, his concertos ‘smell of France’.
Many of these features can be heard in Telemann’s Concerto in D major for flute TWV51:D2. Not only is the piece in four movements; it begins with a bow to France in the form of a sprightly minuet. Subsequent movements include echo effects in the latest galant style, as well as a judicious use of thinner textures to complement the flute. Telemann himself was a flautist, having learned the instrument during his childhood alongside the violin, recorder, organ, oboe, chalameau and bass trombone.
Telemann also wrote triple concertos, as heard in the Concerto for violin, flute and obbligato cello in A major from the First Production of Musique de Table. Again in four movements, the piece exploits the variety of textures possible with the three contrasting soloists. In the initial Largo the upper instruments have slurred murmurings over a static bass, but there is little solo writing as such. The third movement is a pastoral-like Gratioso, with delicate ornamentation and teasing dissonance. Both of the fast movements, by contrast, have longer sections for the trio of soloists; the final Allegro, indeed, approaches an Italian concerto in its systematic contrast of tutti and solo.
The concerto dates from Telemann’s years in Hamburg, being published in the three-volume collection Musique de Table of 1733. Each volume, or ‘production’, contains enough music for an evening’s entertainment at a Hamburg coffee house or banquet: each begins with an overture for full orchestra, proceeds with four pieces for smaller ensemble and concludes with another piece for the entire band. The collection was but one of the many music-books that Telemann published between 1725 and 1740; here, as was his practice, he engraved the plates himself. In addition he handled all the advertising and subscriptions for the ventures; Musique de Table attracted over 200 subscribers across Europe, from England, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Norway, Spain and Switzerland.
The third composer in tonight’s concert, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, acts as a further link between Johann Sebastian Bach and Telemann. Philipp Emanuel was trained by his father in Leipzig, and of all the family was the keenest to preserve and promote Sebastian’s legacy. For much of his career Philipp Emanuel worked at the Berlin court as a harpsichordist; increasingly, though, he became estranged from court performances, partly because he was developing his own career as a keyboard teacher and composer, partly because he did not receive the rewards lavished on some other Berlin musicians. In 1768, however, he succeeded Telemann as director of music in Hamburg; thus his career, like his father’s, moved from court to town.
In his concertos Philipp Emanuel was closer to his father than Telemann. He had probably performed his father’s keyboard concertos with the Leipzig collegium musicum, and he preferred this genre in his own output, writing 25 keyboard concertos at Berlin. Like his father he used the three-movement form, fast—slow—fast. But whereas Johann Sebastian’s concertos have a sense of constant momentum in their rhythmic activity and motivic consistency, Philipp Emanuel delighted in bold contrasts. In the first movement of the Harpsichord concerto in D minor Wq23, the opening tutti has a variety of themes and moods: the dotted rhythms, dramatic trills and dramatic octave-jumps signal a new emotional world of Empfindsamkeit, as do the sudden contrasts of pianissimo with forte. The movement is also on a much broader scale than Sebastian’s, with long solo episodes alternating with the substantial tutti sections; indeed, there are several opportunities for the soloist to add a cadenza. The middle movement has galant gestures similar to those used by Telemann, notably the delicate ornaments, little scotch snaps, and the mincing start on a dissonant chord. Then the finale brings an immense burst of energy, with the soloist taking the leading role. In keyboard concertos such as this, Philipp Emanuel moved away from the Baroque tradition of multiple soloists, and paved the way for the solo concertos of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart among others.