Juilliard Baroque: Handel, CPE Bach, Telemann, Zelenka and JS Bach

Juilliard Baroque is a faculty ensemble established at 2009.  The four members who performed at yesterday evening's recital were Gonzalo Ruiz (oboe) sporting a durag, Robert Mealy (violin), Dominic Teresi (bassoon) and Jeffrey Grossman (harpsichord).  The program consisted of works by German composers written in the early decades of the eighteenth century, roughly 1820 to 1840.

The first piece was the Trio Sonata in B flat, Op. 2, No. 3 by George Frideric Handel.  Though the entire Op. 2 was first published in 1730, it is not possible to accurately assign dates of composition to the individual trios contained within it as the autographs are no longer extant.

The second piece was the Sonata for Oboe and Basso Continuo in G minor by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.  The work is generally dated between 1731 and 1735 in the early part of Bach's career immediately following his graduation from Leipzig University.

There followed the Fantasia for Harpsichord by Georg Philipp Telemann.  This relatively short piece was interesting in that it seemed somewhat out of place in the Baroque repertoire.  It actually reminded me more of one of those nineteenth century compositions intended as showpieces for piano virtuosos.  Mr. Grossman played it with a great deal of flair.

The final piece before intermission was the Trio Sonata in B flat by Jan Dismas Zelenka.  Though Zelenka was a member of the Dresden orchestra and spent most of his career in that city, he was actually Czech and his musical style was influenced by the folk music of his homeland.  Unappreciated during his lifetime and forgotten afterwards, Zelenka was only rediscovered in the nineteenth century through the efforts of his countrymen.  Smetana first introduced one of Zelenka's orchestral suites in Prague in 1863.

After intermission, the program continued with another piece by Telemann, the Trio Sonata in G minor from Essercizii Musici.  Though Telemann is considered today one of the most prolific of the Baroque composers, this may at least have been in part due to a need to pay off the enormous gambling debts incurred by his wife, Maria Catherina, who was also conducting a liaison with a Swedish military officer at the same time.

The evening concluded with two works by Johann Sebastian Bach, the Sonata in G for Violin and Basso Continuo and the Trio Sonata in F.  The latter was an arrangement by Gonzalo Ruiz of a trio sonata originally composed for organ, the BMV 525.