Juilliard415 Performs Locke, Lawes, Purcell, Handel and Mozart

The Juilliard415, the school's early music ensemble, yesterday afternoon gave one of its four annual noontime performances at Holy Trinity Church.  On this occasion the program was for the most part devoted to the music of British composers of the seventeenth century as represented by Locke, Lawes and Purcell; but the performance also featured works by Handel - who of course had strong ties to England - as well as Mozart who once visited there.

The program opened with two suites of consort music by relatively little known English composers.  First was the Suite in G minor by Matthew Locke from his Little Consort of Three Parts (1651).  This was followed by the Suite in D minor by William Lawes from his Three-Part Consorts.  The performers on both pieces were Augusta McKay Lodge and Jeffrey Girton, violins, and Julia Nilsen-Savage, viola da gamba.  The concept of consort music was uniquely British and dates back to the Elizabethan era   Originally at least, a consort arrangement differed from a modern chamber music ensemble in that all the instruments were of the same family, e.g., viols.  Emphasis was placed on having the instruments play together in unison as opposed to the Italian tradition in which certain instruments were singled out as soloists.  

Next came three pieces by Henry Purcell - the Sonata No. 4 in F major (performed by Toma Iliev, violin; David Dickey, oboe, Adam Cockerham, theorbo; Evan Kory, organ; and Peter Ferretti, violone) and the Sonata No. 7 in E minor (performed by Ambra Casonato, violin; Caroline Ross, oboe; Kamila Marcinkowska-Prasad, bassoon; and Leonard Schmid, organ), both from Sonnata's of III Parts (1683).  These were followed by the Sonata No. 4 in D minor (performed by Karen Dekker and Ūla Kinderyté, violins; Oliver Weston, cello; Robert Warner, harpsichord; and Paul Morton, theorbo) from Ten Sonatas in Four Parts (1697).  Although Purcell began his career as a composer of consort music as evidenced in the series of fantasias he completed in 1680, he was greatly influenced (as were Bach and Handel) by the works of Arcangelo Corelli and other Italian composers and attempted to introduce that country's stylistic innovations into his own music.  His series of sonatas for two violins, bass viol, and harpsichord were published in 1683 and in a foreword to that edition the composer wrote that he had "faithfully endeavour’d a just imitation of the most fam’d Italian Masters."  Purcell, who never traveled outside England, only experienced his sources second hand, however, and was never entirely successful in freeing himself of the traditions of English music so that his work became in the end a hybrid of styles.

The performance of the final Purcell piece, the Sonata No. 4, was especially moving as it was dedicated to the memory of one musician's young friend who had only just tragically passed away.

After the English compositions came the Sonata No. 5 in G minor by George Frideric Handel from his VI Sonate, Second Ouvrage (c. 1732) as performed by Isabelle Seula Lee, violin; Fiona Last, oboe; Neil Chen, bassoon; and Gabriel Benton, harpsichord.  The Op. 2 sonatas were first published in 1830 (without the composer's permission by Estienne Roger a/k/a John Walsh) but were actually written much earlier.  Handel, unlike Purcell, had lived for a time in Italy before relocating to England and was consequently quite familiar with the trio sonata form.  The Program Notes written by Neil Chen point out that the material used in the work's four movements were not original but rather adapted from earlier compositions, but this disparity of sources is not at all apparent in a work that actually displays remarkable coherence.

The program ended on an upbeat note with a work by Mozart, his Quartet for flute (Joseph Monticello), violin (Nayeon Kim), viola (Toma Iliev) and cello (Alexander Nicholls) in G major, K. 285a (1778).  I'm not quite sure what connection Mozart's music had to the rest of this program, but it was nonetheless an excellent piece with which to end the recital.  The backstory is this: While visiting Mannheim and as usual short of funds, Mozart accepted a commission from an amateur Dutch flutist named Ferdinand de Jean to write four quartets and three concertos.  Mozart likely took the commission more for the money than any real interest in the music and then tried to get away with recycling his Oboe Concerto in place of one of the promised flute concertos.  As a result,  he was paid only half his commission, a disappointment that led him to make some disparaging remarks on the nature of the instrument.  In spite of all the drama that went into its composition, the quartet is still a thoroughly enjoyable work to hear.