Last Tuesday afternoon I went to Holy Trinity Church on Central Park West for the first time this season to hear a noontime recital given by the Juilliard415, the school's period instrument ensemble. The program, entitled The Evolution of Chamber Music, was more eclectic than usual as it started with the seventeenth century Italian Baroque and moved from there to the Classical music of Boccherini, Haydn. Mozart, and C.P.E. Bach.
The recital began with sets of Baroque dance movements - arranged for two violins, viola da gamba, harpsichord and guitar - by Italian composers active in the first half of the seventeenth century. The works were L'Eroica by Andrea Falconieri, Ballo detto Eccardo - Ballo detto Pollico by Tarquinio Merula, and Aria Quinta, sopra la Bergamasca by Marco Uccellini. What I found interesting in the instrumentation was that the printed program had called for a theorbo rather than a guitar. For the most part, the guitar appeared part of the continuo, though it was obviously a higher register than the theorbo, but then was given a brief solo as it introduced the final piece by Uccellini.
The next ensemble - consisting of two violins, cello, and harpsichord - remained with the Italian (here Venetian) Baroque as the musicians performed the Sonata da Chiesa, Op. 4, No. 3, La Benaglia (1656) by Giovanni Legrenzi and the Trio Sonata, Op. 1, No. 12, La Follia, RV 63 (1705) by Antonio Vivaldi. La Follia is perhaps the oldest known European musical theme and can be found as early as 1672, though it was most probably in use well before then, in the music of Jean-Baptiste Lully. It was taken up at the beginning of the eighteenth century by Corelli, Scarlatti and Vivaldi. So enduring was La Follia's popularity that even Rachmaninoff made use of it in his 1931 Variations on a theme by Corelli.
The music then moved forward to the Classical period with selections from two string quartets, the first movement, marked adagio-allegro, of the String Quartet No. 19 in C major, K. 465 ("Dissonance") (1785) by W.A. Mozart, and the second and third movements, marked respectively largo and allegro, of the String Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 2 (G. 159) (1761) by Luigi Boccherini. Somehow the Mozart adagio that gave the K. 465 its name sounded even more dissonant when played here on period instruments. One wonders what staid Viennese audiences made of this music that was so far in advance of its time. Mozart composed the quartet, along with five others, after having heard Haydn's Op. 33 quartets that, along with those comprising the Op. 20, are generally considered the first true examples of the Classical string quartet. It's amazing that Mozart in his first attempt at writing for the genre should not only have mastered it but in fact moved beyond his mentor in expanding the possibilities of this musical form.
The next ensemble to take the stage then played Mozart's Flute Quartet No. 1 in D major, K. 285 (Christmas Day, 1777). The story of Mozart's commission to compose the flute quartets for Ferdinand de Jean is well known just as is his petulant comment, in a letter to his father dated September 14, 1778, "You know that I become quite powerless whenever I am obliged to write for an instrument which I cannot bear." Be that as it may, this a work of rare grace, never more so than in the opening of the second movement adagio when the strings are played pizzicatto in their accompaniment of the flute.
Following the Mozart came Joseph Haydn's "London" Trio No. 1 in C major, Hob. IV.1 (1794) for two oboes and cello. Though the solo instruments used at this recital were oboes, the work was originally composed for two flutes and cello and were published as such in January 1799, by Teobaldo Monzani, himself an accomplished flute-player. The trios were largely forgotten in the nineteenth century and it was really only in the second half of the twentieth century that their charm was again recognized and the works returned to their rightful place in the chamber repertoire.
The next work was listed in the program as a quartet - C.P.E. Bach's Quartet in A minor, Wq. 93 (1788) - even though it consisted of only three instruments, i.e., flute, viola, and fortepiano. If one wonders why this accomplished piece, written in the composer's last year of life, is referred to as a quartet when there are only three instruments in performance it is because the piano right and left hands are considered here two separate instruments. Even if an optional cello is added to the mix it only doubles the piano left hand.
The recital, which by then had lasted a good hour and a half with no intermission, came to a close with Mozart's Quintet in E-flat major for Piano and Winds, K. 452 (1784). This is the piece of which the composer famously wrote to his father, "I myself consider it to be the best thing I have written in my life." Mozart had good reason to be proud, not only for the music itself but for his originality in combining a traditional Viennese wind band serenade and piano chamber work with the happy result of creating an entirely new genre, one that Beethoven was to emulate twelve years later in his Op. 16. I noticed at this performance that as the fortepiano has a much softer sound than the modern piano that part blended more seamlessly with the winds than when played on a modern instrument.
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