Programme
Arcangelo Corelli (1653–1713) – Violin sonata op 5 nr 1 in D major
I Grave – Adagio – Allegro II Allegro III Allegro IV Adagio V Allegro
with Laura Ahola ~ Violin & Anna Pulakka ~ Cello
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Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764) – Cantata Orphée
with Meeri Pulakka ~ Soprano & Marianne Mieskolainen ~ Violin & Salli Vilkanen ~ Traverso & Anna Pulakka ~ Viola da Gamba
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Giovanni Battista Fontana (1589–1630) – Sonata Seconda in D major
with Jennie Högberg ~ Recorder & Vadim Vainshtein ~ Viola da Gamba
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Johann Pachelbel (1653–1706) – Cantata Was Gott tut das ist wohlgetan (P.487)
with Meeri Pulakka ~ Soprano & Rachel McIntosh ~ Alto & Jussi Salonen ~ Tenor & Gustav Johansson ~ Bass & Marianne Mieskolainen & Johanna Honkanen ~ Violins & Margarethe Breit ~ viola & Vadim Vainshtein ~ Viola da gamba & Anna Pulakka ~ Cello
Notes
Arcangelo Corelli, born in the small town of Fusignano in North-East Italy, started his musical career in Bologna. After travelling to Rome in the 1670’s, Corelli became a central figure in the musical life, leading orchestras and ensembles of various sizes. A Barockstar in his own time, he was called the “nuovo Orfeo dei nostri giorni” and the “famosissimo professore di violino”. The 12 sonatas of opus 5 a violino e violone o cimbalo – the only set of violin sonatas Corelli ever composed – were published on the first of January 1700 and became incredibly renowned in the eighteenth century. Today we’ll play you the first of these sonatas. I chose this piece because when listening to the collection, it particularly stood out and shone to me. I enjoyed the rising sun of the first movement and the themes of the fugal movements where the melody of the violin is also played as a bass line.
I am joined on the stage today by Laura Ahola, a wonderful violinist who played her Masters graduation concert on modern violin just last week. I am grateful for her cheer, virtuosity and leadership. My partner in bass is Anna Pulakka, who graduated from our Academy last spring and who I have had the pleasure of working with before. I play better when Anna is there.
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Speaking of Orfeo—in eighteenth century France, Jean-Philippe Rameau wrote “Orphée”, about the original character from Greek mythology and poetry. But first, a few words about Jean-Philippe himself. Rameau, born in Dijon as the seventh of eleven children, settled in Paris at about age forty. He first became famous for works on harmony and music theory, and also composed and published music for solo harpsichord. The latter thirty years of Rameau’s career were spent almost entirely on opera, but before he committed himself to this he wrote six cantatas in the 1720s, of which our “Orphée” is one. The genre of the cantata was very popular with both amateur and professional musicians in France at this time and therefore became standard performance repertoire. This, along with the relatively modest number of people required to perform cantatas, made it a good genre to compose in for someone not yet well-known. “Orphée” was completed in 1721, and published around 1727/1728. I selected this cantata because the music is beautiful but also for its story – I studied Classics while growing up, and this world of myths has stayed with me and is one I return to with love. I further find that the story of Orpheus is an important one for us musicians, as it shows both the power and the limitations of what we do. Moreover, it carries an important lesson for all of us human beings: we can do great things with love, but too much or too little destroys. Giving a French cantata twist to a classical story, the unknown librettist attached his own moral to it: listen to the last aria to find out what it is.
In the category of ‘famous last words’, two weeks before his 81st birthday Rameau’s were: “What the devil do you mean to sing to me, priest? You are out of tune.” Thankfully, we don’t have to think anything like that when our soprano Meeri Pulakka sings. Having graduated both from the Sibelius Academy and the opera class in Vienna, I have had the pleasure of working with her on earlier occasions – such as playing a whole concert in Arkadia International Bookshop together with her sister Anna. We are also joined by Marianne Mieskolainen on the violin and Salli Vilkanen on traverso, both Masters students at the Academy. Marianne brings her singing sound and Salli her gentleness to the whole. Meeri, Anna and Salli also joined me in my previous performance exam concert almost two years ago. I am grateful to all these colleagues for their time, musicianship and friendship.
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We have only one publication by Giovanni Battista Fontana: a collection of 18 sonatas published posthumously in 1641 in Venice. The preface of this publication is the sole source from which we have derived almost all we know about this composer and violinist. Fontana was born in Brescia, and became well-known not only in his native city but also in Venice, Rome, and Padua—where he eventually died of the plague. The dedication of the sonata publication was written by Maestro di Capella Battista Reghino, who described Fontana as “one of the most singular violin virtuosi of his time”, and who said that in Padua “like a dying swan he displayed more marvelously than ever the sweetness of his music”. In 1608, Brescian organist Cesario Gussago dedicated a publication and a sonata to Fontana, writing that he gathered fame in Venice the way Orpheus did in Thebes. The music in the sonata collection reflects early Italian Baroque sonata music well, and after listening to several of the pieces I found the sonata we’re playing for you today the best one. It is challenging for me to play this music, because the structure and phrasing are so different from the later Baroque music I have more experience with. It has been a journey with my fellow musicians to explore how this music makes sense to us, given its adventurousness and pronounced contrasts between the different sections.
The trio I am a part of in playing this piece for you today is one very dear to my heart. In the autumn of 2015, the Academy let into its Baroque department three musicians: a Swedish-speaking recorder player from Ostrobothnia, a gambist from St. Petersburg and a newly-made harpsichordist from the Netherlands. Jennie, Dima and I played everything together in that first year, and we became fast friends. Then life took us in different directions but now we are reunited on stage for the first time in two years. This makes me happier than I can say. I feel that Jennie is one of those people who manages to be incredibly modest while being incredibly good at her art – and Dima is just one of those ultimate musicians, practicing at any time of day or night and playing everything with everyone. We plan on seriously collaborating regularly from now on, but we don’t have a name for our ensemble yet: if you have any suggestions do let us know!
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When I say Pachelbel, you say … yes, that’s right, Canon in D. But this is perhaps unfair to the composer of a large quantity of sacred and secular music, who during his life was known as a great organist and organ composer and who influenced many pupils. Pachelbel spent most of his life in middle and south Germany – Nuremberg, Eisenach and Erfurt being important cities for him – though significant time was also spent in Vienna. By 1678 he was described as “einen perfekten und raren Virtuosen” in a letter of recommendation by Kapellmeister Daniel Eberlin. Interestingly, in Eisenach Pachelbel met the Bach family, and there struck firm, lifelong connections with its members – such as a friendship with Johann Ambrosius Bach (Johann Sebastian’s father). These relations continued in Erfurt. The cantata we’re performing for you today is based on the Lutheran hymn “Was Gott tut das ist wohlgetan”, written in 1675 by teacher and hymn writer Samuel Rodigast. The melody is ascribed to Severus Gastorius, a cantor in Jena and friend of Rodigast. In the Lutheran tradition hymns were sung by the whole congregation during services, and so these melodies were well-known among churchgoers. As I have sung the Bach Passions many times, some choral melodies are very familiar also to me and a source of comfort. Pachelbel used the melody of Was Gott tut das ist wohlgetan twice. First in an organ partita called Musicalische Sterbens- Gedancken, written in 1683 in memoriam of his first wife and their only child, who both died of the plague in Erfurt. The second time he used it in our cantata in Nuremberg sometime after 1695. The hymn has also been set by other composers after Pachelbel, including J.S. Bach and Franz Liszt. I love this piece because I find the hymn melody in itself very beautiful, and because I love how Pachelbel uses various compositional techniques in each verse to showcase the hymn and the text in a different way. This creates a very vast build-up and arch to the entire piece.
To perform this piece today I am joined by eight wonderful musicians. Some of these you have heard earlier in the concert. Among the others is violinist Johanna Honkanen: a primary school teacher as well as an excellent Baroque violinist (listen to her ornamentation!) – I met her when we performed Bach’s St. John Passion together and am glad to call her a friend. We also have Margarethe Breit with us, a violist from Vienna and a Masters student at the Academy; lover of good food, hugs and swimming. Finally, I am supremely happy with my quartet of singers: in addition to Meeri’s soaring soprano we have alto Rachel McIntosh: a member of the Academy’s opera class who sang an amazing Sesto in last Spring’s production of Mozart’s Clemenza di Tito – in which I played the recitatives – and a dear friend. The male voices are sung by tenor Jussi Salonen, a cantor and opera singer from Jämsänkoski; and Swedish bass Gustav Johansson, an exchange student in the opera class from Copenhagen’s Royal Danish Academy of Music. I didn’t know either of these fine young gentlemen before I asked them to join the ensemble, and I’m so glad I met them through this project and this music, and hope to work together in future.
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Editions used
Corelli: The 12 sonatas of opus 5 were published in 1700, and the edition used is Arcangelo Corelli Historisch-Kritische Gesamtausgabe der musikalischen Werke Band III, Sonate a Violino e Violone o Cimbalo, Opus V, published in 2006 by Laber Verlag.
Rameau: The cantata was completed in 1721 and published in 1727/1728. Editions used are: Oeuvres complètes, Tome 3, published in 1897 in Paris by Durand, and Jean-Philippe Rameau, Opera Omnia volume 3, Cantatas, Canons, Airs, published in 2008 by among others Bärenreiter.
Fontana: From 18 Sonatas in 1, 2, 3 Parts, published in 1641 in Venice by Bartolomeo Magni. The edition used is one by Francisco Javier Lupiáñez from February 2009.
Pachelbel: Editions used are one published by Breitkopf und Härtel in Leipzig in 1905 and another published by Prima La Musica! in 2011. The latter edition is based on manuscript parts located in Strasbourg.
Eugenie Touma van der Meulen 