08.10.2021 Views

Program Book — CAMA Presents Les Violons du Roy with Avi Avital — Tuesday, October 19, 2021 — Lobero Theatre, Santa Barbara, 7:30PM

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

Presenting the world’s finest classical artists since 1919<br />

<strong>CAMA</strong>'S <strong>2021</strong>/2022 SEASON<br />

103 rd CONCERT SEASON<br />

JONATHAN<br />

COHEN<br />

Music Director and conductor<br />

AVI<br />

AVITAL<br />

mandolin<br />

<strong>Tuesday</strong>, October 19, <strong>2021</strong>, 7:<strong>30PM</strong><br />

Lobero Theatre, Santa Barbara<br />

Photo by Zohar Ron<br />

Exclusive Concert Sponsor:<br />

MARTA BABSON<br />

COMMUNITY ARTS MUSIC ASSOCIATION OF SANTA BARBARA, INC.


Presenting the world’s finest classical artists since 1919<br />

2022 SEASON 103 rd CONCERT SEASON<br />

Sir Simon Rattle Olga Kern Elim Chan Mikhail Pletnev Sir John Eliot Gardiner<br />

international series at the Granada Theatre<br />

SEASON SPONSOR: SAGE PUBLICATIONS<br />

JANUARY<br />

11<br />

TUE, 7:<strong>30PM</strong><br />

2022<br />

JANUARY<br />

28<br />

FRI, 7:<strong>30PM</strong><br />

2022<br />

FEBRUARY<br />

24<br />

THUR, 7:<strong>30PM</strong><br />

2022<br />

ROYAL<br />

PHILHARMONIC<br />

ORCHESTRA<br />

Vasily Petrenko, Music Director<br />

Olga Kern, piano<br />

LOS ANGELES<br />

PHILHARMONIC<br />

Elim Chan, conductor<br />

Igor Levit, piano<br />

RUSSIAN<br />

NATIONAL<br />

ORCHESTRA<br />

Kirill Karabits, conductor<br />

Mikhail Pletnev, piano<br />

<strong>CAMA</strong> and Music Academy of the West<br />

co-present the London Symphony<br />

Orchestra in concert in celebration of<br />

the Music Academy’s 75th anniversary<br />

MARCH<br />

24<br />

THUR, 7:<strong>30PM</strong><br />

2022<br />

APRIL<br />

12<br />

TUE, 7:<strong>30PM</strong><br />

2022<br />

LONDON<br />

SYMPHONY<br />

ORCHESTRA<br />

Sir Simon Rattle, Music Director<br />

Presenting the world’s finest classical artists since 1919<br />

ENGLISH<br />

BAROQUE<br />

SOLOISTS<br />

Sir John Eliot Gardiner,<br />

Music Director<br />

SERIES SUBSCRIPTIONS ON SALE NOW<br />

805 966-4324 | tickets@camasb.org | www.camasb.org


WELCOME BACK to Live Classical Music <strong>with</strong> <strong>CAMA</strong>!<br />

Jordi Savall<br />

Benjamin Grosvenor<br />

Isabel Bayrakdarian<br />

James Ehnes<br />

masterseries at the Lobero Theatre<br />

SEASON SPONSOR: ESPERIA FOUNDATION<br />

MARCH<br />

02<br />

WED, 7:<strong>30PM</strong><br />

2022<br />

JORDI SAVALL<br />

AND LE CONCERT<br />

DES NATIONS<br />

Jordi Savall, Director & bass viol<br />

MAY<br />

24<br />

TUE, 7:<strong>30PM</strong><br />

2022<br />

JAMES<br />

EHNES, violin<br />

ORION<br />

WEISS, piano<br />

MARCH<br />

18<br />

FRI, 7:<strong>30PM</strong><br />

2022<br />

APRIL<br />

23<br />

SAT, 7:<strong>30PM</strong><br />

2022<br />

BENJAMIN<br />

GROSVENOR, piano<br />

ISABEL<br />

BAYRAKDARIAN, soprano<br />

MARK FEWER, violin<br />

JAMIE PARKER, piano<br />

Santa Barbara COVID-19<br />

Live Event Requirement<br />

Lobero Theatre and Granada Theatre<br />

For all concerts in our 103rd Season, <strong>CAMA</strong> will be<br />

following the Granada Theatre and Lobero Theatre’s<br />

COVID‐19 Live Event Requirement. All events are<br />

subject to State, County, and other governmental<br />

agency COVID‐19 pandemic mandates and regulations<br />

covering indoor live events. In an effort to create the<br />

safest possible environment for guests, patrons of all<br />

ages must show proof of being fully vaccinated or<br />

supply a negative COVID‐19 medical test result (taken<br />

<strong>with</strong>in 72 hours prior to the concert), along <strong>with</strong> an<br />

official photo identification, before entering the Lobero<br />

Theatre. Over‐the‐counter COVID‐19 tests will not<br />

be accepted. Masks are currently required indoors,<br />

regardless of vaccination status. Protocols are subject<br />

to change <strong>with</strong> local, State and national guidelines;<br />

please check venue websites for up‐to‐date<br />

information. This policy applies to venue and presenter<br />

staff, audience members and performers.<br />

COMMUNITY ARTS MUSIC ASSOCIATION OF SANTA BARBARA


Presenting the world’s finest classical artists since 1919<br />

BOARD OF DIRECTORS<br />

(As of October 1, <strong>2021</strong>)<br />

ROBERT K. MONTGOMERY<br />

Chairman<br />

DEBORAH BERTLING<br />

Vice Chair and President, Women's Board<br />

Rosalind Amorteguy-Fendon<br />

Marta Babson<br />

Bitsy Becton Bacon<br />

Isabel Bayrakdarian<br />

Edward E. Birch<br />

Andy Chou<br />

Stephen Cloud<br />

NancyBell Coe<br />

Bridget Colleary<br />

Joan Crossland<br />

Jill Felber<br />

JAN BOWLUS<br />

Vice Chair<br />

WILLIAM MEEKER<br />

Treasurer<br />

CHRISTINE EMMONS<br />

Secretary<br />

Raye Haskell Melville<br />

Judith L. Hopkinson<br />

Elizabeth Karlsberg<br />

Frank E. McGinity<br />

George Messerlian<br />

Patti Ottoboni<br />

Craig A. Parton<br />

Carl Perry<br />

Michele Saltoun<br />

Judith F. Smith<br />

Emeritus Directors<br />

(As of October 1, <strong>2021</strong>)<br />

Robert J. Emmons<br />

Arthur R. Gaudi<br />

James H. Hurley, Jr.<br />

Herbert J. Kendall<br />

Sara Miller McCune<br />

Nancy Wood<br />

Russell S. Bock*<br />

Dr. Robert M. Failing*<br />

Mrs. Maurice E. Faulkner*<br />

Léni Fé Bland*<br />

Stephen Hahn*<br />

Dr. Melville H. Haskell, Jr.*<br />

Mrs. Richard Hellmann*<br />

Dr. Dolores M. Hsu*<br />

Robert Light*<br />

Mrs. Frank R. Miller, Jr.*<br />

Mary Lloyd Mills*<br />

Mrs. Ernest J. Panosian*<br />

Kenneth W. Riley*<br />

Andre Saltoun*<br />

Jan Severson*<br />

* Deceased<br />

Administration<br />

(As of October 1, <strong>2021</strong>)<br />

Mark E. Trueblood<br />

President<br />

Elizabeth Alvarez<br />

Director of Development<br />

Michael Below<br />

Office Manager/<br />

Subscriber Services<br />

Justin Rizzo-Weaver<br />

Director of Operations<br />

2060 Alameda Padre Serra, Suite 201 Santa Barbara, CA 93103 Tel (805) 966-4324 Fax (805) 962-2014 info@camasb.org


Photo by Nell Campbell<br />

On behalf of the <strong>CAMA</strong> Board of Directors, we<br />

send our deep appreciation to the many steadfast<br />

subscribers whose ticket donations and financial<br />

contributions to <strong>CAMA</strong> have sustained our mission<br />

through these challenging times.<br />

Thank you for your support of <strong>CAMA</strong>!


Presenting the world’s finest classical artists since 1919<br />

<strong>CAMA</strong> <strong>Presents</strong><br />

JONATHAN<br />

COHEN<br />

Music Director and conductor<br />

AVI<br />

AVITAL<br />

mandolin<br />

<strong>Tuesday</strong>, October 19, <strong>2021</strong>, 7:<strong>30PM</strong><br />

Lobero Theatre, Santa Barbara<br />

ANTONIO VIVALDI (1678–1741)<br />

Mandolin Concerto in C Major, RV 425<br />

Allegro<br />

Largo<br />

Allegro<br />

Avi Avital, mandolin<br />

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685–1750)<br />

(COMPLETED BY BERNARD LABADIE AFTER DAVITT MORONEY)<br />

The Art of the Fugue, BWV 1080 (excerpts)<br />

Contrapunctus I<br />

Contrapunctus IV<br />

Contrapunctus VII<br />

Contrapunctus IX<br />

Contrapunctus XIV<br />

BACH (ARR. FOR SOLO MANDOLIN BY AVI AVITAL)<br />

Violin Concerto No.1 in A Minor, BWV 1041<br />

[Allegro]<br />

Andante<br />

Allegro assai<br />

Avi Avital, mandolin<br />

INTERMISSION<br />

VIVALDI (ARR. FOR SOLO MANDOLIN BY AVI AVITAL)<br />

Concerto for Lute and Two Violins in<br />

D Major, RV 93<br />

Allegro<br />

Largo<br />

Allegro<br />

Avi Avital, mandolin<br />

VIVALDI<br />

Concerto Grosso in G minor, Op.3, No. 2,<br />

RV 578<br />

Adagio e spiccato<br />

Allegro<br />

Larghetto<br />

Allegro<br />

BACH (ARR. FOR SOLO MANDOLIN BY AVI AVITAL)<br />

Harpsichord Concerto No.1 in D Minor,<br />

BWV 1052<br />

Allegro<br />

Adagio<br />

Allegro<br />

Avi Avital, mandolin<br />

<strong>CAMA</strong>’s Exclusive Concert Sponsor: MARTA BABSON<br />

Les Violons du Roy would like to thank the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Canada Council<br />

for the Arts and the Government of Canada for their support.<br />

North American Management for Mr. Avital and Exclusive Tour Management for Les Violons du Roy:<br />

Opus 3 Artists, 470 Park Avenue South, 9th Floor North, New York, NY 10019<br />

www.opus3artists.com<br />

Harpsichord provided by Curtis Berak<br />

<strong>Program</strong> subject to change.<br />

Please switch off all cellular phones, watch alarms and other signals during the performance. The photographing or<br />

sound recording of this concert or possession of any device for such photographing or sound recording is prohibited.<br />

5 <strong>CAMA</strong>'S 103 RD CONCERT SEASON


Photo by Christoph Kîstlin For DG


“Much as Andrés Segovia<br />

brought the classical guitar<br />

into the concert hall, the<br />

Israeli virtuoso Avi Avital<br />

is doing the same <strong>with</strong><br />

the mandolin.”<br />

<strong>—</strong>Los Angeles Times<br />

Photo by Christoph Kîstlin For DG<br />

AVI AVITAL<br />

mandolin<br />

The first mandolin soloist to be nominated<br />

for a classical Grammy ® , Avi Avital has<br />

been compared to Andres Segovia for his<br />

championship of his instrument and to<br />

Jascha Heifitz for his incredible virtuosity.<br />

Passionate and “explosively charismatic”<br />

(New York Times) in live performance, he is<br />

a driving force behind the reinvigoration of<br />

the mandolin repertory.<br />

Avital’s wide-ranging repertoire and<br />

inventiveness have led to collaborations<br />

<strong>with</strong> musicians including Ksenija Sidorova,<br />

Giovanni Sollima, Mahan Esfahani, Kristian<br />

Bezuidenhout, Alice Sara Ott, Andreas<br />

Scholl, Dover Quartet, New Danish Quartet,<br />

Brooklyn Rider, Omer Klein (jazz piano),<br />

Omer Avital (oud/bassist), actress Martina<br />

Gedeck and Georgian puppet theatre, Budrugana<br />

Gagra. He has been showcased<br />

as a “Portrait Artist” <strong>with</strong> residencies at the<br />

Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, BOZAR<br />

in Brussels and the Dortmund Konzerthaus<br />

(Zeitinsel) and is a regular presence at major<br />

festivals such as Aspen, Salzburg, Tanglewood,<br />

Spoleto, Ravenna, MISA Shanghai,<br />

Cheltenham, Verbier and Tsinandali.<br />

Avital has commissioned over 100<br />

new works for the mandolin adding new<br />

concertos to the repertoire by Anna Clyne,<br />

Avner Dorman and Giovanni Sollima and<br />

chamber pieces by David Bruce and Elena<br />

Kats-Chernin amongst others. Last season<br />

7 <strong>CAMA</strong>'S 103 RD CONCERT SEASON


he gave the world premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s<br />

Mandolin Concerto <strong>with</strong> the Munich<br />

Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of<br />

Krzysztof Urbanski.<br />

An exclusive Deutsche Grammophon<br />

artist, his sixth album for the label The Art<br />

of the Mandolin was released this season<br />

and follows recordings of solo Bach (2019),<br />

Avital meets Avital (2017) <strong>with</strong> oud/bassist<br />

Omer Avital, Vivaldi (2015), an album of<br />

Avital’s own transcriptions of Bach concertos<br />

and Between Worlds (2014), a crossgeneric<br />

chamber collection exploring the<br />

nexus between classical and traditional<br />

music. He has also recorded for Naxos and<br />

SONY Classical.<br />

Avital is highly in demand also as a<br />

concerto soloist and has performed <strong>with</strong><br />

orchestras all over the world working <strong>with</strong><br />

conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Kent Nagano,<br />

Osmo Vänskä, Yutaka Sado, Jonathan<br />

Cohen, Nicholas McGegan, Omer Meir<br />

Wellber, Ton Koopman and Giovanni Antonini.<br />

Engagements include the Zurich Tonhalle<br />

Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra,<br />

Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa<br />

Cecilia, Deutsche Symphonie Orchester<br />

Berlin, Orchestre National de Lyon, Maggio<br />

Musicale Fiorentino, Israel Philharmonic,<br />

Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, Residentie Orkest<br />

and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.<br />

He tours 2-3 times each season in the USA<br />

working <strong>with</strong> orchestras including the Chicago<br />

Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles<br />

Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Baltimore<br />

Symphony, Les Violons du Roy, Orpheus<br />

Chamber Orchestra and The Knights.<br />

“The words 'superstar'<br />

and 'mandolinist' still<br />

look odd next to each<br />

other. Yet in the classical<br />

world they are starting<br />

to be joined <strong>with</strong> some<br />

frequency…. Avi Avital<br />

was nothing short<br />

of electric.”<br />

<strong>—</strong>The New York Times<br />

Born in Be’er Sheva in southern Israel,<br />

Avital began learning the mandolin at the<br />

age of eight and soon joined the flourishing<br />

mandolin youth orchestra founded and<br />

directed by his charismatic teacher, Russian-born<br />

violinist Simcha Nathanson. He<br />

studied at the Jerusalem Music Academy<br />

and the Conservatorio Cesare Pollini in<br />

Padua <strong>with</strong> Ugo Orlandi. Winner of Israel’s<br />

prestigious Aviv Competition in 2007,<br />

Avital is the first mandolinist in the history<br />

of the competition to be so honored. He<br />

plays on a mandolin made by Israeli luthier<br />

Arik Kerman.<br />

Instrument: Arik Kerman (1998)<br />

Strings: Thomastik-Infeld (154, Medium)<br />

8 <strong>CAMA</strong>'S 103 RD CONCERT SEASON


Photo by Atwood Photographie<br />

LES VIOLONS DU ROY<br />

Les Violons du Roy takes its name from the<br />

celebrated court orchestra of the French<br />

kings. It was founded in 1984 by Bernard<br />

Labadie, now styled founding conductor,<br />

and continues under music director Jonathan<br />

Cohen to explore the nearly boundless<br />

repertoire of music for chamber orchestra<br />

in performances matched as closely<br />

as possible to the period of each work’s<br />

composition. Its minimum fifteen-member<br />

complement plays modern instruments,<br />

albeit <strong>with</strong> period bows for Baroque and<br />

Classical music, and its interpretations are<br />

deeply informed by the latest research on<br />

seventeenth- and eighteenth-century performance<br />

practice. The repertoire of the<br />

nineteenth and twentieth centuries receives<br />

similar attention and figures regularly on<br />

the orchestra’s programs.<br />

Les Violons du Roy has been a focal<br />

point of Québec City’s musical life since it<br />

was founded in 1984, and in 1997 it reached<br />

out to enrich the cultural landscape of Montréal<br />

as well. In 2007, the orchestra moved<br />

into its permanent home base in Québec<br />

City’s Palais Montcalm while continuing<br />

to build on the worldwide reputation it has<br />

acquired in countless concerts and recordings<br />

carried by medici.tv, Radio-Canada,<br />

CBC, and NPR along <strong>with</strong> regular appearances<br />

on the festival circuit. Les Violons<br />

du Roy has performed dozens of times<br />

9 <strong>CAMA</strong>'S 103 RD CONCERT SEASON


throughout Canada as well as in Germany,<br />

the U.K., Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China,<br />

Colombia, Ecuador, South Korea, Spain,<br />

the United States, France, Israel, Morocco,<br />

Mexico, Norway, the Netherlands, Slovenia,<br />

and Switzerland, in collaboration <strong>with</strong><br />

such world-renowned soloists as Magdalena<br />

Kožená, David Daniels, Vivica Genaux,<br />

Alexandre Tharaud, Ian Bostridge, Emmanuel<br />

Pahud, Stephanie Blythe, Marc-André<br />

Hamelin, Philippe Jaroussky, Anthony Marwood,<br />

Isabelle Faust, Julia Lezhneva and<br />

Anthony Roth Costanzo. The orchestra has<br />

performed at the Berlin Philharmonie and<br />

iconic venues in London, Paris, and Brussels,<br />

<strong>with</strong> two performances on invitation<br />

at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.<br />

Since Les Violons du Roy’s first trip to<br />

Washington, D.C., in 1995, its U.S. travels<br />

have been enriched <strong>with</strong> numerous and<br />

regular stops in New York, Chicago, and<br />

Los Angeles. Its ten appearances at Carnegie<br />

Hall include five <strong>with</strong> La Chapelle de<br />

Québec featuring the Messiah, the Christmas<br />

Oratorio, and the St. John Passion under<br />

Bernard Labadie, founder and music<br />

director of the choir, and another featuring<br />

Dido and Aeneas under Richard Egarr.<br />

Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles<br />

has hosted the orchestra three times, once<br />

<strong>with</strong> La Chapelle de Québec in the Messiah,<br />

again under Bernard Labadie. Les Violons<br />

du Roy is represented by Opus 3 Artists and<br />

Askonas Holt.<br />

The thirty-six recordings released<br />

thus far by Les Violons du Roy have been<br />

met <strong>with</strong> widespread critical acclaim. The<br />

twelve released on the Dorian label include<br />

Mozart’s Requiem <strong>with</strong> La Chapelle de Québec<br />

(Juno Award 2002) and of Handel’s<br />

Apollo e Dafne <strong>with</strong> soprano Karina Gauvin<br />

(Juno Award 2000). Since 2004, a dozen<br />

more have appeared through a partnership<br />

between Les Violons du Roy and Quebec’s<br />

ATMA label, including Water Music (Félix<br />

Award 2008), and Piazzolla (Juno Award<br />

2006). Further recordings on Erato, Naïve,<br />

Hyperion, Analekta, and Decca Gold<br />

include Vivica Genaux, Truls Mørk, Marie-<br />

Nicole Lemieux, Alexandre Tharaud, Marc-<br />

André Hamelin, Valérie Milot, Anthony Roth<br />

Costanzo (Grammy Award 2019 nomination)<br />

and Charles Richard-Hamelin (Juno<br />

Award 2020 nomination).<br />

Photo by Atwood Photographie<br />

10 <strong>CAMA</strong>'S 103 RD CONCERT SEASON


Photo by Marco Borggreve<br />

JONATHAN COHEN<br />

Music Director, Les Violons du Roy<br />

Jonathan Cohen has forged a remarkable<br />

career as a conductor, cellist and keyboardist.<br />

Well known for his passion and<br />

commitment to chamber music Jonathan<br />

is equally at home in such diverse activities<br />

as baroque opera and the classical<br />

symphonic repertoire. He is Artistic Director<br />

of Arcangelo, Music Director of Les<br />

Violons du Roy, Artistic Director of Tetbury<br />

Festival and Artistic Partner of Saint Paul<br />

Chamber Orchestra.<br />

During the 20-21 season he returned<br />

to Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment<br />

(BBC Proms) and Handel and Haydn Society.<br />

He makes his debut at Staatsoper<br />

Berlin performing Orfeo <strong>with</strong> Freiburger<br />

Barockorchester and Vocalconsort Berlin<br />

in a production by Sasha Waltz Company.<br />

Other debuts include Kobe City Chamber<br />

Orchestra and Barcelona Symphony Orchestra<br />

and he continues his fruitful collaboration<br />

in Quebec <strong>with</strong> Les Violons du Roy.<br />

Jonathan founded Arcangelo in 2010,<br />

who strive to perform high quality and specially<br />

created projects. He has toured <strong>with</strong><br />

them to exceptional halls and festivals<br />

including Wigmore Hall London, Philharmonie<br />

Berlin, Kölner Philharmonie, Vienna<br />

Musikverein, Salzburg Festival and Carnegie<br />

Hall New York. They made their Proms<br />

debut at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in<br />

2016 and returned to the Proms in 2018 to<br />

present Theodora to a sold-out Royal Albert<br />

Hall. They continue <strong>with</strong> a busy recording<br />

schedule to continued acclaim <strong>with</strong> recent<br />

releases such as Arianna <strong>with</strong> Kate Lindsey<br />

on Alpha records and Grammy nominated<br />

Buxtehude trio sonatas.<br />

11 <strong>CAMA</strong>'S 103 RD CONCERT SEASON


An historic treasure<br />

<strong>with</strong> contemporary comforts<br />

in the heart of Santa Barbara<br />

50 Guest Rooms & Suites


Photo by Vladimir Ovchinnikov<br />

Bach Monument, Leipzig, created by Carl Seffner in 1908<br />

NOTES ON THE PROGRAM<br />

By Howard Posner<br />

Antonio VIVALDI:<br />

Mandolin Concerto in C Major, RV 425<br />

In Vivaldi’s day the word mandolino referred<br />

to two different instruments. One was a soprano<br />

lute, <strong>with</strong> pairs of gut strings tuned<br />

more or less in fourths and played <strong>with</strong> the<br />

right-hand fingers, and gut frets tied onto<br />

the neck like a lute’s. The other was essentially<br />

the modern mandolin, <strong>with</strong> four<br />

pairs of metal strings tuned to the same<br />

pitches as the violin’s four strings and<br />

played <strong>with</strong> a plectrum, and metal frets set<br />

into the neck like the modern guitar’s. We<br />

don’t know which instrument Vivaldi meant<br />

when he mandolino, and these days both<br />

instruments are used for Vivaldi’s mandolin<br />

music. It’s possible that Vivaldi himself regarded<br />

the two instruments as interchangeable.<br />

It’s also possible that Vivaldi played<br />

the metal-strung instrument; the similarity<br />

in tuning makes it a natural second instrument<br />

for violinists, and nearly every large<br />

orchestra has someone in the violin section<br />

who can play the mandolin part in Mahler’s<br />

Seventh Symphony.<br />

13 <strong>CAMA</strong>'S 103 RD CONCERT SEASON


Vivaldi’s concerto for solo mandolin<br />

and strings probably dates from the 1720’s,<br />

when Vivaldi was travelling constantly, performing<br />

concerts and producing his operas.<br />

He had left his position as violin teacher at<br />

the orphanage/convent/music school/concert<br />

venue Ospedale della Pietà, but was<br />

still under contract to send back two concertos<br />

a month for one gold ducat apiece.<br />

Beneath the title on Vivaldi’s manuscript,<br />

there is a note that the bowed strings<br />

can play pizzicato throughout (“Si può ancor<br />

fare con tutti gli violini pizzicati”). Playing<br />

<strong>with</strong>out bows, which seems to be the<br />

most popular way to play it these days,<br />

gives the concerto a delicate texture that<br />

the mandolin can dominate.<br />

Johann Sebastian BACH:<br />

Excerpts from The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080<br />

The Art of Fugue was Bach’s last major<br />

project, and he didn’t quite finish it. The<br />

idea was to compose a series of fugues<br />

and canons all based on the same thematic<br />

subject, which could be varied through all<br />

the devices that were part of every composer’s<br />

education in counterpoint, such<br />

as turning it upside down or backward, or<br />

augmenting or diminishing the length of its<br />

notes. Bach wrote most of them in “open<br />

score,” <strong>with</strong> each voice given its own staff,<br />

making it look like music for an ensemble,<br />

although it was not unusual in Bach’s day<br />

to write keyboard or organ music in open<br />

score. Today the Art of Fugue is performed<br />

on all sorts of keyboards and by all sorts of<br />

instrumental combinations.<br />

Bach never finished the fugue called<br />

Contrapunctus XIV (the word “contrapunctus”<br />

does not appear in Bach’s manuscript,<br />

in which most of the fugues are untitled;<br />

the labels may have been added by his son<br />

Carl Phillipp Emanuel, or by the publisher of<br />

the posthumous 1751 edition). It is a Fuga<br />

a 3 Soggetti ("fugue in three subjects") that<br />

stops after 238 measures, at which point<br />

in the manuscript Carl Phillipp Emanuel<br />

wrote, “At the point where the composer<br />

introduces the name BACH [BH–A–C–BJ<br />

for non-Germans] in the countersubject to<br />

this fugue, the composer died.” The image<br />

of Bach dropping dead over the score, quill<br />

in hand, is dramatic, but probably fantasy.<br />

Carl Phillipp Emanuel was more than 100<br />

miles away in Berlin, where he worked for<br />

Frederick the Great, when his father died,<br />

and would have had no particular knowledge<br />

about what happened.<br />

There have been numerous completions<br />

of the unfinished triple fugue over the<br />

centuries, so many that one scholar wrote<br />

a thesis arguing that Bach deliberately left<br />

it unfinished as a sort of final exercise in a<br />

counterpoint textbook.<br />

BACH, arr.AVITAL:<br />

Violin Concerto in A Minor, BWV 1041<br />

The only extant evidence for the A minor Violin<br />

Concerto in Bach’s handwriting is a set<br />

of parts from around 1730, when he was director<br />

of music in the churches of Leipzig,<br />

and had recently taken over the directorship<br />

14 <strong>CAMA</strong>'S 103 RD CONCERT SEASON


Vivaldi c.1723, Anonymous Painter<br />

of a Collegium Musicum that gave concerts<br />

in a local coffeehouse. But the concerto<br />

may have been composed a decade earlier,<br />

when Bach was Capellmeister at the court<br />

of the Duke of Anhalt-Cöthen, the only time<br />

in his half-century professional career that<br />

he was not employed in making music for<br />

Lutheran church services.<br />

Most concertos are a bit like a conversation<br />

between soloist and orchestra, <strong>with</strong><br />

the soloist elaborating on thoughts the orchestra<br />

introduces. This one is remarkable<br />

for how the soloist and orchestra talk almost<br />

entirely about different things, <strong>with</strong>out<br />

sharing thematic material. The assertive<br />

theme that starts the first movement never<br />

appears in the solo episodes. Nor does the<br />

orchestra ever play the yearning theme that<br />

the first solo introduces. The rolling theme<br />

in the bass, cello, and continuo that begins<br />

the slow movement, and recurs throughout<br />

it, disappears during the solo episodes,<br />

as do the bass, cello, and continuo themselves,<br />

leaving the violas as the bottom of<br />

the ensemble. Not until the last phrase of<br />

the movement do all the elements come together<br />

and all the instruments play at the<br />

same time. The finale combines the rhythm<br />

and feel of the jig (the traditional last movement<br />

of the Baroque suite) <strong>with</strong> the fugue,<br />

the tutti passages corresponding to the fugal<br />

expositions.<br />

VIVALDI, arr.AVITAL:<br />

Lute Concerto in D Major, RV 93<br />

Vivaldi’s Concerto in D, RV 93, for lute, two<br />

violins and continuo, became one of his biggest<br />

hits in the 20th century when guitarists<br />

appropriated it, the dreamlike slow movement<br />

becoming a particular radio favorite.<br />

On the mandolin it has to be played an octave<br />

higher than it would sound on a lute, so<br />

that the solo part is often in unison <strong>with</strong> the<br />

first violin part. Oddly enough, there was a<br />

time (mostly the 1980s) when cutting-edge<br />

lute scholarship held that playing the solo<br />

part in the upper octave pitch was precisely<br />

what Vivaldi intended, and indeed the visual<br />

evidence of the music on the page suggested<br />

a solo instrument<strong>—</strong>the gut-strung<br />

mandolino<strong>—</strong>sounding at violin pitch. Opinion<br />

changed when the tradition of concerted<br />

music <strong>with</strong> lute, in which the lute often<br />

doubled the violin part an octave down in<br />

tutti passages, became better understood.<br />

The concerto works <strong>with</strong> the solo part at<br />

either octave.<br />

15 <strong>CAMA</strong>'S 103 RD CONCERT SEASON


VIVALDI:<br />

Concerto Grosso in G Minor, Op.3, No.2,<br />

RV 578<br />

The 1711 publication of his 12-concerto<br />

opus 3, L'Estro Armonico, confirmed Vivaldi<br />

as an international star, and established<br />

the three-movement Vivaldi concerto as<br />

a competitor, and eventual supplanter, of<br />

the multi-movement Corellian concerto<br />

grosso. Vivaldi was cutting-edge, and other<br />

prominent composers, most notably Bach,<br />

studied and adopted Vivaldi's techniques.<br />

Bach was particularly enamored of the concertos<br />

in L'Estro Armonico, getting inside the<br />

music by arranging them for harpsichord(s)<br />

and organ.<br />

The G minor concerto, <strong>with</strong> two solo<br />

violins and a cello that occasionally takes<br />

a soloistic turn, offered plenty of headturning<br />

moments for his contemporaries:<br />

the vigorous chains of dissonances that begin<br />

it, the surprising turns of harmony, and<br />

the brusque chords and dramatic silences<br />

of the second movement would have been<br />

startling in 1711.<br />

BACH, arr.AVITAL:<br />

Keyboard Concerto in D Minor, BWV 1052<br />

As a rule, Bach did not compose concertos<br />

for keyboard instruments. With only two<br />

likely exceptions his 15 concertos for harpsichord,<br />

alone or <strong>with</strong> other instruments, are<br />

thought to be reworkings of works for other<br />

instruments. His purpose in refashioning<br />

them is not clear, but he likely used them<br />

as training and performance vehicles for<br />

his own children and young players in the<br />

Leipzig Collegium Musicum.<br />

Some of the models from which Bach<br />

fashioned his harpsichord concertos are<br />

available: extant concertos by Vivaldi, or<br />

concerto and cantata movements by Bach<br />

himself. In other cases the original is lost.<br />

Where a harpsichord concerto is from a<br />

known model, scholars have observed that<br />

Bach used the entire range of the original<br />

solo instrument, and turned the original solo<br />

part into right‐hand harpsichord part <strong>with</strong>out<br />

changing its range or key. This makes it<br />

easy to deduce the original solo instrument<br />

for a concerto that now exists only in keyboard<br />

form. In the D‐minor harpsichord concerto<br />

the right hand descends consistently<br />

to G below middle C and no lower, which is<br />

a fairly solid indication that it is a converted<br />

violin part. This makes it doubly natural for<br />

the mandolin, an instrument tuned like a<br />

violin but <strong>with</strong> wire strings plucked <strong>with</strong> a<br />

plectrum like a harpsichord.<br />

The D‐minor concerto is Bach doing<br />

Vivaldi: the statements of the theme in<br />

unharmonized octaves that begin the first<br />

two movements, the aggressive cast of the<br />

themes in the outer movements, and the<br />

solo episodes accompanied <strong>with</strong>out bass,<br />

are typical Vivaldi touches.<br />

16 <strong>CAMA</strong>'S 103 RD CONCERT SEASON


US Tour <strong>with</strong> Avi Avital<br />

Conductor and<br />

Harpsichord<br />

Jonathan Cohen<br />

1st Violin<br />

Pascale Giguère<br />

Nicole Trotier<br />

Pascale Gagnon<br />

Noëlla Bouchard<br />

2nd Violin<br />

Marie Bégin<br />

Angélique Duguay<br />

Michelle Seto<br />

Maud Langlois<br />

Viola<br />

Isaac Chalk<br />

Annie Morrier<br />

Jean-Louis Blouin<br />

Cello<br />

Benoît Loiselle<br />

Raphaël Dubé<br />

Double Bass<br />

Raphaël McNabney<br />

MANAGEMENT<br />

Joint Executive<br />

Director and Artistic<br />

Administrator<br />

Laurent Patenaude<br />

Joint Executive<br />

Director – Director<br />

of Administration<br />

Patrice Savoie<br />

FOR OPUS 3<br />

ARTISTS<br />

President & CEO<br />

David V. Foster<br />

Manager, Artists<br />

& Attractions<br />

Sarah Gordon<br />

Associate &<br />

Company Manager<br />

Grace Hertz<br />

www.violonsduroy.com<br />

www.facebook.com/violonsduroy<br />

Photo by Atwood Photographie


Sometimes, a Round of<br />

Applause Just Isn’t Enough.<br />

Northern Trust is proud to support Community Arts Music<br />

Association of Santa Barbara. For 130 years, we’ve been<br />

meeting our clients’ financial needs while nurturing a culture<br />

of caring and a commitment to invest in the communities we<br />

serve. We’re proud to play a supporting role.<br />

TO LEARN MORE VISIT<br />

northerntrust.com<br />

WEALTH PLANNING | BANKING | TRUST & ESTATE SERVICES | INVESTING | FAMILY OFFICE

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!