Vivaldi: Summer, from The Four Seasons

Ordained a priest in 1703, "the red priest" Antonio Vivaldi, 25 years old, began that same year his fruitful relations with the Ospedale della Pietà, in Venice, an institution to which he would remain connected, with greater or lesser intensity, during almost 36 years. Appointed at the beginning as "maestro di violino", a couple of years later he assumes the position of "maestro di concerto", which gives him virtually the direction of the Conservatory.

By those years, Venice had four conservatories for women. The most important was the Ospedale della Pietá. A contemporary scholar, Charles de Brosses, writes in his Lettres d'Italie:"The best places to listen to music in this city are the Ospedali, there are four nowadays, all of them for orphaned girls or illegitimate daughters, or indigents, they are brought here at the State's expense and educated exclusively in music..."

So, with a total of almost a thousand girls staying, Vivaldi could choose at will to provide, at the beginning of the 18th century, an orchestra of 70 or 100 members, which according to De Brosses, apart from singing as angels "touch the violin, flute, cello or organ ... with unparalleled grace and precision."

The Four Seasons - Summer
In his series of concertos published in 1724 with the title Il cimento dell armonia e dell'invenzione, (The Contest between Harmony and Invention) maestro Vivaldi would use for the first time in the whole of his work, the imitation of nature, leitmotif of the Illuminist culture. Undeniable proof of this are the first four concerts of Il Cimento..., universally known as The Four Seasons.

Following, the Concerto No. 2, in G minor, subtitled "Summer", in the Trondheim Soloist rendition. On the solo violin, the Norwegian artist Mari Silje Samuelsen.

Movements:
00:00  Allegro non molto
06:06  Adagio
08:12  Presto.

Chopin: Polonaise No 1, Opus 26

130 kilometers north of Prague, the town known as Karlsbad was already famous in the 19th century for its numerous hot springs. Today it is part of the Czech Republic. Its original name is Karlovy Vary and it has turned into a spa town that every summer receives the visit of many celebrities.
It was there where, for three weeks in August and September 1835, Chopin was with his parents for the last time. Frédéric traveled from Paris and his parents from Warsaw, to meet again after a separation of five years.

A recent biographer of Frédéric tells us that they arrived almost simultaneously in mid-August, staying at the hotel The Golden Rose, where they were received by some old friends, Polish exiles living in the area, with whom they will spend time until September 6 when they traveled to Teplitz for a few days to then visit the counts Thun-Hohenstein in his castle, from where finally Nicholas Chopin and Justina will leave for Warsaw on the 14th of that month. Frédéric will stay one more week with the Thun-Hohenstein, before returning to Paris, where he had been living since 1831.
The biographer points out that in those three weeks Frédéric composed a mazurka, the waltz opus 34 N° 1 and the Polonaise N° 1 from Opus 26. (We heard the latter in the rendition by the Ukrainian pianist Valentina Lisitsa).

Our biographer also points out that during those three weeks, in addition to composing, Frédéric livened up the evenings by playing the piano for his parents and friends. At this point, Dorie, a great friend of this blog has raised a disturbing question: on what piano did Chopin compose and play during that stay?

It is natural to assume that the works may have been created in the house of the Polish friends, perhaps in Teplitz, in the Hohenstein castle, who knows. It may be, says my friend, skeptical. I want to believe, she continues, that if today many hotels admit a piano in the lobby it is because an old tradition so dictates. The hotel The Golden Rose was a pioneer, she says: the upright piano, somewhat out of tune, was in a small and rustic dining room adjoining the reception room. On that piano, Frédéric improvised in the mornings, and in the evenings he played for those who were present there.

Fortunate circumstance – my friend finished off –, that of those guests who happened to meet Chopin in those days and who, during the dinner, could hear pieces of virgin music emerged from the hands of a pale and thin youth, who after playing, smiled at them as if he had not done anything to write home about.

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J.S. Bach: Italian Concerto - Mov 1

In 1735, the year of publication of his Italian Concerto, Johann Sebastián Bach was fifty years old and had been living in full happiness for fourteen years with his second wife, Anna Magdalena, who at the time was 34. The large family (that year was born Johann Christian Bach, the eleventh son of Bach, and who will be a composer of the first order) was settled since 1723 in Leipzig, where Johann Sebastian was working as the Kantor (a position of lower category than that of maestro di capella) of the Saint Thomas church.

The tasks he had to fulfil there were: teaching music, Latin, and Luther's catechism to the students of the Tomasschulle, besides composing music and conducting it in Saint Thomas and Saint Nicholas churches. The family would live with ease because –like the rest of the teachers– they had free accommodation in the Tomasschulle and, as will be usual in his professional life, Bach was very well paid.

The Italian Concerto is the first part of his second keyboard exercise book, Klavierübung II. The notebook is entitled: "Second part of the practice of the harpsichord, consisting of a concert according to Italian taste and an overture according to the French way, for a harpsichord of two manual keyboards, prepared to recreate the spirit of the fans, by JS Bach...". The "Italian way" of the concert refers, according to scholars, to the alternation of playing piano and forte on the two keyboards.

The concerto is in three brief movements. We are listening to the first one, in the rendering by the pianist Umi Garret, who at the time of this performance was seven years old. The video ends inviting us to listen to the second movement, where Umi needs just two or three bars to show great musicality. Thanks to Umi and a long series of pianists under the age of eight, the parents who, once proud, were harassing us with the story that their six-year-old son "learned to play 'Jingle Bells' on his keyboard for Christmas", have been eradicated forever from the face of the earth.

The recently deceased pianist Jacques Loussier, a French musician who knew how to combine jazz with baroque music, gives us the following jazz version of the Italian Concerto of JS Bach, in a performance from the year 1988. Loussier, in his last recordings with his jazz group Play Bach Trio, brought in music from Debussy, Satie, Ravel, Chopin and even Mozart.

 

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