|
|
 |
|
 |
||
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
Contents:
DDD Recorded: Liebfrauenmünster Ingolstadt, 30 September–2 October 2002 Ferdinando Paër was born in 1771 in Parma. His first music lessons were with his father Giulio Paër. Giulio Paër worked as a trumpeter at the „Guardie del Corpo“ – the ducal bodyguard - from 1769 to 1771. From 1778 until his death on March 20th 1790 he was a horn-player for the court orchestra and played at ducal weddings in Colorno. According to Giacomo Puccini, who was Maestro della Cappella Palatina in Lucca in 1774, he was an excellent musician “both at the palace and the church”. In the Catalogo Alfabetico / De’ Sig:ri e Sig:re che concorrono alle / spese della Festa della B. V. Maria / Madre del Buon Consiglio posta nella / Preposturale Chiesa della / SS.ma Trinità / di Parma / 1770 a “Per Sig.r Giulio = tromba – per la festa della B. V. Maria” is listed. It seems that Giulio Paër was engaged to play for the feast day of St. Mary in the church of SS. Trinità in Parma. Giulio Paër celebrated the birth of his son Ferdinando on July 1st 1771, who bore the same name as the Duke, with a brilliant fanfare. According to Castil-Blaze the child was given the name by the Duchess Maria Amalia. Ferdinando Paër studied with Gian Francesco Fortunati (1746-1821), who was employed as “maestro di cembalo e di canto“ of the “Principessa” and as director of the singing school and of theatre performance, and also with Gaspare Ghiretti (1747-1797), who was a well-known violoncellist. When the Swedish king visited in 1784 Paër performed as a singer. Sacred works mark the beginning of his career, such as the three-part mass with organ accompaniment of 1791 and “In caelesti Hyerachia“, the Sequenza di S. Domenico, also for three parts with organ accompaniment. In April of 1791 a piano concerto was performed. His first opera Il tempo fa giustizia a tutti could be heard in the Teatro Ducale in Parma in 1792. Even with his early works the young composer showed himself to be an inventive composer of vocal and instrumental music. In 1792 the Duke of Parma awarded him the title of “Maestro di Capella onorario“. But only in 1797 did he receive a fixed annual salary as “Maestro di Cappella sostituto alle incombenze tutte del Reale servigio“. And in the same year Paër and his wife, the singer Francesca Riccardi (1778-1845), went to Vienna. However, it seems that only in the years 1801-1802 did Paër obtain a definite appointment at the imperial court. In 1802 the composer and his wife moved to Dresden. In 1804 he was appointed to a lifelong position at the court at Dresden. However, Paër took on a post with Napoleon. Robert Eitner reports: “Napoleon met him in 1807 in Dresden and the conqueror of princes and peoples snatched away the elector’s conductor, who did not have a choice but to initially go to Warsaw and then to Paris and received a salary of 28 000 Francs.“ Paër then worked in Paris until his death in 1839: from 1812 to 1827 as director of the Théâtre italien (from 1824 and 1826 jointly with Rossini) and then also at the Conservatoire. Paër and Simon Mayr belong to the most important composers of Italian opera around 1800. The façade of the oratory of Ss. Trinità, which is called dei Rossi, was built between 1862 and 1864 by Ilario Bolzoni based on the plans of the architect Piazza. A newspaper report from Parma, dated May 5th 1824, on the occasion of the formal consecration of the Serassi organs in S. Bartolomeo and in S. Carlo remembers the Serassi organ in Parma Cathedral, which was completed in 1787. The high reputation of the organ builders and the quality of the instrument in the cathedral lead to a further commission for the Serassis: the building of the organ for the Oratorio della SS. Trinità in Parma. In 1603 the association of the Trinità of Conte Fortunato Cesis rented for four years “un’organo grande di cipresso con i contrabbassi di piella [abete]“ – a large organ made from cypress wood with basses made from fir-wood. In 1610 they bought an organ from Francesco Baldacchini. But as early as 1614 this instrument had already been replaced by an organ from the workshop of Michel Angelo Rangoni. This organ was a gift from the already mentioned Fortunato Cesis. But in 1666 the instrument was in a very bad state and was replaced in 1696 by an organ with eight registers by Francesco Lanzi, an organ builder from Parma. According to a note on Serassi’s contract this organ cost 3600 Lira. In 1788 the contract for the construction of a new organ was awarded to the brothers Andrea and Giuseppe Serassi of Bergamo. This important instrument was restored and extended in 1835 by the Serassi family and in 1899 by the Cavalli of Lodi. Unfortunately, today the only original parts are the pewter display pipes. In 1924 the Serassi organ came to the church of the Trinità (known as la Trinità Vecchia). But in this church and its archive we find again no records of the instrument. A new instrument has replaced the old one. The church archives contain the draft of the contract for the construction of the organ, the actual contract with the brothers Serassi and an estimate of costs. The Serassi organ was to have been finished in November 1789. According to the contract and estimate of costs payment should be in four installments (the first installment at Christmas in 1788 and the last one at Christmas 1791) In total the organ cost 270 Zecchini Gigliati (“Lily“-Zecchini). From the documents mentioned we can conclude the following disposition:
Principal I B +
D 8‘ Pewter But it seems that, contrary to agreement, the Serassi organ was not finished in 1789, but only in 1795. The catalogue of the Serassi workshop of 1858 lists the organ for the oratory SS. Trinità in Parma as number 255. The organ in the oratory SS. Trinità will have brought a further commission for the Serassi brothers, that is the organ built in 1796 for S. Liborio in Colorno, the ducal country residence, 16 km to the north of Parma. We can even picture the size of the orchestra playing on the gallery, because the lists for line-up of musicians are in the archives of the church of the SS. Trinità. The usual line-up between 1808 and 1841 was: “4 violini, una viola, un violoncello, [usually] due bassi, sette [most likely fewer, 3-5] istromenti da fiato, il maestro all’organo“. It is likely that the flutes listed will also have taken the oboe parts, and the trumpets and timpani needed for special festivities would have been drawn from the Guardie del Corpo Ferdinando Paër composed the Concerto in D major for Organ and Orchestra according to its complete title for the oratory SS. Trinità in Parma for the devotion of Our Lady of Sorrows: Concerto per Organo / con Violini, Viole, Oboe, Corni, Trombe e Timpani e Bassi / fatto per la funzione della B. V. Addolorata / Celebrata pomposamente dalle R. Guardie del Corpo di S.A.R. /eretta nell’ Oratorio della Ss. Trinità di Parma / Originale.. Da Ferdinando Pär Mro / di Cappella al Serviggio di S. A. R. Il Duca di / Parma. The score of this work is preserved in the Conservatorio in Parma under the number of 35254 R.S.M. 1733, the indicated organ part CF-II-6 n 35360 does no longer exist. It was traditional in the Oratorio della SS. Trinità that the feast of Maria Vergine Addolorata or B. [Beata] V. [Vergine] Addolorata was musically elevated during passion tide: “Festa altresì con musica all’oratorio della Ss. Trinità, dove si fa celebrare tal festa con tutta magnificenza dalle Reali Guardie del Corpo di S. A. R.” This tradition together with the furnishing of a “private” chapel, which belonged to the oratory, was established on April 17th 1773 by Ferdinand I, who very much venerated the Mother of God: “Nell’anno 1773. alli 17. Aprile ottenero dall’Agus. [Agusto] Regnante Ferdinando I. Reale Decreto onde portare stabilire in detto Oratorio una Capella privativa, in cui venerava la V. [Vergine] Ssma [Santissima]. [...] Furono in appresso praticati gli ornati all’Altaro far costrutta al di dietro di esta piciola Sagrestia a comodo delle suppellatili inservienti al divin cutto promossovi dal particolare Capelano di essa R. [Reale] Guardie e nel letterale della Capella dell’Epistola vi fù loccata da seguente erruditissima Iscrizione”. In October 1802 Ferdinand I suddenly died in Fontevivo – after having enjoyed a cup of chocolate. Without him the feast of the B. V. Addolorata was no longer celebrated with music in the Oratorio dei Rossi. In which year might Ferdinando Paër’s organ concerto have been performed- perhaps in 1795 for the consecration of the organ – if this had been completed on March 27th – or perhaps on March 18th 1796 or on April 7th 1797? On March 13th 1797 according to a decree Paër was listed as “Mro / di Cappella al Serviggio di S. A. R. Il Duca di / Parma”, as it can be found on the title of the score. However, it seems that the addition of his new official title was written in “fresh” ink. Iris Winkler Jean Langlais was born on February 15th 1907 in La Fontenelle. Langlais went blind at the age of two. From 1923 to 1927 he received organ tuition at the Institution Nationale des Jeunes Aveugles in Paris, an establishment for blind children and youths. From 1927 he studied organ with Marcel Dupré at the Conservatoire in Paris, before returning to the Institution in 1930, this time, however, as professor for organ. In 1934 he was appointed organist at St.-Pierre-de-Montrouge, and from 1945 he also became successor to César Franck at Ste.-Clotilde. As composer Langlais is, together with Vierne, Dupré and Messiaen, one of the leading French composers for organ of the 20th century. Apart from liturgical works he wrote great, virtuoso concerto-like works. His compositions show elements of Gregorian chant, protestant chorales and folklore, his tonal material encompasses church modes, extended tonality and serial techniques. The Choral Médieval is based on the Kyrie of the third choral mass Deus Sempiterne, which initially is presented in harmonized form in a dialogue between brass and organ. When both sound worlds are joined at the end, the Easter hymn Victimae paschali laudes is heard. Enjott Schneider still dreams of a universal understanding of the world and its people, of the unity of the arts and sciences. Schneider is a multiple musical personality consisting of several autonomous characters. We have the composer for the concert hall and the musical theatre with a comprehensive list of works, the composer for film and television (who is one of the most popular German film composers), the interpreter of music in his roles of pianist, organist and conductor, the master of sound, experimenter of sound, sound studio owner and producer, the musical scholar (with a long list of publications) and the speaker at symposia and seminars, the author, who comments on cultural and psychological problems in his books and essays, and the university teacher (as ‘professor doctor”) at the Academy of Music and Theatre in Munich. The composer himself said the following: “Echo“. Concerto for Organ and String Orchestra, its mood has been inspired by the myth of the mountain nymph Echo: Because of her chatter she was sentenced by the goddess Hera to be silent and to imitate the speech of others and she falls in love with the youth Narcissus. He, however, shows no interest in Echo and is only in love with his own beauty. And Echo is slowly consumed by lover’s grief alone in the forest …. until only her ’echo’ remains. If we draw a line from Handelian playfulness via the charme of the melodics and harmony of César Franck to the persistence of minimalist music then we have a good description if the style of this unproblematic organ concerto. In the foreground we have, without doubt, the playful joy of uninhibited, virtuoso music-making – one could say naïve and nymph-like. And the musical form of the echo (for instance as repeat or as round) appears in many different ways. In the background the movements can also be seen programmatically: 1st movement: “Dance“ describes the mountain nymph Echo in her light, dance-like character; the tempo 11/8 characterizes the basic rhythm. 2n movement: “Echo and Narcissus“ describes the blossoming love, the courting, the melancholy of the nymph and is deeper both in harmony and melodics (built on a eight-note mode and an eight-not motive series). A ritornello in the manner of the Violin Concerto in A minor by Johann Sebastian Bach underlines the closeness to baroque enjoyment of music-making of the whole composition. 3rd movement: “Finale (Presto)“ is a virtuoso movement, which, apart from the melancholy typical for Echo, shows us something of the garrulous, serene and beautiful character of the mythical tale. The premiere of this work took place on April 21st 2002 in Landsberg am Lech during the Internationale Landsberger Orgelkonzerte in the town parish church of Mariä Himmelfahrt with Johannes Skudlik (Organ) and the Con brio-Orchester. The French organist and composer Charles Marie Widor was born on February 21st 1844 in Lyon. He received his first music lessons from his grandfather, an organ builder of Hungarian origin. He showed extraordinary talent and at the age of 11 he became organist at the Lycée in Lyon. On recommendation of Cavaillé-Colls Widor went to Brussels, where he studied composition with François-Joseph Fétis (1784-1871) and extended his skills on the organ with Nicolas Jacques Lemmens (1823-1881). In 1870, after several years as organist at St.-François in Lyon Widor was offered, initially for one year, to succeed Louis Lefebure-Wély at St.-Sulpice in Paris. However, the temporary appointment developed into an association, which was to last 64 years. After the death of César Franck in 1890 Widor was approached with regard to succeeded him as professor for organ at the Paris Conservatoire; he accepted. From 1896 Widor taught counterpoint and fugue and from 1905 he also taught composition. In 1910 he became a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. Until shortly before his death on March 12th 1937 Widor continued to be active on the concert stage and was also well-known as pioneer for other artists. Salvum fac populum tuum was composed in 1916 in anticipation of the end of the World War I. However, some considerable time passed, until Widor was able to conduct this work in Notre-Dame on November 17th 1918 six days after the end of war at the victory celebrations. The work is dedicated to his Eminence Monseigneur le Cardinal Amette. In July 1932 Widor gave his last concert abroad in Salzburg; among others the programme Salvum fac populum tuum. The Salzburger Chronik mentioned that “Salvum fac populum with its strong march rhythm, its irresistible brass themes thrilled the thousands of members of the audience. We could feel the spirit of a very great man“ The title Salvum fac populum tuum (translated as: “Let your people be saved”) has been borrowed from the Te Deum, a Latin hymn from the early church. Liturgical scholars assume that the Te Deum originally appeared in the first half of the 4th century. Due to his doubtlessly “triumphant mood” the hymn was used very early on for ecclesiastical and (sometimes questionable) political or military celebrations. In 800 it could be heard at Charlemagne’s coronation, but also during the St. Bartholomew’s Night in 1572, when many, many Huguenots were killed in a terrible manner. This knowledge of the historic importance adds another aspect both to the Te Deum and to Widor’s Salvum fac populum tuum and the history of its origin. Langlais‘ work Thème, Variations et Final for organ, strings, three trumpets and three trombones was composed within a relatively short period of time between October 18th and December 14th 1937 for a composition competition of the Amis de l’Orgue. Langlais was the only contestant, but he was not awarded a prize. Instead he received a high commendation. The judges justified their decision on the basis of alleged mistakes by the composer made with regard to the orchestration. He had allocated notes to one of the trombone parts, which were not within the range of the instrument. Langlais rejected this criticism and argued that he had not wanted to destroy the line of the trombone part and therefore had included these unplayable notes on purpose. Thème, Variations et Final begins with a section in the style of a passacaglia. It is interesting that Langlais uses this form for an orchestral movement, as the passacaglia is a genre usually employed for organ works. This turning away from traditional associations between instruments and forms can also be found in Langlais’ treatment of the fugue. The fugue does not exist as such in Langlais’ great works, however he uses it in his instrumental and vocal compositions. The relatively long, fifteen bar theme of the passacaglia has a chromatic form and is introduced by the basses. It serves as a starting point for all subsequent variations. The rhythmic movement is increased from one variation to the next, while the note values become increasingly shorter. String, organ and joint variations alternate, before organ and strings ascend to a joint climax with the winds; they intone a free, chromatic mode, which is derived from the theme. Some time later Langlais revised Thème, Variations et Final and he removed the wind parts and added an andante for organ solo. This led to his Deuxième Concerto, which had its premiere in 1963 in the USA. Langlais had also considered to unite Thème, Variations et Final with the Choral Médieval for three trumpets, three trombones and organ and the Pièce en forme libre to form a majestic Pièce Symphonique. However, he later abandoned this ambitious project. According to Bach’s own documents the cantata “Wir danken Dir, Gott, wir danken Dir“ BWV 29, which belongs to the so-called ‘Ratswechselkantaten’ was written in 1737. It was first performed on August 27th 1737. As is the case with the other ‘Ratswechselkantaten’ Bach included elements of earlier compositions, but changed them in ingenious manner. The splendid sinfonia, brilliantly scored for three trumpets, timpani, two oboes, strings and organ, turns out to be a transcription of the prelude from the Partita in E major for violin solo BWV 1006, with the organ taking on the violin part and the orchestra part being a new addition. Page revised 15.10.03 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
