Third Concert of the 61st Season

Frescobaldi was born in Ferrara and died in Rome. In his time, he was best known as a virtuoso organist. He was so famous that an audience of 30,000 is said to have attended his first performance at St. Peter's in Rome.

He was not simply a noted performer; he was a good enough composer that his compositions for keyboard are still part of the standard repertoire. He is a favorite among harpsichordists as well as organists. Frescobaldi is often described as a great innovator, and he did make some changes in accepted practice, particularly in the dance rhythms of the Gagliardi and the Corrente, but mostly he further developed existing features of Renaissance music. Although he lived well before the generally accepted period of the Baroque, his music is considered Baroque. One could say he ushered in the Baroque. As a teacher, he had a great influence on the development of German Baroque music through his well-known pupil, Froberger.

Toccata is an old word, meaning "played" as opposed to cantata, "sung." The Italian word literally means "touched," suggesting keyboard playing. It has come to refer to a piece displaying the great delicacy and dexterity of the performer, and, through the influence of Frescobaldi's pupil Froberger, became a very popular form during the ensuing Baroque period. Bach, for example, studied Frescobaldi's music and wrote many toccatas, frequently as preludes to a fugue.

The name Rheinberger is not likely to be familiar to the average concert-goer, and for even the serious music-lover, the name would be only vaguely familiar. Reference books (if they mention him at all) almost uniformly refer to him as "conservative" or "reactionary." Yet if you ask an organist about him, you will get the answer, "Of course I know Rheinberger! All serious organists have something by Rheinberger in their repertoire!"

Sympathetic historians comment favorably on his organ works (two concerti, many organ sonatas, and operas), and they also praise (faintly) his careful construction and attention to standard forms (this latter being a condemnation, actually). Musicologist Percy Scholes describes him as "an able general practitioner of music," and this is not a ringing endorsement. Apart from his organ works, which retain their popularity among organists, his music is rarely played.

Rheinberger appears to have been a popular teacher. Among his students were Engelbert Humperdinck and Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari. Teachers may, by nature, be conservative, believing that it is necessary to learn "the rules" before being able safely to ignore them. Students, however, frequently become more famous than their teachers.

Though Rheinberger's musical conservatism might have been the principal cause for his neglect, the competition at that time was severe. Among his contemporaries were the likes of Bizet, Mussorgsky, Tchaikowsky, Chabrier, Dvorak, Massenet, Grieg, and Verdi!

Today we hear the second of his two concerti, Opus 177. Like most concerti of the period, it is divided into three movements and, also like most concerti of his period, the solo instrument plunges right in at the start. Unlike the typical concerto, there is less conflict between the solo instrument and the orchestra; the work is integrated. In the first movement, grave, principal themes are repeatedly presented by the brass, with the organ acting as "orchestral background."

The second movement is andante. Here, although the organ is well-balanced against the orchestral forces, we do hear it more often, this time with the orchestra as background.

The third movement, con moto, opens dramatically with several sharp chords. After a repitition there comes an almost Brahmsian section. Unlike the typical concerto of the Romantic period, there is no cadenza, that is, no solo section in which the performer gets to show off in a style intended to sound improvised. Throughout, this concerto retains a modest balance between organ and orchestra.

In 1721, Bach delivered six concerti along with a message to the Margrave of Brandenburg, Christian Ludwig, to whom he was trying to ingratiate himself. His embarrassingly obsequious plea for favor and employment apparently fell on deaf ears. There is no evidence that the Margrave ever played these works or even looked at them. They were, however, preserved in his library, and have since become some of the most celebrated works of the Baroque period.

Concert-goers know the meaning of "concerto" today. It usually is an orchestral piece showcasing a solo instrument. We have concerti (or concertos) for violin, piano, trumpet, and yes, even harmonica. But the concerto, like everything else, has evolved.

The word concerto in Italian (and other Romance languages) has come to mean simply "concert," and that word in English suggests cooperation, as in "We must work in concert to get the job done." However, concerto really suggests competition (the root, concertare means to vie with). The solo instrument is vying for prominence with the orchestra. The concerto we hear today is not exactly of this sort; It is a Concerto Grosso, or "big contest."

In the Broque period, the concerto had not yet (for the most part) reached the stage of one solo instrument's competing with the whole orchestra throughout the piece. Instead, there was a small group of instruments competing with a larger group. The small group was known as the concertino, and the large group was known as the ripieni or tutti. Sometimes this small group played throughout the work. At other times, the members of the small group had their own individual moments of virtuosity. That is the case in the first of the six Brandenburg Concerti.

Of the six Brandenburg concerti, the first is the most complex. It is different in many ways. The other five, like most moden concerti, have three movements; the first has four, the last of which is further divided into seven parts. Also, the concertino in the other five is clearly defined, but in the first is more integrated with the whole. In each section, different members of the smaller group are featured, the oboes in the first part, then the horns, etc.

It should be pointed out that the conductor of Baroque music must exercise judgement and good taste in the presentation, because music of that period was scored for instruments which no longer exist, or are hard to find. This concerto, for example, was scored for violino piccolo, a small violin tuned higher than a modern violin. Stringed instruments, in general, were strung with gut, at lower tension, and had smaller sound posts resulting in softer sounds. Violins and violas had no chin rests, which produced a more relaxed playing. Wind instruments, too, were softer than modern ones. The conductor must take all these things into account in order to maintain a proper balance of tone.

The first movement features the violin (we don't have a violino piccolo), the oboes, and the horns. Bach displays his cosmopolitanism in this concerto with the use of the violino piccolo, oboes, and horns, all more common to French music than to German at that time. This movement is allegro, like the first movements of almost all concerti since. Likewise, the second movement is in the expected adagio. The third movement is allegro (no surprise here), but the fourth (non-existent in later concerti, including the other five of this collection), is divided into seven parts: Menuetto, Trio I, Menuetto, Polacca, Menuetto, Trio II, and Menuetto.