Programs

The royal courts of mid-eighteenth century Berlin were lively crossroads for some of the greatest musicians of the time. The three cello concertos of C. P. E. Bach were composed in the early 1750s, likely to be performed at one of the private academies or music societies popular in Berlin at the time. These tempestuous and dramatic concertos, replete with fragmented and blustery exchanges, bear witness to Bach’s vigorous imagination. A generation earlier, Antonio Vivaldi wrote highly-imaginative concertos for strings at the Le Pietà conservatory in Venice. These surprising works are full of in-jokes and amusements to entertain his talented young students. In Vivaldi and Bach’s music, emotions are fleeting and instantaneous and, above all, the beauty of melody is emphasized.

Son of a famous composer from Verona, Giuseppe Dall’Abaco learned to play the cello as a young boy growing up in Munich, Germany at about the same time that Bach wrote his famous cello suites. A few years later, in 1729, Dall’Abaco found his first employment as a cellist, in Bonn at the court of the Elector of Cologne, and began a fascinating musical career that led him to prominence in London, Paris, Vienna, and other European musical centres. As we begin to perform more of Dall’Abaco’s music in today’s concert halls, we not only restore his compositional voice but bring into our lives cello music that remains fresh, audacious, alluring, and often utterly beautiful.

For 10 years, cellist Elinor Frey has been searching for the most beautiful Baroque cello music from Italy, the country where cello music first appeared. Accademia de' Dissonanti perform various sonatas, from the famous Venetian composer Antonio Vivaldi to the little-known music for the early cello by Giuseppe Clemente Dall'Abaco (1710-1805) and Antonio Vandini (1690-1778), both cellists famous in their time, but now nearly forgotten.

Fiorè centers on a unique, anonymous collection of music featuring the cello, held in a small archive in Como, Italy. This manuscript may contain music that ranks among the first works that feature the cello. The sonatas, brilliant and lyrical, are likely written by the Milanese cellist A.M. Fiorè while the anonymous arias weave expressive cello lines with beautiful sung texts, each musing on longing, torment, sorrow, and idealized love. The program draws upon the passion for research and commitment to exploration of the musicians.

This concert is dedicated to concertos for the violoncello piccolo, which, as the name implies, is a smaller version of the cello, usually with five strings (the extra string is higher) tuned C-G-D-A-E, or an even-smaller four-string version, tuned G-D-A-E. The smaller sizes of these cello and their varied tuning allows the cellist to play virtuosic music that generally sits at a higher range. For the concertos by Antonio Vivaldi (G Major, RV 414) and Leonardo Leo (D Major), I will use a five-string instrument commissioned in 2012 from Canadian luthier, Francis Beaulieu. The second type of violoncello piccolo that I will use is an original made in Germany in 1770. As it has the same tuning as the violin, but an octave lower, it is the instrument intended for G.B. Sammartini’s C Major concerto, the manuscript of which states that the solo part is to be played by “violin OR violoncello piccolo.” This four-string instrument also perfectly suits the Tartini concerto in A minor. By bringing these Baroque Italian cello concertos together, those by Vivaldi, Leo, Sammartini, and Tartini, we explore the unique and captivating sound world of the violoncello piccolo.

Two Baroque instruments are used in this project, the four-string and five-string cello, each with a sound and character which strongly contrast with the modern cello – and which have inspired some of today’s outstanding composers to explore their unique qualities. Begun in 2014 with a work for the five-string Baroque cello by Scott Edward Godin, the program also features Canadian composers Linda Catlin Smith, Isaiah Ceccarelli, and Maxime McKinley. Works by the Japanese-American composer Ken Ueno and Swedish-German composer Lisa Streich complete the program.

When composers write a new piece for “Baroque” cello it becomes an instrument of today, not only past eras, helping to expand the sound worlds of both the cello and new music audiences. Each work reveals the cello’s incredible versatility and remarkable colours.