Georg Friedrich Händel Concerto a due cori no. 1 in B-Dur HWV 332 Carl Philipp Emanuel BachSymphony no. 4 in G major Wq. 183/4 Georg Friedrich HändelMusic for the Royal Fireworks HWV 351 Wolfgang Amadeus MozartSymphony no. 41 in C major KV 551 »Jupiter« Conductor Ton Koopman/ MCO Academy NRW
MCO Academy NRW
Collaborative learning is the motto of this year’s MCO Academy. The Academy, put on as part of the MCO Residence in NRW, grants selected students of the Orchesterzentrum|NRW the opportunity to prepare a programme of Baroque and Classical music together with MCO musicians under the baton of Ton Koopman. The MCO will then present the programme, which consists of George Frideric Handel’s Concerto a due cori No. 1, his Music for the Royal Fireworks, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Symphony No. 4 and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Symphony No. 41, “Jupiter,” in all of the venues of the NRW Residence: Essen (14.12.), Cologne (15.12.), and Dortmund (16.12.).
The MCO Academy workshops focus on giving students new perspectives on well-known works: which decisions and compromises are necessary and important for an individual approach to Baroque, early Classical and Classical music? Early music specialist Ton Koopman will address this and other questions with the MCO and students.
Koopman will open the rehearsal period with a lecture on music history. Workshops with specialists for each individual instrument group will form an important part of the process: MCO principal trumpeter Christopher, for instance, will lead a workshop on the natural trumpet, and string players will learn about historical performance practice. The students will then have the opportunity to put their new knowledge into practice directly.
In addition, the young musicians benefit from personal contact with MCO musicians, who possess considerable international experience. Each Academy student is assigned an MCO mentor who plays his or her instrument. Students and MCO musicians share stands as equals, and the students gain insight into day-to-day life in their future careers by working side-by-side with professionals.
George Frideric Handel’s Concerto a due cori No. 1 (1746-51) is one of three concertos in which the composer reused musical motives from his oratorios with different instruments: two string groups are set opposite one another, and different colors are provided by a pair of oboes and a bassoon.
British King George II commissioned Handel to write a piece in commemoration of the victory in the War of the Austrian Succession (1748/49). However, the king’s idea of what the piece would become differed significantly from the composer’s. King George had envisioned a work featuring exclusively “military instruments” (oboe, bassoon, horn, trumpet and timpani); Handel wanted strings as well. The king’s official celebration of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (which had ended the war) was meant to include a firework display in London’s Green Park, supported by 112 winds and percussionists performing Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks. However, inclement weather and technical problems resulted in the fireworks becoming a royal flop. The music, on the other hand, was a great success, saving the show. At the second open-air performance, in the same year, Handel went against the king’s wishes and included solo and tutti string instruments.
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s pedagogical book, Versuch über das wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen influenced many contemporary and subsequent composers, including Mozart and Beethoven. Bach’s clear vision and his fascination with uniting technique and expression are especially interesting for historical performance practice. C.P.E. Bach, arguably Johann Sebastian Bach’s most famous son, wrote his Symphony No. 4 for strings alone. Though the musical palette is narrowed, the work displays a wide emotional spectrum, ranging from extreme tenderness to drama.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the composers whose work the MCO performs most frequently. His Symphony No. 41, “Jupiter”, is a fitting end to the concert. The piece, especially its finale, is said to be one of the most successful and well-composed works of its genre. The last of Mozart’s works, it displays moments of romanticism as well as a perfected Classical style. As Mozart intended this to be his last symphony, it can be understood as a summary of all that was then possible in the symphonic genre.
Ton Koopman and the MCO will introduce the concert in Essen with a lecture on “The Art of Listening” as part of the series “Classical Expedition” (14.12.2010, 19:30). Professor Michael Stegemann will offer an introductory lecture to the Dortmund concert in the Komponistenfoyer of the Dortmund Konzerthaus (16.12.2010, 10:15.)
