2019–2020 SEASON

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A CZECH CHRISTMASSEASONAL MUSIC FROM THE MORAVIAN COURT IN KROMĚŘÍŽ

Tempesta di Mare Chamber Players

with guests

Rebecca Myers, soprano • Meg Bragle, alto James Reese, tenor • Jean-Bernard Cerin, baritone

Perry Sutton & Brandon Bergeron, trumpetGwyn Roberts & Héloïse Degrugillier, recorder

Emlyn Ngai & Rebecca Harris, violin • Daniela Pierson, Fran Berge, violaLisa Terry, violoncello • Richard Stone, theorbo • Adam Pearl, organ

December 6, 8:00 December 7, 8:00 December 8, 3:00 Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill Immanuel Highlands University City Chestnut Hill Episcopal Church Wilmington

This project has been supported in part by a grant from The Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia.

PROGRAM

Sonata Natalis à 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pavel Josef Vejvanovský

Matky Boží slávna nadáni (Mother of God’s glorious gift) . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adam Václav Michna

Sonata à 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fr. Philipp Jakob Rittler

Quasi aquila provocans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jacomo Carissimi

Sonata à 8 pro tabula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Giovanni Valentini

Slova lásky ku Kristu Pánu (words of love for Lord Christ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Michna

INTERMISSION

Ciaccona for three choirs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anonymous

Magnificat in G minor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anonymous

Sinfonia — Magnificat — Et exsultavit — Qui respexit — Quia fecit

Et misericordia — Fecit potentiam — Deposuit potentes — Esurientes

Suscepit — Sicut locutus — Gloria Patri — Sicut erat — Amen

Sonata à 6, for two choirs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anonymous

O narození Pána Krista (the birth of Lord Christ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Michna

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A CZECH CHRISTMAS /

ČESKÉ VÁNOCEPROGRAM NOTES

Today’s concert is based on the remarkable working collection of a Catholic bishop in seventeenth-century Moravia, Prince Karel (Karl) II of Liechtenstein-Castelcorno, Bishop of Olomouc (1623–1695). Moravia is a Czech-speaking region that occupies the southeastern quarter of the present Czech Republic. Together with Bohemia and Czech Silesia, Moravia comprises one of the three historical Czech Lands. Karel’s family name is not that of a Slav but, rather, of German-speaking nobility. He was connected to the imperial Holy Roman court at Vienna, and his italophile musical taste reflects Vienna’s.

Pennsylvanians most commonly associate “Moravian” with the Moravian Church, a Protestant denomination with roots in fifteenth-century Moravia that shifted to Germany prior to establishing missionary operations in the New World.

The Olomouc archdiocesan bishop’s residence and home to Karl’s musical collection is a baroque chateau in the town of Kroměříž (ˈkromɲɛr̝iːʃ), not far from Olomouc. You may have caught glimpses of it in the movies, as it served as a filming location for two composer-focused movies: Amadeus (1984) and Immortal Beloved (1995).

The genesis of this program by came in the form of instrumental music by Fr. Philipp Jakob Rittler (ca. 1637–1690), music director at Olomouc Cathedral and a priest within the Olomouc chapter. A few seasons back, we performed his 1000-Guilder Sonata, chosing from the six instrumental works of his available in modern editions, a tough choice given how uniformly fun they all were. We wondered if, for future reference, there was more unpublished music by him. We found out that all of his extant music—74 works, which

includes unpublished sonatas and sacred vocal works—lives in manuscript part books only in Karel’s collection.

The archive includes many other composers too, well known today like Biber, Schmelzer, and Bertali; less-familiar composers like Bulovský, Capricornus and Poglietti; and lots of anonymous pieces, all dating from the mid- to late seventeenth century. And all of it very tempting.

Some of that collection is accessible as black-and-white microfilm at Syracuse University, photographed in the ‘70s by Soviet-era archivists. Tempesta co-director Richard Stone went to Syracuse to look through the microfilms. He assembled a study score from the separate part books of an extravagant Christmas mass in 27 parts by Rittler, revealing a stunning, masterful work, equal in quality to the finest creations of Monteverdi or Praetorius. We fantasized about programming a future Christmas program based on music from Kroměříž, less opulent than that mass but still including unpublished Rittler.

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But the age-browned, seventeenth-century paper and its faded ink conveys only limited information on microfilm, especially when the contrast and ink bleed-through doesn’t translate into monochrome. We happily received support from the Pew Center for Art and Heritage to conduct further research on-site in Kroměříž. After the 2017–2018 season, Stone spent a week at the chateau, where he was granted complete access to the musical archive and permission to photograph any manuscripts that he was interested in.

Today’s concert represents a taste of the trove in Kroměříž.

Kroměříž capellmeister Pavel Joseph Vejvanovský (1633–1693), himself a trumpeter, wrote extensively for his instrument. The trumpet melody in the slow section of the Sonata Natalis quotes the Czech carol, “hajej můj andílku” (hush, my little angel), known elsewhere as “Resonet in laudibus” or “Joseph, lieber, Joseph mein.” As with Rittler, Vejvanovský’s music survives just in the Kroměříž archive, the compilation of which Vejvanovský is believed to have played a major role in. Further, much of the music by other composers in the collection are copies in his hand. The present-day music school in Kroměříž bears his name: Konzervatoř P. J. Vejvanovského.

Composer Poet and Adam Václav Michna z Otradovic (ca. 1600–1676) is represented by a single manuscript mass at the chateau. However, he is was widely known for three publications in which he set his own devotional verses: the hymnals, Česká mariánská muzika (Czech Marian music, 1647) and Svatoroční muzika (music for the liturgical year, 1661); and a book of mystical poetry, Loutna česká (Czech lute, 1653). The publications circulated throughout the Czech lands, and it is inconceivable that they would not have enjoyed currency in Kroměříž. All three Michna selections are vánocní muzika, for the Christmas season.

Though there is nothing specific to the season in the Rittler selection, he wrote most of his sonatas for the church. His fascinating Sonata à 7 makes a special distinction between the pair of violins and the viola choir, in which the violins behave as vocal soloists, minus words, while the violas act as an orchestra, even including a substantial prelude just for them. The first violin’s activity, in particular, relish in the same fantastical Austro-Czech tone found in Heinrich Bieber’s (1644–1704)’s 15 Rosary Sonatas.

Vienna’s predilection for all things Italian makes it unsurprising that music by some of Italy’s most noted composers would have found their way into the collection. Kroměříž holds works known nowhere else by both Jacomo Carissimi (ca. 1605–1674) and Giovanni Valentini (ca. 1582–1649), two remarkably imaginative composers. The title for Valentini’s suave Sonata pro tabula, unique to Kroměříž, references a purpose not as background music to a meal, but rather a course to be enjoyed in silence among the courses of a meal, a custom at the Habsburg court. Carissimi’s nativity cantata, Quasi aquila, exists in two manuscripts copies at Kroměříž, both scored for tenor with one violin, obbligato bass violin, and

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continuo. A later version printed in the Arion Romanus, a 1670 anthology of motets by Carissimi, includes a second violin.

The most surprising part of the collection is the high quality music anonymous music, unattributed to any composer, of which we include three examples: a charming chaconne for three choirs—solo trumpet, string ensemble, and a pair of recorders—a superb magnificat, and a sonata for double choir—two recorders accompanied by viola, and two violins accompanied by cello. The level of craft in the latter two works makes their authorship particularly tantalizing.

— Richard Stone & Gwyn Roberts

We are pleased to recognize and offer public thanks to the growing number of individuals whose gifts

at this time last year make performances like today’s possible. As the year draws to a close, we hope you will renew

your support or make a first time gift to our annual fund by December 31.

Thank you so much!

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BIOGRAPHIES

Fanfare magazine recently hailed Tempesta di Mare for its “abundant energy, immaculate ensemble, and undeniable sense of purpose.” Led by directors Gwyn Roberts and Richard Stone with concertmaster Emlyn Ngai, Tempesta performs baroque music on baroque instruments with a repertoire that ranges from staged opera to chamber music. The group performs all orchestral repertoire without a conductor, as was the practice when this music was new.

Tempesta’s Philadelphia Concert Series, noted by the Philadelphia Inquirer for its “off-the-grid chic factor,” emphasizes creating a sense of discovery for artists and audience alike. Launched in 2002, the series has included 31 modern “world premieres” of lost or forgotten baroque masterpieces, leading the Inquirer to describe it as “an old-music group that acts like a new-music group, by pushing the cutting edge back rather than forward.” Its supporters include the Pew Charitable Trusts, the William Penn Foundation, the Presser Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

In a marketplace dominated by European ensembles, Tempesta is the only American baroque music group to record for the prestigious British label Chandos. Current releases are Weiss: Lute Concerti (2004), Handel: Flaming Rose (2007), Scarlatti: Cantatas and

Chamber Music (2010), Fasch: Orchestral Music, vol. 1 (2008), vol. 2 (2011) and vol. 3

(2012), Bach: Trio Sonatas, BWV 525–530 (2014), Mancini: Sonatas for a Flute, (2014), and Comédie et Tragédie: French baroque orchestral music for the theater, vol. 1

(2015) and vol. 2 (2016), Janitsch: Rediscoveries from the Sara Levy Collection (2018), and Telemann: The Concerti-en-Suite (2018).

National broadcasts of live performances include SymphonyCast, Performance Today,

Sunday Baroque and Harmonia. Live concert recordings are distributed worldwide via the European Broadcasting Union, a global alliance of public service media organizations, with members in 56 countries in Europe and beyond.

International appearances have included the Prague Spring Festival, the Göttingen Handel Festival, the Mendelssohn-Remise Berlin and the International Fasch Festival in Zerbst. Recent North American appearances have included a return engagement at the Frick Collection and the National Gallery of Art. Other notable presenters have included the Miami Bach Festival, the Oregon Bach Festival, Abbey Bach Festival, Whitman College, Cornell Concerts, the Yale Collection, the Flagler Museum and the Garmany Series, Hartford.

• • •

Tempesta co-founder and co-director Gwyn Roberts is one of America’s foremost performers on recorder and baroque flute, praised by Gramophone for her “sparkling technique, compelling musicianship, and all-around excellence.” Her soloist engagements include the Portland Baroque Orchestra, The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Recitar Cantando of Tokyo, the Washington Bach Consort and the Kennedy Center. In addition to Chandos, she has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Dorian, Sony Classics, Vox, PolyGram, PGM, and Radio France. Her latest solo recordings include the Fasch Recorder Concerto in F, Bach’s Concerto in G after BWV 530, and Sonatas by Francesco Mancini. She enjoys collaborating with living composers, recently recording James Primosch’s Sacred

Songs and Meditations with the 21st Century Consort for Albany Records.

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Roberts studied recorder and baroque flute at Utrecht Conservatory in the Netherlands with Marion Verbruggen, Leo Meilink and Marten Root. She loves teaching, with recent masterclasses at the Curtis Institute of Music, Hartt School of Music, and Oregon Bach Festival. She is Professor of Recorder and Baroque Flute at the Peabody Conservatory, Director of Early Music Ensembles at the University of Pennsylvania, and directs the Virtuoso Recorder Seminar Program at the Amherst Early Music Festival. She serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Early Music America and on the Historical Flutes Committee of the National Flute Association.

• • •

Lutenist Richard Stone, co-founder and co-director of Tempesta di Mare, has performed in solo recitals, music series and festivals worldwide. The New York Times has called his playing “beautiful” and “lustrously melancholy,” while the Washington Post described it as having “the energy of a rock solo and the craft of a classical cadenza.”

Soloist engagements have included nationwide tours of Bach’s solo lute music, and concerto performances with Montreal’s Les Idées Heureuses, the Handel & Haydn Society of Boston and Cleveland baroque orchestra Apollo’s Fire. Solo recordings include Johann Friedrich Fasch’s lute concerto and the complete lute concerti of Silvius Leopold Weiss on Chandos, lute suites by Weiss on Titanic, and new theorbo music by David Loeb on Vienna Modern Masters. Other recordings and broadcasts include Deutsche Grammophon, ATMA, Bis, NPR, BBC, CBC and Czech Radio. Music director credits include Monteverdi’s Poppea, Steffani’s Stabat Mater and Handel’s Judas Maccabeus, all led from the theorbo. He is also a highly regarded baroque vocal accompanist.

Stone studied lute with Patrick O’Brien and guitar with David Starobin at SUNY Purchase, and with Nigel North as a Fulbright Lusk Fellow at London’s Guildhall School. He has been Professor of Baroque Lute and Theorbo at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University since 2007.

• • •

Emlyn Ngai enjoys a diverse life as both a modern and historical violinist. In addition to being associate concertmaster of the Carmel Bach Festival and director of the festival’s Circle of Strings, Emlyn is a member of the Adaskin String Trio with which he has performed extensively across Canada and the United States and has been recorded for broadcast by CBC Radio, Radio-Canada, and National Public Radio. His association with Apollo’s Fire, Boston Baroque and Joshua Rifkin’s Bach Ensemble has taken him to Bermuda, Germany, Spain, and the UK. Recording credits include Centaur, MSR Classics, New World Records, and Telarc. His recordings for the label Musica Omnia have received acclaim in American Record

Guide, BBC Music Magazine, Gramophone, and The Strad.

Emlyn holds degrees from McGill University, Oberlin College Conservatory, and the Hartt School. His teachers have included

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Frona Colquhoun, Sydney Humphreys, Thomas Williams, Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer. During his studies with Marilyn McDonald at Oberlin he won first prize on baroque violin in the 1995 Locatelli Concours Amsterdam.

An enthusiastic educator, Emlyn has taught at Boston University, Mount Holyoke College, and McGill University. Currently he teaches modern and baroque violin, chamber music and performance practice at The Hartt School, where he also co-directs the Collegium Musicum.

• • •

Widely praised for her musical intelligence and “expressive virtuosity” (San Francisco

Chronicle), Meg Bragle has earned an international reputation as one of today’s most gifted mezzo-sopranos. Ms. Bragle has sung with the Houston, Detroit, National, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Pacific and Colorado Symphonies. She has also appeared with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, English Baroque Soloists, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic, Netherlands Bach Society, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Les Violons du Roy, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Tempesta di Mare, Apollo’s Fire, Arion Baroque and the Dunedin Consort. Her discography includes four recordings with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists as well as several collaborations with Apollo’s Fire, the complete works of Chiara Margarita Cozzolani, Bach’s St. John Passion, Copland’s In the Beginning, Toby Twining’s Chrysalid

Requiem, Anthony Newman’s Requiem, and the Five Borough Songbook. Visit Meg Bragle at www.megbragle.com.

• • •

Jean Bernard Cerin is a baritone, storyteller, educator and researcher. Praised for his “burnished tones and focused phrasing,” he has charmed audiences throughout the United States, France, Austria, and his native Haiti. On the concert stage Jean Bernard has appeared with American Bach Soloists in San Francisco, Philadelphia Chamber Society’s Gamut Bach Ensemble, Piffaro Renaissance Wind Ensemble, Louisville’s Bourbon Baroque, Philadelphia Choral Arts and the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia. A gifted recitalist, Jean Bernard won the Gerard Souzay Prize for best performance of a French Melodie in the 2017 Joy in Singing International Song Competition. With his Duo 1717 partner, pianist Veena Kulkarni-Rankin, he gives recitals throughout the country redefining the limits of a traditional song recital.  Jean Bernard serves on faculty at Lincoln University in southern Pennsylvania. He he holds graduate degrees from the University of Michigan and the New England Conservatory and did his undergraduate work at St. Joseph’s University.  

WinterWeekendWorkshopJanuary 17-20, 2020

Philadelphia & Rutgers-Camden

Spring BreakWorkshopMarch 21-22, 2020

Washington, DC

Memorial DayWeekendWorkshopMay 22-25, 2020

WisdomHouse

Litchfield, CT

Amherst EarlyMusic FestivalJuly 5-22, 2020

Connecticut College

New London, CT

n amherstearlymusic.org

We hope you'll join us!

nAmherst Early Music

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• • •

Recently described in the San Francisco Chronicle as singing with “an appealing blend of vulnerability and grace,” soprano Rebecca Myers is a solo and ensemble singer who performs an exceptionally wide range of repertoire around the world. She is a member of The Crossing, the two time GRAMMY award-winning vocal ensemble fully dedicated to the performance of new music. She was one of three female soloists featured on the GRAMMY nominated recording of Thomas Lloyd’s Bonhoeffer sung by The Crossing and recorded in 2015. In 2017, Rebecca premiered the role of Parthenope in Opera Philadelphia’s world premiere of The Wake World by David Hertzberg. Rebecca has appeared as a soloist and in recital with Choral Arts Philadelphia, Apollo’s Fire Baroque Orchestra, Lyric Fest, Prometheus Chamber Orchestra, Opus Opera, and Bourbon Baroque. She is a founding member of the vocal sextet Variant 6, an ensemble that specializes in the juxtaposition of early music and new music in interesting and creative venues. Also an highly sought after ensemble singer, Rebecca regularly appears with Seraphic Fire, Skylark Vocal Ensemble, and The Santa Fe Desert Chorale.

• • •

James Reese  is an avid solo and collaborative musician whose singing has been praised for its “intensity and sensitivity...spirituality and eloquence.” This season includes return appearances with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and TENET Vocal Artists, as well as debuts with American Bach Soloists and the Gamut Bach Ensemble. Recent performances include the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Bourbon Baroque Orchestra, and the New York Choral Society, with whom he made his Carnegie Hall solo debut. An advocate for new music, James  is a founding member of Philadelphia vocal sextet Variant 6. James sings frequently with leading ensembles, including The Crossing, Gallicantus, and Seraphic Fire, and has made guest appearances with Gallicantus and Calmus. James holds degrees from Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music and the Yale School of Music. 

• • •

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Jacob Perry enjoys active membership in Les Canards Chantants, a soloist-ensemble based in Philadelphia, and The Thirteen, a chamber choir based in Washington. Additionally, he can be heard singing with such ensembles as the Art of Early Keyboard (ARTEK), The Clarion Choir, Yale Choral Artists, Cathedra, ACRONYM, Piffaro, Washington Bach Consort, New Consort, and The District Eight. He has been featured as a soloist with The City Choir of Washington, Handel Choir of Baltimore, Mountainside Baroque, Tempesta di Mare, and Apollo’s Fire.

Born and raised in Silver Spring, Maryland, Jacob has cultivated a passion for a wide variety of music ranging from medieval folk song to the tight harmonies of vocal jazz. He has experience singing solo and chamber works by contemporary composers through engagements with Third Practice Ensemble, hexaCollective and The Bridge Ensemble.

Jacob is a cantor and chorister at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. He earned his B.A. in Vocal Performance from University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Board of Directors

John Trout, President

Amanda Berger, Treasurer

Ann Bies, Secretary

David Cybulski

Nancy Eales

Martha Johnson

James Gicking

Michael DeLaurentis

Gwyn Roberts

William Roberts, Esq.

Richard Stone

Kristin von Donop

Staff

Gwyn Roberts, Artistic Director

Richard Stone, Artistic Director

Ulrike Shapiro, Managing Director

Samantha Mera-Candedo, Project & Research Coordinator

Kendra Broom, Program & Marketing

Coordinator

Anne Hunter, Newsletter Contributing Editor

Maison Zwes, Bookkeeper

Recording & Design

Andrés Vilallta, Audio Engineering

Chris Zimmerman, Videography

James Brack, Print Layout & Design

TEMPESTA DI MAREPHILADELPHIA BAROQUE ORCHESTRA

Board of Directors and Staff

To get in touch with us, email at info@tempestadimare OR 215-755-8776.