~ Program ~

Magnificat, Wq. 215 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C. P. E. Bach (1714-1788)

A towering work of compelling energy and heartfelt expressiveness, this is one of the most unjustly neglected masterpieces of the late Baroque era. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, the second-oldest of J. S. Bach’s many composer-offspring, wrote it in 1749 while he was principal court composer for Frederick the Great of Prussia. It illustrates well the stylistic changes which took place in music during the middle of the eighteenth century, as composers began to move away from literal word-painting and intricate counterpoint towards greater simplicity in the presentation of a text. The work does betray the influence of Bach’s father at a number of points, however, most conspicuously in the final movement (“Sicut erat”), an astonishingly complex, florid, and lengthy double fugue. As a composer C.P.E. Bach was greatly admired by his younger contemporaries Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven for his taste and skill in balancing the older Baroque and newer Classical styles.

Magnificat is scored for mixed choir, four vocal soloists, two flutes, two oboes, bassoon, two horns, three trumpets, timpani, strings, and harpsichord.

TBA, soprano, Lina Ramos, mezzo-soprano,

Andre Garcia-Nuthmann, tenor, Tim Willson, baritone

30-Second Clip

Piano Concerto No. 25 in C Major, K. 503 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . W. A. Mozart (1756-1791)

Peter Vinograde, piano soloist

This concerto, the last in a cycle of twelve piano concertos that Mozart composed between 1784 and 1786, is without question one of the very greatest works of its kind, and yet it has suffered from an inexplicable neglect. Mozart himself performed it on several occasions, but after his death it was not heard again in Vienna until 1934, when Artur Schnabel performed it with the Vienna Philharmonic under Georg Szell. It has gained acceptance into the standard repertoire only in the last half-century or so. The work shows Mozart at the height of his powers as a composer and also at his most subtle and complex. The distinguished Mozart scholar H.C. Robbins Landon, in his discussion of the piano concertos, designated this one “the grandest, most difficult, and most symphonic of them all.”

In addition to the piano solo, the work is scored for flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings.

30-Second Clip