The Glover Concert 2006
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2006 John Glover Concert
The 2006 John Glover concert took place on Sunday March 12, 2006 in the Falls Park Pavilion, Evandale amidst the finalist paintings of this year's John Glover Art Prize. Following a successful program of choral music in 2006, this year's concert featured a chamber music concert by Virtuosi Tasmania. With the announcement of sponsorship assistance from Tasmanian Perpetual Trustees, the concert is now an integral part of the John Glover Arts Festival. Each year, the concert will feature different performing artists and styles as a musical counterpoint to the rich textures and themes of the Glover Art Prize. The 2006 concert features music Glover would have been familiar with during his long life. As a successful English society painter and inveterate traveller of the late 18th and early 19th Centuries, Glover would have attended and perhaps even participated in chamber music concerts presented regularly in the great houses and mansions of the aristocracy and landed gentry. In the days before the entertainment devices we take for granted, radio, CD's, movies and TV etc., people had to make their own home entertainment. Children, particularly daughters of the wealthy, were encouraged to play instruments and were often given quite extensive music educations. This resulted in regular amateur music making of the highest standard among the upper classes and created a huge demand for chamber music, which in turn encouraged composers to produce an enormous repertoire for this genre. W A Mozart (1756-1791) Divertimento in F, K.138 Virtuosi Tasmania played this piece as a salute to Mozart in recognition of 250 years since his birth in 1756. Early in 1772, Mozart composed a set of three divertimenti for strings in Salzburg; they were probably intended for local use, although we have no precise way of knowing. The present divertimento is the third of the group; all of which seem to have been composed about the same time, maybe even for the same event. Whether they are intended for string quartet (four solo instruments) or string orchestra has been extensively debated. Like its counterparts, the F-major Divertimento is in three movements in straightforward binary sonata forms. Even if their composition is something of a mystery, they are among the best and most charming of his early works, composed just about the time of his sixteenth birthday. In listening to this music, it is worth recalling that the word "divertimento" essentially means "music to have fun with." Rossini: (1792-1868) String Sonata No 2 Rossini occupied an unrivalled position in the musical world of his time. With a horn-player father and a mother who made a career for herself in opera, as a boy Rossini had direct experience of operatic performance, both in the orchestra pit and on stage. This background, coupled with his prodigious talent, resulted in him rapidly achieving international success as a composer of opera. Music from his operas, notably The Barber of Seville, Cinderella and William Tell, still popular today, became the pop music of the 19th Century. Instrumental compositions by Rossini include his early String Sonatas, designed for two violins, cello and double bass. The String Sonatas show a precocious command of Italian operatic style, here translated into instrumental terms. Vivaldi: (1625-1741) Concerto for 2 Violins in A minor Soloists: Alison Lazaroff Somssich and Susanna Lazaroff Son of a professional violinist, Vivaldi trained for the priesthood and was ordained in 1703 but soon after he ceased to say Mass. Claiming this was because of his unsure health. In 1703 he was appointed maestro di violino at the Ospedale della Pietā, one of the Venetian girls' orphanages, rising to the post of maestro de' concerti in 1716. The performances by the girls of the Ospedale della Pieta of Vivaldi's works became famous throughout Europe and were often part of the 'Grand Tour' undertaken by aristocratic tourists of the 18th and 19th centuries. Vivaldi wrote an enormous amount of music including many violin concertos. His most famous in our time is the set of four called The Four Seasons. Tonight's concerto is number eight from a set of twelve entitled L'Estro Armonico. Salieri: (1750-1825) Concerto for Oboe and Flute Soloists: Dinah Woods, Oboe and Lloyd Hudson, Flute Salieri studied with Gassmann and others in Vienna, and also knew Gluck (who became his patron). In 1774 he became court composer and conductor of the Italian opera; from 1788 he was also court Kapellmeister. He made his reputation as a stage composer, writing operas for Vienna from 1768 and presenting several in Italy, 1778-80. Later he dominated Parisian opera with three works of 1784-7; Tarare (1787), his greatest success, established him as Gluck's heir. In 1790 he gave up his duties at the Italian opera. As his style became old-fashioned his works lost favour, and he composed relatively little after 1804, but he remained a central and influential figure in Viennese musical life. His many pupils included Beethoven, Schubert and Liszt. In Glover's day, Salieri was a very well known composer with a great international success. However today he is far less familiar to us than his contemporary, Mozart. There is little evidence of any intrigues against Mozart, still less of the charge of poisoning. In fact there is far more evidence of a cooperative atmosphere between the two composers than for a real enmity. For example, Mozart appointed Salieri to teach his son Franz Xavier, and when Salieri was appointed Kapellmeister in 1788, he revived Figaro instead of bringing out a new opera of his own, and when he went to the coronation festivities for Leopold II in 1790 he had no less than three Mozart masses in his luggage. Salieri and Mozart even composed a song for voice and piano together, called Per la ricuperata salute di Ophelia. Mozart's Davidde penitente K.469 (1785), his piano concerto in E flat major K.482 (1785), the clarinet quintet K.581 (1789) and the great symphony in G minor K.550 had been premiered on the suggestion of Salieri, who even conducted a performance of it in 1791. In his last surviving letter from October 14th 1791, Mozart tells his wife about Salieri's attendance at his opera Die Zauberflöte K 620, speaking enthusiastically: "He heard and saw with all his attention, and from the ouverture to the last choir there was no piece that didn't elicit a bravo or bello out of him [...]" Handel: (1685-1759) Concerto Grosso Op 6 No 11 The English audience of the 18th and 19th Centuries adored Handel and his music would have dominated society at that time. A German by birth, he was enthusiastically adopted as England's own great composer. He was a master of Italian Opera and great proponent of the Oratorio, of which "The Messiah" is still one of the most popular works in the classical repertoire. His set of twelve Concerti Grossi for strings Op 6 are masterful works which provided the backbone of much music making and would have been well known by Glover. Performers: Alison Lazaroff-Somssich, Yue Hong Cha, Susanna Lazaroff, Chris Nicholas, Violins: Linda Garrett, Viola: Brendan Conroy, Cello: Stephen Martin, Double Bass: Dinah Woods, Oboe and Lloyd Hudson, Flute. About Virtuosi Tasmania Virtuosi Tasmania is an ever-changing group of musicians from the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra whose passion is the performance of fine chamber music. For the past four years the Virtuosi have presented regular chamber music concerts of a repertoire literally from Bach to the Beatles in Vineyards and Art Galleries across Tasmania. 
Virtuosi Tasmania - www.virtuositas.chambermusic.info Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra - www.tso.com.au The John Glover Society Inc. PO Box 129 EVANDALE TAS 7212 |