Behind the Musik: Triple Espresso

Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra
Directed by Alfredo Bernardini

Performances:
February 21–23, 2025 at Jeanne Lamon Hall, Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre

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Program

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Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra

Access full bios for core orchestra members at tafelmusik.org/orchestra

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Program Notes

by Charlotte Nediger

The full-time core of the Tafelmusik Orchestra consists of two oboes, bassoon, a complement of strings (violins, violas, cellos, and double bass), and keyboard (harpsichord and organ). This was the standard instrumentation for a wealth of music written during the baroque period, and one you hear regularly on the Tafelmusik concert stage. This week, we embrace the wonderfully rich and colourful sound that results when an additional oboe is added. The texture of three oboes and a bassoon mirrors the four-part string ensemble (two violin sections, violas, and cello/bass), allowing for a truly orchestral dialogue and a fulsome “tutti” sound. This is especially true when the “extra” oboe is none other than the remarkable Italian oboist Alfredo Bernardini, who not only joins the orchestra, but directs the program with expertise and enthusiasm while playing the oboe. You are accustomed to seeing the ensemble led by a violinist at Tafelmusik concerts: the movement of the bow and facial expressions of the leader play key roles in keeping us together and with a unified expression. One imagines that this would be much harder when one doesn’t have a bow and when much of one’s facial expression is occupied with blowing into an oboe. Alfredo, however, makes it look easy, communicating with energy, conviction, and clarity. From your point of view in the audience, you’ll be swept along by both his dynamic playing and by his inspired direction. On stage, we too will be swept along, his gestures and sound making it absolutely clear when and how to play. And with Alfredo, who joins us for the third time in Jeanne Lamon Hall, it’s always a fun and invigorating journey, and we’re thrilled to have him back.

Although it was the French court that first introduced the oboes into the orchestra, it was the north Germans who took the idea from the French and ran with it. So-called “overturesuites” became very popular, and countless were scored for winds and strings. They begin with an extended overture, inspired by the French model of a slow, stately opening followed by a quick section, all designed to prepare you for the curtain opening on a grand opera. When the Germans took the overture out of the theatre they retained the majestic French opening, but extended the fast portion both in length and in complexity, incorporating dialogue and counterpoint between the parts. Rather than being the introduction to an opera, this is the main course. What follows the overture are a sort of entremets: in this case a suite of short movements, some based on dance forms, some sweetly expressive, and others cleverly witty. The colleagues and friends Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann, and Johann Friedrich Fasch all wrote Overture-Suites, including several for our “special” three-oboe orchestra.

The common ground of the three composers was Leipzig. Telemann and Fasch both studied in Leipzig, and each founded a Collegium Musicum there. The regular concerts of their ensembles provided an ideal opportunity for the young composers to hone their skills, with an orchestra eager to play anything they had to offer. When the post of Thomaskantor came open in 1722, all three names of our friends appear in the annals. The Kantor was responsible for music at the two main churches in Leipzig, and for the musical training of the students at the Thomasschule. The position was offered to Telemann, who turned it down in favour of a lucrative post of Director of Music for the city of Hamburg. Fasch applied unsuccessfully, moving on instead to the position of Music Director of the court in Zerbst. Bach applied, and although he wasn’t their first choice, he was finally offered–and accepted–the job. He eventually also took over direction of what had been Telemann’s Collegium Musicum.

Our concert is framed by overture-suites by Fasch and Bach. We know that Bach led performances of several Fasch suites at the Leipzig Collegium, and we know that his own Suite no. 4 was on the playbill, probably on numerous occasions. It’s rather fun to imagine that a particularly fine oboist was in town one week (maybe even an oboist from Italy!), and that Bach was inspired to open the Friday night concert of the Collegium that week with this Fasch Suite in G Minor, and to end the evening with his own D-Major Suite. The Collegium concerts took place at Zimmerman’s Coffee House, and so those in attendance would have indulged in coffee (a triple espresso?). To follow the Fasch suite, Bach might have turned to a short sinfonia from his Cantata 75, originally scored for trumpet and strings. Three oboes can make as merry a sound as a single trumpet, so why not give the trumpet part to them?

Then on to Bach’s long-time friend Telemann. Although Telemann had penned suites for the musicians at hand, three long suites in one evening is a little much, even after a triple espresso! Telemann often sent Bach music, and he may well have given Bach a copy of a chamber concerto he wrote for three oboists in dialogue with three violinists, with an ample continuo team playing the bass line. It’s an unusual scoring: Telemann was a prolific composer and loved to shake things up. Looking at his music shelves, Bach would have realized that it’s perfect for our Collegium concert!

After intermission (coffee, anyone?), Bach’s (and our) guest oboist offers up an oboe concerto by Handel. Bach would have been delighted: he was an admirer of Handel and tried to meet up with him on numerous occasions, each meeting foiled by circumstances. Playing his music was the closest he came to meeting the ex-pat Handel. This particular concerto is thought to have composed by the young Handel when he was living in Hamburg, playing as a member of the opera orchestra—the city that was to become Telemann’s stomping ground. And finally to Bach’s own suite. It is thought that Bach may have composed it originally when employed at the court in Cöthen. The first of the Brandenburg Concertos, composed there, features three oboes. The same oboists perhaps inspired the suite. He later used the opening overture as the basis of the opening chorus of Cantata 110, written for Christmas Day services in Leipzig. For that festive occasion he added three trumpets and timpani. Our evening at the Collegium, however, is all about the oboes. Trumpets and timpani are superfluous tonight, and so Bach turns to his original suite. The final Réjouissance [Rejoicing] is the perfect ending to our imagined evening at Zimmerman’s Coffee House, on Katharinestraße in the heart of Leipzig. Transported now to Bloor Street in the heart of Toronto …