To paraphrase William Shakespeare's Comedy of a Midsummer Night's Dream (c.1594), today's concert brings together three works by the one who, in time, was the most famous composer in Europe, Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741).

Born in Venice on March 4, 1678, Antonio was the second of nine children of Camilla Calicchio and Giovanni Battista Vivaldi (c.1655-1736), an important violinist and founding member of the Sovvegno dei musicisti di Santa Cecilia, the brotherhood of musicians Venetians.

Having studied with his father and Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-1690), Vivaldi was to be ordained priest in 1703, hence the nickname of Il Prete Rosso. Dismissed from his liturgical functions for health reasons, Vivaldi had a brilliant career, both as a virtuoso violinist and as a composer.

A substantial part of his production of sacred music was written for the famous choir and orchestra of the Ospedale della Pietà, Venetian institution with which he maintained successive ties, maestro di violino (1703-09 / 1711-15), maestro dei figlie di coro (1711-15) and master of Concerti (1716-17 / 1723-29 / 1735-40).

Composed c.1715, the Psalm Laetatus sum RV 607 corresponds to the text of Psalm 121 [122 in the modern Bible], I rejoiced when I was told, let us go to the house of the Lord, the third psalm of the Office of Vespers, a circumstance for which been written. Paradigmatic of the concise Vivaldian style, the text is recited in syllabic form by the choir, on an ostinato motif in the strings that crosses the whole work.

The same cannot be said about Gloria RV 589, one of the most famous choral works of our time, since his first modern premiere in 1939 in Siena, Italy. Composed c.1715, also to the female choir and orchestra of the Ospedale della Pietà, is the keystone of Vivaldi's musical refinement.

The Eucharistic hymn, or Doxologia Maior, as it is also known, is divided into 12 parts according to the canon of concertata, with choral and arias interventions for solo voices, in what constitutes one of the most fascinating features of sacred music of the 18th century , the interpenetration of the sacrum and the profane. Note that the final fugue, Cum Sancto Spiritu is an adaptation of Vivaldi of the corresponding tempo of Gloria per due chori (1708) of the composer Giovanni Maria Ruggieri (fl.1665-c.1725). Vivaldi was also notable for his instrumental music, which was known and proclaimed throughout Europe at the time. Having composed dozens of concerts, its basic structure lies in the principle of ritornello, a theme played by the instrumental tutti, interleaved by the passages of the solo instrument [in a standard that can be synthesized as follows tutti-solo-tutti-solo-tutti]. Divided into three stages, Vivaldi's concerts are incredible by their contrast of ambience, in which the technical virtuosity of the beating in the final movements gives way to a strong lyricism of the intermediate tempo.

It is a true "tour-de-force" given the unusual virtuosity of writing for the soloist, the concerto in C major RV443 is part of a set of three concertos written for flautino (the modern equivalent to the sopranino recorder) at a date to be determined.

Program notes: José Bruto da Costa

Death was seen by different cultures and civilizations in very contrasting ways: always feared, but sometimes also desired. Repelled, though unavoidable; a constant presence, almost cherished, even a security, especially when the faith illuminates the infinite incognito that extends beyond this fearful frontier.

The seventeenth century was a time of constant turmoil, such as the horrific Thirty Years War, the incessant Turkish menace at the gates of Vienna, the English Civil War, the War of the Succession of Spain, or the revolt for Portugal's independence. This political instability is compounded by disease and plague, such as the one that decimated northern Italy at the beginning of the century, but also constant famines, resulting from the bad agricultural years and the small ice age that has cooled the entire planet. But this is also a brilliant century: Spain witnesses the long decline of its Century of Gold, England and Holland triumph in the oceans, France of Louis XIV imposes the splendor of its Grand Siècle throughout Europe, Catholicism returns triumphant to the center of the continent, gradually regaining its influence with the Protestants, while Rome is renewed with squares, palaces and churches.

However, death is there, ever present, from the poor man's hut to the king's palace, often transported by the baroque magnificence, by the black velvets of the catafalques, by the castrum doloris in the churches, the rich funeral monuments, adorned with skulls and angels carpentering tears of marble. It is omnipresent in the still life, in the sacraments, in devotions exacerbated by the passion of Christ and the sorrows of the Virgin Mary, in the chapels lined with bones, in the worship of the relics, in the Masses of Requiem, in the offices of the dead and of darkness, in inflamed elegies or in concise epitaphs. But it is also present in the silvery, crystalline sounds of a harpsichord or a lute, weeping a friend, teacher, colleague or patron who is dead but never forgotten, perpetually perpetuated through music ...

In Paris on a rainy night in November 1652, after a meal among friends, the lord Charles de Fleury, lord of Blancrocher, stumbles, slides down a marble staircase, and dies before receiving the last sacraments, in the arms of a visitor German, Froberger. This organist from the Imperial Chapel of Vienna had studied in Italy with Frescobaldi, the organist of St. Peter's of the Vatican, and was one of the most famous musicians of his time. Of fragile and extremely sensitive temperament, deeply disturbed by the tragedy, he writes a "Tombeaux" in honor of Fleury, being immediately followed by the great French golfer, his pupil and friend, Louis Couperin. "Tombeaux" (tomb in French) was the name given to a piece composed in memory of a deceased personality, which corresponds to the poetic form of the elegy. It was from the works of contemporary French lutetists and critics such as Couperin that Froberger systematized the key suite and above all knew how to create his own cravistic language, independent of the organ. Their harmonic language is extremely audacious and, together with a creative and innovative use of musical rhetoric, eloquently emphasize the expressive depth of each work. Froberger is therefore an insurmountable and powerfully influential figure. Louis Couperin, a younger but equally genial composer, at the service of the French court as a golfer and gambler absorbs, through imitation - then regarded not as simple plagiarism but rather as reverent homage - Froberger's innovations. He combines them with the already rich French cravistic tradition, inaugurated by his teacher Chambonnières, and guides it to the apogee that it will reach, a few years later, with the works of his nephew, François Couperin, le Grand, and Rameau.

The exact date on which Froberger visited London was unknown, but it was probably still in 1652, when the terrible English Civil War was still in progress, and immediately before the establishment of the Republican Commonwealth of Cromwell. This visit is described in the musical manuscript given to us by the peculiar Plainte Faite to London pour passer la mélancholie: "Master Froberger, wishing to exchange Paris for London, was so robbed during his voyage by sea between Paris, Calais, and Dover that [ here] came to a fisherman's hostel without a single coin, and from here he reached London, where he wished to be admitted to society and to listen to music, he had the idea of ​​being employed as a corpse organ, which he did. by his melancholy mood, he forgot to blow the bellows and was kicked out by the organist on the street, and it was on this occasion that he composed this Lamentation. " Froberger traveled throughout Europe on a 'diplomatic' basis - perhaps even as a spy - and may not always be able to reveal his identity to receive proper protection. The melancholic, even depressing, temperament of the composer is borne out by his many written laments upon the passing of his chief patrons: first, the imperial crown prince Ferdinand IV, king of the Romans, who died in his youth; then his father, Emperor Ferdinand III; and finally the Dukes of Württemberg-Montbéliard, in the palace from which Froberger will die. But not before having composed one of the most intense and intimate works of the whole Baroque: a meditation made on his own death. His friend Mathias Weckmann, an important organist from Hamburg, would have to keep it in a manuscript with the old note: "Memento mori Froberger.

Program notes — Fernando Miguel Jalôto

Today's concert brings together a set of exemplary works of the musical style resulting from the Council of Trent (1545-1563), the response of the Catholic Church to the Protestant Reformation (1517).

In direct confrontation with Protestant sobriety and iconoclasm, Catholic anti-reformist art took on the role of structuring society itself, developing a language of combat, witness and catechesis. As opposed to rationalism, an emotional, sensorial art was advocated according to the concept of animos impellere [seduction of souls].

Despite the chronological distance separating these four composers, they both share this post-Tridentine spirit, trying to portray, musically, the pathos contained in each of the sacred texts and thus move the listeners.

Born in Cuba, Alentejo, Diogo Dias Melgás (1638-1700) was admitted to the Claustra of the Cathedral of Évora in 1647, where he studied with Bento Nunes Pegado and António Rodrigues Vilalva. Appointed Rector in 1662, Melgás became Master of the Claustra in 1664 and ascended to the place of Master of Chapel in 1680, position that occupied during nineteen years, having died in Évora, in 1700.

Born Esteban Lopes Morago, a native of Vallecas, once a small village at the gates of Madrid, it is not known exactly how he went to study at Claustra de Évora, at the Colegio dos Moços de Coro, under the guidance of Filipe de Magalhães (c.1571 -1652), between 1592 and 3 March 1596, when he obtained a bachelors degree. 15 of August of 1599, Morago happened to the service of the Cathedral of Viseu, like Master of Chapel. He would die in the Convent of St. Francis of Orgens in 1630.

A fundamental composer of the Late Renaissance of the second half of the 16th century, Orlando di Lasso was born in Mons, Belgium. Having entered the service of Ferrante I Gonzaga (1507-1557), Prince of Molfetta, Lasso had a brilliant career, reaching in 1553, at the age of 21, the prestigious position of Maestro di Cappella of the Basilica of St John Lateran, in Rome, under the influence of Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga (1505-1563), brother of his protector. However, he resigned in 1554, being replaced by Palestrina. In 1556, he entered the service of Albert V, the Magnanimous (1528-1579), Duke of Bavaria, being named Kappellmeister of the Court of Munich in 1563, position that maintained until his death.

Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613), Prince of Venosa, was born in the bosom of one of the richest families of the Italian peninsula. Educated in Rome in the company of his maternal uncle, Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, St. Charles Borromeo (1538-1584), champion of the anti-reform movement, and his paternal uncle, Cardinal Archbishop of Naples Alfonso Gesualdo (1540-1603) ), Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals, Gesualdo was to become one of the most extraordinary composers of all time.

Although essentially composing for a narrow circle of listeners, a highly enlightened elite, Gesualdo developed an unprecedented chromatic language hitherto, relying on the affettuous song, at the service of the emotions of words.

Program note — José Bruto da Costa

During the first decades of the eighteenth century, when the European musical landscape was dominated by Italian musicians, Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) was the composer of the time, and his instrumental music known and appreciated throughout Europe, as quintessence.

At the origin of this epiphenomenon was the publication, in 1711, of 12 concerts entitled L'estro armonico [Harmonic inspiration], considered by many to be the most important and influential collection of instrumental music of the 18th century. As a matter of curiosity, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) transcribed 5 of these concerts to organ between 1713-14.

The publication in 1716 of a second collection of 12 concerts, La stravaganza, followed by Il Cimento dell'armonia and dell'inventione, in 1725, would Vivaldi's fame as the champion of Italian baroque instrumental music.

Dedicated to Bohemian Count Wenzel von Morzin (1676-1737), of whom he was Maestro di musica in Italia (composer and responsible for bringing to the court scores of other Italian composers), Il Cimento dell'armonia would go down in history for its first four concerts , known generically as The Four Seasons.

The thematic is far from being a novelty, on the contrary, it was of high appreciation of the European cultural elites. From the proto-Renaissance (fourteenth century) the four seasons were an excuse to reflect on the natural world, Christian and pagan themes of Classical Antiquity, as well as a metaphor for the four phases of life, Childhood, Youth, Maturity and Old Age .

However, Vivaldi was careful to publish these concerts accompanied by four sonnets, anonymous authors (most likely from Vivaldi) by referring certain verses to specific passages of the concerts. Although of the greatest importance, it is not possible to gauge if these poems were written before (which would give a programmatic dimension unprecedented for the time) or if, as everything indicates, they were added later, for its edition.

From a formal point of view, the concerts follow the basic structure based on the principle of ritornello, a theme played by the instrumental tutti, interspersed by the passages of the solo instrument [in a standard that can be synthesized as follows tutti-solo-tutti-solo-tutti ]. Divided into three movements, they excel in the contrast of environments, in which the technical virtuosity of the beating movements gives way to a strong lyricism of the intermediate tempo.

But if we look at the content of the poems, each concert is a vast pictorial canvas, where the harmony of Nature takes shape, the chirping of birds, the thunder of storms, the barking of dogs that feed the sheep, the wind, the rustling of trees, the peasants dancing, a chase or the cold wind that makes us shiver.

Finally, Vivaldi's musical corpus for bassoon obbligato is the largest and certainly the most important of the Baroque period, totaling 39 concerts (RV 466-504). Everything indicates that the RV 500 concert was composed in Prague, c.1730-31, for one of Vivaldi's patrons during this period, Count Jan Josef z Vrtba (1669-1734).

Program notes — José Bruto da Costa

From 1708 Johann Sebastian Bach was organist of the Court of Weimar, to the service of Duke Wilhelm Ernst (1662-1728), when, 2 of March 1714, was named Konzertmeister.

This new position implied the compositions of a cantata per month. According to the Lutheran Office, the cantata had a specific liturgical function: to be interpreted between the reading of the Gospel and the Sermon, starting with the gospel of the day and obeying the schematic conventions of Lutheran musical architecture: an initial chorus, a succession of musically contrasting recitative-arias and a conclusive choral.

It was in this professional context that Bach composed the canons Mein Gott, wie lang and Himmelskönig, sei willkommen, both premiered in the chapel of the ducal palace, Wilhelmsburg, respectively on January 19, 1716, the second Sunday after the Epiphany, and on March 25 1714, twice Palm Sunday and Feast of the Annunciation.

The libretto for the BWV155 cantata is by Salomon Franck (1659-1725), and reflects the Marriage Miracle of Cana, from the Gospel of St. John (2: 1-11). Just as Christ turned water into wine, so the believer must turn his doubts into trust.

The initial recitative represents a desolate soul, over a line of the tense continuum and dissonant interjections of the strings. The "wine of absent joy" [Der Freude Wein gebricht] is ironically colored by an ascending melisma. In the second course, the virtuous ground of the bassoon obbligato assumes the role of the disturbed soul, with the contralto and the tenor, commenting on the drama, offering encouraging words. The following recitative corresponds to vox Christi [the voice of Christ], traditionally delivered to a bass. Jesus will be the wine of comfort, the light for the dark hours of our heart. The aria that comes to him is pierced by deep joy, a musical metaphor of the trust of the soul of the believer in God. The final chorale corresponds to the last strophe of the coral Isis of the Heil of Paul Speratus (1484-1551).

Reflecting the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem from the Gospel of St. Matthew (21: 1-9), the libretto of the cantata Himmelskönig, sei willkommen is attributed to Salomon Franck, the author of the libretti of the great majority of the Bach cantatas of the Weimar period . Christ is not only the King of Heaven and of Glory, He is also the Lamb slain, the Savior of the World.

From the biblical crowd to the individual believer, Bach dispenses with the music, from the sonata tutti and the initial chorus to the solitude of the aria for tenor and continuum.

Of particular interest are the last two movements. The choir, the last stanza of the anthem Jesu Leiden, Pein und Tod by Paulus Stockmann (1603-1636), appears in the line of the soprano, folded by the violin and flute soli, on a vocal fantasy, Pachelbel style (1653-1708). The concluding chorus invites all believers to accompany Christ in joy and pain, emphasizing Bach the words Leiden and Bahn, the path to Death and Resurrection, the atonement for the sins of the world.

Finally, the BWV1049 concert is part of a set of Six Concerts à plusieurs instruments dedicated to Christian Ludwig (1677-1734), Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt, in 1721. The generic name of Concerts Brandeburgueses appeared years later, by the hand of Philipp Spitta (1841-1894) in his biography of Bach, published in 1873.

The composition took place between 1717 and 1721, a period in which Bach held the double post of Kapellmeister and Kammermusikdirektor of the Court of Leopold (1694-1728), Prince of Anhalt-Köthen.

Program notes — José Bruto da Costa