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February 2002 Program Notes
Twin Cities: Berlin & Hamburg
by Mary Burke
Georg Philipp Telemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach enjoyed long careers and great fame, working in some of Europe's most important musical centers—they even worked in some of the same musical centers. Indeed, the links and parallels between their lives are numerous; for example, both men studied law at the University of Leipzig, wrote prolifically in practically every genre, were active in public concerts in addition to their official duties, associated with leading intellectuals of their time, demonstrated considerable business savvy, and had disappointing experiences working as court musicians. They knew many of the same people, and were even linked by a personal relationship, inasmuch as Telemann was Bach's godfather.
The cities where they spent the greatest part of their respective careers, Berlin and Hamburg, also had much in common. Both cities belonged to the Hanseatic League, which is to say that they were independent city-states rather than the property of the local prince, elector, or what have you. The freie Hansestädte, though strongly commerce-oriented, did not lack cultural awareness, and town musicians were a typical part of each city's resources.
Berlin took a different course in 1443, becoming the residence of the Electors of Brandenburg, and later of the Kings of Prussia. The Berlin court began keeping its own ensembles as early as 1535, and musical activity during the ensuing few centuries waxed and waned according to the political vicissitudes of the region. The Thirty Years War, for example, caused great hardship generally, and relative neglect of the arts in favor of military concerns. By the beginning of the 18th century, however, the music scene at the Berlin court got back on its feet under Frederick III, an Elector elevated to King of Prussia, who founded the Academy of the Arts in 1696.
With the accession of Frederick II (also known as Frederick the Great) in 1740, music at the Berlin court experienced a golden age. Unlike his father, Frederick genuinely loved art, music, literature, and intellectual pursuits for their own sake, and could rightly be considered one of the more enlightened of the "enlightened despots." However, he was not only an aficionado, but also a flutist and composer of some skill, which enabled him to take a particularly active role in court music (perhaps more active than was altogether desirable).
Like any other well-informed European, Frederick knew of the brilliant Dresden court scene with its legendary orchestra, and hoped to equal or even surpass it. To that end, he had a grand opera house built, and hired the best composers and performers he could find from Italy and France. For the court ensemble he gathered such notables as the Graun brothers, Quantz, and C.P.E. Bach. Frederick also exercised a great deal of direct control over musical projects at court and beyond. He regularly performed in the private court concerts, and provided some of the compositions himself. While not actually participating in performances at the opera house, Frederick had a hand in almost everything else that went on there, from choice of repertoire to set design. He would even rewrite arias or substitute some of his own when he deemed it appropriate.
The court, however, had not cornered the music market. Beginning in the 1720s, amateur groups began to present public concerts in the city, mainly of sacred music. These groups quickly gained a reputation as serious enterprises, and began to attract increasing numbers of professional performers, including some of Frederick's court musicians. The renowned Singakademie achieved such a reputation as to attract commissions and to premiere important works, including the Mozart Requiem.
Emanuel Bach came to the court almost immediately after Frederick's accession in 1740, which would seem to indicate that the monarch valued his skill and reputation. However, in actual practice, Bach was more or less a second-class citizen among the musicians; he was never accorded the same recognition as Quantz or the Grauns, and even his compositions for flute, written especially for the king, met with little enthusiasm. Further friction developed over the years in the form of artistic and financial disputes. Little wonder, then, that Bach began to spend more and more time composing, teaching, writing treatises, and applying for other jobs.
Although he could write comfortably in many genres, Bach's heart always lay with the keyboard. The double concerto on tonight's program, written around the time of his arrival in Berlin, is a fine example of his ease and confidence with the instrument, as well as his unique style, which was heavily influenced by the Empfindsamkeit (sensitivity) that was popular in northern literature and music of the time. All three movements employ the ritornello form of his father's generation, but Bach takes it in new directions by varying the mood drastically from one section to another, and making themes as different as possible. The harpsichords' interplay with one another and with the orchestra reveals Bach's genius for development and balance.
In 1767, Bach finally found a new appointment that would take him away from the oppressive court atmosphere to the vibrant city of Hamburg, succeeding his godfather as the city's music director.
Hamburg, though lacking the particular motivating force of an engaged (or at least image-conscious) monarch, still managed to support a wealth of musical activity. Musicians had been kept on the city payroll since the mid-14th century, finding themselves at various times under the authority of the council's chief pastry cook and the police department. They performed primarily for outdoor celebrations, but also in church functions at need. In 1529, Hamburg's municipal and academic musical entities were all gathered together under one supervising agency for the purpose of standardizing the performance of sacred music throughout the city. Originally, the Stadtkantor had responsibility for music at the five main churches, but over the years his duties expanded somewhat to include secular city festivals. After the death of the energetic Thomas Selle in 1663, the office began to decline in significance and lost ground to the secular music scene. However, the even more energetic Telemann became Stadtkantor in 1721, and immediately raised both sacred and secular music to new heights.
In addition to furnishing music for the five churches (including two cantatas for each Sunday, a Passion every year, and miscellaneous other pieces for special events) and teaching at the Johanneum, Telemann provided vocal and instrumental pieces for the city's numerous festivals, most notably those celebrating the Admiralty. In 1722 he also assumed directorship of the opera house, for which he had written the comic opera Der geduldige Socrates (Patient Socrates) in 1721. Like Berlin, Hamburg had a tradition of public concerts, going back to 1660 and the collegium musicum founded by composer Matthias Weckmann; Telemann revived the collegium (he had directed similar ensembles in Leipzig and Frankfurt) and instituted a hugely popular concert series. Somehow he also found the time to publish and market his compositions, including the biweekly periodical Der getreue Musik-Meister (which was not entirely his own music—perhaps only 75% or so).
Telemann ultimately achieved a degree of involvement and control in Hamburg's musical life that rivaled Lully's Microsoft-like monopoly in Paris, and Frederick's micromanaging in Berlin. Unlike them, however, he seems to have reached this point without stepping on too many toes. A few members of the city council thought it unseemly for him to be involved in the opera, and pressed him to end his association with the Gänsemarktoper; Telemann retaliated by applying for a prestigious position elsewhere—theThomaskirche job in Leipzig, which he actually got, winning out over J.S. Bach—and in the end the council gave him a raise and reconciled themselves to his opera work.
The D minor concerto and the suite for viola da gamba were apparently written during the 1730s. Orchestral suites were one of Telemann's specialties, and in his 1740 autobiography he estimated that he had already written about 600 of them (yes, six hundred). The present work features an unusual solo instrument, the relatively quiet viola da gamba, normally used for chamber music. Perhaps as a joke, Telemann has this delicate-sounding instrument imitating a trumpet in the second movement of the suite. The remaining movements are more typical of the French dance suite (albeit with Italian concerto-style solo/tutti interplay), and make excellent use of the viol's unique timbre. The concerto, on the other hand, is quite decidedly Italian in form and flavor through the first three movements, but then Telemann throws us a curve by ending with a fast gavotte, with motifs flying briskly among sections and soloists.
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