SUNDAY JUNE 15th 6.30pm ST STEPHENS HAMPSTEAD NW3 2PP Director, Catherine Martin Locke Incidental music in ‘The Tempest’ The First Musick: Introduction – Galliard – Gavot - The Second Musick: Saraband – Lilk – Curtain Tune - The first Act Tune: Rustick Air – The Third Act Tune: Corant – A Canon – The Fourth Act Tune: A Martial Jigge

Handel Concerto Grosso op 6 no 4 Andante – Allegro – Largo e piano – Allegro

Boyce Symphony No. 1 Allegro – Moderato e Dolce – Allegro *** Interval *** Purcell Chacony in G minor

Handel Concerto Grosso op 6 no 6 Largo affetuoso – Allegro ma non troppo – Larghetto musette - Allegro

Hebden Concerto in 7 parts, op 2 no 2 Allegro – Largo e Siciliano – Ma non troppo

Boyce Trio Sonata No. 8 Largo – Allegro – Siciliana – Allegro (Tempo di Minuetto)

London in the 18th century was the vibrant music capital of Europe, attracting many of the continent's finest musicians, not least the great Georg Frideric Handel. This year marks the 300th anniversary of the accession of George l whose arrival saw the start of a great cultural shift, marking rapid social and political changes. The arts moved into the public realm, having been a largely royal prerogative and were bought into by the developing middle class and reflecting the rapid economic growth of England and pre-eminence of London in particular. To highlight the context and the changes in music making in the city we include two works from the late 17th century by Purcell and Locke. Watch out also for the evolving musical language. The first organized concerts for a paying public are thought to be those run by a violinist, John Banister, in a pub in Whitefriars. This was in 1672, just 2 years before Locke’s music for The Tempest. Until the 17th century, formal musical performance had been primarily a courtly activity or within a religious context. The court bands were mirrored in civic life by waits – small flexible groups of musicians who provided music to accompany celebrations and other events and played for theatrical troupes, such as Shakespeare’s in Blackfriars. By the time of the Restoration, music and dance had become an integral part of theatrical performances, even taking the central part of the proceedings and so this was the main source of public musical performance. Customary pieces included many we’ll hear in tonight’s first piece such as Curtain Music (Overture), First Music, Act Tunes and so on, many based on popular dance forms. Matthew Locke (1621 - 1677) was born in Exeter and trained in the cathedral by Orlando Gibbon’s brother. After fleeing the civil war, he returned to England under the Restoration of Charles II. Entering royal service, he became ‘Composer in Ordinary to his Majesty, and organist of her Majesty’s Chapel’ and also ‘Composer for the King’s Sackbutts and Cornets’ and ‘Composer for the Violin’ , a post later taken by his protege, Henry Purcell. The Incidental Music in The Tempest was composed in 1674 for a version of the play adapted by Shadwell (itself an adaptation of a version by Dryden and Davanant - Shakespeare’s plays were rarely performed ‘straight’ until the 19th century) and was frequently revived through the 18th century. In the music we see the first use in English music of directions such as “soft” or “louder by degrees” and of effects such as tremelos in the strings. Locke’s music is often surprisingly chromatic and dissonant and in places a bit crazy, so be prepared! Henry Purcell (1658 – 1695) was the son of a musician in the court of Charles II. He sang at the Chapel Royal around the age of 9 or 10 where he was also taught several instruments. When his voice broke he became assistant keeper of the instruments. As court composer form 1670 onwards, he wrote music for the royal band of Twenty Four Violins and took over from John Blow as organist at Westminster Abbey in 1676 (Blow returned to the post after Purcell’s death). He wrote much celebratory vocal music for royal events as well as private chamber music. His many stage works including several large-scale semi-operas – the apotheosis of the plays with music between the scenes and acts such we hear in Locke’s work for The Tempest, now introducing dramatic music to paint scenes, characters and action but still with spoken dialogue providing most of the drama. Opera of course moved things into a more fluid form where characters were able to emote and define themselves through the music. Purcell died suddenly at his home in Dean’s yard, Westminster, aged only 36yr at the height of his powers and was buried in the Abbey with honours. It is not known how he met his end; theories range from TB, to pneumonia caused by his wife locking him out of the house one night. Two of his six children survived. George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) was born to a barber-surgeon in Halle whose aim for his son was to study law, like many other eventual composers. The Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels had a high opinion of the lad and persuaded his father to let him study music with a church organist, Zachow, whose own music embraced the latest fashions, including the Italian. Handel seems to have received a good grounding in composition in all the current styles, learning by copying out the works of other composers, a practice which stood him in good stead for his later many ‘borrowings’.

Gian Gastone de’ Medici, the Prince of Tuscany, befriended Handel where he was working as an orchestral violinist in the Hamburg Opera and persuaded him he needed to acquire a first hand Italian musical education. He stayed there from 1706-10 and travelled widely, spending time at least in Florence, Rome, Naples and finally Venice. On return from Italy Handel was appointed Kapellmeister in Hanover. The Elector of Hanover, of course, became George 1st but by then Handel had already established himself in London, where Italian opera was taking the city by storm and Handel’s Italian schooling putting him in the centre of this craze and thus pre-eminent in London’s musical life. While in Rome, Handel met Corelli and each played in the other’s orchestra and Handel must have become familiar with Corelli’s Concerti Grossi which became models for orchestral music across Europe and were widely imitated. The Concerto Grosso is a grand concerto in which small groups of instruments are pitted against the band. It became a popular form in England and was often used as a ‘filler’ between acts in the theatre or as an overture. The typical Corellian concerto is of four movements with strictly tonal harmony, ‘walking’ bass lines and a harmonic clash at cadences. Handel’s twelve Opus 6 Concerti Grossi for strings were composed in 1739 over the space of only six weeks after a suggestion of the publisher John Walsh. They are among his finest works, probably a conscious homage to and certainly inspired by Corelli and Handel took particular trouble over the publication with one hundred subscribers paying for the careful engraving. William Boyce (1711 – 1779) was born into the top drawer of the furniture trade, the son of a cabinet maker in the City of London. He became a chorister at St Paul’s Cathedral and studied composition with the organist Maurice Greene and later Pepusch. He succeeded Greene as Master of the King’s Musick in 1757 and had also become composer to the Chapel Royal so composed many sacred works, birthday odes and other celebratory pieces. He also regularly provided music for productions at Covent Garden and Drury Lane. After Greene died he inherited his huge library of early English church music which he finished cataloguing and published in three volumes. He started to lose his hearing early in his career as an organist and by the late1740s was totally deaf and had to give up his several church organist posts in the 1760s. He is buried under the dome of St Paul’s. His Eight Symphonies, published in 1760 by John Walsh, were written earlier as overtures to masques or odes. His music is full of vigour and freshness though, possibly isolated by his deafness, his works sound somewhat old fashioned towards the end of his life. Though Trio Sonatas imply chamber music, it was common at the time to play these pieces also as orchestral pieces; conventions only developed later! Boyce’s, published in 1747, are fine examples of the genre, following on from Handel’s own sets (Handel was a subscriber amongst a huge list) and the varied pieces were popular and highly regarded among amateurs and professionals alike and were used publically in many settings such as the pleasure gardens and theatres (as Act Tunes or fillers). John Hebden (1712–1765) hailed from a village near Harrogate and spent most of his life in York. Around 1742 he moved to London and joined the orchestra of Thomas Arne (he of ‘Rule Brittania’) playing at Vauxhall Gardens as prinicpal cellist and bassoonist. He also played for Handel in a performance of ‘Messiah’ to raise funds for the Foundling Hospital (which has a splendid museum in Brunswick Square - well worth a visit!). He composed pieces for the small professional orchestra in York and later in London but only published 2 collections. Tonight’s piece comes from his Six Concertos for Strings published in London in 1749. In 1980 one set, of six now known to have survived, was discovered buried in the British Library and the pieces were brought back to life for the first time in 200 years. Subscribers included Wiliam Boyce and Thomas Arne as well as the actor and impressario David Garrick and various academics and aristocrats. They are rather conservative, looking back to the Corellian model but flavoured with lashings of good old Yorkshire country-dances.

Catherine Martin read music at St. Anne's College, Oxford, and studied for two years as a post-graduate at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama on the Advanced Solo Studies course. Now specialising in performance on period instruments, Catherine is the leader of the Gabrieli Consort and Players and the orchestra of the Early Opera Company, and has also appeared as guest leader of The English Concert and Florilegium. In demand as violin soloist and director, Catherine has recently directed concerts with Barokkanerne, Oslo and the Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra as well as collaborations with amateur and student orchestras on both baroque and modern instruments. Catherine is a member of the Salomon String Quartet, exploring music of the Classical period from Haydn to Mendelssohn. She appears on many recordings, including for Deutsche Grammophon with The Gabrieli Consort and Players, EMI with Ensemble Galant, and Chandos with I Fagiolini. She is a soloist on Linden’s CD too!!

Linden Baroque was formed in late 1984 by a group of early music enthusiasts in the front room of a house in Linden Gardens, Chiswick. Unusually - and uniquely anywhere at that time – it combines the talents of young professionals, amateurs and students and many members have moved on to have prominent careers in the early music field. From the beginning, the musical director was the well-known baroque oboist Paul Goodwin. Now pursuing a busy international conducting career, Paul is Honorary President and Steven Devine, following Walter Reiter, as Musical Director. The orchestra has played at venues from Norfolk to Rome (where it gave the first performances there of Purcell’s King Arthur). The instruments are either 18th

century originals or

modern copies - some made by the players themselves and we play at “baroque pitch” of 415Hz. Linden gave first modern performances of music by Jean Gilles and J F Fasch. Our first CD, on the Meridian label of music by Fasch, was was played on Radio 3 and Classic FM. Linden Baroque is a registered Charity (No 1014921) and, apart from receiving a National Lottery grant in 1999, is entirely self-supporting. We are always looking for sponsorship for individual events or series.

O R C H E S T R A Violin 1 Catherine Martin, Judy Taylor, Sophie Simpson, Alan Selwyn, Barbara Grant, Ian Cutts Violin 2 Michael Jenner, Diane Wyatt, Michael Mullen, Carolyn Hall, Simon Hill Viola Michael Blee, Deborah Miles-Johnson, John Sutherland, Andrew Spencer Cello Louise Jameson, Mary Walton, Helen Brauer, Sarah Roberts Bass Peter McCarthy Harpsichord Satoko Doi-Luck Next Concert October 19th

Bach Cantatas: director Steven Devine St Marks Church, Hamilton Terrace St Johns Wood NW8 9UT Nearest tube: Maida Vale (2 minute walk) Buses stop on Abbey Road and on Maida Vale (46 from Hampstead, 187 from Swiss Cottage etc). We’ll put directions on our website but it is easy to get to and is a fine building. Join our Mailing List, give us feedback and keep in touch:

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