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NO.19__TRAUER
Il Giardino Armonico
Giovanni Antonini, conductor
Nora Gomringer, writer
Emin Özmen, photographer
Symphonies no. 44 "Trauer", no. 52 and no. 108
Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654): from "Ludi musici prima pars" (Hamburg, 1621): Paduan a 4 SSWV 43
Arvo Pärt (*1935): "Da pacem Domine" for string orchestra (2004/2006)
Concerts:
10 October 2023, Vienna Musikverein
16 October 2023, Basel Don Bosco
By Giovanni Antonini
The idea of the nineteenth Haydn2032 project is to span the broadest imaginable arc in chronological and stylistic terms, embracing two dramatic minor-key symphonies by our master, a pavan by the composer Samuel Scheidt that dates from a century and a half earlier, and a musical prayer for peace composed by our contemporary Arvo Pärt. The common thread linking all these works is that they deal with the theme of death and mourning.
Even though the Paduan a 4 selected for our programme comes from a collection of ‘musical games’ published in 1621, I have always felt that this piece in particular (which I love very much) possesses a special kind of inherent sadness and melancholy, a sentiment associated with events that have had a decisive impact on people’s lives, and not only in the first half of the seventeenth century. This was the time of the Thirty Years War, an era of religiously motivated conflicts that were waged with extreme brutality – and whose consequences seemingly reverberate right up to the present, as many a terrorist attack in our own day has sadly demonstrated. Da pacem Domine, commissioned from Pärt by my esteemed colleague Jordi Savall, is dedicated to the memory of the victims of one such attack – it took place in Madrid on 11 March 2004 – and its contemplative character recalls the adagios and andantes of many symphonies by Joseph Haydn.
Like that of the Estonian composer, Haydn‘s music, even when it sounds sad, is never imbued with despair. One of the reasons for this – symbolised by the phrase ‘laus Deo’, with which he habitually graced the end of his scores – may lie in his positive, healthy and enlightened attitude towards matters of religion.
Program
Joseph Haydn (1732–1809): Symphony no. 108 in B flat major hob. I:108 (1762)
Allegro molto / Menuet - Trio / Andante / Finale. Presto
SYMPHONY NO.108 B-DUR HOB. I:108 "B" (before 1765 [1762])
Period of composition: before 1765 [1762]
Joseph Haydn (1732–1809): Symphony no. 52 C minor Hob. I:52 (1771)
Allegro assai con brio / Andante / Menuet. Allegretto - Trio / Finale. Presto
SYMPHONY NO.52 C MINOR HOB. I:52 (1771)
Period of composition: before 1774 [2nd half 1771]
Samuel Scheidt (1587–1654): Paduan a 4 from "Ludi Musici Prima Pars" (Hamburg, 1621)
Arvo Pärt (1935*): "Da Pacem Domine" for string orchestra (2004/2006)
Joseph Haydn (1732–1809): Symphony no. 44 E Minor Hob. I:44 "TRAUER" (1770/1771)
Allegro con brio / Menuet. Allegretto: Canone in Diapason - Trio / Adagio / Finale. Presto
SYMPHONY NO.44 E MINOR "TRAUER/MOURNING" HOB. I:44 (1770/1771)
Period of composition: before 1772 [1770/1771]
Line-up
Il Giardino Armonico
Giovanni Antonini, conductor
Past concerts
Vienna
Tuesday, 10.10.2023, 7.30 pm
Musikverein Vienna, Brahms-Saal
Pre concert talk: 6.30 pm, Steinerner Saal / Horst Haschek Auditorium
Basel
Monday, 16.10.2023, 7.30 pm
Haydn lounge, Heinz Holliger Auditorium, Don Bosco Basel:
6.15 pm: Reading with Nora Gomringer
6.50 pm: Pre concert talk with Giovanni Antonini / Andrea Scartazzini (Moderation)
Doors open at 6.00 pm (no entry between reading and talk)
Seating is limited to 50 people. Admission only with concert ticket.
Concert Paul Sacher Saal, Don Bosco Basel:
7.30 pm: Concert
Haydn soup during interval
Box office opens at 6 pm.
- Livestream
The livestream of the concert is available on our Youtube channel until 16 January 2024.
Biographies
Orchestra
Il Giardino Armonico
Orchestra
Founded in 1985 and conducted by Giovanni Antonini, has been established as one of the world’s leading period instrument ensembles, bringing together musicians from Europe’s relevant music institutions. The ensemble’s repertoire mainly focuses on the 17th and 18th century. Depending on the demands of each program, the group consists of three up to thirty musicians.
Il Giardino Armonico is regularly invited to festivals all over the world performing in the most important concert halls, and has received high acclaim for both concerts and opera productions, like Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, Vivaldi’s Ottone in Villa Händel’s Agrippina, Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, La Resurrezione and finally Giulio Cesare in Egitto with Cecilia Bartoli during the 2012 edition of the Salzburg Whitsun and Summer Festival.
Beside that, Il Giardino Armonico sustains an intense recording activity. After many years as an exclusive group of Teldec Classics achieving several major awards for its recordings of works by Vivaldi and the other 18th century composers, the group had an exclusive agreement with Decca/ L’Oiseau-Lyre recording Händel’s Concerti Grossi Op. VI and the cantata Il Pianto di Maria with Bernarda Fink.
The group also released on Naïve La Casa del Diavolo, Vivaldi cello Concertos with Christophe Coin, and the opera Ottone in Villa winning the Diapason d’Or in 2011. On the label Onyx Vivaldi violin Concertos with Viktoria Mullova.
In 2009 a new cooperation with Cecilia Bartoli led to the project Sacrificium (Decca), Platinum Album in France and Belgium and prized by the Grammy Award.
Again on Decca Alleluia (March 2013) and Händel in Italy (October 2015) with Julia Lezhneva, acclaimed by public and critics.
The group published Serpent & Fire with Anna Prohaska (Alpha Classics – Outhere music group, 2016) winning the ICMA “baroque vocal” in 2017.
The recording of five Mozart Violin Concertos with Isabel Faust (Harmonia Mundi, 2016) stands as the result of the prestigious cooperation with the great violinist.
Il Giardino Armonico is part of the twenty-year project Haydn2032 for which the Haydn Foundation has been created in Basel to support both the recording project of the complete Haydn Symphonies (Alpha Classic) and a series of concerts in various European cities, with thematic programs focused on this fascinating repertoire. In November 2014 the first album titled La Passione has been published and won the Echo Klassik award in 2015. Il Filosofo, issued in 2015, has been “CHOC of the year” by Classica. The third one Solo e Pensoso has been released in August 2016, and the forth Il Distratto in March 2017.
The last volumes of the Haydn2032 project, as well as Telemann (Alpha Classics, November 2016) are available as CD and LP too. Telemann won the Diapason d’Or in January 2017.
Furthermore the ensemble worked with such acclaimed soloists as Giuliano Carmignola, Sol Gabetta, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Viktoria Mullova, and Giovanni Sollima.
Conductor
Giovanni Antonini
Conductor
Born in Milan, Giovanni studied at the Civica Scuola di Musica and at the Centre de Musique Ancienne in Geneva. He is a founder member of the Baroque ensemble “Il Giardino Armonico”, which he has led since 1989. With this ensemble, he has appeared as conductor and soloist on the recorder and Baroque transverse flute in Europe, United States, Canada, South America, Australia, Japan and Malaysia. He is Artistic Director of Wratislavia Cantans Festival in Poland and Principal Guest Conductor of Mozarteum Orchester and Kammerorchester Basel.
He has performed with many prestigious artists including Cecilia Bartoli, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Giuliano Carmignola, Isabelle Faust, Sol Gabetta, Sumi Jo, Viktoria Mullova, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Emmanuel Pahud and Giovanni Sollima. Renowned for his refined and innovative interpretation of the classical and baroque repertoire, Antonini is also a regular guest with Berliner Philharmoniker, Concertgebouworkest, Tonhalle Orchester, Mozarteum Orchester, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, London Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
His opera productions have included Handel’s Giulio Cesare and Bellini’s Norma with Cecilia Bartoli at Salzburg Festival. In 2018 he conducted Orlando at Theater an der Wien and returned to Opernhaus Zurich for Idomeneo. In the 21/22 season he will guest conduct the Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin, Stavanger Symphony, Anima Eterna Bruges and the Symphonieorchester de Bayerischer Rundfunks. He will also direct Cavalieri’s opera Rappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo for Theatre an der Wien and a ballet production of Haydn’s Die Jahreszeiten for Wiener Staatsballett with the Wiener Philharmoniker.
With Il Giardino Armonico, Giovanni has recorded numerous CDs of instrumental works by Vivaldi, J.S. Bach (Brandenburg Concertos), Biber and Locke for Teldec. With Naïve he recorded Vivaldi’s opera Ottone in Villa, and, with Il Giardino Armonico for Decca, has recorded Alleluia with Julia Lezhneva and La morte della Ragione, collections of sixteenth and seventeenth century instrumental music. With Kammerorchester Basel he has recorded the complete Beethoven Symphonies for Sony Classical and a disc of flute concertos with Emmanuel Pahud entitled Revolution for Warner Classics. In 2013 he conducted a recording of Bellini’s Norma for Decca in collaboration with Orchestra La Scintilla.
Antonini is artistic director of the Haydn 2032 project, created to realise a vision to record and perform with Il Giardino Armonico and Kammerorchester Basel, the complete symphonies of Joseph Haydn by the 300th anniversary of the composer’s birth. The first 12 volumes have been released on the Alpha Classics label with two further volumes planned for release every year.
© Emin Özmen / Magnum Photos
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«Das Schönste an dir ist deine Stimme, sagte der Mann zu mir und ich glaubte ihm und war eine zufriedene Frau, weil ich diese Stimme besaß, die ihm gefiel. Ich nutzte sie, wenn angesprochen, denn ein Zuviel der Stimme gefiel dem Mann nicht.
Also war ich eine Art Hoffmann’sche Olympia, die viel nickte und lächelte und „ach, ach“ seufzte, um dem Mann meine Gefühlspalette im Ansatz zu vermitteln in der Annahme, sie interessiere ihn. Im Inneren beschäftigten mich andere Dinge: Fragen.»
Excerpt of the text by Nora Gomringer
The text «Sich schöpfen – Original werden. Die Pläne der anderen und ein Kopf, dem man das Denken ansieht. – Ein Haydnisches Durcheinander» by Nora Gomringer will be published in the vinyl edition vol. 19.
Biografie
Writer
Nora Gomringer
Writer
Nora Gomringer, Swiss and German, lives in Bamberg, where she is director of Internationales Künstlerhaus Villa Concordia. She was born in 1980 in Neunkirchen/Saar and grew up in the countryside of Upper Franconia. After graduating from high school in Pennsylvania in 1998, she took her Abitur in Bamberg in 2000, where she went on to study German, English, and History of Art. She has been a published poet since 2000, and performs both readings and musical collaborations. Her work has spread to radio, TV, and the Internet, she is a regular columnist in print and radio. Her YouTube channel shows her works in film; her Facebook and Instagram accounts show the author as poeta activa in many situations and phases of work. She’d be happy for you to click there. She has been honored for her work with the Jacob Grimm Prize for German Language (2011) and the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize (2015), as well as numerous international residency scholarships.
Since 2016, she has performed regularly with jazz drummer Philipp Scholz, presenting the duo’s program Peng Peng Peng, and the Dorothy Parker homage Peng Peng Parker. Their shared paths led them to Japan, where they were able to take advantage of a 3-month residence in 2016, and where Nora Gomringer’s last volume of poetry „MODEN“ (2017, Voland & Quist) was written. All her books – she has to date published 9 volumes of poetry and 2 of essays, as well as editing numerous works – are collaborations with esteemed visual artists and graphic artists. She is keen to actively cite her numerous translators, and she is committed to fostering greater appreciation for this greatest of all arts.
Beautiful things in the near future: the Max Kade guest professorship 2019 in Oberlin, Ohio; a planned collaboration with author and illustrator Line Hoven; the trilogy appears as an anthology; appearances with Philipp Scholz (see CALENDAR); a new volume of poetry on the subject of faith with graphic artist Zara Teller; a video work with Claus Wagner, and much more.