The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center kicks off its annual Baroque Festival December 1鈥�19 with its Baroque Collection program. The repertoire is a showcase for harpsichordist Kenneth Weiss, a passionate advocate for early music. 鈥淭here鈥檚 as much music from Bach going backwards as from Bach going forwards,鈥� he says. Truly, the wide-ranging musical selections reflect the extraordinary breadth and depth of his knowledge. I spoke with him in late September about the program; an edited and condensed version of our conversation follows.
These concerts contain pieces by Baroque composers whose work may not be as familiar to audiences as that of Bach, Handel, or Vivaldi. Can you tell us about some of the composers and their works?
Kenneth Weiss: We鈥檙e beginning with Telemann, an incredibly prolific composer who wrote opera, religious music, and instrumental works. We鈥檙e playing one of his Parisian Quartets; he was well-traveled, and when he came to Paris he heard the 鈥済alant鈥� style, which is extremely cultivated and refined. It鈥檚 based on rhetoric and conversation, and of course the art of good conversation is one of the achievements of 18th-century France!
Next we鈥檙e doing a piece by C. P. E. Bach, the most successful son of J. S. Bach. He鈥檚 probably the composer most connected to a style called Empfindsamkeit, which was a way of playing with great feeling, without having to use words, allowing composers to go deeper psychologically. This piece has two characters who are opposed, the Sanguine and the Melancholic; it鈥檚 almost bipolar, with one being very 鈥渦p,鈥� the other very 鈥渄own,鈥� and it explores how they meet. After that is a piece by Buxtehude, who was a huge inspiration for J. S. Bach. His music is virtuosic, but it鈥檚 also very benign and friendly. This one is a perfect Christmas-sounding piece, and a joyous way to end the first half.
For the second half we start with Couperin. During this time, there was a divide between the French and Italian styles, and most French people didn鈥檛 accept the Italian style. But Couperin was one of the first to really embrace it. He looked up to Corelli a great deal, and in this piece he gives a beautiful homage; it depicts Corelli going to heaven, with different episodes of him meeting the muses and drinking from a fountain of inspiration, then undergoing an apotheosis and joining the pantheon of great composers. Then we have Rameau鈥檚 Concert IV from Pi猫ces de clavecin en concerts. He was an incredible orchestrator and a major opera composer, but he didn鈥檛 write his first opera until he was 50 years old. In this piece he pushes each instrument to the limit of its capabilities.
We end with a chamber version of Les 脡l茅mens by Jean-F茅ry Rebel. He wrote the piece as a ballet-symphony, a new form at the time. It explores the moment of creation, a 鈥渂ig bang,鈥� with a level of discord that was never written in music before. There鈥檚 chaos, and then a separation of the elements of earth, water, fire, and air, that all move throughout the piece.
In the annals of oversimplified music history, there is sometimes this idea that program music didn鈥檛 really get off the ground until the Romantic era, supposedly starting with Berlioz鈥檚 Symphonie fantastique or some other ur-piece. But as you well know, program music is all over the Baroque period; these works by Couperin and Rebel are great examples. What can audiences expect from these as 鈥減rogram music鈥�?
Yes, it certainly goes back farther than the Romantics. Composers were always interested in projecting not just a feeling, but something concrete. Les 脡l茅mens is very avant-garde for the 18th century. In a normal French dance suite, you鈥檇 have an allemande, a courante, and all the usual dances. But what I find very beautiful in the Rebel is that each dance has its individual meaning; he depicts birdsong, love鈥攁ll the things that came from the world鈥檚 creation. The Couperin is also very thought-out; you can see his deep admiration for Corelli and the introduction of Italian-type figurations into French music. There are seven movements, each with a written text. Often when it鈥檚 performed, the French text is read aloud. We won鈥檛 be doing that, but it鈥檒l be in the program.
I was struck by how specific those movement descriptions are鈥� talking about how Corelli drinks from the spring, falls asleep, and so on.
Exactly! He went pretty far in connecting an imagined narrative with musical gestures.
CMS鈥檚 performance of Les 脡l茅mens will use the piece鈥檚 most fundamental instrumentation: flute, two violins, and continuo. Early performances may have included various horns and reeds as well. What are the advantages of the smaller ensemble for repertoire like this?
In earlier music, before music was written idiomatically for a given instrument, you鈥檇 have 鈥渕elody鈥� music and 鈥渂ass鈥� music that could be played by whatever instrumentalists were there. Here, it鈥檚 a full orchestral work. The first movement is heavily scored with many different parts, but then some later movements have as few as two voices. On the first page of the score, Rebel says it can also be performed in a chamber music setting, and he specifies the instruments: flute, two violins, and continuo, which we鈥檙e using at CMS. The movements work beautifully as chamber pieces; when the music goes down to two voices, we don鈥檛 have 30 people on stage!
He also writes that it can be played in a solo harpsichord transcription, so it鈥檚 part of the very long tradition of transcription. Historically, before recorded music, one of the pleasures of transcription was to be able to hear again what you heard in the concert hall or opera house. You could play it at home with a group of friends, and the music would keep living. With a large orchestra, Les 脡l茅mens would be louder and different, but the chamber version allows the music to be heard and speak for itself, and it鈥檚 a record of the way many of Rebel鈥檚 contemporaries would have experienced it.
What does the Baroque aesthetic represent for you, and what does it have to teach us in the 21st century?
That鈥檚 a great question. Of course, there were many sub-periods in the Baroque. I think the 17th century is a time of wild invention; things weren鈥檛 codified; there was an amazing amount of creativity and experimentation. There were many isolated geniuses, like Frescobaldi, who found ways of seeing things that nobody else saw before.
Music in the 18th century is more about projecting how to get along in society, how to fit in. Of course, you have to show your brilliance, but it鈥檚 also codified, with a lot of elegance and refinement. So there are different aesthetics, not just at different times but in different countries. The Italians liked things very brilliant and high-pitched, and the French thought that was vulgar鈥攖o play virtuosically. None of their sonatas ends with a fast movement! That was not the last thing you鈥檇 show; you were supposed to show your sophistication at the end because that鈥檚 how you鈥檇 want people to remember you. So within Europe there were a lot of different styles.
With all this in mind, I鈥檇 say what we can learn from the Baroque today is the importance of creativity, of individuality, and of listening to each other. Of course, that鈥檚 the principle of all chamber music. I鈥檇 say chamber music began at the end of the 1500s with English consort music. That鈥檚 the first music in which every line is equally important. It鈥檚 not all about the soprano! It鈥檚 a kind of democratic ideal in which each part is important, and each has to listen and interact. And that鈥檚 what we could all do more of.
I agree. It鈥檚 always surprising to me how quickly these things get political.
I completely see it. Chamber music is a kind of ideal that requires understanding the other. That feeling of playing chamber music, interacting with colleagues鈥攊f only life could be so harmonious.
