Concerto Grosso No. 1 in D Major (Solo Violin 2 Part) - Op. 6, No. 1

11 more: Concerto Grosso in F major, HWV • Concerto Grosso in E minor, HWV • Concerto Grosso in A minor, HWV • Concerto Grosso in D major, .
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Aradia Ensemble Mallon, Kevin , Conductor.


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Concerto Grosso in F Major, Op. Concerto Grosso in E Minor, Op. Concerto Grosso in A Minor, Op. Concerto Grosso in D Major, Op. Concerto Grosso in G Minor, Op. Concerto Grosso in C Minor, Op.

Concerto Grosso in D Minor, Op. Concerto Grosso in A Major, Op. Concerto Grosso in B Minor, Op. Naxos Records, a member of the Naxos Music Group. We use cookies to improve the use of our website, our products and services, and confirm your login authorization or initial creation of account.

By clicking "Ok" or by continuing to use our website, you agree to cookies being set on your device as explained in our Privacy Policy. You may disable the use of cookies if you do not wish to accept them, however, this may limit the website's overall functionality. Welcome to Naxos Records. Kevin Mallon talks to Jeremy Siepmann. A tempo giusto Andante larghetto - The less conventional fourth movement, marked andante, non presto , is a charming and stately gavotte with elegant variations for the two violins.

Because of changes in popular tastes, the season in had been disastrous for both the Opera of the Nobility and Handel's own company, which by that time he managed single-handedly. At the close of the season Handel suffered a form of physical and mental breakdown, which resulted in paralysis of the fingers on one hand. Persuaded by friends to take the waters at Aix-la-Chapelle , he experienced a complete recovery. Henceforth, with the exception of Giove in Argo , Imeneo and Deidamia , he abandoned Italian opera in favour of the English oratorio, a new musical genre that he was largely responsible for creating.

The year saw the first performance of his great oratorio Saul , his setting of John Dryden 's Ode for St Cecilia's Day and the revival of his pastoral English opera or serenata Acis and Galatea. In the previous year he had produced the choral work Israel in Egypt and in he composed L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato , a cantata-like setting of John Milton 's poetry.

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For the — season at the Lincoln's Inn Fields theatre , [4] Handel composed Twelve Grand Concertos to be performed during intervals in these masques and oratorios, as a feature to attract audiences: Following the success of his organ concertos Op. There were just over subscribers, including members of the royal family, friends, patrons, composers, organists and managers of theatres and pleasure-gardens, some of whom bought multiple sets for larger orchestral forces.

Handel's own performances usually employed two continuo instruments, either two harpsichords or a harpsichord and a chamber organ; some of the autograph manuscripts have additional parts appended for oboes, the extra forces available for performances during oratorios. Walsh had himself very successfully sold his own edition of Corelli's celebrated Twelve concerti grossi Op.

The twelve concertos were produced in a space of five weeks in late September and October , with the dates of completion recorded on all but No. The ten concertos of the set that were largely newly composed were first heard during performance of oratorios later in the season. The two remaining concertos were reworkings of organ concertos, HWV in F major nicknamed "the Cuckoo and the Nightingale" because of the imitations of birdsong in the organ part and HWV in A major, both of which had already been heard by London audiences earlier in In Walsh published his own arrangements for solo organ of these two concertos, along with arrangements of four of the Op.

The composition of the concerti grossi, however, because of the unprecedented period of time laid aside for their composition, seem to have been a conscious effort by Handel to produce a set of orchestral "masterpieces" for general publication: The ten concertos that had been newly composed all those apart from Nos. Two concertos were heard at the first performance of L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato at the end of February; and two more in March and early April during revivals of Saul and Israel in Egypt. The final pair of concertos were first played during a performance of L'Allegro on April 23, just two days after the official publication of the set.

HANDEL, G.F.: Concerti Grossi, Op. 6 (Aradia Ensemble, Mallon) -

The analysis of individual movements is taken from Sadie , Abraham and the notes by Hans Joachim Marx accompanying the recordings by Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert. The first short movement of the concerto starts dramatically, solemn and majestic: This severe grandeur elicits a gentle and eloquent response from the concertino string trio, in the manner of Corelli, with imitations and passages in thirds in the violins. The orchestra and soloists continue their dialogue until in the final ten bars, there is a reprise of the introductory music, now muted and in the minor key, ending with a remarkable chromatic passage of noble simplicity descending to the final drooping cadence.

The second movement is a lively allegro. The material is derived from the first two bars and a half bar figure that occurs in sequences and responses. Although it displays some elements of classical sonata form , the movement's success is due more to the unpredictable interchanges between orchestra and soloists. The third movement is a dignified adagio, using similar anapaest figures to those in opening bars of the first movement.

As Charles Burney wrote in , "In the adagio , while the two trebles are singing in the style of vocal duets of the time, where these parts, though not in regular fugue, abound in imitations of the fugue kind; the base, with a boldness and character peculiar to Handel, supports with learning and ingenuity the subject of the two first bars, either direct or inverted, throughout the movement, in a clear, distinct and marked manner.

The fugal fourth movement has a catchy subject, first heard completely from the soloist. Despite being fugal in nature, it does not adhere to the strict rules of counterpoint, surprising the listener instead with ingenious episodes, alternating between the ripieno and concertino; at the close, where a bold restatement of the theme would be expected, Handel playfully curtails the movement with two pianissimo bars.

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The last concerto-like movement is an energetic gigue in two parts, with the soloists echoing responses to the full orchestra. This four-movement concerto resembles a sonata da chiesa. From the original autograph, Handel initially intended the concerto to have two extra movements, a fugue in the minor key as second movement and a final gigue ; these movements were later used elsewhere in the set. The opening andante larghetto is noble, spacious and flowing, with rich harmonies. The responses from the concertino trio are derived from the opening ritornello. They alternate between a graceful legato and more decisive dotted rhythms.

It has been suggested that the three unusual adagio cadences interrupted by pauses prior to the close indicate that Handel expected cadenzas by each of the soloists, although the surviving scores show no indication of this. The second movement is an allegro in D minor in a contrapuntal trio sonata style. The animated semiquaver figure of the opening bars is played in imitation or in parallel thirds as a kind of moto perpetuo. The third movement is unconventional. It alternates between two different moods: There is an apparent return to orthodoxy in the fourth movement which begins with a vigorous fugue in four parts, treated in a conventional manner.

It is interrupted by contrasting interludes marked pianissimo in which a slow-moving theme, solemn and lyrical, is heard in the solo strings above repeated chords. This second theme is later revealed to be a counterpoint to the original fugal subject. In the opening larghetto in E minor the full orchestra three times plays the ritornello, a sarabande of serious gravity. The three concertino responses vere towards the major key, but only transitorily.


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    4. The dialogue is resolved with the full orchestra combining the music from the ritornello and the solo interludes. The profoundly tragic mood continues in the following andante , one of Handel's most personal statements. There is an unexpected addition of a G sharp in the last entry of the four-note theme in the bass as the movement draws to a close. The third movement is an allegro. Of all the Op. Although the charming and graceful fourth movement in G major is described as a polonaise , it has very few features in common with this popular eighteenth century dance form.

    The lower strings simulate a drone, creating a pastoral mood, but the dance-like writing for upper strings is more courtly than rustic. The fourth concerto in A minor is a conventional orchestral concerto in four movements, with very little writing for solo strings, except for brief passages in the second and last movements. The first movement, marked larghetto affetuoso , has been described as one of Handel's finest movements, broad and solemn. The melody is played by the first violins in unison, their falling appoggiatura semiquavers reflecting the galant style.

    Beneath them, the bass part moves steadily in quavers, with extra harmony provided by the inner parts. The second allegro is an energetic fugue, the brief exchanges between concertino and ripieno strictly derived from the unusually long subject. The sombreness of the movement is underlined by the final cadence on the lowest strings of the violins and violas. The largo e piano in F major is one of Handel's most sublime and simple slow movements, a sarabande in the Italian trio sonata style.

    Above a steady crotchet walking bass, the sustained theme is gently exchanged between the two violin parts, with imitations and suspensions; harmonic colour is added in the discreet viola part.

    In the closing bars the crotchet figure of the bass passes into the upper strings before the final cadence. The last movement, an allegro in A minor, is a radical reworking of a soprano aria that Handel was preparing for his penultimate opera Imeneo. In the concerto, the material is more tightly argued, deriving from two fragmented highly rhythmic figures of 5 and 6 notes. Although there are unmistakable elements of wit in the imaginative development, the prevalent mood is serious: In the coda, the first concertino violin restates the main theme, joined two bars later in thirds by the other solo violin and finally by repeated sustained pianissimo chords in the ripieno, modulating through unexpected keys.

    This is answered twice by two forte unison cadences, the second bringing the movement to a close. Charles Burney , [16]. The fifth grand concerto in the brilliant key of D major is an energetic concerto in six movements. It incorporates in its first, second and sixth movements reworked versions of the three-movement overture to Handel's Ode for St Cecilia's Day HWV 76 Larghetto, e staccato - allegro - minuet , composed in immediately prior to the Op.

    The minuet was added later to the concerto grosso, perhaps for balance: The first movement, in the style of a French overture with dotted rhythms and scale passages, for dramatic effect has the novel feature of being prefaced by a two bar passage for the first concertino violin. The allegro , a vigorous and high-spirited fugue, differs very little from that in the Ode , except for three additional bars at the close.

    The composition, divided into easily discernible sections, relies more on harmony than counterpoint. A busy semiquaver figure runs through the dance-like piece, interrupted only by the cadences. The concertino parts dominate the movement, with the two solo violins in expressive counterpoint.

    Each episode for soloists is followed by a tutti response. The delightful fifth allegro is written for full orchestra. The rollicking first subject is derived from the twenty third sonata in Domenico Scarlatti 's Essercizi Gravicembalo of The subsequent repeated semiquaver passage-work over a walking bass recalls the style of Georg Philipp Telemann.

    Handel, however, treats the material in a wholly original way: The final menuet , marked un poco larghetto , is a more direct reworking of the minuet in the overture to the Ode. The first statement of the theme is melodically pruned down, so that the quaver figure in the response gives the impression of a variation. This warm-hearted and solid movement was added at a later stage by Handel, perhaps because it provided a more effective way to end the concerto than the brilliant fifth movement.

    Concerto grosso in D major, Op.6 No.1 (Corelli, Arcangelo)

    The sixth concerto in G minor was originally intended to have four movements. The autograph manuscript contains the sketch for a gavotte in two parts, which, possibly in order to restore an imbalance created by the length of the musette and its different key E flat major , Handel abandoned in favour of two new shorter allegro movements. The musette thus became the central movement, with a return to the minor tonality in the concluding movements.

    The first movement, marked Larghetto e affetuoso , is one of the darkest that Handel wrote, with a tragic pathos that easily equals that of the finest dramatic arias in his opera seria. Although inspired by the model of Corelli, it is far more developed and innovative in rhythm, harmony and musical texture. There are brief passages for solo strings which make expressive unembellished responses to the full orchestra. Despite momentary suggestions of modulations to the relative major key, the music sinks back towards the prevailing melancholic mood of G minor; at the sombre close, the strings descend to the lowest part of their register.

    The second movement is a concise chromatic fugue, severe, angular and unrelenting, showing none of Handel's usual tendency to depart from orthodoxy. The elegiac musette in E flat major is the crowning glory of the concerto, praised by the contemporary commentator Charles Burney , who described how Handel would often perform it as a separate piece during oratorios. In this highly original larghetto , Handel conjures up a long dreamy pastoral of some bars.

    Handel creates a unique dark texture of lower register strings over a drone bass, the traditional accompaniment for this dance, derived from the drone of the bagpipes. This sombre theme alternates with contrasting spirited episodes on the higher strings. The movement divides into four parts: The following allegro is an energetic Italianate movement in the style of Vivaldi, with ritornello passages alternating with the virtuoso violin solo.

    It departs from its model in freely intermingling the solo and tutti passages after a central orchestral episode in D minor. The seventh concerto is the only one for full orchestra: The first movement is a largo , ten bars long, which like an overture leads into the allegro fugue on a single note, that only a composer of Handel's stature would have dared to attempt.

    The theme of the fugue consists of the same note for three bars two minims, four crotchets, eight quavers followed by a bar of quaver figures, which with slight variants are used as thematic material for the entire movement, a work relying primarily on rhythm. The two final movements are a steady andante with recurring ritornellos and a lively hornpipe replete with unexpected syncopation.