3 LP - 6.35603 GX - (p) 1983
3 CD - 8.35603 ZB - (c) 1984

Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759)





Concerti grossi op, 6 Nr. 1-12


Twelve grand Concertos in seven Parts for four Violins, a Tenor Violin, a Violoncello with a thorough Bass for the Harpsichord





Concerto grosso I G-dur, op. 6 Nr. 1
12' 26" A1
- A tempo giusto 1' 44"

- Allegro
 1' 37"

- Adagio 2' 54"

- Allegro 2' 39"

- Allegro (Menuet)
 3' 32"

Concerto grosso II F-dur, op. 6 Nr. 2
12' 11" A2
- Andante larghetto
 3' 43"

- Allegro
 2' 53"

- Largo - Adagio/Larghetto andante e piano 2' 38"

- Allegro ma non troppo
 2' 54"

Concerto grosso III e-moll, op. 6 Nr. 3
11' 33" B1
- Larghetto 1 15"

- Andante
1' 36"

- Allegro 2' 38"

- Polonaise: Andante
 4' 28"

- Allegro, ma non troppo (Menuet)
 1 36"

Concerto grosso IV a-moll, op. 6 Nr. 4
12' 38" B2
- Affettuoso 3' 13"

- Allegro
 3' 32"

- Largo e piano
 2' 43"

- Allegro 3' 10"

Concerto grosso V D-dur, op. 6 Nr. 5
18' 17" C1
- Larghetto e staccato 2' 01"

- Allegro 2' 00"

- Presto 4' 06"

- Largo 2' 34"

- Allegro 2' 32"

- Menuet: Un poco larghetto
 3' 04"

Concerto grosso VI g-moll, op. 6 Nr. 6
16' 45" C2
- Largo affettuoso 3' 43"

- A tempo giusto 1' 46"

- Musette: Larghetto 5' 23"

- Allegro
 3' 33"

- Allegro (Menuet)
 2' 20"

Concerto grosso VII B-dur/d-moll, op. 6 Nr. 7
14' 08" D1
- Largo 1' 17"

- Allegro
 3' 22"

- Largo 2' 18"

- Andante 3' 56"

- Hornpipe 3' 15"

Concerto grosso VIII c-moll, op.6 Nr. 8
17' 39" D2
- Allemande 7' 34"

- Grave 1' 39"

- Andante allegro 1' 48"

- Adagio 1' 10"

- Siciliana 4' 00"

- Allegro 1' 28"

Concerto grosso IX F-dur, op.6 Nr. 9
12' 44" E1
- Largo 1' 10"

- Allegro 3' 42"

- Larghetto 2' 34"

- Allegro 2' 08"

- Menuet 1' 09"

- Gigue 2' 01"

Concerto grosso X d-moll, op.6 Nr. 10
14' 46" E2
- Ouverture - Grave andante/Allegro
 3' 59"

- Air: Lent
 3' 48"

- Allegro 2' 08"

- Allegro 3' 25"

- Allegro moderato
 1' 26"

Concerto grosso XI A-dur, op.6 Nr. 11
16' 44" F1
- Andante larghetto e staccato
 4' 39"

- Allegro 1' 44"

- Largo e staccato
 0' 33"

- Andante 3' 40"

- Allegro 6' 08"

Concerto grosso XII h-moll, op.6 Nr. 12
10' 33" F2
- Largo 2' 07"

- Allegro 2' 55"

- Aria: Larghetto e piano 2' 36"

- Largo 0' 40"

- Allegro 2' 15"




 
Ripieno Concertino
- Alice Harnoncourt, Violine (VII) - Alice Harnoncourt, Violine
- Thomas Zehetmair, Violine (III/4,5; VII; IX/4,5,6) - Erich Höbarth, Violine (I; VI; IX/1,3; X)
- Karl Höffinger, Violine - Anita Mitterer, Violine (II-V; VIII; XII)
- Peter Schoberwalter, Violine - Thomas Zehetmair, Violine (X)
- Helmut Mitter, Violine - Wolfgang Aichinger, Violoncello (I; IV; X)
- Anita Mitterer, Violine (I; VII; IX-XI)
 - Christophe Coin, Violoncello (II; III/1-3; V-VII; IX; XII)
- Walter Pfeiffer, Violine (I-II; IV-VI; IX-X)
 - Rudolf Leopold, Violoncello (III/4,5; XI)
- Andrea Bischof, Violine - Herbert Tachezi, Cembalo, Orgel
- Wolfgang Trauner, Violine (II; V-IX; XII)

- Herlinde Schaller, Violine (III/1,2,3; VII-VIII; XII)

- Erich Höbarth, Violine (IV)

- Kurt Theiner, Viola

- Peter Waite, Viola (II; VI)

- Josef de Sordi, Viola

- Christophe Coin, Violoncello (VII/1,2)

- Fritz Geyerhofer, Violoncello (I; III/4,5; IV; VI; IX-XI)

- Wolfgang Aichinger, Violoncello (II; V)

- Mark Peters, Violoncello (III/1,2,3; VII; VIII; XII)

- Rudolf Leopold, Violoncello (VII/3,4,5)

- Eduard Hruza, Violone

- Jürg Schaeftlein, Oboe (I-VI; VIII-IX; XII)

- Valerie Darke, Oboe (I; IV; VI; IX/1,2,3)

- Marie Wolf, Oboe (II-III; V; IX/4,5,6; XII)

- Milan Turković, Fagott (I-III; V/1,2; VI-IX; XII)

- Otto Fleischmann, Fagott (IV; V/3,4,5)

- Heebert Tachezi, Cembalo (VII; X)

- Lisa Autzinger-Kubizek, Cembalo (I-II; IV; V)

- Gordon Murray, Cembalo (III; VIII; IX/4,5,6; XI)

- Glenn Wilson, Cembalo (VI; IX/1,2,3)


CONCENTUS MUSICUS WIEN (mit Originalinstrumenten)
Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Leitung

 
Luogo e data di registrazione
Casino Zögernitz, Vienna (Austria) - 1982
Registrazione live / studio
studio
Producer / Engineer
-
Prima Edizione CD
Teldec "Das Alte Werk" - 8.35603 ZB - (3 cd) - 49' 17" + 65' 11" + 55' 17" - (c) 1984 - DDD
Prima Edizione LP
Teldec "Das Alte Werk" - 6.35603 GX - (3 lp) - 49' 17" + 65' 11" + 55' 17" - (p) 1983 - Digital

Comments on the Performance
Handel’s twelve Concerti grussi op. 6 were virtually all written at the same time, between 29th September and 30th October 1739. This is not at typical method of working, since he usually availed himself of all manner of earlier works whenever he was publishing a new opus. (Even the Concerti grossi op. 6 include the odd movement culled from another composition, but nowhere near as much as do orher comparable works.) This homogeneous burst of creativity is just as much a charatceristic of the twelve concertos as is their homogeneous scoring: in the first place only the strings and a chordal continuo instrument are indispensable. Although Handel added autograph wind parts to some of the concertos they are always of an ad libitum type and can therefore be omitted without impairing the substance of the work; they do, however, give a clear indication of Handel's procedure when enlarging his scoring, and we have added in the wind parts where we felt that it would have corresponded to his own ideas.
In these Concerti grossi Handel departed from the strict forms then in use, of which a choice of three was available to him: (1) the old sonata da chiesa, in which the arrangement of movements is slow - fast - slow - fast (and where a slow movement might be reduced to a mere few introductory bars); (2) the modern Italian concerto form of Vivaldi (with a substantial independent slow movement); (3) the French orchestral suite with an introductory overture and a large number of dance movements. But Handel grouped the movements differently for each of these concertos by combining these traditional layouts at his own discretion.
Handel seems to have had a great fondness for concluding technically demanding and stirring concertos with an innocent, light dance movement, preferably a minuet. This is totally at variance with our notion of an “effective“ conclusion that calls for applause. The listener was not to be sent away in an excited frame of mind; his feelings had rather to be returned to a state of equilibrium, after having been presented with a great variety of musical emotions. Thus recovery, calmness and ordering of feelings after enthusiasm and excitement are more or less written into the music. Certainly Handel wanted to move and inspire his public and no touch tender spots, but he also wished to restore them and to send them away in a harmonious frame of mind.
The original title of the first edition, published under the composer’s supervision by Walsh m 1740, read: “TWELVE GRAND CONCERTOS IN SEVEN PARTS FOR FOUR VIOLINS, A TENOR VIOLIN, A VIOLONCELLO WITH A THOROUGH BASS FOR THE HARPSICHORD. COMPOS`D BY GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL. PUBLIISHED BY THE AUTHOR. LONDON...".   There is no mention of the oboe parts already referred to, nor of the figuring of the solo cello part, which would imply a second continuo instrument. Clearly Handel chose the version which was simplest and thus most likely to sell, since the different possibilities and the contemporary performance practice for this type of concerto since thec days of Corelli and Muffat was widely known, so that musicians could adapt the scoring in rhs light of the forces at their disposal and where the work was to be played.
Since Handel's Concerti grossi are intimately related to those of Corelli, the "inventor" of Concerto grosso, their performance practice is also likely to have been similar. Fortunately a highly reliable witness has not only copied Corelli's style m his own works but also described it: Georg Muffat, despatched by the Archibishop of Salzburg to Rome to study the Italian style, moved in Corelli’s circle and was able to hear his first Concerto grosso played under the direction of the composer. This inspiredl him to write similar worlks: "lt is that these fine concertos which I enjoyed in the new genre in Rome, encouraged me greatly in that they inspired some ideas within me..." and later: "The first thoughts came to me... in Rome... where I... had heard that type of concerto composed by the ingenious Archnigelo Corelli with great pleasure and amazement." He went on to describe the various ways in which they might he performed: “They can be played merely a tre..." (this texture is particularly appropriate to Handel’s concertos because they were conceived decidedly in the style of a trio sonata, the viola parts only being added in at the end of the process of composition; for that reason they sometimes appear quite indispensable, and on other occasions they show through the gaps in the fabric like foreign bodies, not fitting logically into the part-writing.) - “They can also be played... a quattro" simply by combining tutti and soli, - “if you can place them in the complete Concertino a tre with two violins and a violoncello“ opposite the "Concerto grosso“, the Tutti orchestra, in which the violas are doubled “in due proportion", i. e. depending on the number of first and second violins available. - The concertos can therefore be performed by any size of orchestra ranging from tiny to very large, and indeed we know that this is what Corelli did. - On the title page of his Concerti grossi of 1701 Muffat wrote that they could be played with small forces, “but that they would be... much finer if divided into... two choirs, a large one and a small one“. Moreover, the Concertino, the trio of soloists, “was to play on its own, accompanied by an organist“, i. e. with its own continuo instrument (this explains Handel's figuring of the continuo cello part in the autograph and in other sources). Muffat even mentions the (ad lib.) addition of oboes: “But if... some are able... to play... the French hautbois... sweetly..." In certain circumstances he is even minded to hand over the solo trio to them along with a “competent bassoonist“. - These highly flexible alternative methods of attaining optimum interpretation remained an essential characteristic of the genus Concerto grosso. This means that various types of performance practice from Corelli to Handel and beyond have survived; several generation understood by the term “Concerto grosso“ not only a certain kind of instrumental music, but also the appropriate method of performing it.
In this context the positioning appears to me to be crucial. Contemporary sources repeatedly refer to the fact that choirs (in this case groups of instruments) were placed far apart, sometimes separated by the whole length or width of the room. - The point is that if the Concertino (the trio of soloists) is manned by the principals of the orchestra, as unfortunately so often happens nowadays, many of the effects which are quite obvious from the score, i. e. intended by the composer, make no sense at all. This is the case in the second half of each of the first three bars in Concerto No, 1, where moreover the two solo violins are playing in unison. This allocation of parts is pointless if they are played from the body of the orchestra; but if the Concertino is placed at a distance from the Tutti the effect is that of a dialogue, and there are many sirnilar instances. The normal interplay of Ripieno and Concertino also requires physical separation in order to be effective.
We experimented with various layouts in the concert hall and came to the conclusion that in Concertos Nos. 1, 2, 4, 6, 9 and 10 the composer’s intentions are best realised if the Concerrino wich its own continuo instrument is placed an the back and no the right, that is to say not only further away from the audience than the Ripieno, but also offcentre.



On the one hand this puts into sharp relief the Continuo/Ripieno dialogue; on the other hand it was only in these circumstances that sound effects in some movements (e. g. Concerto No. 2, fourth movement, bars 27-40 and similar passages; Concerto No. 5, fourth movement et al.) really make sense. In addition, those passages in which Concertino and Ripieno play togheter achieved a peculiar and very convincing timbre because the whole body of sound was, as it were, contained by the continuo instruments, and the upper part did not come exclusively from the left as is usually the case, but also from the far right at the back. This created a highly individual spatial sound effect. - In the recording studio this layout also proved to be the most convincing not only to highlight the dialogue texture, but also for reasons of sound control. In Concertos Nos. 3, 5, 7, 8, 11 and 12 the Concertino was also placed on the right, but not quite as remote from the Ripieno.
The Continuo was handled differently from one concerto to the next, indeed from one movement to the next: on the whole an Italian continuo harpsichord with an edgy, brilliant timbre was used with the Ripieno and a dark, gentle Franco-Flemish harpsichord with the Concertino. In some movements the Concertino was accompanied by an organ, some movements were played only with a harpsichord or only with an organ.
Regarding the use of wind instruments, it is well known that Handel, and indeed many contemporary composers and English precursors such as Henry Purcell, frequently used oboes and bassoons without explicitly stating it in the score; the criteria evidently being the size of the orchestra and the forces available.
In Concertos Nos. 1, 2, 5 and 6 we were able to adhere to Handel's wind parts, placing the oboes with the violins and the bassoon with the bass instruments of the Ripieno. According to Handel’s principles the oboes and the bassoon appear to be intended to impart body and outline to a heavily scored Ripieno, to add brilliance to the coloratura by attacking the appropriate opening and closing notes and to make the texture more intelligible in complicated figurations by playing the bass line unadorned. In accordance with these guidelines we have added oboes and bassoons in Concertos Nos 3, 4 (second and fourth movement), 5, 8 (only one oboe in the first, third, fifth and sixth movement), 9 and 12. Concertos Nos. 7, 10 and 11 we consider to be string concertos pure and simple, on account of their range and the part-writing of the violins. (ln Nos. 7 and 10 we added a bassoon for reasons of sonority.)
I would also like to draw attention to a peculiarity of baroque notation which is particularly prevalent in Handel’s works but is regrttably widely disregarded: the combination into "macro bars" which substantially determines articulation, phrasing and mainly tempo. Unfortunately this kind of notation, graphic though it is to any musician, is suppressed in virtually all modern editions, so that it is impossible to discover what the composer actually wrote. This combination of several bars was expressed by indicating the "ordinary" metre (say 3/4) in the time signature, bar lines only being written about every four bars or so, sometimes erratically. Some musicologists take the view that this was just a convenience because passages with very small note values could be more readily accommodated by this method; we are convinced that this is a distinct idiom which ought to be shown in the actual notation and not just mentioned in the notes on the edition. The following movements of Handel's op. 6 are notated in this manner:

Concerto No. 2, fifth movement
(in this movement the metre is particularly interesting because in terms of stress it begins in 4/4, followed by 3/4 and 2/4. Incidentally, Handel deleted his original time signature of 6/4 which indicates where the stresses fall, without replacing it!) No. 4, second rnovement: the time signature in C, but bar-lines occur only every fourth bar (this is another cornplicated polymetric structure which is rendered incomprehensible by bar-lines). No. 5, third movement: time signature 3/s, bar-lines every fourth bar (creating an unmistakeable 12/8 metre, with the 3/8 indication presumably intended to curb the headlong presto). Fourth movement: time signature 3/2, bar-lines every fourth bar (to prevent stressing individual bars and to suggest a spacious so to speak 12/2 tempo). No. 6, second, third and fifth movement: time signature C, 3/4, 3/8, erratic bar-lines but predominantly every fourth bar, depending on the phrasing. No. 8, fourth movement: time signature 3/4 (a sort of 12/4 metre is created, bar-lines every fourth bar. Fifth movement: time signature 12/8, bar-lines every other bar. No. 9, first and second movement: time signature 3/4 and C, bar-lines every fourth bar. No. 10, second movement: time signature 3/2, bar lines every fourth bar. Fourth movement: time signature 3/4, erratic bar lines but predominantly every fourth bar.
No. 11, first movement: time signature C, bar-lines every other bar. Fourth and fifth movement: time signature 3/4 /the indicated 12/4 metre quickens the tempo) and C, bar-lines every fourth bar. No. 12, first movement: time signature C, bar lines every other bar. Third movement: time signature 3/4, bar-lines every fourth bar. (the indicated 12/4 melody requires a faster tempo than a normal 3/4 larghetto because the metre becomes the beat) Fifth movement: time signature C, bar-lines every other bar. In Concerto No. 9 there is no double bar between the second (allegro) and third (larghetto) movement but an ordinary bar-line, i. e. they form a pair. The first of these two movements is, like the Organ concerto "The cuckoo and the nightingale", doubtless inspired by birdsong and the rustle of the forest; the musical imagery is presumably firther enhanced by the pastoral Siciliano, suggesting open meadows.
Of course we have supplied not only most of the phrasing slurs in accordance with the rules then prevailing, but also many trills, their preparatory turns and appoggiaturas. All cadenzas and ornaments were freely, improvised.
Nikolaus Harnoncort
Translation: Lindsay Craig

Nikolaus Harnoncourt (1929-2016)
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