The School of Bach
A concert on Bach's Birthday
Sonatas, Suites, Arias

The Performers
Pascale Beaudin, soprano
Charles Brink, flute
Olivier Brault, violin
Loretta O’Sullivan, cello
Andrew Appel, harpsichord
 
The Program
Prelude and Fugue in G major WTC Book 2
Aria BWV 57 #7 Ich ende behende
Sonata for flute and harpsichord in B minor
Suite for cello
J. S. Bach BWV 249 # 5 Seele, deine Spezereien
Sonata for violin and harpsichord in G major

New Year's Day 1700, and Corelli publishes his opus 5 sonatas, possibly the most influential collection of sonatas in music history. Every composer in every country followed his lead and used his trios and solos as models for their own work. The program explores the large reach and varied responses to the Italian sonata as charted by Corelli.

The Performers
Pascale Beaudin, soprano
Olivier Brault & Chloe Fedor, violin
Loretta O’Sullivan, cello
Scott Pauley, lute
Andrew Appel, harpsichord

The Program
Corelli, Sonata da camera for violin
Geminiani, sonata for cello
Couperin, Apothéose de Corelli
Handel, Sonata for violin in D major
Caldara, Cantata and Ciaconna
Locatelli, Trio sonata Opus 8

Tales of Two Cities: Paris and Madrid

There is nothing more sparkling than two harpsichords, and Four Nations is thrilled to invite the brilliant harpsichordist Frederick Haas to join director Andrew Appel in a program that runs the exquisite to the savage, from the tender gavotte to the screaming joy of the Fandango.

Concert and reception: $100

Won Dharma Center
Claverack, NY

Frederick Haas, harpsichord
Andrew Appel, harpsichord

François Couperin
Jean-Philippe Rameau
Pieces for two harpsichords
Sonatas, Musettes & Chaconnes

Domenico Scarlatti
Sonatas

Luigi Boccherini
Fandango for two harpsichords

Spain has been a tempest of inspiration and horrors for French artists over the centuries.  Manet, Debussy, and Bizet all flourished with Spanish sights and sounds, yet the greatest 18th-century Spanish composers (Scarlatti and Boccherini) were expatriates from Italy.  The Spanish kings were insane, and their courts and societies reflected their extreme behaviors and delusions.  These same abnormalities created thrilling music.

Frederick Haas, one of my most revered colleagues, will fly to our fields and farms from France and join me in a program of music for two keyboards.  He is a most elegant player of French music, and we will play the works for two instruments by Couperin and Rameau.  In my mind, his Scarlatti is unsurpassed, and in Spanish mode, he will delight you with solo sonatas.  Together we end the program with Boccherini’s fiery Fandango.

The season's final concert will take place at the Won Dharma meditation hall, with perfect sound and views over the Catskills and 400 acres of conserved fields and forests.  

Tales of Two Cities: Paris and London

In this program, Ensemble members Pascale Beaudin, Loretta O'Sullivan, and Andrew Appel are joined by viola da gambist Beiliang Zhu, lute player Scott Pauley, and flautist David Ross for a program of songs and suites from the worlds of Shakespeare, Sheridan, Racine, and Voltaire!

Concert & Reception: $100

19th Century Apple Barn
Lindsay & Brian Shea, hosts
Germantown, NY

Pascale Beaudin, soprano
David Ross, flute
Beiliang Zhu, viola da gamba
Loretta O'Sullivan, cello
Scott Pauley, lute
Andrew Appel, harpsichord

Shakespeare the theater
Lute songs of Morley, Campion, Arne 

William Byrd & John Dowland
Lute and Virginal pieces

Lambert & Rameau
Airs de cours

François Couperin
Pieçes de viols--Second Suite

Morel
Chaconne for flute & violin

The English so enjoyed cobbling  insults that always included FRENCH this or that!  Yet, Elizabeth I, not an easy conquest, almost gave her heart to the prince known as Monsieur from Paris.  Later on, the restoration of the monarchy after Cromwell was a French styled transformation.  Yet, the theater of Shakespeare is sprawling, tumbling genius contrasting with the tragedy of Racine which is carved marble perfection.  The Parisian air de cour is precious and tender while the London lute songs of Dowland and Morley are bawdy and overly emotional.  This program is a real Tale of Two Cities.  

Tales of Cities: Paris and Leipzig

Pascale Beaudin, Charles Brink, Krista Feeney, Chloe Fedor, Nicole Divall, Patricia Halverson, Loretta O'Sullivan, and Andrew Appel complete the ensemble with Bach's B minor Ouverture for flute and strings, Brandenburg V, a sonata of J. M. Leclair, and arias by J. Ph. Rameau for an afternoon of German brilliance and French sensuality by the best of Paris and Leipzig.

Concert & Reception: $100

Silda Wall Spitzer and Erik Stangvik, hosts
Germantown, NY

Pascale Beaudin, soprano
Charles Brink, flute
Krista Bennion Feeney & Chloe Fedor, violin
Nicole Divall, viola
Loretta O'Sullivan, cello
Patricia Halverson, violone
Andrew Appel, harpsichord

J. S. Bach
Suite in B minor for flute & strings
Brandenburg V for flute, violin, harpsichord & strings

Jean-Marie Leclair
Sonata VIII in C major, Opus 9 for violin & continuo

Jean-Philippe Rameau
Arias
Temple Sacré
Vien Hymen

Frederick the Great collected paintings of Watteau and hired artists to imitate the Fete Galante. Voltaire was an honored guest at Sanssouci. German princes and paupers idolized and copied the French.

Bach adored French dances and learned their moves and forms as a young man in North Germany. His solo suites were inspired by 17th century Parisian harpsichordists whose works he copied and served as models for his allemandes, gavottes, etc. The flute suite in B minor is a masterwork of French-German art as our greatest German composer puts on courtly attire. The Brandenburg Concertos remind us that Italian music, also available to him, offered an equally powerful model. The limpid beauty of Rameau seduces us today yet Bach was not a fan. Did he find it frivolous? Was the music not sufficiently based in traditional counterpoint? Bach did not know Leclair’s powerful chaconne from the sonata on our program, a worthy companion to his own chaconne for solo violin.