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The Liszt Academy, © Photo: Rudolf Klein -
The Liszt Academy, Main Hall, © Photo: Judit Marjai -
The Liszt Academy, Solti Hall, © Photo: Gyorgy Darabos -
The Liszt Academy, © Photo: Gyorgy Darabos
Baroque Concert: Handel, Telemann, Gluck
Budapest, Liszt Academy Concert Center — Grand Hall
About the Event
Join Jordi Savall and the Budapest Festival Orchestra for a baroque concert featuring Handel's Water Music, Telemann's Hamburg Ebb and Flow, and Gluck's Don Juan ballet suite.
Jordi Savall is at the helm of the Budapest Festival Orchestra again! This time, the living legend of early music will be conducting a production centered around the themes of natural elements and the furies, performed on historic instruments by the BFO’s baroque music ensemble founded in 2011. The program showcases three musical milestones and three personalities of the 18th century. The protagonist of the first half of the evening is water. The Handel suite was first performed on the Thames, and Telemann’s piece celebrates the source of Hamburg’s economy, the river Elbe. The two ten‐movement baroque suites are followed by Gluck’s ballet — at the end of the well‐known story, Don Juan pays for his earthly sins. With a concert extolling the forces of nature, Savall aims to remind us that despite the environmental crisis, with collective effort, our planet can still be saved.
Water Music is associated with one of the most exciting concerts in the history of music. In 1717, Handel – who would fall in and out of favor with the ruler – hoped to please the monarch by composing three suites in honor of King George I. The pieces were performed on the Thames, on a boat close to the king’s barge. If the two vessels were close to one another, the orchestra would play the softer Air or one of the minuets if they were further apart, they played the more lively dance movements. The performance was a resounding success. The so‐called French overture of suite No. 1 begins slowly and elegantly, rich in drawn‐out rhythms, and concludes with a lively, fast‐paced passage. Among the following movements, we find a fanfare‐like allegro, a staccato adagio, an elegant and robust minuet, a bourrée that appears with a different orchestration each time, and an andante closing the piece in a minor key.
In 1723, the centenary of the founding of the Hamburg Admiralty was celebrated with a grand event. Resounding with cannon shots and adorned with flags, the music for the occasion was written by Telemann, the city’s foremost composer, who wrote hundreds of suites throughout his life. In homage to the port city, the sea took center stage in the composition, evoking all of its moods and characters. After the overture showcasing the various facets of water, mythological figures familiar to sailors step into the limelight. First, Thetis, the sea nymph, appears asleep then awake (sarabande and bourrée), followed by the lovelorn Neptune (loure), the Naiads (gavotte), Triton (harlequinade), and finally, Aeolus and Zephyrus, the masters of the winds. The suite concludes with dance movements depicting the ebb and flow of the tide and sailors reveling in the tavern.
Barely a year before the famous Orfeo ed Euridice (Orpheus and Eurydice), Gluck composed his ballet pantomime, Don Juan. Similarly to his operas, Gluck reformed ballet as a genre by prioritizing the relationship between music and dramatic plot over the technical qualities of the performers. Elaborate characters, deep emotions, non‐interchangeable and indispensable movements characterize his storytelling. The piece made an impact on Mozart’s operas as well. After the overture of the suite that makes up a third of the ballet, the story of Don Juan and the governor unfolds, culminating in the music of damnation. After the monumental movement that brings to life earthquake, hellfire, and the restless dance of the Furies, the story concludes with the trumpet and trombone playing pianissimo.
Program
- Georg Friedrich Händel – Water Music – Suite No. 1 in F Major from 'Water Music' HWV 348
- Georg Philipp Telemann – Water Music (Hamburg Ebb and Flow), TWV 55:C3
- Christoph Willibald Gluck – Don Juan or The Feast Of Stone – Ballet Suite, WQ 52
Artists
| Conductor: | Jordi Savall Jordi Savall, born in 1941 in Barcelona, embodies the spirit of the rich Catalan culture in which he was raised. Inspired by another great Catalan artist, Pablo Casals, whom he heard perform at Prades, the young Jordi Savall realized that music could be more than just a profession – for him, it would become an all‐consuming life’s work. He completed his cello studies at the Barcelona Conservatory in 1965, and, seeking to broaden his musical horizons, took an interest in early music. |
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| Orchestra: | Budapest Festival Orchestra |
Liszt Academy Concert Center
The Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music was founded in 1875 by Liszt himself, and was initially called the Royal National Hungarian Academy of Music. Today, the building is home to a prestigious conservatory and fine concert hall, and houses the Liszt Collection, comprising the composer’s manuscripts and books. The institution's dual objective - to provide cultural education and cultural entertainment - makes it unique. The 'New Academy' is located in a grand Art-Nouveau building dominated by the statue of Liszt, one of Budapest’s architectural gems. The season offers not only classical concerts, but also jazz, folk, and contemporary music performances.
Georg Friedrich Händel
An English subject with German origins, Georg Handel was truly a musical pioneer, combining musical traditions of English, Italian and German composers. He was born in 1685 in Halle, Germany, into a very religious and conservative family. His father was dreaming for his son to become a lawyer and would not let young Georg play musical instruments at home. But the Duke Johann Adolf accidentally heard him playing in the chapel and convinced Georg's father to let his son receive a musical education. Thus, Handel became a pupil of the famous organ player and composer Friedrich Zachow. The first success came to Handel in 1705 when he moved to Hamburg and staged his two premiere operas, Almira and Nero, in the Oper am Gänsemarkt. Almira immediately became a highlight of the theatre and was performed around 20 times. Later next year Handel moved to Italy were he received high acclaim and was put on the same level as renowned Italian composers of the time. In 1710 Handel travelled to London where later he decided to settle down. There he wrote a sacred choral piece "Te Deum" that was played in St. Paul´s Cathedral at the ceremony devoted to signing the Utrecht Treaty. From that moment onwards he became the leading composer of England, as the country did not have any native prominent composers. His oeuvre was mainly focused on operas, but by 1730 the genre of Italian opera ceased to be popular and Handel´s success dwindled. During the last years of his life until his death in 1759 he was mainly composing oratorias, including his famous and magnificent Messiah.
Address
Liszt Academy Concert Center, Liszt Ferenc tér 8., Budapest, Hungary — Google Maps
