Apollo's Fire {The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra}

by Jeannette Sorrell

Apollo's Fire The Apollo’s Fire musicians and I always enjoy returning to the triumph of voices, trumpets and drums that Handel provides in his exuberant masterpieces. Handel was a master at creating musical splendor for royal occasions. It was 281 years ago this month that King George II of England was crowned to the anthems Zadok the Priest and The King Shall Rejoice – with an extraordinary orchestra of over 160 players.

By contrast, the rarely-performed Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne shows Handel in a more feminine mode. Opening with a series of gently cascading flourishes, the singer and trumpet join in dialogue to welcome the sun at dawn, on the Queen’s birthday.

Like Handel, J.S. Bach also wrote many of his splendid masterpieces for royal or noble patrons. This includes those gems of the concerto repertoire: the Brandenburg Concertos. Though the ruler of Brandenburg, to whom Bach dedicated these exquisite concertos, showed no signs of appreciation, we in Apollo’s Fire revere every note of the Brandenburg Concertos, and we are pleased on this occasion to give them the royal context they deserve.

We hope you will join us as we joyfully sound the trumpet and share the good news:

MUSIC IS ALIVE AND WELL ON PLANET EARTH.

by Caroline Bean

George Frideric Handel’s close relationship with the British royal family was unusual and perhaps unique among baroque composers. His esteemed position in service to the family spanned through the reigns of three monarchs: Queen Anne (reigned 1702-1714), King George I (1714-1727), and King George II (1727-1760).

Handel arrived in London as a German visitor, and got off to an excellent start with Queen Anne. She took the unusual step of awarding an annual pension to Handel while he was not yet a British subject. This may have been a reward for his composition of the “Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne,” or perhaps for other musical offerings he made to the British royals. Some historians have interpreted the Queen’s pensioning of Handel as a political game against her German neighbors – she hated the Germans and was delighted to have “stolen” their composer.

Handel rose to even greater fame after George I took the throne. He was awarded British citizenship and named Honorary Composer of Musick to the Royal Chapel. George II shared his father’s taste for the composer’s music and named Handel Composer to the Court – the supreme musical post. The King increased Handel’s yearly pension and appointed him to teach music lessons to his princess-daughters.

Thanks largely to his skill in winning the favor of the British royals, Handel amassed a large estate by the time of his death in 1759. More than three thousand mourners attended his funeral, which was given full state honors. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. This is in stark contrast with most other composers of the 18th century, such as J.S. Bach and Mozart, who both had trouble securing royal patronage, and died in poverty or near-poverty.

Zadok the Priest and The King Shall Rejoice

by Cheryl Moore, with thanks to Dr. Richard Rodda

Although the Prince of Wales and his father King George I quarreled about many things in life and politics, they both shared a fondness for ceremonial splendor and Handel’s music. As soon as the elder George died and the younger was proclaimed King George II in 1727, he commissioned Handel to provide music for his coronation ceremonies.

Handel was to provide four grand anthems for chorus and orchestra for the coronation service at Westminster Abbey on 11 October 1727. He had selected the texts from earlier coronations, although he had a bit of a fight on his hands convincing the clergy that it he should choose the texts and not they. He then assembled a huge performing force for the occasion, probably the largest he ever conducted, from the choirs of the Royal Chapel and Westminster Abbey, the “King’s Twenty-Four Violins,” an establishment of Royal Trumpeters, and sufficient “supernumaries,” as the payment book called the additional players, to bring the total number of vocalists to nearly fifty and the orchestra to “about 160 Violins, Trumpets, Hautboys, Kettle-Drums, and Bass’s proportionable; besides an Organ,” recorded the Norwich Gazette of October 14th. Special galleries had to be constructed to accommodate the musicians.

However, all this fuss did have a purpose: for Handel there was no grander occasion than a coronation, and this enormous ensemble with its trumpet fanfares, drum rolls, and jubilant shouts from the chorus of “God save the King!” matches the regal and ceremonial atmosphere. Handel’s Zadok the Priest has been performed at every British coronation since its premiere in 1727.

SOPRANO KIERA DUFFY REFLECTS ON THE ROLES OF MUSIC IN HER LIFE

Kiera Duffy Q. What inspired you to pursue a singing career when you were growing up?

A. When I was in high school I attended the Pennsylvania All-State Choral Festival. Dr. Lynn Drafall, who is a professor of music at Penn State University, was the guest clinician. One morning we were asked, to our consternation, to meet in the parking garage of the hotel where we were rehearsing. Upon our arrival on what was a very windy, brisk March day, Dr. Drafall arranged us in two huge semi-circles in this empty garage and told us to pull out the Schutz piece (hooray for early music!) we were preparing. I remember very clearly that it was an antiphonal piece, and that by bringing us into the reverberant acoustic of the parking garage, Dr. Drafall had improvised a sort of cathedral setting for us. The experience was very cinematic, I guess: singing these beautiful harmonies of Schutz amidst the biting winds whipping across our faces and holding none of the cynicism that might have crept in had we been older. I remember wiping the tears from my face and looking around me, only to notice that everyone else was doing the same thing. It was a very profound moment for me, and it single-handedly solidified my decision to pursue a career in music.

Q. So was that Shütz piece in the garage what led you specifically to early music?

A. I had studied piano from a young age, so I was exposed to quite a bit of Baroque keyboard repertoire, particularly Bach, of course. As I got into high school, I fell in love with choral music, which led me to Westminster Choir College, where I sang A LOT of early music: Byrd Masses, Gabrieli and Schutz antiphonal pieces, Palestrina, Purcell, Praetorius, Bach, Gesualdo(!). So, I've always had a deep connection with that music. Once I found myself taking the route of a solo career, I moved into later repertoire, which I also love, but I've always needed to come back to early music.

Q. You will be performing Handel's Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne in our October concerts. It’s quite a different piece from the Dixit Dominus that you sang with us a couple of years ago, isn’t it?

A. Yes, it seems to me that in "Queen Anne" Handel is really moving away from the fiery, florid, dare I say, wild, writing of his earlier days in Italy (of which Dixit Dominus is a prime example). Queen Anne certainly maintains some virtuosic and florid passages, but in general it feels much more elegant, refined, and well...much more English (he had recently moved from Italy to London when he wrote this piece). In terms of my approach to singing Handel, a number of factors influence what vocal choices I make: dramatic, linguistic, historical. If I am singing an opera of Handel, I am obviously thinking about the personality of the character. For example, I sing the role of Morgana (Alcina), who is sensual, spontaneous and young, so I tend to use quite a full-bodied, very spirited, vibrant tone when I'm singing her music. Also, the text is in Italian, which also begs a sort of extra-colorful vocal sound. The solos in Queen Anne feel quite different to me. Again, there is a certain refinement in this very high-English text as well as in the clarity of the orchestration. As a result, it seems that a leaner, purer, less visceral tone is more appropriate in this context.

Q. How is your experience singing with an early music ensemble like Apollo's Fire different from performing with a modern group?

A. This will be my third concert with AF, and I'm thrilled to be back! I LOVE working with this fabulous ensemble. There is a certain intimacy with AF that I am not always able to find in larger ensembles, from the personal relationships with the other instrumentalists and singers, to the size of the venues. There is certainly a palpable intensity and commitment to the music amongst all the performers, and that I find particularly exciting. So to be able to sing with such accomplished musicians in AF is really a joy for me! I also LOVE the AF audiences! I have rarely encountered such a dedicated fan-base, and believe me, as a performer you really feed off of the excitement and energy present in the audience.

Q. In 2007 you were chosen as a finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Is it difficult to divide your time between the concert stage and opera stage?

A. I don't find it difficult at all to sing in the different media of concert, opera and recital. In fact, I really enjoy the diversity, and not only in the types of venues, but also the repertoire. I've managed for the last three or four seasons to sing a pretty balanced mix of early music, the "canonic" 18th, 19th and early 20th c. works, and another passion of mine, new music. There is a certain attention to detail in my concert singing that informs my operatic singing, and the dramatic intention with which I try to imbue my opera roles I also try to integrate into my concert singing.