Orchestra Roster and Program Notes for January 20, 2002 Musica Bella Concert Concert No. 1 Conductor: Phillip Gaskill Sunday, January 20, 2002 Our Lady of Good Counsel Church OUR DEBUT CONCERTS, PART 1 Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 1, BWV 1046 Rachel Varga, violin; Alexander Lesokhin, oboe Bach: Double Violin Concerto, BWV 1043 Linda Chang Kim and Rachel Varga, violins Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 6, BWV 1051 Jeffrey Parry and Julia Lin, violas Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, BWV 1047 Dave Ballou, trumpet; Suzanne Gilchrest, flute; Alexander Lesokhin, oboe; Uli Speth, violin Click on a musician’s name to see his/her bio and photo. Brandenburg Concerto No. 1
Violin Solo     Rachel Varga First Violin     Uli Speth, concertmaster     Linda Chang Kim Second Violin     Yolanda Wu, principal     Jean Park Viola     Jeffrey Parry, principal     Julia Lin Violoncello     Anahit Harutyunyan-Gaskill, principal     James Mark Pedersen Contrabass     Bill Nealon	Oboe     Alexander Lesokhin, solo     Ada Muellner     David Greenwald Bassoon     Phil Fedora Horn     Theresa MacDonnell, principal     Michael Ishii Cembalo     Francois Nezwazky
Double Violin Concerto
Violin Soloists     Linda Chang Kim, first solo part     Rachel Varga, second solo part First Violin     Uli Speth, concertmaster     Yolanda Wu Second Violin     Jean Park, principal     Bob Levine, snowed in on Staten Island	Viola     Jeffrey Parry, principal     Julia Lin Violoncello     Anahit Harutyunyan-Gaskill, principal     James Mark Pedersen Contrabass     Bill Nealon Cembalo     Francois Nezwazky
Brandenburg Concerto No. 6
Viola     Jeffrey Parry, principal     Julia Lin Violoncello     James Mark Pedersen	Bass Viola da Gamba (played on muted violoncello)     Anahit Harutyunyan-Gaskill, principal     Phillip Gaskill Contrabass     Bill Nealon Cembalo     Francois Nezwazky
Brandenburg Concerto No. 2
Soloists     Uli Speth, violin     Suzanne Gilchrest, flute     Alexander Lesokhin, oboe     Dave Ballou, piccolo trumpet First Violin     Rachel Varga, concertmaster     Linda Chang Kim Second Violin     Yolanda Wu, principal     Jean Park	Viola     Jeffrey Parry, principal     Julia Lin Violoncello     Anahit Harutyunyan-Gaskill, principal     James Mark Pedersen Contrabass     Bill Nealon Cembalo     Francois Nezwazky
PROGRAM NOTES
J.S. Bach (1685-1750) wrote the Brandenburg Concertos in Cöthen between about 1718 and 1720, when he would have been 33 to 35 years old; he was employed in Cöthen as the Kapellmeister of Prince Leopold’s court. Bach didn’t name the pieces “Brandenburg Concertos” himself; his title was “Concertos with several instruments”; but he did dedicate them to the Margrave of Brandenburg, whence they draw their popular name. Four of the six are in the classical three-movement concerto form (fast-slow-fast) that was gaining acceptance at that time (in fact, Vivaldi is credited with perfecting it), as opposed to the older four-movement scheme. The exceptions to this are Concerto No. 1, which has an additional dance-suite mega-movement (a menuet with three trios) tacked on at the end; and No. 3, for which he didn’t write a middle movement, but only two chords (our performance employs one of the two historically authentic alternatives: a brief violin cadenza — the other being inserting an entire movement, in the right key, of course, from some other piece). You’ll still hear the two chords at the end of the violin cadenza. Bach didn’t write specific harpsichord parts for any of these concertos — except for No. 5, which he wrote for himself to play. It’s interesting that, as his own orchestra at Cöthen had only one string player per part, and he normally was the violist in that group, he wrote only one violin part (instead of the usual two) for this concerto, since the second violin player had to play viola while Bach was playing the harpsichord part. The Double Violin Concerto was also written in Cöthen, sometime between 1717 and 1723; it is notable for its intricate interplay between the two solo parts. If we don’t know exactly when Bach wrote each Brandenburg concerto, we know a good deal less about when Antonio Vivaldi wrote his Double Cello Concerto — or much of his other music either, for that matter. In fact, we’re not even totally sure when he was born: 1675 and 1678 are the dates one sees. He died in 1741, having written, in addition to a vast amount of other music, about 550 concertos for different instruments and combinations thereof, although this is the only double cello concerto that survives. It was very likely written while he was employed at the Ospedale della Pietà with its famous girls’ orchestra, 1703-17 and 1735-38, but more information than that is difficult to come by, especially since he didn’t have it published, which would at least have told us the latest date it could have been composed.