Program notes
One night in January 1703, in a tavern in the old town of Sangerhausen.
We find four musicians seated around a table. The eldest, the Czech trumpeter Gottfried Finger (1660-1730), spends the night there after many years in London, where he gained some popularity as an opera composer. He was the first to arrive and has already had a few beers. After his disappointing last place in the competition for setting music to The Judgement of Paris (1701), he decided to change his surroundings and is headed to the court of Berlin. He carries fragments of the opera, from which he hopes to reuse some movements from the overture to create Sonatas for trumpet and oboe.
Trying to cheer him up is an old acquaintance from the British capital, the boastful William Corbett (1675-1748), on his way to Italy. Corbett works as a freelance violinist, mainly with the British royal orchestra. His luggage includes a lavish collection of violins gathered from various places and some manuscripts by a Florentine violinist named Giovanni B. Viviani (1638-1693).
The table is completed by two very young, highly gifted musicians, although no one would seem to bet on them: Georg F. Händel (1685-1759) and Johann S. Bach (1685-1750). They have just met and are having a lively conversation; it appears that both dream of one day visiting the legendary Buxtehude in Lübeck.
Bach has just been rejected as an organist at the village church where they find themselves. Händel, on the other hand, has left his job in Halle and is spending his first night on the road to work as a violinist in Hamburg. What are they carrying with them? Händel, a violin, an oboe, and some sonatas he wrote during his studies with Zachau. Bach, just a few small compositions, a book by one of his idols, Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643), and a sketch of what he hopes will one day become a Cantata.
The room is dominated by an organ of worn elegance. What may have happened once all four had drunk enough and tried to liven up the evening can be heard in this program.
Program
William Corbett
· Sonata Op. 1 núm. 12 for oboe, trumpet and organ
Girolamo Frescobaldi
· Fantasia for organ
Giovanni Buonaventura Viviani
· Sonata seconda for trumpet and organ
Girolamo Frescobaldi
· Capriccio for organ
Gottfried Finger
· Sonata in C Major for oboe, trumpet and organ
Georg Friedrich Händel
· Sonata en Fa Major, HWV 363a, for oboe and organ
Johann Sebastian Bach
· Simfonia, BWV 4, for organ
· Den Tod niemand zwingen kunnt, BWV 4, for oboe, trumpet and organ
· Fuga in g minor for organ
Georg Friedrich Händel
· Fuga en sol menor for organ
· To God, Our Strength, HWV 62, for oboe, trumpet and organ
