In 2005, after 17 years of offering their concerts with context at the New York Public Library, Eugenia Zukerman and Anthony Newman, jumped venues to St. Bartholomew's on Park Avenue. On November 29th they will begin their second season of concerts at St. Bart's with Bach.
The concert will feature Bach's four flute sonatas, BWV 1030 (B minor), 1032 (A major), 1034 (E minor), and 1035 (E major).
As they have done for nearly two decades, Newman and Zukerman will present a concert that includes context and commentary, including letters from and about the composer, and particularly important for the flute sonatas, information surrounding their composition and first performances.
Bach clearly loved the flute giving it prominent solo passages in the all of his cantatas, Masses and Passions. Though the flute couldn't be considered a “new” instrument by the time Bach began writing for it, in Germany the instrument only gained prominence and supplanted the recorder during Bach's life time. In fact, Bach was one of the first composers to write works for solo flute, and for flute with accompaniment, outside of France. Bach wrote the sonatas to be played by specific virtuosi on the instrument, writing technically challenging and expressive music to underscore the range of possibilities for the instrument.
In addition, two of four authentic sonatas BWV 1034 and 5 were written for continuo and consequently the harpsichord part is not as strictly notated as the other two sonatas, affording the Harpsichord player much more latitude and prominence. There are also other three sonatas attributed to Bach (BWVs 1020, 1031 & 1033) but for various reasons (which we'd love to go into but can't...) they remain out in the cold.
Zukerman and Newman will continue the format and the season at St. Bartholomew's with a concert April 10, 2007. Works for flute and piano by Beethoven and his friends and students, including the Grand Duo of Carl Czerny, Mozart's Sonata in F and Beethoven's Serenade in D.
We were able to ask Ms. Zukerman a few questions via email about the up coming concert....
Classical Domain: You're beginning your second season at St Bartholomew's, this is after nearly two decades at the NYP where you Performances with Mr. Newman became a sort of institution” with in the Institution, would you mind telling me a little more about the scope, over the years, with your programs at the library.
Eugenia Zukerman: Anthony Newman and I began a series of three yearly concerts at the New York Public Library at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue in 1985. The series explored — through music, documents, and letters — the varied and fascinating world of 18th century composers. With series titles such as “Music and Intrigue,” “Savagery and Splendor,” “Music, Madness, and Monarchs,” we attracted sold out audiences to the Bartos Forum. After nineteen years the Library changed its policy and decided not to support live music. Luckily, Great Music at St Bart's is a series that asked us to continue our collaboration at the St. Bartholomew, and we are happily presenting similar concerts in their lovely and acoustically superb chapel.
The scope of our series was the Baroque era, its composers, its intrigues and conflicts and triumphs and disasters... I think in our 19 years we covered a lot of ground and I personally learned a great deal through my research.
CD: The flute had a slow introduction in Germany, but Bach seems to have realized how important it was, there are for instance no recorder sonatas by Bach.
EZ: In Germany in the mid to late Baroque era, the recorder gradually disappeared, and the transverse flute took its place. Bach, Telemann, Blavet and Leclair explored its technical and expressive potential with challenging and richly inventive repertoire. A good mirror for reflecting instrumental developments are opera orchestras of the time, and the recorder was used in the late Baroque only for special effects. Bach, in his Weimar cantatas, used recorders, introducing the transverse flute to them only in his second year at Leipzig. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto no 4 was among the very last significant works for the recorder.
CD: What sort of flute he was writing for?
EZ: In the four authentic sonatas BWV 1034, 1035, 1030 and 1032 which we'll play on November 29, Bach wrote for the standard flute that Quantz was using, which went down to the D just above middle C, and its range went up to A above the staff. Bach himself has left no written notes about the flute, though in the information we have about him we can tell that he probably wrote for the “fancy“ players in Dresden, one named Volumier and there were others. Bach obviously liked the flute, given that he wrote so many solos from cantatas for it, and these four sonatas.
Musical interpretation in this period is simply a question of adding appropriate ornamentation, and for that, we refer to CPE Bach and to JJ Quantz, and to personal taste.
CD: Are you using a modern flute with the harpsichord?
EZ: For our concert at St Barts on November 29, Tony Newman will play a modern harpsichord and I will play a modern gold flute made by Prima Sankyo in Japan. I do have a wooden flute, which I use with fortepiano, since I feel the timbres are compatible. With a modern harpsichord, I feel that the modern metal flutes are more resonant with the sound of the keyboard
CD: How you use other texts to conceptually add to the concert.
EZ: Using documents and letters of the time help to bring a composer back to life. And so at our concert, we'll read some excerpts from interesting and entertaining writings of Bach's era, and relate known anecdotes, as well as some personal information. The chapel at St Bart's is a perfect place for a more interactive experience than in a large hall, and we find that our “talks” help us connect to the audience. This makes for a richer experience for our listeners and for us as performers.
Eugenia Zukerman, Flute
Anthony Newman, Harpsichord
St. Bartholomew's Church November 29th, at 7:30 pm
Bach: Flute and Harpsichord Sonatas:
B minor, BWV 1030
A major, BWV 1032
E minor, BWV 1034
E major, BWV 1035
C major, BWV 1033
