Haydn's London

Haydn's Violin Concerto, performed by Concertmaster Lillian Scheirich, and his 'Surprise' Symphony, bring the heyday of London's music to life in the final concert of the series.

William Boyce
Sinfonia no. 4 in F major 
Franz Joseph Haydn
Violin Concerto in G major
J. C. Bach
Sinfonia no. 4 in D major
Franz Joseph Haydn
Symphony no. 94 in G major "Surprise”

Tickets $10-$30

Friday, March 5, 2010 at 11:00 a.m. & 7:30 p.m.
Assumption University Chapel
Instrumentally Speaking – pre-concert talk at 6:55 p.m. inside the Freed-Orman Centre

Add Lunch or Dinner to your concert ticket!

A buffet lunch is served following the morning concert and a three-course dinner is served prior to the evening concert, both in the Freed-Orman Centre. Deadline for meal reservations for this concert is February 26. To reserve, please call 519-973-1238 ex. 22.

 

This program also performed Saturday in Leamington and Sunday in Tecumseh

John Morris Russell, Conductor
Lillian Scheirich, Violin

Sinfonia no. 4 in F major
William Boyce
Baptized Sep. 11, 1711, London
D. Feb 7,1779, London
Approx. 7 minutes.

William Boyce is widely regarded as one of the most important English-born composers of the 18th century. Born in London, Boyce was a choirboy at St Paul’s Cathedral before studying music with
Maurice Greene after his voice broke. A house in the present choir school is named after him. His first professional appointment came in 1734 when he was employed as an organist at the Oxford Chapel. He went on to take a number of similar posts before being appointed Master of the King’s Musick in 1755 and becoming one of the organists at the Chapel Royal in 1758.

Boyce is best known for his set of eight symphonies, his anthems and his odes. He also wrote the masque Peleus and Thetis and songs for John Dryden’s Secular Masque, incidental music for William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Cymbeline, Romeo and Juliet and The Winter’s Tale, and a quantity of chamber music including a set of twelve trio sonatas. He also composed the British and Canadian Naval March “Heart of Oak”. The lyrics were later written by David Garrick.

Boyce was largely forgotten after his death and he remains a little-performed composer today, although a number of his pieces were rediscovered in the 1930s. The great exception to this neglect was his church music, which was edited after his death by Philip Hayes and published in two large volumes, Fifteen Anthems by Dr Boyce in 1780 and A Collection of Anthems and a Short Service in 1790. ❧

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Violin Concerto in G major
Franz Joseph Haydn
B. March 31, 1732, Rohrau, Austria
D. May 31,1809, Vienna, Austria
Approx. 21 minutes.

Haydn is credited with four violin concertos, the second of which has been completely lost. This, ostensibly the last of the series, may not be by Haydn; musicologists point out that the idiom is more old-fashioned than that of the other two survivors, which were also written in the 1760s. This could mean, of course, merely that Haydn wrote it before the others.

The concerto begins, Allegro moderato, with a flowing theme that pours out of a sharp opening chord. This winds its way smoothly through a number of closely related episodes that never completely break off into full-fledged secondary subjects. This material is introduced concisely by the orchestra, then taken up by the soloist, who gives it an even more ornate treatment. The development covers all this ground again, but now the violinist gives it a more plaintive character. The soloist leads the way through what seems to be the recapitulation, but turns out to be an extension of the development; after a pause for the cadenza, the orchestra takes charge (mostly) for the true, brief recapitulation.

The Adagio movement is a moderately embellished violin aria, with an ever-so-slightly troubled middle section that flirts with minor keys and gives the soloist a much more ornate line. A small cadenza opportunity provides the bridge to a repeat of the first section, in which the orchestra now has a more prominent role.

The final Allegro mimics the trilling, galloping style of C.P.E. Bach, complete with a couple of sudden orchestral shouts. The demanding solo part requires the violinist to be fleet and nimble through the course of this monothematic sonata-rondo, a typically Haydnesque finale despite the doubts of musicologists anthem. ❧

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Sinfonia no. 4 in D major
Johann Christian Bach
B. September 5, 1735 Leipzig, Germany
D. January 1, 1782, London
Approx. 12 minutes.

Johann Christian Bach was the youngest child by the master baroque composer, Johann Sebastian Bach. His teachers included his father, his older brother Carl Phillip Emanuel, and Padre Giovanni Battista Martini of Bologna. The young Bach first worked in Milan as an organist, and quickly gained the nickname of the Mila Bach. Later, in 1762 he became the master of music to the Queen of England, and held that position until his death in 1785. During that time he became known as the London Bach. His duties included giving music lessons to the Queen and her children, and accompanying the King, who played the flute.

J.C. Bach’s music is characterized by a lightness and grace, not always found in his father’s music. In fact, this “gallant” style was a direct reaction to the heavy and very contrapuntal music of the previous generation. It also laid the foundation for the classical style and symphonies that were later exemplified by Haydn and Mozart. The Sinfonia heard on this set of performances is the fourth of six from the opus 3, which was also one of his first set of published works. All six of these Sinfonias are actually Italian overtures—rather short, three movement works, all of which followed the same format—the first movements were fast and the most involved, the second movements were slower, walking tempos, and the last movements were quick and often dance-like. ❧

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Lillian Scheirich

Originally from Windsor, Ontario, Lillian Scheirich studied violin at the Detroit Community Music School, Detroit, Michigan, and was a scholarship recipient to the Eastman School of Music, in Rochester, New York, where she graduated with a degree in Violin Performance and in
Music Education, studying with the late Catherine Tait.

Upon graduating from Eastman, Ms. Scheirich won the Assistant Concertmaster position with the Windsor Symphony, and two years later, was appointed Concertmaster, a position which she has held from 1991 until the present. In addition to her role as Concertmaster, Ms. Scheirich is the Violin Instructor at the University of Windsor, and maintains an accomplished private violin studio.
Ms. Scheirich has played with various orchestras in Canada and in the United States, and has performed in music festivals in Europe, and North America. As a member of the La Corda Ensemble, the Ambassador Chamber Players, and the Detroit-Windsor Chamber Ensemble, she is involved in numerous concerts in the Windsor-Detroit area performing on violin and on viola. Since 1992, the Ambassador Chamber Players have been in summer residence at Schoolcraft College (Livonia, Michigan) for their summer chamber music programme. Ms. Scheirich has been recorded for CBC in various chamber music concerts in Ontario and Quebec, and in 2001 was awarded the Mayor’s Award for Excellence in Music.

April 2006, marked the release of her first CD (a world premier) with pianist Mary Siciliano, and the Detroit-Windsor Chamber Ensemble, featuring the chamber works of Ignatz Waghalter. The CD has been heard on CBC Radio, WRCJ-FM in Detroit, and in Germany where it was featured at “Dussmann’s”, Berlin’s largest bookstore. In the Fall of 2006, Ms. Scheirich and colleague Mary Siciliano, recorded the Sonata for Violin and Piano by French composer Jacques de la Presle, which was released this Spring (2008) in France under the “Polymnie” Label as part of a collection of his chamber music.

In July, 2008, Ms. Scheirich was awarded the Follow the Leader – Sun Life Financial Award for
Female Established Music Artist, and in May 2009, she joined colleagues Mary Siciliano, piano,
and Nadine Deleury, cello for a series of concerts in France featuring the works of Jacques de la Presle and his contemporaries. ❧

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