The Path to Bach

The Dream, engraving by James Marshal for the Violin Sonata in g minor, Devil’s Trill, by Giuseppe Tartini (1692–1770). Zenetorteneti Muzeum. © DeAgostini Picture Library/Art Resource, NY.

Concert Program I

The Path to Bach

The 2017 festival journey begins in the generation before J. S. Bach: through the ingenuity of such composer-virtuosi as Carlo Farina, Marco Uccellini, and Pietro Antonio Locatelli, the violin evolved from the modest fiddle of street musicians to the voice of musical nobility. Next to the works of these early innovators, Concert Program I features one of the iconic masterpieces of the instrument’s repertoire, Tartini’s famous Devil’s Trill Sonata. The latter half of the program brings together the Baroque period’s most influential composers—Arcangelo Corelli, Antonio Vivaldi, and Johann Sebastian Bach—whose sea-parting concerti simultaneously crowned a king of instruments and defined a musical era. Following the concert on July 15, join the Artistic Directors, festival musician, and friends to celebrate the opening of the season, at Fête the Festival, an outdoor catered dinner at the Menlo Park Arrillaga Family Recreation Center. Tickets $65, advance purchase required.

PROGRAM

Carlo Farina(ca. 1604–1639)
Capriccio stravagante (1627)
Marco Uccellini (ca. 1603–1680)
Sonata no. 18 for Two Violins from Sonatas, Correnti, and Arias, op. 4 (1645)
Giovanni Battista Vitali(1632–1692)
Passagallo primo from Varie partite del passemezo, ciaccona, capricii, e passagalli for Two Violins and Continuo, op. 7 (1682)
Pietro Antonio Locatelli(1695–1764)
Concerto in g minor from L’arte del violino, op. 3, no. 6 (1733)
Giuseppe Tartini(1692–1770)
Sonata in g minor, Devil’s Trill (ca. 1714)
Arcangelo Corelli(1653–1713)
Concerto Grosso in g minor, op. 6, no. 8, Christmas Concerto (1714)
Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741)
Concerto in D Major for Two Violins, Two Cellos, Strings, and Continuo, RV 564 (before 1742)
Johann Sebastian Bach(1685–1750)
Double Violin Concerto in d minor, BWV 1043 (1730–1731)
Saturday 20Jul 2024