The fortepiano used today is a Stein copy from a Hubbard kit assembled by Bruce Brown in 1978 while he was doing a PhD at UC Berkeley. It was played in concerts at the Berkeley campus during the 80s and has been owned by Andrus Madsen since 2008. Mozart had a five-octave Stein piano, and instruments like this were common when Beethoven composed the “Moonlight” Sonata.
David Schulenberg, fortepiano with Mary Oleskiewicz, flute
David Schulenberg is not only a performer and recording artist on early keyboard instruments but author of books on the music of W.F. Bach and C.P.E. Bach, as well as a life-and-works of their father Johann Sebastian Bach. A faculty member at Boston University and at Wagner College in New York, he has also taught at the Juilliard School, Columbia University, and the University of North Carolina. Recordings together with additional information are available on his website, schulenbergmusic.org
Mary Oleskiewicz, a prizewinning musician hailed by American Record Guide as “one of the greatest Baroque flutists of our time,” is known internationally as a soloist and for her path-breaking first recordings of newly discovered works for her instrument. A professor of music at the University of Massachusetts Boston, she has also taught at the University of the Arts in Berlin (Germany) and Queens College in New York. Her website, baroqueflutist.com, offers links to her publications.
Program
| Sonata in F minor, W. 57/6 | Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach |
| Allegro assai | (1714–88) |
| Andante | |
| Andantino grazioso | |
| Fantasia in E minor, F. 21 | Wilhelm Friedemann Bach |
| (1710–84) | |
| Sonata in E minor, QV 1:72 | Johann Joachim Quantz |
| Larghetto | (1697–1773) |
| Allegretto | |
| Presto | |
| Sonata in C minor, op.10, no. 1 | Ludwig van Beethoven |
| Allegro molto e con brio | (1770–1827) |
| Adagio molto | |
| Finale: Prestissimo |
Monica Jakuc Leverett, fortepiano with Jacob Cooper, baritone
“A Fantasy on Fantasies”
Program
Fantasy in C minor, K. 475 (1785) |
W. A. Mozart |
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(1756-1791) |
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Henry (ca. 1812) |
George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower |
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(1778-1860) |
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II. Allegretto |
Ludwig van Beethoven |
from Sonata quasi una Fantasia, Op. 27 No. 2 “Moonlight” (1803) |
(1770-1827) |
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The Sailor’s Song, Hob.XXVIa:31 (1794/5) |
Joseph Haydn |
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(1732-1809) |
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The Mermaid’s Song, Hob.XXVIa:25 (1794) |
Haydn |
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III. Presto agitato |
Beethoven |
from “Moonlight” Sonata |
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Fidelity, Hob.XXVIa:30 (1794) |
Haydn |
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I. Adagio sostenuto |
Beethoven |
from “Moonlight” Sonata |
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The Spirit’s Song, Hob.XXVIa:41 (1790) |
Haydn |
Piercing Eyes, Hob.XXVIa:35 (1794/5) |
Haydn |
Notes by the Performers
The Greek word “phantasia” means “imagination” and “perception.” Musical works with this
title tend to glorify subjectivity, and to manifest a rather free and improvisatory style. We are also interested in exploring the non-musical side of “fantasy”—seeing anew and finding a story using George Bridgetower’s song “Henry” and a selection of Haydn songs with texts by Anne Hunter. We take the liberty of using separate movements of Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata quasi una fantasia as illustrations for our tale.
Our program’s tone is set by the Fantasy in C Minor, K. 475, one of W. A. Mozart’s most
extraordinary, dramatic and unusual masterpieces for solo keyboard. The work is shocking
and does not even sound like Mozart to ears conditioned to expect serene balance and grace from him. The composer who later depicted Donna Elvira’s madness in the opera Don
Giovanni is the Mozart who wrote this music.
George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower was a British musician of African and Polish descent. Like many non-canonical composers, only a few of his works have survived, but he was a highly successful virtuoso violinist, concertizing across Europe. In the 1790s he played in the orchestra that premiered Haydn’s London symphonies. He later impressed Beethoven, who dedicated the Violin Sonata No. 9 as “Sonata mulattica” in his honor before they had a falling out. (Today that sonata is known as the “Kreutzer.”) “Henry”, which he wrote shortly after he received his degree from the University of Cambridge in 1812, is an optimistic, flirtatious song that opens our story.
We pair the light playfulness of “Henry” with the second movement scherzo of Beethoven’s
“Moonlight” Sonata. The sonata’s stormy third movement illustrates the dramatic plot turn in the middle of our tale. Beethoven’s pupil Carl Czerny wrote that the first movement “is a night scene, in which the voice of a complaining spirit is heard at a distance.” That movement provides an introduction to the ghostly end of our fable.
Our program is also inspired by the fantasy-like interweaving and overlap of the separate
lives of the composers and lyricist. Haydn’s visit to London in 1790 completed these
connections. His well-known mutual admiration for Mozart is the first link; Bridgetower playing his symphonies the second; and it was while traveling to London that he first met Beethoven, who later became his pupil. It was also in London that he met Anne Hunter and became friends, dedicating his first set of six canzonettas to her. Published a year after her husband’s death, these songs are more accurately keyboard pieces with a vocal accompaniment. A published lyrical poet some years before she married, Hunter hosted weekly salons (likely where she met Haydn) and continued to write poetry into her 60s.
Texts
Henry
You call me fickle, cruel youth,
And doubt my love and constancy,
But sure that tongue is void of truth,
That speaks and falsely speaks of me,
Henry.
You tell me blushes flush my cheek,
When others to my praise incline?
Oh yes, and why I’ll truly speak,
Because I hate all praise but thine,
Henry.
Then hush, ah, hush, each idle fear
And bid each jealous pain adieu,
My heart, my soul is thine my dear,
I live and only live for you,
Henry.
—(author unknown)
The Sailor’s Song
High on the giddy bending mast
The seaman furls the rending sail,
And fearless of the rushing blast,
He careless whistles to the gale.
Rattling ropes and rolling seas,
Hurly burly, hurly burly,
War nor death can him displease.
The hostile foe his vessel seeks,
High bounding o’er the raging main,
The roaring cannon loudly speaks,
‘Tis Britain’s glory we maintain.
Rattling ropes and rolling seas,
Hurly burly, hurlyb urly,
War nor death can him displease.
—Anne Hunter (1742-1821)
The Mermaid’s Song
Now the dancing sunbeams play
On the green and glassy sea,
Come, and I will lead the way
Where the pearly treasures be.
Come with me, and we will go
Where the rocks of coral grow;
Follow, follow, follow me.
Come, behold what treasures lie
Far below the rolling waves,
Riches, hid from human eye,
Dimly shine in ocean’s caves.
Ebbing tides bear no delay,
Stormy winds are far away.
Come with me, and we will go
Where the rocks of coral grow.
Follow, follow, follow me.
—Anne Hunter
Fidelity (Song)
When hollow bursts the rushing wind,
And heavy beats the shower,
This anxious, aching bosom finds
No comfort in its power.
For ah, my love! it little knows
What thy hard fate may be;
What bitter storm of fortune blows,
What tempests trouble thee.
A wayward fate hath twin’d the thread
On which our days depend,
And darkling in the checker’d shade.
She draws it to an end.
But whatsoe’er may be thy doom,
The lot is cast for me;
Or in the world, or in the tomb,
My heart is fix’d on thee.
—Anne Hunter
The Spirit’s Song
Hark, what I tell to thee,
Nor sorrow o’er the tomb;
My spirit wanders free,
And waits till thine shall come.
All pensive and alone,
I see thee sit and weep,
Thy head upon the stone
Where my cold ashes sleep.
I watch thy speaking eyes,
And mark each falling tear;
I catch thy passing sighs,
Ere they are lost in air.
—Anne Hunter
Piercing Eyes
Why asks my fair one if I love?
Those eyes so piercing bright
Can ev’ry doubt of that remove,
And need no other light.
Those eyes full well do known my heart,
And all its working see,
E’er since they play’d the conq’ror’s part,
And I no more was free.
—(author unknown)
Music in Minor Keys