Giovanni Bononcini
L’oracolo d’Apollo
Cantata for soprano and orchestra (American premiere)
Josef Antonin Stepan
Concerto for Harpsichord and Strings
George Frederic Handel
Tra le fiamme
Cantata for soprano and orchestra, HWV 170
Performers
Josefien Stoppelenburg, soprano
Harmonia Stellarum Houston
Mario Aschauer, harpischord
While the genre of the secular cantata was perhaps the most common and popular form of “chamber music” in the 17th and 18th centuries. However, the repertoire is all but forgotten today—very unjustly so, as two marvelous examples of the genre on our program shall prove.
Giovanni Bononcini must have been an impressive talent so that the emperor Leopold I himself called him to Vienna as a 27 year old. Moreover, he payed him one of the highest salaries in the history of the court chapel to compose music for imperial festivities. In this context Bononcini also wrote his cantata L’oracolo d’Apollo (text by Silvio Stampiglia) in 1707. The Hapsburgs wished to spread a message of courage and hope during these difficult times of war against the Bourbons over the control of the Spanish empire. Asked about the future of the war the oracle’s prophecy sounds as current as it can: “Virtue and Justice shall bring immortal peace.”
Handel wrote his cantata Tra le fiamme during his sojourn in Rome for the circle of Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili who also wrote the text. A masterful poem compares flights of the human spirit to the journey of Dedalus and Icarus, as well as to butterflies being drawn to the flame.
Between the two cantatas our program features a harpsichord concert by Czech composer Josef Antonin Stepan. The student of Georg Christoph Wagenseil may have had the job that Mozart always wanted: keyboardist at the imperial court and teacher of Marie Antoinette. A brilliant and prolific composer of sacred and instrumental music, Stepan particularly proves his talent and witty individuality in his harpsichord concertos many of which have never been recorded or even performed in recent times.
All in all, an exciting and entertaining evening of newly discovered masterworks!