Event programme

Luigi Tomasini (1741-1808):
Baryton Trio 34 (Kor. 34)
Allegro molto / Adagio / Finale Rondò

Giovanni Battista Borghi (1738-1796):
Sonata à viola d’amore e violone
Allegro Moderato / Adagio / Rondò Allegro Moderato

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809):
Div^to 24 (Hob:XI:96)
Largo / Allegro / Menuetto

*******

Carl Friedrich Abel (1723-1787):
Sonata Viola da Gamba e basso (WKO152)
Allegretto / Adagio / Allegro

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809):
Divert… 11 (Hob:XI:35)
​Adagio / Allegro di molto / Menuetto

About the project and the concert programme

The viola d’amore and the baryton were already extravagant musical instruments in the 18th century when they saw their greatest popularity. The crystalline but dimmed timbre, due to the sympathetic strings, combined well with the “exotic” taste that was of great fashion in the eighteenth century. The viola d’amore, in particular, combines “oriental” features (for its Moorish style shape and for the sympathetic strings that recall Bulgarian lyras and Indian instruments) with “northern” features (let us think about the hardanger, a Norwegian folk music violin with sympathetic strings, or about the way chords are usually played which is typical as well of the baryton, and it is referred to as “Lyra-way”). The viola d’amore can be considered an hybrid between the family of viols, for its shape very similar to treble viols and for the fact that it has six or seven strings, and that of the violin, for its “da braccio” playing position and for the fact it has no frets. The baryton is essentially a bass viol with six or seven strings and sympathetic strings that run under the fingerboard or aside. The sympathetic strings resonate under the vibration of the main strings amplifying and giving more harmonics to the sound. The fact that both instruments have sympathetic strings would make them a family with the two voices of treble and bass, but in reality, this marriage never really took place as we see no evidence of them playing together in the vast amount of music written for each separately.

Haydn began composing baryton trios in 1765. At the time he had been working for the princes of the Esterházy family since 1761, and since 1762 for the newly reigning Prince Nikolaus. Nikolaus had previously played the viola da gamba (an instrument like the baryton, but without the sympathetic strings), but in 1765 he purchased a baryton. Over the next ten years Haydn wrote nearly 200 compositions for various ensembles with baryton and three concertos but some of it got lost. Of these, the predominant genre was the baryton trio. Whenever Haydn had completed 24 trios, he had the set volume "richly bound in leather and gold". The resulting volumes were dated 1766, 1767, 1768, 1771, and 1778; the last was bound up after the prince had abandoned the instrument in favour of a new hobby also involving Haydn, namely the mounting of opera productions in his palace. The main source of music for baryton is now represented by the over 120 trios and divertissements for baryton, viola and cello. Most of these compositions were reserved for the Prince own private amusement (he was himself a skilled amateur player of the Baryton) and only a few of them were finally published, transcribed for more popular instruments such as violin, viola and cello or two violins and cello. Among this large number of compositions, written for chamber musical amusement and characterized by sweet major keys, the Trio n.96, part of this concert, surely stands out with its b-minor tonality.

More music for the Prince was also written by the first violin of the Court Orchestra Luigi Tomasini (Pesaro 1741 – Eisenstadt 1808). Tomasini was hired at the court when he was sixteen and was probably one of Haydn’s own pupils. Of the 24 Trios composed for Baryton we propose the Trio n. 34 in e-minor, with clear Sturmisch features. Serenus Zeitblom the first person narrator of “Dr. Faustus” of T. Mann, gives evidence of a common practice among amateur players that met in Bohemian and German middle-class homes to play the viola d’amore in the middle of the romantic age thus preserving it from complete oblivion: “[…] they would ask me persistently to play […] and I would have to bring my own instrument at Briennerstrasse to amuse everybody with […] one of the pieces written by Haydn for baryton but easily playable on my viola d’amore […].”

The intention of the Trio Guerra Amorosa has been indeed to create an original, inedited ensemble, adapting and assigning the original parts for baryton and viola to baryton and viola d’amore and replacing the cello with the viola da gamba. These three instruments together create a timbrical mixture that is unique and fascinating. Besides the trios we also propose two sonatas drawn from the vast repertoire of duos written for viola d’amore: the little sonata “La Paisanne” of German composer Friedrich Wilhelm Rust (1739-1796) who was a virtuoso of the violin and pupil of František Benda and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach; the Sonata in D major for viola d’amore and violone (present in this concert) by Giovanni Battista Borghi (1738-1796) who was a violin and viola player from Bologna but mainly worked in London and was a pupil of Gaetano Pugnani; this sonata is an adaptation of three different movements drawn from the six Sonatas for violin and bass Op. 1, published in Paris in 1772. The Trio Guerra Amorosa offers you a new fresh reading on the subtle and refined compositions of Haydn and his contemporaries. Discover the elegant dialogue among these three aristocratic instruments.