October 2009
Read about the making of, the program, the musicians and watch the videos.
The First Project
On the 7th of Octber four musicians of Symphonie Fantastique (Robert Percival – bassoon, Santiago Medina Cepeda – violin, Simone Laghi – viola, Keiko Gomi – cello) flew to Vienna to perform a chamber music concert of early 19th Century viennese wind music.
Church of the Teutonic Order, Singerstraße 7, Vienna.
Click image for slideshow!
Although we had all already played together in orchestra many times, not all of us had ever been chamber music partners until this project. The romantic performance practice has been so litte researched until now and what is “stylistically correct” to do in terms of bowings, phrasing, etc. is even more uncertain than with baroque or classical music, therefore during reharsals many questions were brought up on the style and the techniques we should use. The kind of work we did was the first, very constructive step in finding a common idea and musicality.
The presentation of the concert happened in Santo Spirito, a delightful baroque and classical music bar near the Stephansdom. Actually, what we did there, was extremely historical! That was a little chamber music entertainement for some music-lovers that were having a drink and whispering a chat. Many of the people that saw us there attended the concert on the following day, which took place in the Church of the Teutonic Order, just a few steps away.
Santo Spirito, Kumpfgasse 7, Vienna.
Click image for slideshow!
The spirit of the musicians is a very special one. We come from all European Countries and we are united by a deep friendship and the dream of ridescovering the romanticism in music. We shared this beginning with lots of dear friends that visited us not only from Vienna but also London, Mantova and Linz.
The Videos
Franz Krommer – Flute quartet, D major, Op. 75
Beethoven – Serenade for Flute, Violin and Viola, Op. 25
Carl Jacobi – Bassoon quartet, Op. 4
The Program
- Franz Krommer, Quartetto for flute and strings op. 75
- Charles Jacobi, Quartet for bassoon and strings op. 4
- Franz Krommer, Quartet for bassoon and strings op. 46, no. 1
- Ludwig van Beethoven, Serenate for flute, violin and viola op. 25
The son of an inn-keeper who came to Vienna to make his fortune and the famous composer of many string quartets, concertos and nine symphonies. Beethoven? No: Franz Krommer, who was born in Moravia in 1759 (and so whose 250th anniversary falls this year) and who died in Vienna on 27th November 1831 at 108 Kirchengasse.
Krommer’s music was famous throughout Europe, the same pieces being published many times in both Vienna and Paris. Even his bassoon quartets were popular enough that they were printed by two different publishing houses, and when he recycled them for clarinet some 10 years after they first appeared, one reviewer remembered and commented that he had heard them somewhere before! His 100 string quartets were said to be more popular than Beethoven’s, but perhaps that says more about the Viennese audiences of 1800 then either of the composers’ works. He was made a member of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, and as the peak of his career, in 1818 Krommer was made Imperial Court Kappelmeister, in which capacity he toured Europe and played quartets with Emperor Franz I. In fact Krommer’s fame now, such as it is, rests on the fact that he was the last Kappelmeister, and on his justly famous harmoniemusik.
The period from around 1780 to 1830 was a golden age for wind players. Every important house (minor nobles, bishops, royalty) employed a wind band (harmonie), in part as a status symbol, in part as the equivalent of a jukebox to play the famous tunes from the latest popular operas and ballets during dinner. For the amateur musician at home wind instruments were at least as popular as the piano or the strings. Technology and techniques had reached a point that all instruments could play at the same level, and perhaps more importantly, in the same tonalities. And after about 1800, as soloists began tour the major European cities on violin and piano, so they did too on wind instruments, and not just the Stadler and Baermann brothers on the clarinet.
Our programme tonight covers all of these facets of early nineteenth century wind music. The origins of Beethoven’s Serenade are now lost, but it is quite possible that its extended serenade form and unusual scoring comes as a result of a comission from a family of gifted amateurs looking for something new and fashionable to play and listen to.
Krommer’s flute quartet was certainly aimed at the mass market, the flute (then as now) being the most popular of wind instruments, and it shows how very high the level of home music making was during this period in Vienna. We know his bassoon quartet was performed publicly, and so, as well as being published with a view to profit, maybe this also started as a comission from a professional performer, perhaps even the Bohemian player Czejka who first played the beautiful and demanding solo’s in Beethoven’s violin concerto and 4th Symphony.
The least know piece on our programme is the one we know most about: Carl Jacobi was such a famous bassoon virtuoso (it seems strange even to write that!) that his quartet was still being recommended for performance 20 years later in Carl Almenraeder’s Fagottschule. The quartet is entirely part of the tradition of Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt and Paganini: a concert work composed by the performer and designed to show off his very particular talents.
Robert Percival
The Chamber Ensemble of Symphonie Fantastique.
Click image for PDF of the flyer!
The Musicians
- Giulia Barbini – flute
Giulia comes from Florence and has been living in Vienna for six years. She studied flute at Conservatorio Cherubini in her hometown, then with Dieter Flury at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz, where she got her Master of Arts Degree in 2008. She plays the modern flute with the ensembles Auria and Spira Mirabilis and substitutes regularly at the Wiener Staatsoper. Since 2007 she has been studying the historical performance practice, attending the Formation Supérieure of the Jeune Orchestre Atlantique in Saintes and taking lessons from Mathias von Brenndorff. She performes with the Orchestre des Champs-Eslysées, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and is a founding member of Symphonie Fantastique.
- Robert Percival – bassoon
London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia, Vienna Philharmonic: these are some of the orchestras Robert has not performed with, but he does play bassoon and contra in the same cities as they do, and with leading early instrument groups, including the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, Anima Eterna and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. 2009 has included concerts of Haydn as far afield as Chester and Esterhazy, touring Berlioz in South America, and the triumphant premiere of Robert’s new version of Beethoven’s Symphony No.4 for wind sextet.
- Santiago Medina Cepeda – violin
Santiago was born in Bogotá and has already performed as a soloist in the most important halls of his Country. Since his arrival in Europe, he has been studing intesively the historical performance practice at the Centre Européen de recherche et pratique musicales in France with Midori Seiler. He has attended two years at the Hochschule für Musik Köln and is at the moment student of Nora Chastain at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. Santiago is member and Konzertmeister of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and, next to his studies, performs widely with the Belgian orchestra Anima Eterna, with Ophélie Gaillard and with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin.
- Simone Laghi – viola
As well as a graduate of violin and viola from Conservatorio “Bruno Maderna”, Simone is a Doctor in Viticulure and Enology from the University of Bologna. He has performed widely in contemporary music and as a chamber musician, studying the duo repertoire with piano at the Accademia Internazionale Incontri col Pianista in Imola. Since 2007 he has focussed more on baroque studies, mainly on the viola, studying with Stefano Marcocchi, first viola in Europa Galante, and in Amsterdam Lucy Van Dael.
- Keiko Gomi – cello
Cellist Keiko Gomi has studied all over the world at the Kyoto City University of Arts with Noboru Kamimura and Kazutaka Amada; at the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Hungary with Onzay Czaba and at the Alfred Cortot Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris with Julien Paul. In addition, Keiko has studied Baroque cello at the Abbay aux Dames, Jeune Orchestre Atlantique with Ageet Zweistra and Hilary Metzger and the CNR de Paris with David Simpson. Keiko was awarded first prize at the Faculty Award and Kyoto Music Association Award from the Kyoto City University of Arts, the Governor of Kyoto Prize at the 18th Kyoto Arts Festival and the Baroque Saal Prize as a member of the Kyoto Kammer Orchestra. She also received a full scholarship from Fuji TV KBK for a year’s study at the Ecole Normal de Musique de Paris, awarded at the 18th Academie de Musique Francaise de Kyoto. She has also performed as a soloist with the Nagaokakyou Chamber Ensemble (director Yuko Mori), the JACACEPT String Chamber Orchestra and the Kyoto City University of Arts Orchestra in Japan. Currently, Keiko lives in Paris and plays with her Quartet Mathis and the baroque ensemble Shera Antiqva.
A heartfelt thank you to the fabulous Flury family, Wolf-Dieter, our friends, families, the Church of the Teutonic Order and Christian at Santo Spirito for their invaluable help.
