Strangers in Strange Lands, for solo violin
Violinists in the 17th century often led lives along borderlines— traveling across political and religious boundaries in search of work and recognition. They sought to distinguish themselves as artists, not merely common fiddlers. They began to find that recognition through displays of ingenuity, marvel and virtuosity. Their most inventive compositions were not exposed to the public through printed copies. They began life with intimate performances to royal or religious patrons at private court presentations. In this unusual and exhilarating program, baroque violinist Lindsey Strand-Polyak brings these emotionally complex tiny masterpieces to the public stage. These rarely performed pieces for solo violin—from Westhoff’s Suite from Mercure galant performed for King Louis XIV, to Colombi’s “Tromba” performed for Duke Francesco II of Modena—challenge our perception of early baroque music. Biber’s timeless Passacaglia, dedicated to Archbishop Khuenberg of Salzburg, concludes the program.
Interspersed throughout the music are short pieces of creative nonfiction written by Lindsey Strand-Polyak. These flash-fiction tales combine scholarly research, archival work and historical recreation, and complete the picture of these artist-composers as human beings navigating court politics, religious differences, social class, and foreign lands. Through these manuscript pieces, we can immerse ourselves in the lives of these virtuosi violinists and witness them expanding the instrument’s capabilities while discovering what it meant to be a musician in the seventeenth century.
Program:
Tromba
Allemanda en Scordatura
Giuseppe Colombi
(1635-1694)
Suite from Mercure galant
Johann Paul Westhoff
(1656-1705)
Ayers for the Violin: Passaggio Rotto & Fantasia
Nicola Matteis
(1650-1714)
Artificiosus Concentus pro Camera: Partita III
Johann Joseph Vilsmayr
(1663-1722)
Prelude in C Minor
Allemande & Gigue in G Minor
Thomas Baltzar
(1630-1663)
Passacaglia
Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber
(1644-1704)
Program Notes
The violin, in many ways, is like the perfect Early Modern mistress. A mix of impossible juxtapositions: able to cause exquisite agony and enjoyable frustration to her suitor. One day allowing her suitor’s advances, the next thwarting every possible option. Every day requires work, dedication, diligence, and nurturing, or the relationship will sour. Some days her suitor wants nothing to do with her, wants to leave her alone and never return, and yet every day comes back, caressing her neck and shoulders, obeying her demands.
And just like a mistress, in exchange for the violinist’s decades of undying loyalty, the violin gives the player not only pain, but also pleasure: a voice they were not born with, and the ability to make utterances that never could have come from their own lips. Long before Tartini’s deal with the devil, a century of seventeenth-century violinists had already made their own contracts with this marvelous mistress. And for a select few, the violin and the persona of the violin virtuoso offered something new, and even more elusive: prestige and social ascendance.
Tonight, we imagine their stories.
-Lindsey Strand-Polyak
The Characters:
Thomas Baltzar (b. 1630, Lubeck-1662, London) was England’s first bonafide violin superstar. He came to London from Queen Christina’s court in Sweden, and immediately was invited to play in every prestigious salon gathering in London and Oxford. In a time when the body of a performer was never acknowledged, multiple diarists including John Evelyn and Roger L’Estrange wrote with effusive and flowery descriptions of his playing. Baltzar was then hired as Charles II’s private virtuoso, being paid an obscene sum to be on the king’s retainer, only to die tragically early of alcoholism. Even in death, he was honored by being buried in the Cloisters of Westminster.
Anthony á Wood (Oxford, 1632- Oxford, 1695). Born Anthony Wood, he adopted the affected á after his grand tour around continental Europe. A loquacious antiquarian and avid amateur musician, he was one of the first players to join the Oxford music gatherings on violin after Thomas Baltzar came to England. His writing style is hilarious and best paired with a good scotch.
Nicola Matteis (b. ca. 1650, “Naples”- d. after 1714, Norfolk?) was England’s second violin superstar, with a very mysterious background. He came to London in the 1670’s, and like Baltzar, began charming the salon scene of the elite, where diarists like John Evelyn and Roger North began extolling his talents and prowess as a performer. A testament to the rise of the violin’s prestige in the 10 years between Baltzar and Matteis, he went on to publish four volumes of violin music, aimed at the burgeoning amateur market– unheard of just 15 years earlier.
John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (1647-1680), Poet and Courtier… one of the most famous ‘rebels without a cause’ of Restoration England– known for his public affairs and reckless drunken brawls with his merry gang of nobles. We know that in 1676, he and his friends were apprehended for beating a violinist for refusing to play another tune. Tellingly, the report lists the names of the nobles… but not the name of the musician.
Giuseppe Colombi (1635, Modena-1694, Modena), violinist who lived his whole life in Modena, holding remarkable positions of prestige at the D’Este court. Today the Biblioteca Estense holds one of the largest collections of 17th century music manuscripts, and Colombi’s music is the largest by a single composer.
Francesco II d’Este, Duke of Modena and Reggio (1660-1694), took over ruling as duke at the mature age of 14(!). Despite having dissolved the court orchestra when Francesco II was 2, his mother reinstated the orchestra when he was 11 after he took up the violin. Francesco II spent lavishly on the arts and music throughout his life, promoting his violin teacher Giuseppe Colombi to maestro di capella. Known beyond Modena, Arcangelo Corelli (from nearby Fusignano) dedicated his Op. 3 sonata collection to the duke.
The Program:
Introduction: Between Fiddler and Virtuoso: The uncomfortable life and world of the 17th century violinist
Tale #1: Broken Passage, a Tale of Nicola Matteis (ca.1650-1714)
Introduction: Nicola Matteis, Passaggio Rotto, from The Second Part of Ayres for the Violin (London, ca. 1676)
Chapter 1
Greensleeves, adapted from John Playford’s The Division Violin (London, 1685)
Chapter 2
Conclusion: Nicola Matteis, Fantasia in a minor, from The Second Part of Ayres for the Violin (ca. 1676)
Tale #2: Francesco’s Gigue, a Tale of Giuseppe Colombi (1635-1694)
Introduction: Giralomo Nicolo Laurenti (1678-1751), Forlana (undated manuscript, Venice)
The Tale
Conclusion: Giuseppe Colombi, Tromba a violino solo (undated manuscript, Modena)
A Mystery in Salzburg: Johann Joseph Vilsmayr (1689-1722)
Johann Joseph Vilsmayr, Partia 1 in A Major, from Artificiosus Concentus pro Camera (Salzburg, 1715)
Part 1: Prelude- Aria- Saraband- Gavott-Menuett
Part 2: Aria- Menuett
Part 3: Aria- Menuett– Guique- Finale
~intermission~
Tale #3: Of Ales and Spirits: A Tale of Mr. Thomas Baltzar (ca. 1630-1662), or, “in which Mr. Anthony á Wood discovers it is better not to meet your heroes”
Thomas Baltzar, Prelude in c minor (manuscript, Oxford)
Chapter 1
Thomas Baltzar, Courante in g minor (manuscript, Oxford)
Chapter 2
Thomas Baltzar, Sarabanda in g minor (manuscript, Oxford)
Chapter 3
Conclusion: Thomas Baltzar, Allemande and Variation, (manuscript, Oxford)
More Questions than Answers: Heinrich Biber (b.1644, Bohemia- d. 1704, Salzburg)
Heinrich Biber, Passagalia, from The “Mystery” Sonatas (manuscript, ca. 1676)
