Terrance McKnight: Live from the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park, I'm Terrance McKnight from WQXR 105. 9 FM, New York City's number one classical music station.

We're here at this historic bandshell that was given to the city in 1923. Elkan Naumburg gave this to the city for free music concerts. And that tradition lives on through his family member, a tradition that we appreciate here in New York City.

And tonight, the Naumburg Bandshell invites the renowned Handel and Haydn Society, a Boston based ensemble, in a program of concertos by Bach, Corelli, Handel, and also vocal works by Handel, and we will feature soprano Joelle Harvey.

We're going to start tonight with a Concerto Grosso. It's a form written for, not, not for a solo instrument, but, but for several instruments. So tonight we're going to hear several soloists. This one has two violins and a cello in conversation with the rest of the ensemble. And so to hear, to hear, to tell us what that conversation is all about is the cellist Guy Fishman.

So Guy, welcome, welcome to the Bandshell. Welcome to WQXR.

Guy Fishman: Thank you for having me.

Terrance McKnight: Yes. Yeah, so Handel wrote a lot of concertos, but he didn't write one for your instrument. Is that correct?

Guy Fishman: That is correct. Yeah. The cello was considered an accompanimental instrument when most of this music was written.

Terrance McKnight: Yeah.

Guy Fishman: And so, you know, Corelli gives it a couple of measures here and there, but mostly it's a, it's a supportive role.

Terrance McKnight: Yeah. So Corelli did write for your instrument in this concerto grosso form.

Guy Fishman: He did.

Terrance McKnight: Now I understand that your instrument was made in the same city where Corelli worked, is that right?

Guy Fishman: It was made in the same city at the same time that he was composing. This is Rome in 1704. He composed these around 1700. So he might have heard this cello in his own music.

Terrance McKnight: Yeah. So tell us about this Concerto Grosso that we're gonna have.

Guy Fishman: Well it's a, it's, you know, this is the form that Corelli really elevated and standardized. Everyone basically copied Corelli after him. It's got multiple movements that sort of stream into one another. Lots of contrast, lots of dance, lots of emotive power. Corelli was said to have his eyes roll into the back of his head when he played the violin. It's very much about emotion.

Terrance McKnight: Yeah. Are you going to do that?

Guy Fishman: I'm going to try. I'm going to try. Yeah.

Terrance McKnight: Any particular reason why we're starting with this piece of music?

Guy Fishman: I mean, I think you'll hear it when you hear it. It's, it's, it's just a great piece of music. There's 12 of them. They're all amazing starters and enders. They're just great music, and why not start with the best?

Terrance McKnight: Okay, well, here we go. WQXR, Naumburg, Central Park. This is the Handel and Haydn Society with Arcangelo Corelli's Concerto Grosso in D for two violins and cello.\

MUSIC: Arcangelo Corelli, Concerto grosso in D major, Op. 6 No. 1

Terrance McKnight: Concerto Grosso for two violins, cello, and orchestra by Arcangelo Corelli, performed by the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston. Making this music live at the Naumburg Bandshell in New York City's Central Park.

I'm Terrance McKnight here with you in this concert of concertos. You know, usually a solo instrument in front of an orchestra. But this idea of a concerto really began with music for a singer. and several players. And we're going to hear an example of that kind of concerto later in this concert. Right now, here's a more typical way of hearing a singer and an orchestra together, and that's in an opera. Soprano Joelle Harvey, she's a native New Yorker, not New York City, but a small town in western New York, Bolivar. And she started her opera training in New York State at Glimmerglass. Now she's sung with a lot of major orchestras around the world, including the Philharmonic here in the city. She's sung in lots of opera houses, including at the Met here in New York. But she's also worked a lot with the Handel and Haydn Society, and tonight she's going to join them for music by George Frederic Handel. We're going to hear two arias, one from Julius Caesar and the other from Semele. In the first one, Joelle Harvey is Cleopatra in love with Caesar, but she's been taken prisoner and told that Caesar is dead. She's contemplating her fate and threatening to haunt her enemies after she's dead. In the second one, she's singing the title role Semele. Here is Joelle Harvey with Handel and Haydn Society at Central Park.

MUSIC:
George Frideric Handel, From Guilio Cesare - Piangerό la sorte mia
George Frideric Handel, From Semele - Endless Pleasure

Terrance McKnight: Soprano Joelle Harvey. Singing arias by Handel and two operas, Julius Caesar and Semele. She's out here with the Handel and Haydn Society in a concert happening at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park. We're going to hear more from Joelle Harvey in the second half of this program.

I'm Terrance McKnight here with you on Classical New York and it's a beautiful night in the park. Lots of folks seated in chairs and benches, on the ground. Lots of cameras and families. Picnics. Wonderful time to be out here at the park and on the radio here for our listeners.

Now just before intermission, we've got a concerto by Handel. Now this one is for organ. That's right, there's an organ right in the middle of Central Park. You know, Handel was a famous organist and he often played organ concertos between acts, you know, of his oratorios. He would conduct them from the keyboard just improvising at that instrument. You're going to hear lots of great concerto stuff in this work, especially in the second movement, it's got a lot of bird song imitations in it. That's why this concerto is known as the Cuckoo and the Nightingale. The organ part is written for a small chamber organ, a small portable instrument without pedals, but it's actually a pipe organ that's been brought to the Naumburg Bandshell for this concert, and playing it is the Handel and Haydn Society's Associate Conductor, Ian Watson. And he's going to join us for conversation. in this program. We were out here just a couple of weeks ago. And now we're here with the Handel and Haydn Society on WQXR.

MUSIC: George Frideric Handel, Organ Concerto in F Major, HWV 295

Terrance McKnight: That applause for Ian Watson, the concerto he just played here in Central Park. A concerto for organ composed by George Frederic Handel, played by Ian Watson and the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston.

I'm Terrance McKnight and we are halfway through the fourth of this season's Naumburg Orchestral Concerts.

When the music resumes, we're going to hear a concerto that Johann Sebastian Bach composed for violin and oboe, and a very special work that Handel composed for soprano and orchestra featuring the soprano we heard earlier, Joelle Harvey.

Now this program is coming to you tonight from the historic Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park. And it's being broadcast live to you on Classical New York, WQXR 105. 9 FM and HD Newark, 90. 3 FM WQXW Ossining, and WNYC FM HD 2 New York.

Great audience out here in Central Park. Nice to have you here on the radio, enjoying this live music and this intermission feature. Hopefully we'll get to talk to Ian Watson. I spoke to him earlier about playing organ, about playing harpsichord, about playing outside, indoors, about the difference between playing Bach and Handel, two great organists from the same period. And so he's gonna come over here and, after he collects himself, he's got a bottle of water. I don't know if you heard it, but after that first movement, the audience just applauded. He had to stand up and take a bow during the first movement of that piece. I'd imagine Handel had a similar response to his music because he was such a great organist.

Ian Watson, thanks for joining us here at the table.

Ian Watson: My pleasure.

Terrance McKnight: Yeah, talking to the WQXR audience here in New York and around the world.

Ian Watson: Right.

Terrance McKnight: Great work up there.

Ian Watson: Well, thank you. It's hot work.

Terrance McKnight: Yeah, yeah.

Ian Watson: It's over now, so.

Terrance McKnight: I think this audience was very appreciative. They really were. I was just telling my radio listeners how you had to take a bow after the first movement there.

Ian Watson: Right. That's pretty unusual. Yeah. For modern audiences at least. I think that in Handel's time that would have been much more common, actually.

Terrance McKnight: I think so, because actually there was a cadenza or something in there that you played, just a solo section, and if it were jazz, there would have been a big applause after that section.

Ian Watson: Oh, 100%, yeah. That's right.

Terrance McKnight: Yeah, man.

Ian Watson: So it's the Baroque equivalent of the, the drum solo.

Terrance McKnight: Yeah, there you go. Well, welcome.

Ian Watson: Thank you.

Terrance McKnight: Thanks for, thanks for being here with us.

Now, when we think about Baroque music and, and organ, we have to think not only about Handel, but we think about Bach as well. Two great organists living in two different places. Yeah. Can you, earlier today, you said to me that Bach worked in the church for most of his career and Handel never worked in church.

Ian Watson: That's how I understand it.

Terrance McKnight: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So how did they forge these two different paths?

Ian Watson: Well, interesting enough, another point is they never met, although they were born in the same year in a very, very close geographical area, they never met. Handel spent a lot of his life in firstly, Italy, and then in London, of course, he became a naturalized British citizen.

Bach really lived and worked in a very, very small perimeter. I think that the, the furthest job he had was about a hundred miles from where he was born. So they both had very different paths from that point of view. And of course, as you said, Bach worked as a church musician except for a period of, I think, about six years when he was the kapellmeister in Köthen. where this is where he wrote all his, the orchestral suites and the great orchestral music like that and other keyboard music. And then from 1723 onwards, he's based the Cantatas in St. Thomas' Leipzig. Whereas Handel as I say, spent most of his life in London, or a lot of it, and wrote 40 operas, and was a great entrepreneur, and was purported to love his food and drink, and wine, perhaps a bit too much, you know, he was rather overweight.

And was a great kind of bon viveur generally. The, the thing which links the two of them, apart from the fact they were both born in the same year, is they were both great organists, of course. I mean, Bach was acknowledged to be the greatest organist of his time. And Handel similarly he had a very He had a very big reputation as a keyboard player, and particularly organist. He wrote some harpsichord suites, but he was mostly, his fame was mostly based on his organ playing. So not quite sure actually how, if he didn't work in churches, how he would have achieved that sort of prowess. There it is. Mm-Hmm. . That's, that's how it was. I,

Terrance McKnight: I'm curious about the improvisational [Yeah] skills of both of these, or both of these composers. Right? Right now, Bach working in the church, Handel, not working in the church. [Yeah]. Do, do you see, or do you hear some sort of, in their improvisational prowess, do is, is Handel's less sacred or is it, is it, is it secular versus Bach's improvisations sacred? Do they.... is there a line of distinction between...

Ian Watson: well, you know, Handel's output as far as organs went, was basically, basically without pedals, you know, just using the hands, whereas Bach wrote these great preludes and fugues, etc. So it's difficult to compare their music from that point of view, but also I think that the Handelian rhetorical style with its... has a different kind of structural feel than Bach. With Bach, there's a lot of filigree, of course, and you feel that you can't remove one note from that. You can't change a single note of Bach. Whereas Handel, well, I wouldn't want to change it, but it's just a different style altogether. Perhaps more singing, one could say. [Yeah]. More cantabile kind of feel. Yeah, which made him a great opera composer, of course.

Terrance McKnight: I'm curious about, because a lot of this music is about tradition and you all play their Baroque instruments out here at this at this performance. Now some traditions I noticed that we haven't kept up with. For example we heard Joelle Harvey out here singing earlier now. Handel would have written those parts for a male castrato And not for a woman to sing those parts back in the 17th century.

Ian Watson: I don't think that, I don't believe that's true.

Terrance McKnight: Oh, it's absolutely true.

Ian Watson: There are a lot of, I think there were a lot of, well I'd say that the height of coloratura singing was actually during Handel's time, in fact.

Terrance McKnight: So you're telling me, on radio, that Handel was writing for women back in 1700?

Ian Watson: I'm afraid I am, yeah.

Terrance McKnight: You could email me, I'm at Terrance at wqxr.org. We're here with Ian Watson in the park. Having a good time talking about Handel, Bach, and this great music.

I want to know about the harpsichord out here. How does the harpsichord hold up? That Baroque instrument, how does it hold up out here in the park?

Ian Watson: Yeah, well of course, well actually that one I think is holding up reasonably well. They're not designed to be outdoor instruments. They're designed to be chamber instruments, played in small, small rooms, small rooms. So certainly the modern instruments I think, I mean I owned one by a guy called Peter Fisk who lives in, who used to live in Vermont. And he, although they were historically correct in a way, he also kind of tempered them to withstand the vagaries of the New England climate. So I'd imagine these modern instruments are perhaps more sturdy than certainly the older ones would have been. But there are so few old harpsichords now, of course. I think they made bonfires of them at the end of the 18th century.

Terrance McKnight: Now tell us about, maybe you can tell us a little bit about the current scene for organists are organists still coming into colleges and universities studying this repertoire? What's, what's the future for, for your instrument?

Ian Watson: Well, it's difficult to, I, I don't have the figures. I know that there are some very strong organ programs in colleges across America, very strong indeed. They're producing some, some brilliant people, and I think there's an appetite for organ recitalists. But, you know, the church work, I'm not quite so sure about, about the future of that. I mean, things change, but organs in churches are not, it's a kind of a, a dying profession.

I think, maybe I'm wrong please, you know, email what was it again?

Terrance McKnight: It bears repeating. Terrance at WQXR. org. And you can, you know, if you have anything you want to say to Ian, and we can, we can have that conversation as well. Thank you, Ian Watson for your...

Ian Watson: oh, my pleasure.

Terrance McKnight: ...performance. It was beautiful hearing you up there and seeing you.

Ian Watson: Thank you. Yep.

Terrance McKnight: Until next time.

Ian Watson: Yep. Thank you very much.

Terrance McKnight: We are live here at Central Park at the Naumburg Bandshell, Handel and Haydn Society. Now this organization is over 200 years old, continuously running from 1812 until now. Some historic performances along the way, and we're going to continue with a concert that will feature a concerto by Johann Sebastian Bach. Concerto written for oboe and violin, so stay with us for that. We're going to hear more from Joelle Harvey. I'm going to interview another musician on the stage. And right now, let's go back. Go back to a Naumburg Orchestral Concert in years past. Orpheus Chamber Orchestra was out here at the park and they played some music by Edvard Grieg.

They played the Holberg Suite. Let's go back to that performance. This happened back in 2012, right out here in Central Park, and it was broadcast on WQXR.

MUSIC: GRIEG: HOLBERG SUITE

Terrance McKnight: Live from Central Park. I'm Terrance McKnight, and welcome back to the second half of this live WQXR broadcast from the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts.

Tonight we're featuring the Handel and Haydn Society, and in just a moment we'll continue with the music. But before we get to it, I want to introduce you to Aisslinn Nosky.

Aisslinn Nosky: Hi! Hi, Terrance.

Terrance McKnight: If you like what she's going to say here, you're going to love what she said on our podcast, Open Ears Project. You can read about that and check it out at WQXR, wherever you get your podcasts. Aisslinn, welcome.

Aisslinn Nosky: Thanks for having me.

Terrance McKnight: Yes, so you all are going to play a piece by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Aisslinn Nosky: That's right.

Terrance McKnight: That he composed, really, for your instrument and for oboe.

Aisslinn Nosky: For oboe, yes.

Terrance McKnight: Yes. Talk about the conversation. Talk about the conversation that you have to have with the oboist about the music. I mean, do you all have to agree on certain things about what the music is about or what?

Aisslinn Nosky: We do. I have a co I have a fellow soloist in my good friend Debra Nagy, who's one of the best oboists in the world, and we don't disagree on much. So we tend to have wonderfully stimulating musical conversations when we're playing our violin and oboe at each other. It's very fun. (laughter)

Terrance McKnight: We'll see, we'll see, and we'll hear how that goes down.

Aisslinn Nosky: Well I'm biased. But, you know.

Terrance McKnight: Now, you know, this orchestra, I talked about being over, you know, over 200 years old.

Aisslinn Nosky: Ah, I look pretty good.

Terrance McKnight: You all have a very historic past. Yes. Long time.

Aisslinn Nosky: Yeah, yeah. 1815. Wow.

Terrance McKnight: It's a long time.

Aisslinn Nosky: It's a long time. I've had a few haircuts since then. Yeah. It's a long time.

Terrance McKnight: This is how the podcast went too, so be sure to hear that.

Aisslinn Nosky: Poor man. Yeah.

Terrance McKnight: Tell us, tell us just a bit about what you guys have coming up. [Yeah.] A little bit about that and just about playing these instruments out here in this weather. Is this the kind of perfect weather to be playing outdoors?

Aisslinn Nosky: This is the perfect place to play really old instruments. It's perfect, you can imagine. Yeah, absolutely. It is the perfect place to play because, of course I would rather play here than anywhere else in the world for my fellow New Yorkers. We love it here. This is the best concert series I've ever come across. And, you know, okay, maybe it's a little humid, I've heard it's a little hot, okay, but our instruments, you know, they're sensitive, like, like we are, as players, as people, as humans. So, they're, they're very attuned to the beautiful weather we're having. And so, because it's humid, all of that moisture is going into my violin. It's all good. We've got you. It's cool. So this is not maybe what Bach had in mind when he was thinking of this concerto, but he was, he did have in mind the fact that we would be playing for each other and for wonderful neighbors this way, so that is definitely authentic, to be here just sharing this incredible music with the city. That's, that's very... Bach would be happy, I think.

Terrance McKnight: Just, just one more question, because we heard from Handel earlier, Bach wrote, you know, so much for the church. Is this music that he wrote for the church, or was this for a coffeehouse, or what was the intention here?

Aisslinn Nosky: This, Bach, most of Bach's music was written for sacred services, for church purposes. But this was not, and we don't quite know. It was mostly, we really don't know. I love that. We don't really know why he wrote it, but I like to imagine that he was having a party like this with his buddies at the coffeehouse. We all know he loved coffee and and the oboe and the violin. So here we go.

This is Aisslinn Nosky and oboe is Debra Nagy. Joined by the Handel and Haydn Society for JS Bach's Concerto in C Minor, performed at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park, live on WQXR.

MUSIC: Johann Sebastian Bach: Concerto for Violin and Oboe in C Minor, BWV 1060R

Terrance McKnight: Johann Sebastian Bach's Concerto in C minor for violin, oboe, performed at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park. Violinist Aisslinn Nosky, oboist Debra Nagy, and the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston. This is number four of this season's five Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, and the next one is going to happen two weeks from tonight. On August 6th, we're going to feature the group called Acronym. They'll play a program of music by early Baroque composers who spent time in Vienna in the early 17th century and WQXR's Paul Cavalcante is going to host that concert. So be sure to join us either out here in the park or right there on the radio where you are.

Now the final work on tonight's program is, of mostly concertos, is a piece by that we're going to hear Joelle Harvey singing. Now when we say concerto, we usually talk about a piece for solo instruments, but the history of the concerto goes back to the late Renaissance, when composers began writing for solo human voices accompanied by several instruments.

Now the biggest branch of that idea became opera, but there are also branches, oratorios, cantatas, motets. And we're about to hear music by Handel now, a sweet piece called Silete venti, it's often described as a sacred motet, but we can also call it a concerto for voice, and it's got four movements, it starts with Dulcis amor, Sweet Love, and the last movement is the great Alleluja.

MUSIC: George Frideric Handel, Silete venti, HWV 242, Symphonia & Recit: Silete venti

Terrance McKnight: Lead soprano Joelle Harvey, singing music by George Frederic Handel with the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston. You just heard music from Silete venti, Silete venti, it's a sacred motet by Handel, but for the purposes of this concert, we're calling it a Concerto for Voice. Folks are standing up for Joelle Harvey and the Handel and Haydn Society out here in Central Park. Performing this music out at the Naumburg Bandshell. This concert also featured concertos by Handel, Corelli, and Johann Sebastian Bach. Brought to you live. Right here on WQXR Classical 105. 9 FM. Listen to this audience. They're still standing. Concert's over. Joelle Harvey coming back out to take another bow. She sang on both halves of this concert.

And you did hear a harpsichord plucking along. Ian Watson, the harpsichordist with the Handel and Haydn Society. He also played an organ concerto by Bach a little bit earlier. We're going to be back out here at the park with Acronym August 6th, so be sure to join us out here at the park for more Baroque music.

We're WQXR. I'm Terrance McKnight here with you. I'm going to turn things over to my colleague Miyan Levinson, who's in the studio, but I'd like to say thanks to Christopher London, who's president of the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, and his staff, including stage manager extraordinaire, Pati Dynes. Also thanks to Wilson's Showtime Services and all of our friends at SummerStage.

The WQXR team includes engineers Edward Haber, George Wellington, Duke Marcos, "Don't Mess With Bill" Bill Siegmund, and Ray Mandel-Mueller. Our production team, Lauren Purcell-Joiner, Eileen Delahunty, Laura Boyman, Aimée Buchanan, Jade Jiang, just an all-star cast. I'm Terrance McKnight, and I'm going to send back, things back over to our WQXR studios in Lower Manhattan.

Take it away, Miyan.