Allegro takes on ‘Pirates’
Just when Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel might have thought themselves safe from prosecution, Spokane’s Allegro concert series is reviving charges of plagiarism and piracy against the two baroque masters.
The “Pirates of the Baroque” program on Friday at The Met will show how Bach and Handel reused music by other composers (and themselves as well) in some of their most famous compositions.
Allegro’s co-founders and directors, harpsichordist Beverly Biggs and oboist-conductor David Dutton, will be joined by singers Michael Caldwell and Randel Wagner, violinist Rachel Dorfman, oboist Keith Thomas and a baroque orchestra.
“Handel has been long known for ‘appropriating’ material from others and himself,” Dutton says. “But not many people know that he quoted music by Henry Purcell in his most famous piece, the ‘Hallelujah’ Chorus from ‘Messiah.’
“And Handel borrowed from Georg Philipp Teleman to make one of the movements of ‘The Royal Fireworks Music,’ a piece we play at Riverfront Park every summer,” Dutton adds.
As for Bach, Friday’s concert will show the evolution of the slow movement of his Harpsichord Concerto in F minor though several of his earlier compositions, including an oboe concerto and a violin sonata.
Baritone Wagner will show how “Ich habe genug,” one of Bach’s most famous cantata arias, grew from its simple beginnings in the notebook for Bach’s wife Anna Magdalena to its more famous, elaborated form.
Thomas will perform the Oboe Concerto by Alessandro Marcello that Bach transcribed for solo harpsichord, overlaying its slow movement with the lavish ornaments even oboists cannot resist.
Both Bach and Handel also will be on hand – actually, impersonated by Caldwell and Wagner – to explain just what they did in the way of musical recycling and why.
Leonard Oakland, a Whitworth College English professor and a music commentator on KPBX-FM, Spokane Public Radio, will discuss the historical and social background of the music in a preconcert talk beginning at 7:15 p.m.