Concerto in B minor for Four Violins
Antonio Vivaldi

Vivaldi composed this piece, as he did many of his concertos, for the use of his students at the Ospedale de la Pieta (often termed an orphan home for the female offspring of noblemen and their numerous dalliances with their mistresses). It was a music school in Venice to which he was professionally attached for much of his life. We can assume that he did not intend to perform any of the solo parts himself, since they are of equal importance and require equal levels of technical accomplishment.

According to contemporary accounts, many girls at the Pieta were capable of real virtuosity on their instruments. One interesting fact is that by the first half of the 18th century (when Vivaldi was active at the Pieta) , this school was one of four in Venice --and many in Italy as a whole --that specialized in the education and production of musicians. Essentially, these were the first music conservatories.

It was these institutions, and the relatively rigorous training they afforded their students, that gave Italian musicians an edge and a reputation throughout Europe. "Graduates" of the schools found employment as far away as London, and at the various German speaking courts and principalities, as well as in Spain, Bohemia, Poland, Russia and Scandinavia. The dramatic and even flamboyant character ofVivaldi's writing was
precisely what the public was looking for in Italian music and performance style. J .S. Bach was a great admirer of Vivaldi, and transcribed several of his works. He rearranged the B minor concerto for four harpsichords and orchestra in the key of A minor.

Cello Concerto in G Major
Luigi Boccherini

The sense of lyricism and proportion in the works of Boccherini is often amazing. Born in Lucca to a musical family, the young Boccherini traveled to Vienna to play in an orchestra when he was only 14. He returned often to play in Italy, but by 25, his fame brought him an invitation to Paris to appear as cello soloist. The next year he became chamber composer to the court of the Infante Luis in Madrid, where he stayed until the Infante died in 1786. He then took a position with Freidrich Wilhelm II of Prussia. By 1797 he was back in Madrid where he secured the patronage of Napoleon's brother, Lucien Bonaparte, the French ambassador to Madrid. He held this position until his death.

During his long career he wrote an impressive number of chamber works and, as a virtuoso cellist, wrote a dozen concertos for his instrument. Among the most popular is the concerto we are to hear tonight .

Symphony No.6, "Pastoral"
Ludwig von Beethoven

A most remarkable all-Beethoven concert was held at the Theater an der Wien on the night of December 22, 1808. Lasting from 6:30 until 10:30 pm, the program included the world premieres of the 5th and 6th Symphonies, the 4th piano Concerto (with the composer, despite deepening deafness, as soloist), and the Choral Fantasy, as well as selections from the Mass in C and assorted shorter pieces. The night was bitterly cold, the program practically unrehearsed, and the orchestra made up not of Vienna's first- string musician ( most of whom were engaged in a performance of a Haydn oratorio elsewhere in the city) but largely of amateur players, so it is difficult to imagine what kind of effect this extraordinarily challenging program can have made. Nevertheless, early audiences and critics reacted positively: "unsurpassedly beautiful" was how one critic described the 6th symphony's depiction of the storm.

The "Pastoral" Symphony was, for its time, the most sophisticated example of a then already long-standing tradition of depictions of the natural world in symphonic music. Beethoven was particularly concerned that his music not be understood as "mere" tone painting. "Mehr Emfindung als Malierei, " he insisted, " More about feelings than representations." A passionate nature lover, Beethoven seems intuitively to have grasped certain essential truths about the ecological functioning of natural systems, and to have found ways to reflect those truths in his music. His success in finding musical parallels for natural phenomena gives this symphony an organic quality lifting it far above his contemporaries' pale attempts at pastoral writing.

Tonight's Conductor and Soloist

Reinmar Seidler, cellist and conductor, leads a busy musical life encompassing performance, orchestral direction, music education and research. He has appeared as recitalist and clinician in France, Portugal, Russia and the Netherlands, as well as in Mexico, Central and South America and throughout the United States. He has performed as continuo cel1ist and soloist with period ensembles such as the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, Apollo's Fire of Cleveland, ARTEK (New York), Ensemble Arion (Montreal), the California Bach Society, and the Portland (OR) Baroque Orchestra.

Mr .Seidler has conducted and performed at music festivals including Ravinia, Wolf Trap, the Istanbul International Festival, encuentro de Musica antigua in Mexico City, Conjunto de Musica y Danza antigua in Argentina, the Aston Magna Academy, the Boston Early Music Festival, Les Cenomanies of le Mans, the International Music Festival of Perpignan, and the St. Petersburg (Russia) Spring Festival.

He has recorded early music on the Erato, Titanic and Eclectra labels and 20th century repertoire for Sony/Elektra, Music and Arts, and Peer International. He also a ppears on the sound tracks of several Ken Burns documentary films.

As guest director, Mr. Seidler recently led the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra in Boston premiere performances of "The Passion According to St. Luke" previously attributed to J.S. Bach. As educator, he serves on the faculty of the New England Conservatory Extension Division and is Affiliate Artist at Tufts University. He has lectured at Northeastern University, at the Escuela Nacional de Musica, Mexico, and at the Catholic University of Santiago, Chile. Mr. Seidler is founder and director of Academia Bostoniensis.

The four violin soloists in the Vivaldi Concerto, Robert Haas, Agnes Lina, Sue Schieman and Donna Lalewicz, are all members of the First Violin Section of HCO.

Additional musicians for tonight's concert:
Jennifer Schmidt and Anton Hilfreich, Violin;
Ann Gilbert and Samantha Dickman , Bass;
Samantha Englander, Horn

Program notes by Reinmar Seidler and Ginger Kuper