6/22 – Music of Mozart, Schrader, and Koetsier

Mozart used the English horn in a single- movement, an adagio, whose date of composition is not known. The piece can be played with four string players joining the wind player, or in the arrangement we’ll hear tonight, with organ. It’s been suggested that the piece was intended for Giuseppe Ferlendis, a noted oboist who was one of Mozart’s friends from his home town of Salzburg, for whom he wrote his “Oboe Concerto.” Ferlendis played the English horn as well as the oboe. The main theme of the adagio has reminded many listeners of the melody from the ethereal motet called “Ave Verum Corpus,” and it’s possible that the instrumental piece is a kind of forerunner of the choral work.

David Schrader has performed locally, nationally, and internationally on three different keyboard instruments: the piano, the harpsichord, and the organ. He’s the organist at Church of the Ascension on Chicago’s Near North Side. In 1999, he composed a “Serenade for Oboe and Organ” for his occasional recital partner, oboist Robert Morgan, who performs with the Lyric Opera Orchestra and the Rembrandt Chamber Players. Mr. Schrader tells us: “The Serenade is cast in ternary (three-part) form, with a spare-textured cantabile (singing) section to begin and to end the piece. The middle section is a lively scherzo that consists of fast-paced 16th-note passages in both the oboe and the organ parts (hands and feet).”

Jan Koetsier (1911-2006) was born in Amsterdam and studied piano, conducting, and composition at the Berlin Conservatory. He was briefly an assistant conductor of Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, then returned to Germany to serve as conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony, and joined the faculty of the Munich Conservatory in 1966. His very melodic “Partita” for English horn and organ dates from 1954. It borrows its title from multi- movement works of the 18th century that contrasted fast and slow dance movements. The first of the five contrasting movements of this Partita begins liberamente (freely), an improvisatory kind of introduction, and then continues allegro (lively). The second movement is larghetto (slow but not excessively slow), and the middle movement is vivace (very fast). The fourth movement, for the organ alone, is marked largo (slow and stately). The finale is andante sostenuto (moderately slow and sustained). It’s based on a traditional German chorale tune, “Wie schoen leucht’ uns der Morgenstern,” How Brightly Shines the Morning Star, which Bach used as the basis for a cantata. The chorale is associated with the Advent season of the church year, and was a favorite of Baroque organists.