‘Tu fedel? Tu costante?’ HWV 171a and other Italian cantatas by Ton Koopman

Ton Koopman

‘Tu fedel? Tu costante?’ HWV 171a and other Italian cantatas

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917226522
Catnr: CC 72265
Release date: 09 September 2016
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Label
Challenge Classics

UPC
0608917226522

Catalogue number
CC 72265

Release date
09 September 2016

"In Italy Händel became acquainted with the chamber cantata, one of the most important genres of that time .... Ton Koopman has recorded a CD with such cantatas with his Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and two soloists. The occasion was an important discovery: the first version of the cantata TU FEDEL? TU CONSTANTE ?, which was in its private collection...."

Toccata, 05-5-2017

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Artist(s)

Composer(s)

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About the album

Sometime in late 1705 or 1706 Georg Friedrich Händel, like many German composers before him, travelled to Italy, then the fountainhead of European music. During the next three years he paid extended visits to Rome and also spent time in Florence, Venice and Naples. In 1709-10, perhaps after a year back in Hamburg, he returned once again to Florence and Venice. Rather than studying with some Italian master, as others had done, he quickly established himself as a virtuoso performer and composer, enjoying the support of leading patrons and composing numerous cantatas.
Lost music from Handel’s years in Italy rarely comes to light. So it was with considerable excitement that in 2015 I found myself looking at a previously unknown and largely different version of the cantata “Tu fedel? tu costante?”, HWV 171 uniquely preserved in a manuscript belonging to Ton Koopman. As so often it was a chance discovery.
“Tu fedel? tu costante?” is the complaint of an injured love. Both Handel settings of this text are for soprano, but in HWV 171a, as presented in the Koopman manuscript, the accompanying ensemble includes an oboe in addition to the two violins and continuo found in HWV 171. Otherwise, except for the absence of the introductory sonata in HWV 171, the new cantata is practically identical with the familiar version up to the end of the first aria. Thereafter it sharply diverges. HWV 171a was probably composed in Venice or Florence sometime prior to Handel’s first
arrival in Rome in late 1706. HWV 171 was completed by May 1707.

Ton Koopman dirigeert onbekend werk Händel
In deze opname dirigeert Ton Koopman een onbekende versie van de cantate 'Tu fedel? Tu costate?' van Georg Friedrich Händel. Koopman, dirigent, klavecinist en organist, is eigenaar van een werkelijk adembenemende collectie historische manuscripten. In een daarvan ontdekte de Amerikaanse musicoloog John H. Roberts in 2015 tot zijn grote verrassing een afwijkende versie van de cantate 'Tu fedel? Tu costate?', HWV 171. Het onbekende stuk, zeker gecomponeerd door Händel en geregistreerd als HWV 171a, kent 4 aria's, waarvan 3 compleet nieuw zijn. Naast sopraan, 2 violen en basso continuo, speelt in dit nieuwe stuk ook de hobo een rol.

De bekende cantate 'Tu fedel? Tu costate?' HWV 171 voltooide Händel in mei 1707. In de jaren 1705, 1706 reisde hij, zoals zoveel Duitse componisten in die tijd, naar Italië. Bolwerk van de Europese muziek. Daar componeerde Händel, waarschijnlijk in Venetië of Florence, eind 1706 de tot nu toe onbekende versie HWV 171a. Deze cantate is een weeklacht van een pijnlijke liefde. In de 3e aria wisselen leed en droevenis elkaar af. De 4e aria drukt eerder teleurstelling uit, dan hoop op een betere toekomst. Terwijl in HWV 171 juist de trots overheerst en de cantate daar eindigt met een optimistische, snelle menuet.

Welt-Ersteinspielung der Händel-Kantate ‚Tu fedel? Tu costante?’ HWV 171a

Die Sammlung historischer Quellen Ton Koopmans ist wirklich atemberaubend. Den neuesten Beweis liefert der Fund einer zweiten Version der Händel’schen Kantate ‚Tu fedel? Tu costante?’, die John H. Roberts in einem der Manuskripte entdeckte, welche in großen Teilen von der bekannten Fassung HWV 171 abweicht. Die authentische Edition der Kantate enthält drei neue Arien, die in ihrem Stil unmissverständlich Händel zuzuschreiben sind und darüber hinaus musikalische Ideen anderer Werke des Komponisten enthalten, darunter auch ‚Almira’.

HWV 171a wurde wahrscheinlich in Venedig oder Florenz in der Zeit vor seiner ersten Ankunft in Rom am Ende des Jahres 1706 komponiert. HWV 171 wurde im Mai 1707 vollendet. Es hat den Anschein, als ob Händel den Text das zweite Mal so unterschiedlich vertont hat, weil ihm die erste Fassung nicht vorlag. Das Manuskript von HWV 171 legt nahe, dass er begann, die Kantate in Norditalien zu kopieren, aber aus welchen Gründen auch immer zu Anfang des zweiten Rezitativs die Arbeit abgebrochen hat. Als er dann die Kantate in Rom zur Aufführung bringen wollte, besaß er offenbar das Original nicht mehr und musste die Kantate deshalb zu großen Teilen noch einmal komponieren.

Auf diese Weise hat Händel den Text gewissermaßen neu interpretiert. In HWV 171a herrscht eine Stimmung von Schmerz und Trauer vor. Der Schwerpunkt der Kantate findet sich hier in der dritten Arie, ‚Se non ti piace amarmi’, ein trauriges Siciliano. Selbst die Schlussarie, in der die Frau sich von dem treulosen Fileno abwendet, drückt eher Enttäuschung als Hoffnung auf eine bessere Zukunft aus. Im Gegensatz dazu ist HWV 171 voller Trotz und endet auf einer optimistischen Note mit einem schnellen Menuett voller Hemiolen. Händels unterschiedliche Interpretation des Texts hatte vielleicht mit den unterschiedlichen Persönlichkeiten der Sängerinnen zu tun, für die er komponierte. In Rom war das wahrscheinlich Margarita Durastante, die später die Titelrolle in seiner venezianischen Oper Agrippina (1709) sang. Leider wissen wir nicht, wer HWV 171a in Florenz oder Venedig gesungen hat.

Parallel zur Aufnahme erscheint eine Edition von HWV 171a bei der Hallischen Händel-Ausgabe.

Artist(s)

Ton Koopman

Klaus Mertens

Yetzabel Arias Fernandez

Born in Zwolle (The Netherlands) Ton Koopman had a classical education and studied organ, harpsichord and musicology in Amsterdam. He received the Prix d‘Excellence for both instruments. Naturally attracted by historical instruments and fascinated by the philological performance style, Koopman concentrated his studies on Baroque music, with particular attention to J.S. Bach, and soon became a leading figure in the “authentic performance” movement.

As organist and harpsichordist Ton Koopman has appeared in the most prestigious concert halls of the world and played the most beautiful historical instruments of Europe. At the age of 25, he created his first baroque orchestra; in 1979 he founded the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra followed in 1992 by the Amsterdam Baroque Choir. Combined as the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir, the ensemble soon gained worldwide fame as one of the best ensembles on period instruments. With a repertoire ranging from the early Baroque to the late Classics, they have performed at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Théatre des Champs-Elysées and Salle Pleyel in Paris, Barbican and Royal Albert Hall in London, Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, Philharmonie in Berlin, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York, Suntory Hall in Tokyo as well as in Brussels, Milan, Madrid, Rome, Salzburg, Copenhagen, Lisbon, Munich, Athens, etc.

Among Ton Koopman’s most ambitious projects has been the recording of the complete Bach cantatas, a massive undertaking for which he has been awarded the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis “Echo Klassik”, the BBC Award, the Hector Berlioz Prize and has been nominated for the Grammy Award (USA) and the Gramophone Award (UK). In addition to the works of Bach, Koopman has long been an advocate of the music of Bach’s predecessor Dieterich Buxtehude and following the completion of the Bach project, he embarked in 2005 on the recording of the Buxtehude-Opera Omnia. The edition consists of 30 CDs, the last having been released in 2014. Ton Koopman is President of the International Dieterich Buxtehude Society. In 2006 he was awarded the Bach-Prize of the City of Leipzig, in 2012 the Buxtehude Prize of the city of Lübeck, and in 2014 he received the Bach Prize of the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Ton Koopman has a very wide repertoire: as harpsichordist and organist he has performed music from the Renaissance to the Classical period, with the ABO&C he has explored intensely the Baroque and Classical period and as a conductor with modern orchestras he also approaches the early Romantics.

In recent years, Ton Koopman has been very active as guest conductor. He has worked with the most prominent orchestras of the world, among them the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, DSO Berlin, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France Paris, Vienna Symphony, Boston Symphony and Cleveland Orchestra.

Ton Koopman has recorded an enormous number of records for Erato, Teldec, Sony, Deutsche Grammophon, and Philips. In 2003 he founded his own label “Antoine Marchand”, a sub label of Challenge Classics. Ton Koopman publishes regularly. He has edited the complete Händel Organ Concertos for Breitkopf & Härtel and recently published new editions of Händel’s Messiah and Buxtehude‘s Das Jüngste Gericht for Carus Verlag.

Ton Koopman is Professor at the University of Leiden, Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music in London and artistic director of the Festival “Itinéraire Baroque”.

Composer(s)

Press

In Italy Händel became acquainted with the chamber cantata, one of the most important genres of that time .... Ton Koopman has recorded a CD with such cantatas with his Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and two soloists. The occasion was an important discovery: the first version of the cantata TU FEDEL? TU CONSTANTE ?, which was in its private collection....
Toccata, 05-5-2017

A prime selling point here is the premiere recording of an early version of the soprano cantata Tu fedel? Tu costante?, HWV171a, unearthed in Ton Koopman’s private manuscript collection.
Gramophone, 01-3-2017

Koopman's recording is very important because of the repertoire: one first recording and some other pieces which are not that well-known, in overall very fine performances.
Musica dei Bonum, 13-2-2017

As always the playing is at the highest level
Fono Forum, 06-2-2017

Diapason - 01/01/2017
Diapason, 01-1-2017

Despite the presence of good soloists and a fine recording technique, this is a most disappointing production, since Ton Koopman’s conducting badly lacks inspiration.
Pizzicato, 20-12-2016

4 **** star rating ''For any one who wants to have a musical present under the christmas tree, needs to have the Händel album.''
De Gelderlander, 14-12-2016

''The performance is only a bit formal.''
Luister, 01-12-2016

SWR 2 - 15/11/2016
SWR 2, 15-11-2016

"You own a unique work by Händel, Ton!"
Klassieke zaken, 01-11-2016

Ton Koopman will give the prestigious Huizinga lecture at Leiden University this year.
NRC Next, 09-10-2016

"It seems like Händel had to compose his cantate again for a new version, maybe because did not have the original music with him."
Tijdschrift Oude Muziek, 01-10-2016

Interview with Ton Koopman about the discovery in his own library of the new Händel cantata ‘Tu fedel? Tu costante?’ HWV 171a
Trouw, 03-9-2016

All the while the Amsterdam players are a buoyant presence, whether in the energising continuo or the beautifully turned obbligatos from oboe, recorder and solo violins.
Gramophone, 04-7-2016

Koopman conducted his choir and orchestra with an enthousiasm that was sometimes rushed but also very contagious.
NRC , 11-4-2016

"And then the world received the gift of a new piece by Händel."
De Volkskrant, 09-4-2016