Austinato

Texts & Translations

Georg Frideric Handel 
Eternal Source of Light Divine

Eternal source of light divine
With double warmth thy beams display
And with distinguish’d glory shine
To add a lustre to this day.

Text by Ambrose Phillips, public domain.
 

John Dowland 
Flow My Tears

Flow, my tears, fall from your springs:
Exiled for ever let me mourn,
Where night’s black bird her sad infamy sings;
There let me live forlorn.
Never may my woes be relieved,
Since pity is fled;
And tears, and sighs, and groans, my weary days,
Of all joys have deprived.
Hark, you shadows that in darkness dwell:
Learn to condemn light.
Happy, happy they that in hell
Feel not the world’s despite.

Author Unknown, public domain.
 

Pierre Guédron  
Cessés Mortels

Cessés mortels de soupirer,
Cette beauté n'est pas mortelle,
Il est permis de l'adorer,
Mais non pas d'estre amoureux d'elle:
Les dieux tant seulement
Peuvent aymer si hautement.

Celuy seroit trop insencé
Quelqu'heur ou son bon heur aspire,
Si ces beaux yeux l'avoyent blessé
D'oser descouvrir son martire :
Car les dieux seulement
Peuvent aymer si hautement.

Translation:
Cease, mortals, from sighing,
For this beauty is not mortal;
It is permitted to adore her,
But not to be in love with her:
Only the gods
Can love so deeply.

He would be too foolish
Whoever hopes for happiness,
If those beautiful eyes had wounded him
To dare reveal his torment:
For only the gods
Can love so deeply.

Author unknown, public domain. Translation © Guido Oliveri, reprinted by permission. 

 

Marc’Antonio Ziani  
Quel sembiante

Quel sembiante così bello
Nulla avea più di Giesù,
Nè vestigio v’era più
Di sua forma già si vaga.
Ogni ven’era un ruscello
Tutt’il corpo er’una piaga

Translation:
That face, so beautiful,
Had nothing more than Jesus,
Nor was there any trace left
Of his once-graceful form.
Every vein was a stream,
His whole body was a wound

Text by Donato Cupeda, public domain. Translation © Guido Oliveri, reprinted by permission. 
 

Claudio Monteverdi  
Lamento della ninfa

Amor, Amor, Amor,
Dove, dov’è la fè
Ch’el traditor giurò?
Fa che ritorni il mio
Amor com’ei pur fu,
O tu m’ancidi, ch’io
Non mi tormenti più.
Non vo’ più ch’ei sospiri
se non lontan da me,
No, no che i martiri
Più non dirammi affè.
Perché di lui mi struggo,
Tutt’orgoglioso sta,
Che sí, che sí se’l fuggo
Ancor mi pregherà?
Se ciglio ha più sereno
Colei, che’l mio non è,
Già non rinchiude in seno
Amor sí bella fè.
Ne mai sí dolci baci
Da quella bocca havrai,
Ne più soavi, ah taci,
Taci, che troppo il sai.
 

Translation:
Love, Love, Love,
Where, where is the faith
That the traitor swore?
Make my love return
As it once was,
Or kill me, so that I
May no longer be tormented.
I no longer wish for him to sigh
Unless far from me,
No! He will not make me suffer
Anymore, I swear!
For I pine for him,
Yet he stands so proud,
That even if I flee from him,
Will he still beg me?
If her gaze is more serene than mine,
She no longer holds within her breast
Love so beautiful.
Nor will you ever have such sweet kisses
From that mouth,
Nor any sweeter—ah, be silent,
Be silent, for you know better than that.

Text by Ottavio Rinuccini. Translation © Guido Oliveri, reprinted by permission. 
 

About the Program

Born in the same year, 1685, a few days apart and in small German towns only miles apart, Georg Frideric Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach, arguably the most eminent composers of their time, pursued careers that followed, however, strikingly divergent paths. Bach, a celebrated organist and master of a rigorous contrapuntal tradition, spent his entire career in Germany; Handel, a cosmopolitan composer, achieved international acclaim writing operas, concertos, and oratorios for the theaters and courts of Europe. This contrast is vividly reflected in the works presented in tonight’s program: Bach’s flute sonata’s opening movement unfolds with dense imitative writing and complex interlacing of the parts; Handel’s flamboyant aria from the celebratory Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne, exemplifies brilliant, virtuosic and theatrical exchanges between voice and trumpet.

Often contrasted to Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767) was regarded by eighteenth-century critics as the most prolific and renowned German composers, able to skillfully blending German contrapuntal styles with French, Italian, and Polish tastes. Despite coming from a family which had no professional musicians, he demonstrated exceptional musical talent from his childhood learning the recorder, violin, zither, and keyboard, and setting a full opera by the age of 12. Telemann’s professional career revolved across major German musical centers where he served as a kapellmeister and composer with a special commitment to writing accessible music for amateurs. The Trio Sonata in A Minor, TWV 42: a4 comes from his Essercizii Musici, a collection of twenty‑four solo and trio sonatas for various instruments, published in 1740. This work showcases his galant style and the incorporation of imitative and brilliant passages in the fast movements.

The French flute virtuoso Jacques‑Martin Hotteterre (1674–1763) was known throughout Europe as “Le Romain” due to his formative studies in Rome. His fame rested above all on his proficiency in teaching and playing the transverse flute as well as continuing the family tradition of wind instrument making. Published in 1708, a year after his groundbreaking treatise Principes de la flute traversiere, Hotteterre’s elegant Suite in D Major opens his Premier livre de pièces pour la flûte-traversière et autres instruments avec la basse, dedicated to Louis XIV.

In France lived also the prolific writer of method books Michel Corrette (1707-1795). Born in Rouen, he established his career within Paris’s vibrant musical milieu, arranging and composing vaudevilles and divertissements for the opéras comiques. The three-movement cello sonata op 20, n. 2 in D minor is part of his Les délices de la solitude, a collection of six sonatas for solo bass instrument and continuo, composed between 1738–39. They illustrate the hybrid tastes of musicians from mid‑18th‑century Paris by blending instrumental colors and virtuosic style with galant, cantabile arias.

John Dowland (1563-1626) was one of the greatest English composers of lute music, finest players of his time, and a key defining voice of the Elizabethan song. He helped establish a distinctly English lute‑song style that fused elements of ballad, dance, and madrigal. One of the most popular songs of the time, Flow my Tears was first published in his Second Booke of Songes, in 1600, and reflects the prevalent melancholy aesthetic of the Elizabethan era through its deeply sorrowful lament.

Active as a singer and teacher, Pierre Guédron (1564-1619) was among the most influential court musicians of the seventeenth century whose music widely circulated in foreign sources and was praised by later theorists such as Doni, Mersenne, and Bacilly. He devoted himself almost exclusively to the popular air de cour, writing around 200 songs across six printed collections between 1602 and 1620. Tonight’s concert features Cessez mortels, from his Deuxième livre (1612), whose text and expressive melody, clearly influenced by Dowland, invite reflection on love and mortality.

Another master of blending Italian and French styles and prolific writer of method books was Jean‑Marie Leclair (1697-1764). Born in Lyon to a lacemaker, he rose to become France’s leading violinist, gaining in the 1720s a reputation for both his virtuosic and “angelic” performances. Leclair’s technical brilliance led to his prestigious appointment as the music director of the Chapel and the Apartments of Louis XV, to whom he dedicated his third book of sonatas Op. 5 in 1734. Leclair’s life came to an abrupt end when he was the victim of a mysterious murder. Leclair’s demanding Sonata no. 2 exemplifies his fusion of Italian lyricism with French dance elements, featuring multiple stopping techniques, frequent use of rustic drones, and adventurous tonal shifts from major to minor modes.

Marc’Antonio Ziani (c.1653–1715), nephew of the renowned musician Pietro Andrea, was recognized by eighteenth-century writers as a composer of “the very best taste.” Ziani’s career accelerated in 1686 when he was appointed as music director to the last Duke of Mantua. He then relocated to Venice and to Vienna to assume the position of Hofkapellmeister to Emperor Leopold I in 1711. Several of Ziani’s arias featured obbligato parts for string and wind instruments. “Quel sembiante così bello” comes from his sacred oratorio Il mistico Giobbe (1704), in which the composer makes striking use of multiple arias for voice, small ensemble, and obbligato trombone.

Tonight’s concert ends with the celebrated Lamento Della Ninfa by Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643). This work is drawn from his eighth madrigal collection dedicated to the Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand III. Beginning as a child prodigy, Monteverdi became the most outstanding Italian composer of the late sixteenth to early seventeenth century. He facilitated the transition from the expressive polyphonic style of the late Renaissance to the dramatic, text‑centered idioms of Baroque music. The Lamento acts as the theatrical concluding piece of the second part of Monteverdi’s eighth volume, often referred to as amorous madrigals in contrast to the warlike pieces of the first part. Monteverdi’s adventurous approach sets the last six strophes as chaconne-like variations acting as the nymph’s lament. Listeners experience Monteverdi’s characteristic tensions between freedom and structure, between expressive fragmentation and deep emotional coherence.

–Jane Akenga

Austinato

Soprano
Afsoneh Esfandiari     
Yuxin Liu         

Violin
Margaret King

Recorders
Alexander Vaquerizo   

Bassoon 
Darren Tea 

Trumpet
Harmon Byerly     

Trombone
Micah Rosenstein 

Guitar
Andres Felipe Palacios Rodas

Cello
Christopher Tran

Harpsichord (continuo realization)*
Hon Ki Cheung        

Harpsichord
Caroline Cubillos            
 

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