Name: La musica notturna di Madrid
Start: 2023-09-28T00:00:00.000Z
End: 2023-09-28T00:00:00.000Z
Location: Salmagundi Club

Organization

Admin

American Classical Orchestra

Guitarist

Adam Cockerham

Guitar

La musica notturna di Madrid

New York City

United States

Salmagundi Club

La musica notturna di Madrid: Concerto for Strings in G Major, RV 151 Vivaldi

Public

Concerto alla rustica

Quintet no. 4 for Guitar and Strings in D major, G. 448 "Fandango"

Concerto for Strings in G minor, RV 157

String Quintet in C major

6 String Quintets, op. 30, G. 319-324

Approved

This exclusive pre-season salon concert is limited to Patrons of the American Classical Orchestra and those who purchase individual tickets in advance.  It offers the intimate private-setting experience typical of classical music performed during the 1700s.

The program opens with one of Antonio Vivaldi’s best-known works, Concerto in G Major, RV 151, popularly known as Concerto alla Rustica.  Concertos typically feature soloists, but this one avoids them, showcasing the entire chamber group.  Frequently performed during Vivaldi’s lifetime, its popularity remains strong.  It has been featured in many films and TV series including Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz, Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, and Freaky Tuesday, Liz Flahive’s and Carly Mensch’s Season 3 Episode of GLOW for Netflix.

Boccherini’s Quintet for Guitar and Strings in G Major—popularly known as the Fandango—follows.  All of Boccherini’s Guitar Quintets are assembled from earlier works, often his string quintets.  This one—Guitar Quintet no. 4—is named after the final movement, based on a theme of the Spanish dance. It features classical guitar virtuoso Adam Cockerham on Romantic guitar, but as Adam put it in describing this piece:  “In concertos of this period, the guitar is often a flashy soloist, but here I am an equal partner.  In the first three movements, I feel like a street musician who has been invited to join the more rarified milieu of a chamber group.  In the final movement [the Fandango], I reciprocate by inviting the chamber group into my world of street guitar.”

We then return to Vivaldi—his Concert in G Minor, RV 157.  Its first movement features two violins in dialog, followed by a strict largo in dotted rhythm.  It concludes with a sweeping allegro, reminiscent of “summer” from the Four Seasons. 

The program ends with Boccherini’s String Quintet in C Major, La musica notturna di Madrid, from which our concert takes its name.  Popular during the composer’s lifetime, it evokes the night music of the streets of Madrid.  Its Passecalle section (meaning to pass along the street, singing to amuse oneself) has been used in such modern settings as the 2003 film Master and Commander.

Of the quintet’s concluding Ritirata section, Boccherini wrote:  “One must imagine sitting next to the window on a summer’s night in a Madrid flat and that the band can only be heard in the far-off distance in some other part of the city, so at first it must be played quite softly. Slowly the music grows louder and louder until it is very loud, indicating the Night Watch are passing directly under the listener’s window. Then gradually the volume decreases and again becomes faint as the band moves off down the street into the distance.”

Please join us for this incredible, illuminating night of intimate chamber music.  But before you move off down the street, enjoy a complimentary glass of champagne with the artists, served in the skylight galley, immediately following the concert.

English

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )