VSO@Home02: Bach, Offenbach & Mozart - COVID-19 Virtual Concert

Join us for another evening of beautiful chamber music as we introduce Henry Shapard as the newly appointed Principal Cello of the VSO and the Nezhat and Hassan Khosrowshahi Chair. He is featured in a pair of duets, one with VSO Concertmaster Nicholas Wright, and the other with a long-serving member of the VSO cello section, Charles Inkman. Following the string pieces, we present a recording with members of the VSO Wind Section (Beth Orson, Michelle Goddard, Julia Lockhart & Andrew Mee) and Pianist Bogdan Dulu performing Mozart’s Quintet for Piano and Winds, recorded at the beginning of this year in Koerner Recital Hall. Stay until the end for a Q&A with concertmaster Nicholas Wright, cellist Henry Shapard and oboist Beth Orson.

I. Introduction (00:14)
II. Bach ‘Air on the G-String’ (01:37)
III. Offenbach ‘Mouvement de valse’ from Duo for two cellos (06:48)
IV. Mozart Quintet for Piano and Winds, K452 (12:38)
V. Q&A (32:38)

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Johann Sebastian Bach (b. Mar. 21, 1865 Eisenach, Thuringia, Germany / d. July 28, 1750 Leipzig, Germany )
Mvt. II - Air, from Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major, BWV1068 (5:02)

Bach’s catalogue of works includes only four orchestral suites, (BWV 1066 -1069), each comprised of an Ouverture and a characteristic series of baroque dances. The earliest manuscript for the suite No. 3 (BWV 1068) dates from 1730. The second movement Air is the only movement in the suite that is scored for just the strings and continuo. Here it is heard in its traditional setting in D-major, with the parts delegated to this “electronic” quartet of string voices! The famous nickname, “Air on the G-string” stems from the 19th century virtuoso August Wilhelmj who adapted Bach’s Air, transposing it down a full tone (from D-Major to C-Major), so that it could be played in the rich lower octave. On the score he wrote auf der G-Saite (on the G-string) above the staff for the solo violin, which gave the arrangement its nickname.

Henry Shapard, cello and Charles Inkman, cello


Jacques Offenbach (b. Jun. 20, 1819 Cologne, Prussia, Germany / d. Oct. 5 1880 Paris, France)
Duo for two cellos in C Major, Op. 52, No. 3
[excerpt: Mouvement de valse – Tempo di marcia - Mouvement de valse ] (4:10)

Offenbach gained much of his knowledge of the theatre from performing as a cellist in the pit orchestra of the Opéra-comique. He was also a flaneur, or musical man-about-town in the salons of Paris, a travelling virtuoso, and a teacher. He wrote six volumes of music (published as his Opp. 49-54) for his own instrument, the cello, including several sets of duos for master and student to perform together. The Cours méthodique de duos pour deux violoncelles, include dozens of duets arrayed somewhat progressively through all levels of technical challenge, but still providing the same melodic invention, engagement and entertainment as Offenbach’s popular stage works. If they were heard more frequently in concert, they might be considered the cello equivalent of Frédéric Chopin’s Piano Etudes, which were composed in the same Parisian milieu.

Bogdan Dulu, piano
Beth Orson, oboe
Michelle Goddard, clarinet
Andrew Mee, horn
Julia Lockhart, bassoon


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (b. Jan. 27, 1756 Salzburg, Austria / d. Dec. 5, 1791 Vienna, Austria)
Quintet in E-flat Major, for piano and winds, K452
I. Largo – Allegro moderato
II. Larghetto
III. Allegretto

In the spring of 1784, Leopold Mozart received a letter from his son, concerning a work he had just recently premiered. The 28-year-old composer positively glowed, saying, “I consider it the best thing I have written in my life. I wish you could have heard it, and how beautifully it was performed.” The work he was referring to is the Quintet in E-flat Major, for piano and winds. The Quintet was completed on March 30th and first performed (no joke!) on April 1st at the Imperial National Court Theater in Vienna, with Mozart himself at the piano. There is no record of his collaborators that evening, nor what inspired its composition. Mozart played to the strengths and recognized the limitations of each of the instruments and resisted any tendency to pit one side against the other. It has the feeling of a graceful, restrained, and amiable dialogue amongst friends – chamber music of the highest order. It would go on to be an inspiration to Beethoven, who was so enchanted by the work that in 1796 he created his own Quintet, (Op. 16, also in E-flat Major) for the same forces.

Program Notes by Matthew Baird.