Sunday 19^th October 2025

3.00 pm

Runtime: 120 minutes

Colyer-Fergusson Hall

The Gulbenkian Arts Centre

University of Kent

“A Journey to the Edge of Reason”

Lisete da Silva Bull- Baroque flute

Robin Walker- Harpsichord

Programme

J.S. Bach                             Sonata in B minor BWV 1030                

1685-1750                            Andante, Largo e dolce, Presto 

Frederick the Great           Sonata in C minor

1712-1786                           Largo, Alla breve, Vivace

(King of Prussia 1740–86)

J.S. Bach                            Contrapunctus 1, The Art of Fugue BWV 1080

C.P.E. Bach                        Sonata in E minor Wq 124                  

1714-1788                           Adagio, Allegro, Menuet

                                          Interval

J.J. Quantz                        Opus 1 number 5

1697-1773                           Cantabile, Presto, Vivace

J. Ph. Kirnberger               Sonata in G minor

1721-1783                           Adagio, Allegro, Allegretto

J.S. Bach                            Ricercare a 6 - BWV 1079

                                          (from 'The Musical Offering’)

C.P.E. Bach                        Hamburger Sonata - H564               

                                         Allegretto, Presto

Programme Notes

The middle of the 18th Century announced a profound shift in both the arts and the political world. The age of enlightenment was dawning, advances in medicine, philosophical thought, societal structure and the arts followed suit.

Today’s programme illustrates this pivotal point in time with musical compositions spanning a period of 50 years, between 1736 and 1786, and has as a central image the meeting of J.S Bach and Frederic the Great in Potsdam, one cold dark November evening in 1747.

Frederic the Great was a great lover of the flute, being an assiduous student, player and composer for the instrument. Depictions of his ability range from an exuberant ‘he was better than most’ to a somewhat curious ‘he couldn’t keep time and often tapped his foot to the wrong beat whilst playing’.

J.S Bach came to visit his son, Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach (Frederic’s keyboard player and court composer)  and entered into Frederic the Great’s music room, as legend has it, with the announcement of “Gentleman, old Bach is here”. Frederic was notorious for his dislike of J.S. Bach’s music, considering it old fashioned and fussy with its complicated cerebral counterpoint.

Bach symbolised old traditions, a rigorous code of counterpoint, and a deep religious core at the centre of his music while Frederic the Great was an admirer of Voltaire, of innovation and of a lighter, more melodious approach to music composition. In essence the two men belonged to two opposing worlds.

That evening Frederic, in an attempt to trick the old master, gave him a melody that was supposedly impossible to make counterpoint to, and Bach there and then improvised the first of a series of compositions based on the ‘Royal Theme’ that would later become ‘The Musical Offering’. He famously sent it as a present to Frederic but sadly it was never performed. We are going to hear the 6 part ‘Ricercare’ from that very set in the second half of the programme.

All the composers featured in the programme are linked in some way to court life in Potsdam and the palace of Sanssouci.

The first two works set the tone and exemplify the contrast between both worlds:

J.S. Bach’s B minor sonata is one of four surviving authentic manuscripts for the flute with a matching obbligato harpsichord accompaniment where both instruments are equal. It was written in 1736 and performed in Leipzig in one of his own curated programmes for the Leipzig Collegia Music weekly concert series.

Frederic the Great’s Sonata belongs to a set of twelve probably composed before the Seven  years’ war in 1756 and shows a completely different approach to music making and a more Galant style.

Among Frederic’s court musicians he had J.S. Bach’s own son C.P.E. Bach as his harpsichordist, as well as Franz Benda, Carl Graun, J.J. Quantz, and J. F. Agricola.

Johann Joachim Quantz was a  prolific composer, flautist and flute maker himself. He was also an outstanding pedagogue who published his seminal flute treatise ‘On playing the flute’ in 1752. He was none other than Frederic the Great’s own flute teacher and was an ever present figure at Court.

Johann Philipp Kirnberger was a student of J.S. Bach and an important music theorist  who left us many beautiful compositions, and a tuning system used today in Historical performance. He was the teacher of Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia, Frederic the Great’s younger sister. The two were very close as siblings and shared a passion for music, French fashion and flute playing

The music making at Potsdam was a breeding ground for new ideas and experimentation, and many of the composers that drove the new emerging style passed through it.

Frederic held daily concerts between 7-9 pm when not at war, and he was a stickler for time keeping; being a military man he “encouraged” his courtiers - that is to say he expected then to attend religiously, every night.

“A Journey to the Edge of Reason” shows the journey and  development in musical style and taste, between the Baroque era and towards ‘the Age of Reason’. It culminates with C. P. E Bach’s ‘Hamburger sonata’ composed in 1786 in Hamburg, where he clearly demonstrates a contrasting structure, much lighter, humorous, virtuosic and melodious piece taking us into the classical period where Haydn and Mozart were waiting in the wings.

Lisete da Silva Bull - October 2025

Biographies

Portuguese-born Lisete da Silva Bull studied baroque flute and recorder at the Royal Academy of Music and now performs, records and broadcasts with many of the leading period-instrument groups and orchestras in the UK, including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Solomon’s Knot, Ex-Cathedra, the Handel Orchestra, and the acclaimed Brook Street Band, of which she is a core member.

She is also highly sought after as a teacher and lecturer presenting lectures and masterclasses in Brazil, Slovenia, Portugal, Hull and Birmingham Universities, and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. She has recently been appointed professor of recorder and baroque flute at the newly established London Performing Academy of Music and is now baroque flute teacher at Birmingham University.

Lisete has recorded for Naxos, Quartz, Somme, Avie, and First Hand records. She has been interviewed and performed in various international radio and TV stations, in Spain, Slovenia and other countries including Germany’s Deutsche Welle and BBC Radio 2 and 3. Lisete has recorded for various film and TV soundtracks over the years.

Her long-standing love of French Baroque and Rameau has taken her to PhD research with Graham Saddler and Shirley Thompson, and she has published articles in various respected publications in Holland and the U.K.

lisetedasilvabull.com

Robin Walker studied organ at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and now enjoys a freelance career as soloist, accompanist, conductor and teacher.  He has given solo recitals and masterclasses in cathedrals and concert halls across the UK, Europe and the USA, and given more than fifty world-premiere performances. Robin has released critically acclaimed recordings, tracks from which have been broadcast on Dutch radio and recently on BBC Radio 3’s composer of the week.  He has held a number of church music roles, including Organist of La Badia Fiorentina, Florence’s 10th century Abbey church, Assistant Organist of St George’s Hanover Square in London, and Director of Music of Corpus Christi College Cambridge. Robin moved to Canterbury in 2023 and took up a one-year appointment as Assistant Organist at Canterbury Cathedral. 

For over twenty years Robin has conducted the prize-winning Sevenoaks based Cantate chamber choir and their sister period instrument chamber orchestra Vivace!, directing from the harpsichord. In the summer of 2024 Robin stepped down from his Conductor role with Ipswich Choral Society, on completion of their 200th anniversary season, during which he directed the choir with the Britten Sinfonia in Haydn’s Creation at Snape Maltings.  Robin is an Accredited Teacher for the Royal College of Organists, and Organ teacher at The King’s School Canterbury.

Tickets from

Gulbenkian Box Office

Full: £25

Students & Under 25s: FREE