It is the 291st anniversary of Haydn’s birth. 8 years (and a week!) ago we were proud to put up a blue plaque to commemorate Haydn’s first sojourn in London in 1791. You can read about the plaque and the unveiling day here.
We have been contacted by The Mozartists ahead of their concert at Cadogan Hall on Monday 15 March. They say:
“The Mozartists continue their inspiring MOZART 250 project at Cadogan Hall on Tuesday 15 March with a series of three remarkable Haydn symphonies composed 250 years ago in 1772 – No. 47 in G, No. 46 in B, and the famous ‘Farewell’ Symphony, No. 45 in F sharp minor.
Symphony No. 47 was particularly admired by Mozart, and its palindromic minuet and trio is an outrageous feat of musical engineering, while No. 46 is full of quirky invention and ‘Sturm und Drang’ turbulence. The concert culminates with the superb ‘Farewell’ Symphony, its thrillingly iconoclastic opening movement and infinitely soulful adagio leading to the celebrated coup de théâtre of its ending, whose rare fusion of wit and pathos needs to be experienced live to appreciate fully.
Leading Haydn scholar Richard Wigmore will give a free pre-performance talk at 6.15 pm.”
We hear that on 13 April English National Opera are to stage a concert version of Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross, alongside a performance of Joel Thompson’s 2015 Seven Last Words of the Unarmed.
Eno say “English National Opera presents a unique concert staging of Joseph Haydn’s Seven Last Words on the Cross, and Joel Thompson’s Seven Last Words of the Unarmed… Conducting the magnificent ENO Orchestra and Chorus (alongside making their ENO debut) are renowned choral conductors Andrew Nethsingha and Kellen Gray, performing the Haydn and Thompson respectively.”
More information via eno.org/whats-on/seven-last-words
On the 9 & 10 of March, the Academy of Ancient Music will give a programme featuring some of Haydn’s most dramatic music, in Cambridge and London. They say
When Haydn arrived in London in 1791, he triggered a full-scale Georgian media frenzy and responded with some of his most imaginative music. AAM, Laurence Cummings and Ann Hallenberg explore the full range of one of music’s first global superstars in a concert of thrilling emotional extremes, including two extraordinary mini-operas: Arianna a Naxos and the Scena di Berenice, and the rarely heard Sinfonia Concertante in B-flat major. Musicologist Richard Jones gives a pre-concert talk at 6.30pm about Haydn’s time in London.
More details at aam.co.uk/new-worlds-exile
Note that the London concert will be livestreamed via live.aam.co.uk/concerts/new-worlds-exile
The September Haydn Society Newsletter, no. 4 is now available: