We are delighted to have heard news from the Winchester Music Club. As part of the celebrations leading to their centenary in 2025, they will be performing all the extant and surviving masses of Joseph Haydn, who came to Winchester in August 1794 during one of his visits to England.

The Club writes:

“These twelve settings of the mass, which will be performed over eight concerts between 2017 and 2024, include some of the finest church music ever written. In particular, the last six masses, composed for the annual celebrations of the Feast of our Lady, cemented Haydn’s reputation across Europe at the end of the 18th century. Although often overlooked, in this area Haydn’s achievements exceed even those of his younger contemporary, Mozart.

All Haydn’s masses have been recorded several times, but we do not think that any choir has attempted to perform them all live in concert as a series. Seven of the twelve will be receiving their first performances by the Winchester Music Club.

Other choral and instrumental works by Haydn will also feature during the series, including settings of the Te Deum and Salve Regina (his earliest known choral work), and concertos for various instruments, most notably his famous Trumpet Concerto. The same concerts will include music by other composers who were contemporaries of Joseph Haydn: Mozart, Beethoven, and Michael Haydn, brother of Joseph. The cycle will conclude in March 2024 at the end of our 99th season, with a performance of Haydn’s last mass, the Harmoniemesse.

The series will be launched on 19 March 2017 in New Hall, Winchester College, with a performance of Haydn’s most famous mass, the so-called ‘Nelson’ Mass (more properly the Missa in Angustiis), along with Mozart’s Solemn Vespers and an organ concerto by Haydn, with Jamal Sutton as soloist.”

It’s nice to be able to close out this most Sturm und Drang of a year with news of the publication of our Journal issue 35 – which includes a piece from our friend and prolific blogger Michael McCaffrey on how Shakespeare led Haydn to the idea itself.

See the Membership page for more detail on how to become a member and so receive a copy of the Journal upon publication.

There’s lots more from the Society on day to day issues, including news of Haydn performances in the UK, via social media (Facebook & Twitter), so do join us there.

Sir Neville Marriner speaking at the unveiling of the Haydn Plaque, March 2015 (image: Iona Wolff)

Director of the Haydn Society of Great Britain, Denis McCaldin, writes:

“The Haydn Society shares a deep sense of loss following the death of Sir Neville Marriner on Sunday, 2nd October 2016. It was only a few months  ago that he generously unveiled our blue plaque to the composer in London at 18, Great Pulteney Street. In his introductory speech, Sir Neville spoke of his gratitude to Haydn for many things, not least for creating much of the rich repertoire of his chamber orchestra, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Through their many performances and recordings together, they became major pioneers in the current revival of interest in Haydn’s music. The recordings live on, and remain a lasting tribute to both composer and conductor.”

We are pleased to be able to pass on that Clare McCaldin is performing her narrated recital Haydn’s London Ladies in London on 20 September. This will be the full-length concert version, including a complete performance of the celebrated cantata Arianna a Naxos.

We worked with Clare on the detail surrounding the women that Haydn met on his successful visits to London in the 1790s. With her production company McCaldin Arts, Clare worked up a lunchtime recital, first given at London’s Foundling Museum and then a full-length concert recital, first given in the Swindon Recital Series, run by her accompanist, Paul Turner.

It is this latter show that Clare is presenting at St. Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge on 20 September. St Paul’s is a popular, central church next to the Berkeley hotel on Hyde Park Corner. The church has recently acquired a Steinway model D grand piano, a beautiful instrument that makes for fine music making. This concert begins a new, concerted series of concert-giving; the church is already associated with high quality music with its professional choir and is used regularly by the BBC for recording and broadcasting.

More information about this concert can be found here. You can learn more about Haydn’s London Ladies through this trailer:

A portrait of Joseph Haydn from 1785 has been discovered in an antique store in the US (Savannah, Georgia). The work was identified by Dr. Walter Reicher, secretary general of the International Joseph Haydn Private Foundation Eisenstadt (right), which has now acquired the painting.

It is one of three versions by Christian Ludwig Seehas dating from the painter’s stay in Vienna. Two other versions of the oil on canvas work are known to exist: One at the Staatliche Museen Schwerin in Germany and a second, once in the possession of the Prussian Heritage Foundation, but lost since 1945.

The newly discovered portrait of Joseph Haydn has been professionally restored at the Picture Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Now, the portrait is displayed in the exhibition of the Haydn-Haus in Eisenstadt, Austria.