This Week in Classical Music: March 21, 2022.Catching Up: Haydn and more.Last weekwe celebrated Bach’s anniversary and didn’t have neither time nor space to even acknowledge several prominent composers and musicians; this week there are more, and the first one on our list is Franz Joseph Haydn, who was born on March 31st of 1732 in Rohrau, Austria.We love Haydn, have written about him on many occasions (here) and feel that he’s somewhat underappreciated these days.Haydn wrote 104 symphonies, some of supreme quality, he is considered the father of the string quartet, and we’ll go on a limb and say that some of Haydn’s piano sonatas are better than any ever written by Mozart.You can judge for yourself: here’s his sonata in E-flat Major, Hob. XVI:52, written in 1794, performed by Alfred Brendel.And here is the same sonata but in Glenn Gould’s rather idiosyncratic interpretation.It runs about 5 minutes faster than Brendel’s; you can also hear Gould singing.
Last week we missed anniversaries of Franz Schreker, who in the first quarter of the 20th century was, together with Richard Strauss, the most popular opera composer in the German-speaking world (Schreker was born on March 23rd of 1878).Another famous German-speaking opera composer, of a very different ear, Johann Adolph Hasse, was baptized on March 25th of 1699 (we don’t know his exact birthday).In the mid-18th century, Hasse’s opera seria were widely admired not only by the public but also by composers like Handel.The great Hungarian composer Béla Bartók was born on March 25th of 1881.And let’s not forget Pierre Boulez – the French composer, theoreticians, teacher, and conductor was born on March 26th of 1925.
This week, in addition to Haydn, we have: Sergei Rachmaninov, born on April 1st of 1873, the Spanish composer of the Renaissance Antonio de Cabezón, born March 30th of 1510 (here is his Pavana Italiana, performed by the organist Sebastiano Bernocchi); Ferruccio Busoni, born on April 1st of 1866 and another Italian of a very different era, Alessandro Stradella, on April 3rd of 1639.(Stradella’s life story was incredible, you may read about it here).
Among the conductors born this week (Willem Mengelberg, Pierre Monteux) there’s one with a particular interest to us, Christian Thielemann, who will turn 73 on April 1st.The reason is that he is rumored to become the Music Director of the Chicago Symphony, as 2023 is when the contract of the current Music Director, Riccardo Muti, expires.Despite Muti’s great popularity, we think replacing Miti with Thielemann would be an improvement, as the latter is superb in the core German-Austrian repertoire.Many political considerations come into play with such an important and visible position, and Thielemann has made a number of controversial statements (here’s an article in the Guardian on the subject).Of course, there are many other candidates in addition to Thielemann; we’ll see how it all plays out. So let’s conclude with Thielemann conducting Haydn. Here’s Thielemann with the Staatskapelle Dresden and the choir in the final section of Franz Joseph Haydn’s oratorio The Creation, Singt dem Herren, alle Stimmen! (Sing the Lord ye voices all).
Haydn and more, 2022
This Week in Classical Music: March 21, 2022. Catching Up: Haydn and more. Last week we celebrated Bach’s anniversary and didn’t have neither time nor space to even acknowledge
several prominent composers and musicians; this week there are more, and the first one on our list is Franz Joseph Haydn, who was born on March 31st of 1732 in Rohrau, Austria. We love Haydn, have written about him on many occasions (here) and feel that he’s somewhat underappreciated these days. Haydn wrote 104 symphonies, some of supreme quality, he is considered the father of the string quartet, and we’ll go on a limb and say that some of Haydn’s piano sonatas are better than any ever written by Mozart. You can judge for yourself: here’s his sonata in E-flat Major, Hob. XVI:52, written in 1794, performed by Alfred Brendel. And here is the same sonata but in Glenn Gould’s rather idiosyncratic interpretation. It runs about 5 minutes faster than Brendel’s; you can also hear Gould singing.
Last week we missed anniversaries of Franz Schreker, who in the first quarter of the 20th century was, together with Richard Strauss, the most popular opera composer in the German-speaking world (Schreker was born on March 23rd of 1878). Another famous German-speaking opera composer, of a very different ear, Johann Adolph Hasse, was baptized on March 25th of 1699 (we don’t know his exact birthday). In the mid-18th century, Hasse’s opera seria were widely admired not only by the public but also by composers like Handel. The great Hungarian composer Béla Bartók was born on March 25th of 1881. And let’s not forget Pierre Boulez – the French composer, theoreticians, teacher, and conductor was born on March 26th of 1925.
This week, in addition to Haydn, we have: Sergei Rachmaninov, born on April 1st of 1873, the Spanish composer of the Renaissance Antonio de Cabezón, born March 30th of 1510 (here is his Pavana Italiana, performed by the organist Sebastiano Bernocchi); Ferruccio Busoni, born on April 1st of 1866 and another Italian of a very different era, Alessandro Stradella, on April 3rd of 1639. (Stradella’s life story was incredible, you may read about it here).
Among the conductors born this week (Willem Mengelberg, Pierre Monteux) there’s one with a particular interest to us, Christian Thielemann, who will turn 73 on April 1st. The reason is that he is rumored to become the Music Director of the Chicago Symphony, as 2023 is when the contract of the current Music Director, Riccardo Muti, expires. Despite Muti’s great popularity, we think replacing Miti with Thielemann would be an improvement, as the latter is superb in the core German-Austrian repertoire. Many political considerations come into play with such an important and visible position, and Thielemann has made a number of controversial statements (here’s an article in the Guardian on the subject). Of course, there are many other candidates in addition to Thielemann; we’ll see how it all plays out. So let’s conclude with Thielemann conducting Haydn. Here’s Thielemann with the Staatskapelle Dresden and the choir in the final section of Franz Joseph Haydn’s oratorio The Creation, Singt dem Herren, alle Stimmen! (Sing the Lord ye voices all).