Composer of the Week: Haydn

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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

Composer of the Week - Brand

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Joseph Haydn (1732-1809): A cloud and a silver lining

A cloud and a silver lining

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), A cloud and a silver lining

Donald Macleod explains how a lucky break transformed Haydn's prospects.

Donald Macleod explains how a lucky break saved Haydn from unemployment, with music from his opera Armida and his glorious Cello Sonata in C.

Donald Macleod explains how a lucky break saves Haydn from unemployment, with music from the opera Armida and his glorious Cello Sonata in C.

The streets must have seemed like they were paved with gold when Haydn visited London in 1791. He was feted and applauded everywhere he went as one of Europe’s leading composers. He hobnobbed with royalty, the Prince of Wales commissioned a portrait of him from leading society portraitist John Hoppner. It’s still regarded as one of the best images we have today.

Haydn could hardly have imagined all this as a boy. His really is a rags to riches story. Born in 1732 in humble circumstances, Haydn's musical talent won him a position as a choir boy in Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral. However, he was forced to leave after his voice broke and, by the age of 17, he was on the streets, with only “three miserable shirts and a worn-out coat” to his name. Happily his life did then take an upward turn. Haydn was employed by the Esterhàzys, one of the most powerful and influential families in the Hapsburg monarchy for an astonishing 48 years.

But this week Donald Macleod puts the public face of this internationally celebrated figure to one side. He’s going to be looking at Haydn through a narrower lens, drawing a picture of the composer through the relationships he enjoyed with some of his closest family and friends. 

Prince Nikolaus Esterhàzy became Haydn’s longest employer. The course of their association shows Haydn displaying a genuine talent for management and diplomacy.  

Piano Sonata No. 10 in C major, Hob.XVI:1 
I. Allegro
Marc-André Hamelin, piano

Symphony No. 6 in D major ‘Le Matin'
I. Adagio – Allegro
Il Giardino Armonico
Giovanni Antonini, director 

Sonata No 46 in A flat major Hob XVI/46 II (sometimes numbered as 31)
III: Finale Presto 
Marc-André Hamelin, piano 

L’infedeltà delusa 
Act I Scene 1: Introduction: Bella sera (Filippo, Vespina, Nencio, Nanni, Sandrina)
Edith Mathis, soprano, Vespina  
Barbara Hendricks, soprano, Sandrina 
Aldo Baldin, tenor, Filippo 
Claes-Håkan Ahnsjö, tenor, Nencio 
Michael Devlin, bass, Nanni 
Lausanne Chamber Orchestra
Antal Doráti, conductor 

Cello concerto in C Hob. VIIb:1  (1761-65) 
III: Allegro molto  							
The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
Steven Isserlis, director, cello 

The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross  
Sonata II. Fürwahr, ich sag' es dir. Grave e cantabile   
Quarteto Casals 

Armida  (Act 1) 
Parti Rinaldo - Se pietade avete
Cecilia Bartoli, mezzo soprano, Armida   			
Concentus Musicus Wien
Nikolaus Harnoncourt, director

Producer: Johannah Smith for BBC Audio

Composer of the Week: Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Donald Macleod examines Haydn's relationships with some of his closest family and friends.

Donald Macleod draws a picture of composer Joseph Haydn through the relationships he enjoyed with some of his closest family and friends.

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Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

A cloud and a silver lining

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