MUSIC

Mercury Baroque presents 'Farewell' Haydn, Hello Mozart January 21, 2012 at 8:00 PM in the Wortham Center, Cullen Theater. Mercury Baroque presents two famous symphonies: Symphony #45, "Farewell" by Franz Joseph Haydn and Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola, K.364 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The pairing of these two composers is significant because Mozart and Haydn were composing around the same time. Their careers overlapped but there was more to their relationship than being mere contemporaries. Mozart regarded Haydn as a mentor and teacher and the respect was mutual.

Haydn’s Farewell symphony was written during the time that Prince Nikolaus Esterházy of Austria was Haydn’s principal patron. As the court composer, Haydn and the court orchestra, traveled everywhere with the prince. During one particular summer Haydn and the orchestra accompanied the prince to his summer palace in Eszterhaza. The stay was far longer than expected and as a result the musicians began to feel homesick and miss their families. Haydn wrote the symphony with a clear purpose in mind: to persuade the Prince to allow the musicians to return to their homes in Eisenstadt.

He achieved this by ending the symphony in a very unusual way. In the final movement of the piece each musician snuffed out the candle at their music stand and left the stage one by one. By the end of the movement there were only two muted violins left playing. The Prince seemed to have gotten the message. The court returned to Eisenstadt the following day.

Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola, K.364 is unusual for several reasons. The form sinfonia concertante is a mixture of the symphony and concerto style. It favors the concerto form in the sense that it features one or more soloists prominently. In the case of the sinfonia concertante it features soloists on two instruments; violin and viola. This combination of soloists is unusual in and of itself. It was and is still fairly rare to have pieces feature solos from a violin and a viola. On the other hand the piece is faithful to the symphony form because although there are soloists featured, they are ultimately still a part of the ensemble and not to be regarded as preeminent. Mozart experimented with this hybrid style extensively, and of those experiments, this piece is considered his most successful example of the sinfonia concertante.

Program:
Haydn Farewell Symphony
Haydn Philosopher Symphony
Mozart Sinfonia Concertante

From Bach to Beethoven, Handel to Haydn, Mercury Baroque’s 11th Season, entitled “Forward into the Past,” is the season that celebrates Mercury Baroque’s continuing odyssey to rediscover the musical masterpieces of the past and re-introduce them to audiences through performances of passion, quality and virtuosity.

Photo Credits: George Hixson.