HAYDN MOZART +FRIENDS CLASSIC MASTERS MEET MODERN MAESTROS ABO0005 HMF program 222x180 v07.indd 1 25/08/2017 9:49 am Date August 25, 2017 9:49 AM Job ABO0005 HMF program 222x180 v07 Creative Account Service / Client Studio Manager Approved by Producer for dispatch PROGRAM NOTES Before God and as an honest man I CHRISTIAN CANNABICH (1731–1798) taught the Elector the flute. Cannabich himself the size of his musical establishment. Cannabich Sinfonia in E-flat major joined the orchestra as a violinist at the age was obliged to move with him, without his family tell you that your son is the greatest of twelve, and as a young man was sent by and at his own expense despite thirty-five years in composer known to me either in Allegro the Elector to refine his technique in Italy. He the Elector’s service. person or by name. Andante became joint concertmaster in 1759, and Presto director of instrumental music for the court in Cannabich was now director of the merged 1774, a position he held for the rest of his life. Munich and Mannheim orchestras, but he also Haydn to Leopold Mozart, 1785 When Mozart and his mother travelled to Paris Cannabich was a virtuoso violinist, but it was had to conduct opera performances, subscription in 1777, they planned a lengthy stop-over in the his skill in training the orchestra that was truly concerts, and weekly performances at court – on German city of Mannheim. Here the ruler, the exceptional, and under his direction it gained its the same salary he had received at Mannheim. By the time Wolfgang Mozart burst onto the Elector Carl Theodor, maintained an orchestra with highest accolades. According to the German He even had to ask for money for firewood so European scene as a child prodigy in the 1760s, so many exceptional players that the English music musicologist Christian Schubart, who heard them that practices could be held at his home. One Joseph Haydn and Christian Cannabich were historian Charles Burney described it as having in the mid 1770s, ‘No orchestra in the world has of the operas that he worked on was Mozart’s already young men establishing their musical ‘more solo players and good composers … than ever performed music better than the one in Idomeneo, in 1778. careers. Both men were to make a strong mark on perhaps … any other orchestra in Europe; it is an Mannheim’. Cannabich, he wrote, ‘has invented As a composer, Cannabich is best known for the development of music in the eighteenth century. army of generals, equally fit to plan a battle, as to a totally new bowing technique and possesses the ballets he wrote for the court theatre at Haydn would become known as ‘the father of fight it’. The Mannheim orchestra was celebrated the gift of holding the largest orchestra together Mannheim, and for eighty symphonies, most of the symphony’ and one of the most outstanding throughout Europe, and Mozart’s father Leopold by nothing more than the nod of his head and which he wrote for the Mannheim orchestra. composers of the late eighteenth century, while called it ‘undeniably the best in Germany’. If ever the flick of his elbow. He is really the creator of Cannabich as leader of the acclaimed Mannheim there was a place where Mozart’s talent would be the coordinated execution characteristic of the orchestra was influential in shaping modern recognised and amply rewarded, surely it would be Palatine orchestra. He is the inventor of all those What to listen for orchestral practice. Both befriended Mozart at here, where not a day went by without music. Once magical devices that are now admired by the or twice a week the court would gather for tea and whole of Europe’. significant points in his life, although both would A sinfonia was a short concerted piece in three cards, while being entertained with symphonies outlive their brilliant younger contemporary. movements, the forerunner of the modern and concertos. The Elector hosted ‘Gala Days’, Cannabich and Mozart became good friends symphony. Composers including Cannabich who On hearing of Mozart’s death, Haydn wrote to court celebrations for name days and birthdays, during the five months that Mozart and his wrote for the Mannheim orchestra in the middle their mutual friend Michael Puchberg: ‘for some which involved a mass, two operas, ballets, and a mother lingered in Mannheim, although that was of the eighteenth century came to be known as time I was quite beside myself over his death, concert, while the Carnival season in January and only partly in the hope of a position at court. He the Mannheim school, as they shared a similar and could not believe that Providence should so February saw more operas, concerts, and regular had fallen in love with the singer Aloysia Weber, style and used devices for which the orchestra quickly have called away an irreplaceable man masked balls. All the music was newly composed and it was only at his father’s severe urging that was famous. These included striking dynamic into the next world’. for these occasions. The musicians’ work did he was able to tear himself away. Meanwhile, effects, abrupt or very extended crescendo not stop even during the summer holidays, when he wrote to Leopold that he was at Cannabich’s passages, thrilling rhythmic devices and swift they were required to go with the Elector to his house every day, having lunch with Cannabich ascending passages (known as the Mannheim residence at Schwetzingen. It had its own theatre and giving piano lessons to his daughter. rocket). All these features can be heard in the where operas and other shorter staged works were Cannabich introduced him to the Elector and outer movements of this sinfonia. The Mannheim regularly performed. other important people, and organised for him to perform at court, but no job eventuated. Mozart’s orchestra was also famous for its outstanding wind players and this sinfonia makes full use of them The director of the orchestra at that time was timing in this as well as the rest of the trip was both to add colour and variety to the orchestral Christian Cannabich, whose father had also off: the Elector was in the process of moving his sound and as featured soloists, often in pairs. been a member of the orchestra and had court to Munich, having just become ruler of that 10 region as well as of Mannheim, and was reducing 11 ABO0005 HMF program 222x180 v07.indd 10-11 25/08/2017 9:49 am JOSEPH HAYDN (1732–1809) may demand’, and over the next five years this In these performances with the Australian It was about Die Entführung that the Emperor Brandenburg Orchestra, Rob Nairn will be Joseph II was famously alleged by Mozart’s first Cello Concerto in C major, H VIIb:1 equated to some twenty-five symphonies, about thirty concertos for a range of solo instruments, playing a copy of the violone that belonged biographer to have said, ‘too beautiful for our Moderato numerous smaller instrumental works, several to the Esterházy family at the time of the first ears, my dear Mozart, and vastly too many notes’. Adagio large-scale vocal works for celebratory occasions, performance of the concerto. The violone, also Mozart is supposed to have replied, ‘just as many known as the double bass viol, was the direct as are necessary, your Majesty’. Finale (Allegro molto) and a setting of the Te Deum. ancestor of the double bass. Four days after the premiere, Mozart wrote to Haydn was born in humble circumstances in At this time the musical ensemble was small, only thirteen to fifteen players, but many of them were his father: a small market town in Austria. His musical virtuosos, and the concertos were designed to INTERVAL talent was recognised early and from the age show off their talents. Among them was the cello [...] it is no small task that lies ahead of me of seven or eight he became a choirboy at the virtuoso Joseph Franz Weigl, for whom Haydn now, for by Sunday week I must have set my Stephansdom, the main cathedral in Vienna. After WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–1791) composed this concerto in 1765. As Weigl was opera for Harmonie – otherwise someone leaving the choir when his voice broke at the age the only cellist in the orchestra, he played both the Harmoniemusik based on the opera else will beat me to it and get the profits of sixteen, he eked out a living for a number of solos and the bass line in the tutti sections. Haydn Die Entführung aus dem Serail K. 384 instead of me. I have also to make a new years as a teacher and accompanist, but was led the orchestra while playing second violin. symphony – how will that be possible! – fortunate to be mentored in composition by one of Overture you cannot believe how difficult it is to set a the most famous composers and singing teachers While the existence of this concerto was known ‘Durch Zärtlichkeit und Schmeicheln’ work like this for Harmonie, so that it will fit the of the time, Nicola Porpora. This association from Haydn’s own catalogue of his works, the ‘Frisch zum Kampfe! Frisch zum Streite!’ wind instruments and at the same time, not led to his gaining the position of deputy music music was believed lost until 1961, when a ‘Ich baue ganz auf deine Stärke’ lose its effect. director to Prince Paul Anton Esterházy in 1761, manuscript copy was discovered in the National ‘Ha, wie will ich triumphieren’ with his contract stipulating that he would be Museum in Prague.