Alfredo Bernardini: “The Seven Last Words of Christ are challenging to perform, as they were to compose”

By Emilia Campagna - March 1, 2024

Next Theresia's orchestral project will be entirely focused on a very special and peculiar composition, "The Seven Last Words of Christ" by Franz Joseph Haydn. Leading the orchestra will be Alfredo Bernardini, whom we asked to introduce us to this 18th-century masterpiece
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Next Theresia’s orchestral project will be entirely focused on a very special and peculiar composition, “The Seven Last Words of Christ” by Franz Joseph Haydn. Leading the orchestra will be Alfredo Bernardini, whom we asked in this interview to introduce us to this 18th-century masterpiece

Alfredo Bernardini, please, tell us about The Seven Last Words of Christ?

It is a composition for orchestra with a very special history. It is the result of a commission that was made to Haydn in 1786 by the church of the Santa Cueva in Cadiz, Andalusia, a commission with very specific requests, namely that the seven last words of Christ be set to music. The occasion was the Good Friday celebration during Easter week in 1787, and Haydn was asked to write slow movements plus an introduction and a fast finale to illustrate the earthquake that follows Christ’s death. The order letter specified that the music, while maintaining a slow tempo, should always be interesting to keep the attention of the faithful. This was an enormous challenge for Haydn, to which he devoted himself with great commitment.

How did this commission come about? Did Haydn have connections with Andalusia at the time?

In truth, no, and this fact is one of many demonstrations of the international fame of Haydn, probably the most celebrated composer of his time. Although he had worked up to that time in the small court of Estrehaza his fame was spread throughout Europe. Recall that Haydn laid the foundations for new instrumental forms, such as the Sinfonia, and in Italy, for example, his music was copied and thus spread widely. His fame reached even such remote and mundane places as the Church of the Santa Cueva in Cadiz: we can imagine how much difference there was at the time between Andalusia and the Vienna region.

Did Haydn succeed in keeping variety within a series of slow movements?

Absolutely. The score has a lively alternation of melodies, orchestration, instrumental colour, a great variety of dynamics and phrasing. Haydn was so pleased with the work that he later made three transcriptions of it for as many ensembles: for string quartet, for piano and also an oratorio for choir and orchestra.

You said this was a challenge for the composer: is it also a challenge for the performers?

It is certainly very delicate music, full of details, with great richness in articulation and dynamics. The greatest difficulty in the case of a series of slow movements concerns intonation: the instruments are very exposed and anything out of place is more easily noticed. Fast movements require a certain degree of virtuosity, but things go by quickly…. Then it must be said that the very delicate technical aspect is only one side of the effort, in the performance the expressive side must come out, which is very developed and important.

The performance is accompanied by the reading of excerpts from the Scripture and reflections: what is the relationship between the music and the text?

The relationship is very intense, starting with the phrases that are taken from the four Gospels and that Haydn had published at the beginning of each piece. The music is intimately connected to the meaning of the text and invites meditation. For example in the case of the second piece, which is introduced by the phrase “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise,” the music is charged with a special light, while in the fourth number, introduced by “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” Haydn uses a minor key and a particularly dark color.

As a performer, when and on what occasion did you first play The Last Seven Words of Christ on the Cross?

It was several years ago, at the beginning of the 1990s! The occasion was a series of concerts, later followed by the release of a CD, with Jordi Savall’s orchestra “Les Concert de les Nations”. I must confess that I did not know the piece at the time, and it was a thunderbolt for me. Jordi Savall, on the other hand, had loved this composition since childhood and had always had a great desire to perform it. It was one of the first musical programs with which Savall began to explore the classical repertoire for orchestra. For all of us it was a great musical experience with a strong spiritual impact.

Theresia will perform “The Seven Last Words of Christ” by Franz Joseph Haydn under the baton of Alfredo Bernardini on three different occasions: Tuesday 12 March in Lodi (Chiesa di San Francesco), Wednesday 13 March in Rovereto (Sala Filarmonica), and Thursday 14 March in Ravenna (Basilica di San Giovanni Evangelista).

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Theresia Orchestra’s Symphonies at the Teatro alle Vigne

By Theresia - November 24, 2021

Behind the program of the concert
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On Saturday 27 November, Theresia Orchestra will return to play at the Teatro alle Vigne in Lodi at the end of its first residency in the Lombardy city after the pause caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The programme of the concert, conducted by Alfredo Bernardini, will be based on the core repertoire of the Theresia project, the classical symphonic, and will feature Symphony in G major K444 / P16 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart/Michael Haydn, Symphony in D major VB143 by Joseph Martin Kraus, and Symphony No. 91 in E flat major Hob. I/91 by Franz Josef Haydn.

The two first symphonies are misattributions that we could call musicological fake news. Both Kraus’s Symphony in D and Michael Haydn’s Symphony in G, in fact, have been in the past centuries united by a fate common to many other pieces in the history of music: on several occasions the musicians of the past, taken by the enthusiasm of having to do with a composition of an author more emblazoned than others, were more or less consciously guilty of misattributions. In the case of Kraus, the attribution error was intentional, because printed parts of this Symphony began to circulate in Paris between 1786 and 1787 with attribution to Joseph Haydn. 18^th-century music market was in fact extremely lively and competitive, and greedy for compositions by this already well-known composer; Kraus, although an excellent musician, certainly did not have the same commercial appeal. Research carried out in the first half of the 19th century by Fredrik Silverstolpe succeeded in re-establishing the truth and determining the correct attribution, thanks to the analysis of manuscript sources preserved in Stockholm, the city where Kraus worked as Chapel Master at the court of King Gustav III and as director of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. This research also established 1784 as a possible date of composition of this symphony.

The second piece presented in the programme probably dates from the same year, 1784. Michael Haydn’s Symphony in G Major No. 25 has historically been known as Mozart’s No. 37. This was at least until 1907, when musicologist Lothar Perger, while studying the catalogue of Michael Haydn, was able to establish its true authorship by naming Joseph’s brother as its author. Following this discovery, however, Mozart’s symphonies were not renumbered, leaving a gap in the celebrated composer’s catalogue between Symphony No. 36 and Symphony No. 38. In the case of this symphony, however, the erroneous attribution is partially justified by the fact that the Adagio Maestoso that introduces the first movement (twenty bars in all) was indeed composed by Mozart, as evidenced by a manuscript source of the score: the two composers used to collaborate, and this has led to other musicological misunderstandings (as with Mozart’s duets for violin and viola K423 and 424, published under Haydn’s name). In the Andante sostenuto of the “Mozartian” version of this piece, however, a valuable bassoon solo is missing, which is found in other manuscripts of Haydn’s version: in this concerto the solo is reinstated, in fact creating a synthesis between the two versions of the same symphony.

Joseph Haydn’s Symphony in E-flat Major No. 91 (about which there is no doubt as to its attribution) was composed in 1788 on the commission of Count d’Ogny, together with Symphonies Nos. 90 and 92, to be performed at the Concerts of the Olympic Lodge in Paris. Founded as a Masonic lodge of musicians, this concert society had already commissioned Haydn to write Symphonies 82 to 87, known as the ‘Parisian’ Symphonies. Like most first-rate musicians of the 18th century, Haydn was also affiliated to Freemasonry, which essentially acted as a support network and exchange of information and work assignments throughout Europe. The Olympic Lodge had 364 members, of whom 29 were administrators, 24 ‘associate members’ and a further 65 members who were part of the concert orchestra. The conductor was Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-George (1745-1799), a French composer and violinist of Senegalese origin. Several thematic elements of Haydn’s Symphony No 91 are related to the cantata Ariadne at Naxos, Hob. XXVIa/2, for piano and voice, composed in the same year, and in particular the chromatic theme that appears at the beginning of the Allegro assai of the first movement.

Simone Laghi,

Artistic Secretary at Theresia Orchestra

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Our next project: music in Vienna and Salzburg in Mozart’s time

By Emilia Campagna - March 26, 2019

Theresia's next project will be devoted to music in Vienna and Salzburg in Mozart's time. The orchestra will perform Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Linz Symphony, Franz Joseph Haydn's Ouverture from "Il ritorno di Tobia" and Michael Haydn's Symphony n. 28 in C major
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Theresia’s next project will be devoted to music in Vienna in Mozart’s time. The orchestra will perform Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart‘s Linz Symphony, Franz Joseph Haydn‘s Ouverture from “Il ritorno di Tobia” and Michael Haydn‘s Symphony n. 28 in C major.
Indeed, a beautiful musical program that will be conducted by Alfredo Bernardini in Lodi on the 3rd of May and in Mantua the day after.

“Il ritorno di Tobia” (The Return of Tobias) is an oratorio composed in 1775 by Joseph Haydn (Hob. XXI:1). The work is the first oratorio the composer wrote and the work was premiered in Vienna on 2 April 1775 with substantial musical forces, probably more than 180 performers including the orchestra, chorus and soloists. In 1784, Haydn substantially revised the work, with cuts to make numbers shorter and new choruses, for another of the Tonkünstler-Societät’s benefit concerts. It is thought that at this concert Haydn first met Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who became his good friend.

Michael Haydn’s Symphony n.28 in C major was written in Salzburg in 1784 and was the third and last symphony published in his lifetime. Scored for 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings, it is in three movements: Allegro spiritoso, Un poco adagio and Fugato: Vivace assai. As musicologist Charles H. Sherman points out, this is the first of Michael Haydn’s symphonies to conclude with the kind of fugato “that Haydn introduced in several of his late symphonies and which so clearly forecast Mozart’s procedures in the ‘Jupiter’ Symphony.” Theresia is going to perform music by Michael Haydn for the first time: it is a remarkable addition to our repertoire, considering the important influence that Michael Haydn’s music had on Mozart. In this regard, during the preparatory stage, musicians involved in the project will have the chance to attend a lecture by Professor David Wyn Jones: stay tuned for more details about that in the next posts.

Last music in program will be Symphony n. 36 “Linz” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: it was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart during a stopover in the Austrian town of Linz on his and his wife’s way back home to Vienna from Salzburg in late 1783.
In a letter dated October 31, 1783, addressed to his father Leopold Mozart, Wolfgang writes: “On Tuesday, November 4th, I will give [a concert] in the theater here. – and because I don’t have a single symphony with me, I’m working head over heels on a new one, which must be finished by then.” Konstanze and Wolfgang Amadé had left Salzburg on the 27th of that month; Wolfgang was never again to return. Johann Joseph Anton Graf Thun invited the two travelers to stay with him; it is Thun whom we must thank for the Linz Symphony, K. 425. Despite the speed at which it was written, the work is perfectly balanced, painstakingly detailed and as rich in ideas as could be. It was played many times during the composer’s life: in Vienna, Salzburg and possibly even Prague.

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Theresia, a dip in chamber music

By theresia - April 17, 2018

A glance to the program of our next chamber music Academy
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A glance at the program of our next chamber music Academy

Our first residency is going to start in a few days: it will be a string Academy devoted to chamber music and will be held in Cressia (France), with the violinist Chiara Banchini and the cellist Gaetano Nasillo as tutors.

Portrait of Beethoven as a young man

Let’s give a look to the music program. We will start with Beethoven’s String Trio op. 9 n. 3, the last of a set of three string trio composed by Beethoven in 1797-1798. It is written in C minor, and it brings the most energy and novelty with highly passionate tone.

This trio invokes those later works’ power and peculiar character so typical of Beethoven. Dynamic effects, sharp contrasts in rhythm, harmonic confrontations among other means of music provide momentum and the tone of anxiety. By contrast, the Adagio brings peace and resignation in C major, with a more lively episode in E flat major in the middle of the movement. Both the Scherzo and the Finale continue the passionate and energetic storm of the first movement.C minor is one of Beethoven’s most important keys. Three of his piano sonatas and the fifth symphony were written in C minor, for instance. Then we have Luigi Boccherini‘s String Quintet in D major op. 39 n. 3 G 339, in which he deployed the distinctive combination of two violins, viola, cello, and double bass; this quintet is the third of a set of three. Boccherini was an incredibly prolific composer, and he wrote also over one hundred string quintets for two violins, viola and two cellos (a type which he pioneered, in contrast with the then common scoring for two violins, two violas and one cello). In op. 39 n. 3 the cello has often a prominent and challenging role; and very particular indeed is the twangy guitar effects in the finale.

Boccherini’s Quintet op. 39 n. 3 performed by Ensemble 415. Violins: Chiara Banchini and Enrico Gatti; Viola: Emilio Moreno; Violoncello: Käthi Gohl; Contrabass: Cléna Stein

Last but not least, even if not so well known, is the String Quintet in G major n. 23 by Giuseppe Maria Cambini: anyone who thought Boccherini was the first purveyor of string quintets with two cellos, would be wrong. Giuseppe Maria Cambini (1729–?83) was 14 years Boccherini’s senior and wrote 114 of them, a number that may actually exceed that of his younger compatriot. Both men were born in Italy, Boccherini in Lucca, Cambini in Livorno. But other than the commonality of their birth country, their careers took them in very different directions.

Boccherini, as we know, headed to Madrid, where he was employed by the Infante Luis Antonio, younger brother of King Charles III. Cambini located in Paris around 1770, but wisely did not seek royal patronage in a monarchical succession that would soon enough disappear. Instead, Cambini managed to make it on his own, concentrating mainly on the writing of more than 600 purely instrumental works. Although it must be said that Cambini played little part in the radical musical developments of the Classical period, his music is richly textured, mellifluous, agreeably harmonized, and lengthily worked out.

Theresia’s strings will perform the musical program Saturday evening in Dole (France). Download here the program!

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