Theresia Orchestra’s Symphonies at the Teatro alle Vigne

By Theresia - November 24, 2021

Behind the program of the concert
‍

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

Rediscovering Michael Haydn: an interview with David Wyn Jones

By Emilia Campagna - March 31, 2019

Michael Haydn's fame is now considerably overshadowed by that of his older brother, Franz Joseph Haydn, but he was a prolific composer who in his days was much admired. Find more in the interview with Professor David Wyn Jones
‍

Among Classical composer, the name of Haydn is one of the most familiar, isn’t it? This is true when you think of Franz Joseph Haydn. It’s not the same when it comes to his brother, Michael, who was born in 1737 and died in 1806 in Salzburg. As a matter of fact, Michael Haydn’s fame is now considerably overshadowed by that of his older brother, but he was a prolific composer who in his day was much admired and was the teacher of such notable composers as Carl Maria von Weber, Anton Diabelli and Sigismund Neukomm.

In its relentless exploring of the Classical symphonic repertoire, for the first time Theresia will perform a Symphony by Michael Haydn. To deepen the subject, during the preparatory stage, our musician will attend a lecture by Professor David Wyn Jones, one of the major experts on these issues.

Professor David Wyn Jones

David Wyn Jones, is Professor at the School of Music of Cardiff University, and was Head of School March 2008 – July 2013. His main interest lies in the music of the Classical Period, in particular Haydn, Beethoven and Vienna, and in aspects of music dissemination and publishing. He was a member of the core group for the international project, ‘The Circulation of Music, 1600-1900’, sponsored by the European Science Foundation (2000-04). He has recently been appointed to advise on a new project, Concert Life in Vienna 1780-1830: Performances, Venues and Repertoires. Based at the Institute for Musicology at the University of Vienna, the oldest musicology department in the world, the project aims to provide a public, searchable database of private and public concert life in the city, including virtual recreations of performance spaces. Professor Jones has been appointed as one of seven members on the Scientific Advisory Board that will oversee the project, provide advice and review projects. He is the only panel member selected from outside Austria and Germany.

Professor David Wyn Jones, in your lecture you will speak about “Michael Haydn and Mozart: a forgotten musical relationship”. Which were the terms of their relationship and why has it been forgotten?

“Michael Haydn, Leopold Mozart (Mozart’s father) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were colleagues at the court of the Archbishop in Salzburg. They would have seen each other on an almost daily basis, participated in performances of each other’s music in private and in church services. Like all true friends, they shared gossip and the Mozart family letters contain more than one account of Michael Haydn’s fondness for drink. But there is no doubt that he was a formative influence on the young Mozart, writing symphonies, concertos, serenades, church music and opera.”

Did Michael Haydn’s musical style influence Mozart’s and how?

“This might seem a rather uninspiring thing to say but Michael Haydn’s music has a thorough competence of technique as well a real sense of theatre (in the broadest sense) that is reflected in Mozart’s music. One of the many unfortunate legacies of nineteenth-century biographical writing is the excessive focus on the Wunderkind Mozart and the Incomparable Genius Mozart. In Salzburg, if not throughout his life, Mozart was writing in a lingua franca and many of the features of that language are to be found in Michael Haydn too. That Mozart recognized Michael Haydn’s mastery is suggested by a letter he sent to his father from Vienna, asking for the latest symphonies of Michael, so that he could perform them in that city. For one symphony, Mozart added a slow introduction, and for many years scholarship thought the whole work was by him, No. 37 in G major (K.444); No. 38 was the ‘Prague’ symphony.”

What do we know about Michael Haydn’s relationship with his brother, Joseph?

“Michael Haydn was five years younger than Joseph and for many years their careers ran in parallel: choirboys in Vienna, freelance musicians in Vienna, composers and performers of church music and employment at aristocratic courts, Michael at Grosswardein (in present day Rumania) and Haydn at the Esterházy court in Eisenstadt. When Michael moved to Salzburg in 1762 a long period of separation followed, over thirty years, until they again met in Vienna at the end of the 1790s. Michael was actually offered the post of Joseph Haydn’s deputy at the Esterházy court, but he preferred to remain in Salzburg. He died in 1806, three years before his elder brother.”

Joseph Haydn admired his brother’s music: which are the similarities and the differences between them?

“Joseph particularly admired Michael’s church music and may have been instrumental in persuading Empress Marie Therese (wife of Emperor Franz) to commission items of church music from him. They shared an enthusiasm for composing symphonies and church music, but Michael wrote far fewer string quartets than Joseph, while Michael wrote many more German songs (secular and sacred) than Joseph. Michael Haydn usually signed his autograph scores ‘G. M. Haydn’, while Haydn often wrote ‘G. Haydn’ or ‘Giuseppe Haydn’. Not surprisingly, this often led to confusion during and after their lifetimes.”

Why is Michael Haydn not popular nowadays as his elder brother?

“He’s suffered from being a supporting figure in two careers, Mozart’s and Haydn’s. The fact that his music was not distributed very widely in his lifetime did not help, also the fact that he couldn’t be captured in the narrative of Vienna the musical capital pushed him to the margins.”

Michael Haydn was a very prolific composer: which are the five masterpieces you would suggest listening if someone wanted to approach the composer?

I suggest Concerto in C for viola and organ (1761), Requiem in C minor (1771), Missa Sancti Aloysii (1777), Symphony in D minor (1784) and Quintet for clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin and viola (1790).”

In its next concert, Theresia Orchestra will play Linz Symphony by Mozart: which is the importance of this work in Mozart’s production?

“Dating from the autumn of 1783, it’s a work that both looks back to Salzburg and to later symphonies, including the very last, the ‘Jupiter’. It draws on years of experience of writing symphonies and – less often articulated – church music in Salzburg, and looks forward to the grandeur of his next symphony in C, the Jupiter, as, indeed, does the Michael Haydn symphony. A fascinating programme!”

According to your research and your knowledge of the late eighteenth-century repertoire, would you suggest three names of composers from the classical period who have been unjustly neglected and who deserve to be performed more often?

“I’m pleased to see that Theresia Orchestra has performed so many works by Kraus. Here are three other composers of symphonies who deserve to be performed. Johann Baptist Vanhal (1739-1813), Paul Wrantizky (1756-1808) and Anton Eberl (1765-1807).”

In your opinion, what do we gain performing this repertoire on historic instruments?

“Two words always come to my mind: energy and sonority. For the first it’s not just energy in fast music, but a sense of easy articulation in slow music and in dance movements too. For sonority, the vivid sense of variegated colour rather than a uniform tutti sound; trumpets and timpani, for instance, are to be heard – they meant something to Michael Haydn, Mozart and others.”

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
‍

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.