HAYDN’S SOLAR POETICS
MORNING, NOON AND NIGHT
Image Credit: © Helen White
ADELAIDE FESTIVAL EXCLUSIVE
We make our exciting debut appearance at the Adelaide Festival with Haydn’s Solar Poetics
Artistic Directors Neil Armfield and Rachel Healy invited AHE to be part of the main program of the Adelaide Festival in 2022. We couldn’t have been more delighted to accept!
The top minds of Europe were abuzz in 1761. Venus was transiting the sun for the first time since science had worked out that it could pinpoint our place in the solar system. Meanwhile, the most enlightened of Austria’s ruling families needed a composer to provide music for their pre-eminent orchestra. It was a dream gig in some respects: yes, you had to wear servants’ livery but you got to live in a palace.
Your bosses were no fools though - they could spot hackery a mile off - and even scarier were the musicians’ demands.
The 29-year-old Joseph Haydn was not only up for it, he kept the job for over 30 years, producing music of astonishing quality and quantity. The so-called Morning, Noon and Night symphonies were the first of some 80 that were written for the Esterházy band.
AHE, directed from the keyboard by Dr Erin Helyard, will present them in three concerts, appropriately spread across a single day. We will also offer a glimpse of what else was going on in that eventful year: Bach’s eldest son (C.P.E.) was writing jaw-droppingly audacious symphonies, while in Salzburg a five-year-old wunderkind was jotting down his first piano pieces.
Guest Director - Erin Helyard
Image credit: © Helen White
All too rarely heard Haydn keyboard concertos and works by the teenaged Mozart make these programs a delicious brunch, lunch and dinner degustation.
PROGRAMS
PROGRAM 1 (Morning)
C.P.E. Bach
Sinfonia in E minor Wq. 177
Mozart
Keyboard pieces K. 1
Haydn
Keyboard Concerto No. 4 in G major
Haydn
Symphony No. 6 in D major Le Matin
PROGRAM 2 (Noon)
C.P.E. Bach
Sinfonia in F major Wq. 181
Mozart
Keyboard pieces K. 2-5
Haydn
Keyboard Concerto No. 3 in F major
Haydn
Symphony No. 7 in C major Le Midi
PROGRAM 3 (Night)
C.P.E. Bach
Sinfonia in C major Wq. 182/3
Mozart
Divertimento in F major K. 138
Haydn
Symphony No. 8 in G major Le Soir
Haydn
Keyboard Concerto No. 11 in D major