NEC Observes Haydn 200th Anniversary with Performances of Complete Piano Sonatas, January 22—March 4.
Franz Joseph Haydn
For Immediate Release:
December 19, 2008
Cycle to be Repeated at Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Monthly Installments Through 2009
Dear Haydn, how I love you! But other pianists? They’re rather lukewarm towards you. Which is a great shame. –Sviatoslav Richter
Almost anyone who has ever studied piano has played a Haydn sonata or two for that instrument. But, as the great Russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter observed, most concert pianists neglect this body of work. And yet, Haydn symphonies, oratorios, and string quartets are a staple of the concert hall. Surely, the composer, whose other music is marked by such fantasy, mercurial spirit, instrumental color, expressivity, and wealth of techniques and forms, must have imbued his piano works with similar qualities.
Curious listeners will have a rare opportunity to test that hypothesis this winter when New England Conservatory piano students present a retrospective of the 50+ Haydn Sonatas in observance of the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death. The seven-concert cycle, under the artistic direction of Piano Chair Bruce Brubaker, will begin January 22 and conclude March 4. It will go bi-coastal when Brubaker and the pianists repeat the cycle at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art with one concert per month, January through October.
Among questions to be explored by the series are just how many Haydn sonatas there are. And what constitutes a “sonata.”
“I’m still counting—and recounting,” says Brubaker. “There are some outright fakes” that have been included in Haydn publications. There are fragments of “six early sonatas that are lost” that were completed by other hands and passed off as Haydn. “At the moment, Brubaker said, “it seems we will be offering performances of 59 ‘sonatas’ in Boston.”
There are numerous pieces that don’t conform to the shape that we consider a “sonata,” and some that are not called “sonata,” but “ariettas” or “partitas,” Brubaker said. “So, what is a sonata? This ‘form’ was only defined in the middle of the 19th Century, well after Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert were dead! Haydn often challenges what we may imagine are the norms.”
In this challenging of convention, Brubaker finds some of the sources of the rich humor in Haydn’s music. “The structure, vocabulary, and behaviors of 18th Century music are under the siege of Haydn’s pen. Nothing can escape being made fun of. That must have ramifications in terms of the way social orders and patterns of behavior were shifting and questioned as the century unfolded.”
The NEC performances are free and open to the public. There will also be a public lecture on January 30 by NEC pianist/harpsichordist John Gibbons, who will discuss Haydn’s keyboard music. Performance schedule follows:
January 22, 8 p.m. NEC’s Jordan Hall
January 27, 8 p.m. Williams Hall
January 30, 10 a.m. Carr Organ Room, Jordan Hall building –Lecture
February 3, 8 p.m. Williams Hall
February 5, 8 p.m. Williams Hall
February 9, 8 p.m. NEC’s Jordan Hall
February 12, 8 p.m. Williams Hall
March 4, 8 p.m. Williams Hall
For further information, check the NEC Website
or call the NEC Concert Line at 617-585-1122. NEC’s Jordan Hall, Brown Hall, Williams Hall and the Keller Room are located at 30 Gainsborough St. corner of Huntington Ave. St. Botolph Hall is located at 241 St. Botolph St. between Gainsborough and Mass Ave.
ABOUT NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY
Recognized nationally and internationally as a leader among music schools, New England Conservatory offers rigorous training in an intimate, nurturing community to 750 undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral music students from around the world. Its faculty of 225 boasts internationally esteemed artist-teachers and scholars. Its alumni go on to fill orchestra chairs, concert hall stages, jazz clubs, recording studios, and arts management positions worldwide. Nearly half of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is composed of NEC trained musicians and faculty.
The oldest independent school of music in the United States, NEC was founded in 1867 by Eben Tourjee. Its curriculum is remarkable for its wide range of styles and traditions. On the college level, it features training in classical, jazz, Contemporary Improvisation, world and early music. Through its Preparatory School, School of Continuing Education, and Community Collaboration Programs, it provides training and performance opportunities for children, pre-college students, adults, and seniors. Through its outreach projects, it allows young musicians to engage with non-traditional audiences in schools, hospitals, and nursing homes—thereby bringing pleasure to new listeners and enlarging the universe for classical music and jazz.
NEC presents more than 600 free concerts each year, many of them in Jordan Hall, its world- renowned, 100-year old, beautifully restored concert hall. These programs range from solo recitals to chamber music to orchestral programs to jazz and opera scenes. Every year, NEC’s opera studies department also presents two fully staged opera productions at the Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston.
NEC is co-founder and educational partner of “From the Top,” a weekly radio program that celebrates outstanding young classical musicians from the entire country. With its broadcast home in Jordan Hall, the show is now carried by National Public Radio and is heard on 250 stations throughout the United States.
Contact: Ellen Pfeifer
Public Relations Manager
New England Conservatory
617-585-1143
epfeifer@newenglandconservatory.edu