Post by erik on Mar 13, 2021 20:55:45 GMT -5
Michael Haydn, the younger brother of Franz Joseph Haydn, ends up in this week's Classical Works Spotlight with a sacred work that may have inspired Mozart to start work on a similar work that he (sadly) couldn't finish.
Michael Haydn: REQUIEM IN C MINOR (MISSA PRO DEFUNCTIS)
It is not unusual to find throughout music history sons or younger siblings getting into the “family business”, so to speak. Johann Michael Haydn was one such example. Born in 1737, he was the younger brother (by five years) of the man who would develop the symphony to its height in the late 18th century, Franz Joseph Haydn. Like his older brother, Michael composed symphonies in the Classical-era style, perhaps even giving some ideas, while he was in Salzburg, to a very young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The two Haydns remained exceptionally close, although the younger brother chose to remain in Salzburg while the elder Haydn, having done pretty much everything under the sun, chose to stay in Vienna. Michael did not live as long as Joseph did; he passed away in August 1806, only a little more than a month short of his 69th birthday. And unlike Joseph’s works, particularly the symphonies and the choral works, Michael’s didn’t become widely known until late in the 20th century. One such work, dating from 1771, is the Requiem In C Minor, which Michael composed following the death of Count Archbishop Sigismund von Schrattenbach in Salzburg. Completed just before the end of 1771, the work got its first three performances in Salzburg less than a month later, mere weeks into the new year of 1772, at concerts attended by Wolfgang and his father Leopold. The work had an unwitting impact on the younger Mozart when he began work on his own D Minor Requiem, a work that, of course, he was destined not to complete in his own hand, though the influence of the younger Haydn’s Requiem suggested that the completion of it by Franz Xaver Sussmayr did not depart from Mozart’s intentions. Michael Haydn’s Requiem is scored for the usual quartet of vocal soloist, chorus, two bassoons, four trumpets, four trombones, timpani, and the full string compliment, and is, unsurprisingly, quite solemn, though shorter (by fifteen to twenty minutes) than the Requiem it helped to inspire.
Soprano: JOHANNETTE ZOMER
Alto: HELENA RASKER
Tenor: MARKUS SHAFER
Bass: KLAUS MERTENS
Swiss Chamber Chorus
Lausanne Chamber Orchestra/CHRISTIAN ZACHARIAS (MDG)
Included:
SYMPHONY IN G MAJOR, MH 334 (P 16) (Previously Attributed As Mozart’s Symphony No. 37)
SYMPHONY IN B FLAT MAJOR, MH 82 (P 9)
Michael Haydn: REQUIEM IN C MINOR (MISSA PRO DEFUNCTIS)
It is not unusual to find throughout music history sons or younger siblings getting into the “family business”, so to speak. Johann Michael Haydn was one such example. Born in 1737, he was the younger brother (by five years) of the man who would develop the symphony to its height in the late 18th century, Franz Joseph Haydn. Like his older brother, Michael composed symphonies in the Classical-era style, perhaps even giving some ideas, while he was in Salzburg, to a very young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The two Haydns remained exceptionally close, although the younger brother chose to remain in Salzburg while the elder Haydn, having done pretty much everything under the sun, chose to stay in Vienna. Michael did not live as long as Joseph did; he passed away in August 1806, only a little more than a month short of his 69th birthday. And unlike Joseph’s works, particularly the symphonies and the choral works, Michael’s didn’t become widely known until late in the 20th century. One such work, dating from 1771, is the Requiem In C Minor, which Michael composed following the death of Count Archbishop Sigismund von Schrattenbach in Salzburg. Completed just before the end of 1771, the work got its first three performances in Salzburg less than a month later, mere weeks into the new year of 1772, at concerts attended by Wolfgang and his father Leopold. The work had an unwitting impact on the younger Mozart when he began work on his own D Minor Requiem, a work that, of course, he was destined not to complete in his own hand, though the influence of the younger Haydn’s Requiem suggested that the completion of it by Franz Xaver Sussmayr did not depart from Mozart’s intentions. Michael Haydn’s Requiem is scored for the usual quartet of vocal soloist, chorus, two bassoons, four trumpets, four trombones, timpani, and the full string compliment, and is, unsurprisingly, quite solemn, though shorter (by fifteen to twenty minutes) than the Requiem it helped to inspire.
Soprano: JOHANNETTE ZOMER
Alto: HELENA RASKER
Tenor: MARKUS SHAFER
Bass: KLAUS MERTENS
Swiss Chamber Chorus
Lausanne Chamber Orchestra/CHRISTIAN ZACHARIAS (MDG)
Included:
SYMPHONY IN G MAJOR, MH 334 (P 16) (Previously Attributed As Mozart’s Symphony No. 37)
SYMPHONY IN B FLAT MAJOR, MH 82 (P 9)