The Danube Music Festival
The Sixteenth Annual Austro-Hungarian Music Festival
Concerts and Performers
Concert 1
Saturday 29th August,morning
Haydn, contemporaries, predecessors
Grein, Stadttheater
Oman Consort
Haydn, Handel, Fux, Sammartini, Boccherini, Vivaldi, Andriessen
The concert presents a picture of the musical world of Haydn’s formative years and the earlier part of his career with a varied programme for small ensemble and virtuoso recorder. Much of the music is associated with Vienna; Haydn would have known personally many of the composers, and would at least have known music by the others.
Dating to 1791, the theatre in Grein is the oldest in Austria. It was constructed to comply with an imperial edict and was squeezed into a granary behind the town hall. With a maximum capacity of 147, it is also probably the smallest in the country.
The Austrian recorder player Michael Oman founded the Oman Consort in 2001 to perform music from the 16th to the 18th centuries. They attempt to emulate practice of the era by giving due place to improvisation, and emphasis is given to the basso continuo group to bring out the pure sound and style of the recorder. They have produced several award-winning CDs.
Concert 2
Saturday 29th August, early evening
Mass setting by Haydn
Melk Abbey, Kolomanisaal
Capella Savaria, Capella Cantorum, Ákos Paulik (conductor), Mária Zádori (soprano), Judit Németh (alto), Zoltán Megyesi (tenor), Krisztián Cser (bass) Mass by Josef Haydn
Occupying an elevated site beside the Danube, Melk Abbey is one of the most brilliant creations of the Age of Baroque. A sequence comprising ceremonial courts, guest apartments, hall and library culminates in a church of unsurpassed decorative richness. The concert takes place in the Kolomanisaal, a hall – once the summer refectory – not normally accessible to visitors which has vault frescoes by Paul Troger (1744).
The main work in this programme, Haydn’s ‘Mass in Time of War’ (or Paukenmesse), was composed in 1796 while French troops were advancing on Vienna. This impassioned, dramatic work can be interpreted as an urgent appeal for peace.
The first half consists of a symphony by CPE Bach and Haydn’s Kleine Orgelsolomesse (‘Little Organ Mass’) of c. 1775. Composed for a mere half-dozen players, this touching little work has a particularly beautiful Benedictus for soprano solo and organ.
Founded in 1981, Capella Savaria is the oldest period-instrument ensemble in Hungary. (‘Savaria’ is the Latin form of Szombathely, their city of origin.) Outstanding for the vigour and verve as well as the authenticity of their playing, they have performed in most countries in Europe as well as in the Americas, and have recorded over 60 CDs. Their regular collaborator, the choir Capella Cantorum is of commensurate excellence.
Concert 3
Sunday 30th August, morning
Austro-Hungarian wind quintets
Schloss Hof, Festsaal quintett.wien
Haydn, Mozart, Takács, Farkas, Stamitz, Ligeti
Schloss Hof was built 1725–30 as a large-scale hunting lodge for Prince Eugene of Savoy and was refurbished a generation later for two offspring of Empress Maria Theresa. Major recent conservation work has returned the main building, the adjacent model farm and the famous terraced gardens to something approaching its original appearance. The ballroom, beautifully decorated in Louis XVI style, is a fine setting for this programme of Austrian, Czech and Hungarian wind music.
One of few wind quintets that perform in the Viennese tradition, quintett.wien was founded in 1994. Their repertoire embraces works from the classical to the contemporary. The members – Hansgeorg Schmeiser (flute), Harald Hörth (oboe), Gerald Pachinger (clarinet), Martin Bramböck (horn) and Maximilian Feyertag (bassoon) – also hold positions in Austria’s leading orchestras and perform as soloists.
Concert 4
Sunday 30th August, evening
String Quartets
Bratislava, Primatial Palac
e
Wihan Quartet
Haydn, Janáček, Dvořák
Formed in Prague in 1985, and still with the original line-up, the Wihan Quartet is one of the most exciting string quartets to have emerged from the great school of Czech playing in recent years. Now established as one of the world’s leading quartets, they have toured worldwide and made many recordings of the Viennese classics and of the Czech repertoire.
This evening’s programme consists of Haydn’s ‘Lark’ (Quartet in D, op.64/5), Janáček’s Quartet No.1 and Dvořák’s ‘Slavonic’ (op.51 in E flat).
The former residence of the Primate of Hungary and now the town hall, the Primatial Palace is the grandest of the 18th-century buildings in Bratislava. The concert is in the Mirror Hall which rises through
two storeys.
Concert 5
Monday 31st August, evening
Early Haydn, symphonies
Vienna, Liechtenstein Gartenpalais
Wiener Akademie
Roberto Paternostro (conductor)
The Liechtensteins were the wealthiest aristocratic dynasty of the Austro-Hungarian empire and outstanding patrons of art and architecture. One of the grandest residences of the age, their ‘garden palace’ (1691–1711) was created by some of the most talented practitioners of the building arts then working in Central Europe. The splendid Hercules Hall, venue for this concert, has frescoes by Andrea Pozzo, master of Baroque illusionism.
The programme includes three early symphonies by Haydn, the wholly delightful ‘Morning’, ‘Midday’ and ‘Evening’ (Nos. 6, 7 & 8), and the Symphony No. 1 by his older contemporary CPE Bach, whom he greatly admired.
The Wiener Akademie was founded in 1985 and has become internationally respected for its unmistakably Austrian musicality, virtuosity and lively interpretation of repertoire ranging from Baroque to early Romantic music played on period instruments. They focus on bringing to light lesser known works alongside masterpieces of the standard repertoire. For many years they have had a regular concert series at the Vienna Musikverein.
Concert 6
Tuesday 1st September, morning
Piano Trios
Fertöd, Kastely Eszterháza
The Haydn Trio Eisenstadt
Haydn & Schubert
A modest hunting lodge was enormously extended and refurbished by Haydn’s employer, Prince Nikolaus ‘the Magnificent’ of Esterházy, to form perhaps the most spectacularly beautiful country house in Central Europe. Ostensibly a summer residence, Nikolaus’ court spent the larger part of the year here, and many of Haydn’s compositions would have been performed for the first time in the beautiful Rococo hall.
Here we hear two piano trios by Haydn, Nos. 27 and 29, and the Trio in E flat major Op. 100 by Schubert, for a while also an Esterházy employee.
The Haydn Trio Eisenstadt – Verena Stourzh (violin), Hannes Gradwohl (cello) and Harald Kosik (piano) – is one of Austria’s leading chamber music ensembles. They have been preparing for Haydn Year 2009 ever since the ensemble was founded in 1992, and during the year will travel the world as musical ambassadors of Josef Haydn’s home region. In 2008 they completed the project of recording his complete piano chamber music oeuvre: 39 piano trios, 429 Scottish songs, divertimenti and concertini, a
total of 28 CDs.
Concert 7
Tuesday 1st September, afternoon
‘The Seasons’
Eisenstadt, Schloss Esterházy
Wiener Kammerchor, Bach Consort Wien
Rubén Dubrovsky (conductor) Cornelia Horak (soprano), Daniel Johannsen (tenor), Josef Wagner (bass – baritone)
Haydn, Die Jahreszeiten
The second of Haydn’s two great, late oratorios, The Seasons was the last major work which Haydn composed. Its composition at the height of his maturity owed much to his London visits: hearing Handel’s Messiah was profoundly inspiring, and the text for The Seasons was based on James Thompson’s poem of the same name.
Eisenstadt, an attractive country town to the south-east of Vienna, is dominated by a vast 17th-century mansion, the principal seat of the Esterházy family, for whom Josef Haydn was the Kapellmeister for most of his career. It was in the Great Hall of Schloss Esterházy in Eisenstadt that many of Haydn’s works were first performed, and it still retains the wooden floor that Haydn insisted be laid on the marble original for acoustical reasons.
Formed in 1999, the Bach Consort Wien has found its artistic home in Vienna’s Musikverein where it regularly performs as the house ensemble in the Early Music cycle. Abroad, they have performed at festivals in Germany, Spain, Portugal and Croatia, and future travel plans include Switzerland, Italy and France. The soloists are all very well known in Austria in the opera house and on the concert platform, while the Wiener Kammerchor is one of Austria’s finest choirs with regular appearances at the Wiener Konzerthaus and the Musikverein amongst others.
Concert 8
Wednesday 2nd September, afternoon
Haydn Benefit Concert, 4th May 1795 in the New Room, King’s Theatre, London
Vienna, Hofburg, Zeremoniensaal
Austro-Hungarian Haydn Philharmonic
Adam Fischer (conductor), Wolfgang Redik (violin), Thomas Höniger (oboe)
Haydn’s Symphonies Nos. 100 (‘Military’) and 104; duet from Orlando Paladino and concert aria ‘Scena di Berenice’ by Haydn; Oboe Concerto by Giuseppe Ferlendis; Violin Concerto by Giovanni Battista Viotti.
This concert is an almost complete reconstruction of a particular event (the benefit in question was Haydn’s: he was awarded the substantial profits), the authenticity extending to the practice of interleaving symphonic movements with other pieces.
Freed from almost feudal servitude by the death in 1790 of his employer Prince Nikolaus I Esterházy, Haydn was soon on his way to London for the first of two visits, each lasting around eighteen months. Measured by the quantity of musical events, their variety, cosmopolitanism and funding, London was at the time the leading centre for music in Europe. Haydn was fêted as a celebrity, his concert series were immensely successful, and he returned to Vienna a wealthy man.
Embedded within the Hofburg and rarely accessible to the public, the ‘Hall of Ceremonies’ is the grandest hall in Vienna, magnificently embellished with Corinthian columns.
The Austro-Hungarian Haydn Philharmonic was founded by Adam Fischer in 1987 to bring together outstanding musicians from both countries. It has recorded Haydn’s complete symphonies in Schloss Esterházy in Eisenstadt and has acquired an international reputation as one of the most spirited and sensitive interpreters of the Viennese classics. They have toured widely, with repeated appearances at the Mostly Mozart festival in New York, the BBC Proms in London and the Mozart Festival in Salzburg.
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Concert 9
Thursday 3rd September, afternoon
Grand Wind Finale
Abbey of St. Florian, Sala Terrena
Collegium Viennense
Krommer, Smetana, Mozart
Founded in the eighth century, the Abbey of St Florian became one of the richest in the Austrian Empire. Wholesale rebuilding took place between 1686 and 1751, Austria’s great period of political and military confidence and architectural ambition. The concert takes place in a room whose decoration shows that it has always been used for making music.
Collegium Viennense was founded by musicians from several Austrian orchestras brought up in the Viennese tradition of wind music performance. Through tours and CDs they have become acknowledged as the leading ensemble for the repertoire.
Bohemia was the source of much Austro-Hungarian wind music, and this is celebrated in this programme with an octet by Franz Krommer (born in 1759; another anniversary) and music from Smetana’s Bartered Bride. The second half consists of Mozart’s Gran Partita; thirteen players perform the grandest and most moving piece of wind music ever composed.