Word: haydn
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...death in 1791 at age 35 is a rich source of drama and speculation. The man whom Joseph Haydn unhesitatingly acknowledged as his superior struggles against a fatal fever to complete his last composition. The D Minor Requiem is written for Count Franz Walsegg-Stuppach, who wormed a place in history by secretly commissioning the work in order to pass it off as his own. Several bars of the Lacrymosa are probably the last notes Mozart ever wrote. The requiem was completed by his student Franz Süssmayr...
...Conlon Nancarrow, 69, an American expatriate who has lived in Mexico City since 1940 and who writes his music for player piano. On the programs of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, works by living composers like John Harbison, Richard Wernick and Yehudi Wyner coexist peacefully with those of Haydn and Smetana. And for devotees who must have their daily dose of Beethoven, the Minnesota Orchestra is staging an imaginative Sommerfest lasting through Aug. 14 that features all 16 of the composer's works for solo instruments and orchestra. The repertory includes such oddments as the Romance...
...group's adventurous repertory also includes quartets by César Franck, Fauré, Sibelius, Borodin and Nielsen. Starting in July they will regularly perform the music of Mozart and Haydn on 18th century instruments. But it is in Shostakovich that the Fitzwilliam's reputation has justly been made. Whether negotiating the complexities of the late quartets, such as the tortured, defiant Twelfth, or inhabiting the sunnier climes of the Fourth and Sixth Quartets, the Fitzwilliam's performances were marked by a clear, unforced ensemble tone, individual virtuosity and an unfailing sensitivity to the music...
...Philadelphia, the opera's plot was abridged, two minor characters eliminated and the music somewhat reordered, so the production was not a fair test of the opera's stage worthiness. At Eszterháza, Haydn could call on a large cast of silent extras to provide plenty of spectacle, and the theater's sophisticated stage machinery-which could transform settings from a pleasant garden to an enchanted wood or a glorious hall-was expected to carry a good deal of the dramatic load...
...Figaro out of existence," says Landon. "They are not the meal, but the sugarplums after the meal." But as such, he believes, "they are going to have a life of their own. As long as there are opera houses, one or another will always be doing a Haydn opera...