Handel and Haydn Society Presents "Classical Masters" and Horn Virtuosity
BSO Principal James Sommerville featured on natural horn
Conductor Laureate Christopher Hogwood leads the Handel and Haydn Period-Instrument Orchestra in a program of symphonies and concerti by Haydn and Mozart, featuring Boston Symphony Orchestra Principal Horn James Sommerville. This program—which highlights the influences and friendships that marked the two composers during their lifetime—features Mozart's Horn Concerto in E-flat Major (reconstructed by Robert Levin) and Symphony No. 25, and Haydn’s Horn Concerto No. 1 in D Major and Symphony No.88.
The devotion of Mozart to his mentor and friend Franz Josef Haydn is well known, and the friendships that both composers cultivated with star performers produced two of the most prominent works for horn. Haydn’s Horn Concerto No. 1 in D Major, written in 1762 for one of the period’s most talented horn players, is noted for giving the horn soloist the opportunity to demonstrate virtuosity and dexterity. Mozart was also inspired by the virtuosic players of the day, and composed three of his four horn concerti for hornist Ignaz Leutgeb. His Horn Concerto in E-flat Major K 370b-371, written in 1781 as Concert Rondo, K 371, is believed to be the finale of an abandoned concerto. This work is one of a number of concerti left incomplete by Mozart, and was reconstructed in 1993 by Harvard University Musicologist and pianist Robert D. Levin, who also completed the orchestration. James Sommerville will be performing both concerti on natural horn, the 18th and 19th century precursor to the modern horn. With coiled tubing but no valves, the natural horn relies on its performer to play both the notes available “naturally” on the instrument—from the harmonic series—and “stopped” notes produced when the player closes the bell with the right hand, thus altering pitches.
Mozart’s Symphony No. 25 in G minor, the earliest of his symphonies to be in the active repertoire, was composed in homage to Haydn’s Symphony No. 39, on which it is modeled. Its minor-mode opening, in particular, seems to derive directly from Haydn's Sturm und Drang ("storm and stress") period, a style that colors many of his works from the early 1770s. Mozart’s attainment of a new level of skill and sophistication in this work might also be signs of Haydn’s influence, for with this ambitious symphony in particular, Mozart made the first decisive step from wunderkind to great composer.
Haydn’s Symphony No. 88 in G major, written in 1787, displays the wit and brilliance of orchestration that made Haydn famous throughout Europe. Often remarked upon are “the clarity and sophistication of the first movement, the startling use of the trumpet and drums in the second, the ‘Dudelsack’-effect (German bagpipes) in the Trio of the third, and the intricate and brilliant and imitatively intricate sonata-rondo finale.” After hearing the largo, surely one of Haydn’s most beautiful passages, Brahms said, “I wish the slow movement of my ninth will sound like this.”
HAYDN: Horn Concerto No.1 in D Major
MOZART: Symphony No. 25 in G Minor, K.183
MOZART: Horn Concerto in E-flat Major, K.370b-371
HAYDN: Symphony No.88 in G major
WHO:
Christopher Hogwood, conductor
James Sommerville, period horn
Christopher Hogwood, Conductor Laureate
Christopher Hogwood, once described as “the von Karajan of early music,” is one of the greatest proponents of the early music movement, as well as a renowned conductor of nineteenth and twentieth-century works. A celebrated conductor, musicologist and keyboardist, Hogwood is Conductor Laureate of Handel and Haydn and Emeritus Director of the Academy of Ancient Music, the orchestra he founded in 1973 and with whom he has a critically acclaimed catalogue of over 200 recordings; and Conductor Laureate of Boston’s Handel & Haydn Society. His Secret Handel CD - part of the “thrilling and revealing” series The Secret Clavichord - was recently awarded a Diapason d'Or and a series of neo-classical recordings with Kammerorchester Basel for Sony/BMG was described as “balanced and thought provoking with beautifully pointed and incisively characterized performances”. He has worked with most leading symphony orchestras and opera houses in the world. As a musicologist he explores music from the 16th (Fitzwilliam Virginal Book) to the 20th (Martinu, Elgar, Stravinsky) centuries, and is currently re-editing the overtures and symphonies of Mendelssohn.
Hogwood is Honorary Professor of Music at the University of Cambridge and Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy of Music, London. For further information see www.hogwood.org
James Sommerville, natural horn
James Sommerville joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra as principal horn in January 1998. A native of Toronto, Sommerville has also enjoyed a solo career that has brought critically acclaimed appearances with all the major Canadian orchestras, the radio orchestras of Bavaria and Berlin, and many others throughout North America and Europe. Sommerville has performed at many chamber music festivals, including the Festival of The Sound, the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival, Scotia Festival, Domaine Forget, Sarasota, and the Banff International Festival of the Arts. Recent solo performances of note include the world premiere of Christos Hatzis's Winter Solstice for horn and strings in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories; the North American premiere of Ligeti's Hamburg Concerto with the Boston Symphony; the John Williams Horn Concerto, with the composer conducting the BSO at Tanglewood, and Weber’s Concertino, performed on natural horn, broadcast live on National Public Radio with the Handel and Haydn Society led by Christopher Hogwood in 2003. With the Boston Symphony Orchestra and James Levine in the 2007-08 season, he performed the world premiere of Elliott Carter's Horn Concerto, commissioned by the BSO. In addition to performing as a hornist, Sommerville is also artistic director of the Hamilton Philharmonic, one of Canada's venerable professional symphony orchestras.
