Details
St Peter's Church
Southfield Road
Acton Green
Chiswick
London
W4 1BB
England
Programme
Joseph Haydn – Te Deum for the Empress Marie Therese
Joseph Haydn – Trumpet Concerto in E flat major, Hob.VIIe:1
Joseph Haydn – Mass no.14 in B flat major 'Harmoniemesse', Hob.XXII:14
Performers
Paul Archibald – trumpet
David Wordsworth – Conductor
Addison Singers Oratorio Choir
Brandenburg Sinfonia
Programme Note
The perfect antidote to the pre-Christmas frenzy, Addison Singers’ autumn concert unusually features the music of one composer - Franz Josef Haydn. Few composers can match the breadth of Haydn’s musical genius, but his vivid imagination and melodic invention - not least in his sacred music - will ensure that this is a memorable evening.
We begin with the celebratory ‘Te Deum in C’, written at the request of Empress Maria Theresa; a tuneful, vigorous hymn of praise, accompanied by trumpet and drums. The ‘Harmoniemesse’ is Haydn’s last major work - the nickname came long after the piece’s composition and comes from the fact that the score includes important parts for wind instruments; in Haydn’s time a wind-band was known as a Harmony Band. The sheer joy of Haydn’s response to the text of the Mass gives us on the one hand music of unrestrained joy and on the other music that verges on the eccentric, including a quirky setting of the Benedictus that has to be heard to be believed !
In between these two great works, the celebrated trumpeter Paul Archibald joins the Brandenburg Sinfonia for a performance of the uplifting Trumpet Concerto, one of the first pieces of its kind written for the then, modern trumpet . The work’s three movements explore the capabilities of the instrument and the virtuosity of the soloist - a fitting celebration of one of the greatest but still perhaps neglected composers.