Haydn, Piano Concerto No 11

 

If an enthusiastic music lover of Joseph Haydn's work wanted to listen to all his music continuously, he would have to allocate two weeks with their days and nights because the prolific author of the oratorio The Creation produced approximately 340 hours of music throughout his life, more than Bach or Handel, or Mozart or Beethoven.

Music for the Court
True enough, the Austrian master did not live a short life. He died at the age of 77 (more than twice Mozart's life), but such a huge production might not have been possible without his stay for nearly thirty years in the service of the princes of Esterházy, in the role of a liveried servant in charge of producing music for the court.

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809)

Before the liveries

But it was not always like this. As a teenager, Haydn had to earn an income in a variety of ways. He was even a street musician, participating as a singer in serenades offered to unattainable ladies, before becoming the most prominent beneficiary of the patronage system initiated in the Renaissance.

Last years

But so prodigal patronage came to an end in 1790, when a deaf prince acceded to the court and disengaged himself from Haydn. The master, widely known throughout Europe and regarded as the most important living musician, continued to compose, mainly oratorios and masses, until 1803, when he had to give up his work due to age-related decline. He secluded himself in his house in Vienna, responding to the numerous invitations with an epigraph taken from a composition of 1796: "All my strength is gone. I am old and tired."

Piano Concerto in D major

Twelve keyboard concertos Haydn wrote, four of them published during the composer's lifetime. The second of these is the most popular, the Concerto in D major Hob. XVIII / 11, published in Vienna in 1784. ("Hob", sometimes just "H", comes from Anthony von Hoboken, creator of the catalog).

Movements:

00:37   Vivace  - Two themes, introduced first by the orchestra and then by the soloist. The development section is primarily concerned with the first theme; the recapitulation briefly quotes the second.

08:45   Un poco adagio -  A long-breathed melody, followed by a repeated note theme.

17:44   Rondo all'Ungarese  - This is constructed from an authentic Bosnian folk dance, called Siri Kolo, which the composer introduces in the opening theme, then takes up again in the climax.

Ivan Fisher conducts the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.

At the piano, the outstanding Russian maestro Mikhail Pletnev.