Category: Daily Dispatch

Stereophonic homophones dominate this week’s “Music from Marlboro.” Worlds collide through the juxtaposition of music by Haydn and Heiden.

Franz Joseph Haydn, of course, requires little introduction. For a quarter century, he was music director at the remote estate of Esterháza, where he essentially created the modern symphony and legitimized the string quartet. He established the piano trio as an accepted combination and standardized sonata form. His music was written for the delectation of Prince Nikolaus Esterházy and his associates. Even so, by the time of his death in 1809, at the age of 77, he had become one of the most celebrated composers in Europe.

Bernhard HEIDEN was a Hindemith pupil, who fled fascism in Germany to settle in the American Midwest. There, he conducted the Detroit Chamber Orchestra and taught at the Art Center Music School. Later, he joined the faculty of the Indiana University School of Music. To him, it was more important to reach performers than an audience, for the practical reason that audiences change and performers need to believe in the music in order to be able to sell it. He composed prolifically right up until his death in 2000 at the age of 89.

On this evening’s program, we’ll hear a serenade and two divertimentos (“divertimenti” for those who prefer the Italian). What’s the difference? There’s a lot of blurring of boundaries between these 18th century categories – divertimento, serenade, cassation, notturno. Basically it’s all entertainment music, at least as it was originally intended. No weighty arguments, profound introspection, or showy virtuosity of the type one might expect from a symphony, concerto, or string quartet.

The cassation was often a piece designed for outdoor performance, a loosey-goosey assemblage of undemanding, blissfully short movements one might listen to while eating cucumber sandwiches or admiring a sculpted hedge.

The interchangeability of the terms led Haydn to give his Divertmento in F the alternate title of “Cassation.” What’s in a name? We’ll hear it performed at the 1981 Marlboro Music Festival by violinists Lucy Chapman (Stoltzman) and Carmit Zori, violists Thomas Turner and Toby Hoffman, cellist Gary Hoffman, double bassist Carolyn Davis, oboists Elaine Douvas and John Ferrillo, hornists Robin Graham and Stewart Rose, and bassoonist Stefanie Przybylska.

A serenade, too, was originally a light, tuneful diversion, often intended as “occasional” music (that is to say, music written for a specific occasion) or in someone’s honor. I guess somebody forgot to tell Heiden. Though his style is generally identified as neoclassical, it is neoclassicism in the mold of Hindemith. The structure is there, but I can’t say that his serenade of 1955 is all that buoyant, and the tunes are secondary. It does score points, however, for its unusual instrumentation.

It was performed at the 1984 Marlboro Music Festival by bassoonist Nancy Goeres, violinist Saschko Gawriloff, violist Ah Ling Neu, and cellist Grace Bahng.

We’ll round out the hour with a refreshing after dinner mint in the form of the Divertimento in F Major (K. 213) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was performed at Marlboro in 1990 by oboists Rudolf Vrbsky and Alex Klein, bassoonists Clelia Goldings and Matthew Carr, and hornists Christine Chapman and Chris Komer.

Forget your cares! Join me for an hour of diverting music on the next “Music from Marlboro,” this Wednesday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page

DUELING PORTRAITS: Haydn & Heiden