Radio Filharmonisch Orkest - Rond Haydns Symfonie nr. 100
Joseph Haydn and Giovanni Battista Viotti: they moved to the musical 'hotspot' London more than 230 years ago. Their source of inspiration: Christoph Willibald von Gluck. He wrote his ballet Don Juan thirty years earlier. Bulgarian violinist Liya Petrova follows in the footsteps of Haydn's colleague Viotti, a celebrated violin virtuoso who also wanted to try his luck in London.
Radio Filharmonisch Orkest - Rond Haydns Symfonie nr. 100
Haydn the entertainer
When Haydn arrived in London on January 1, 1791, he was nearly sixty and a celebrity who had barely left Austria. Between 1791 and 1795 he gave concerts in London, for which he composed twelve symphonies. Haydn was a true entertainer and liked to surprise his audience with new discoveries. In his Hundredth Symphony he added drums and cymbals to the orchestral line-up. Instruments that were then only used in the opera and in the army. Hence the nickname 'Military Symphony'.
Liya Petrova plays Viotti
On February 7, 1793, Viotti made his London debut, in a benefit concert conducted by Haydn. It could just be that on that occasion he presented his Violin Concerto , a favorite work of Brahms, who quoted it in his Double Concerto . Gluck was an inspiration to Haydn and Viotti, as a great opera innovator and as the first composer to write ballet music in which the drama and not the happy dance played the leading role.