The Southwest Voice

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To fully appreciate the talent pool that existed in Vienna at the end of the 18th century one need look no further than the April 12 concert by the Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra.  Three household names – Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven - are represented.  Moreover, these three individuals, today viewed as the kings of the musical Classic period, knew and respected each other.

From an age when composers were not particularly effusive about another’s talent, one finds the following comments among this supremely gifted trio:

After hearing the 29-year old Mozart perform in 1785, Joseph Haydn conveyed to Mozart’s father: “I tell you before God, as an honest man, that your son is the greatest composer I know, either personally or by reputation.”

A year later, following a dazzling piano performance by the 16-year old Beethoven, Mozart told those in attendance, “Keep your eyes on him; some day he will give the world something to talk about.”

Beethoven’s relationship with Haydn, his erstwhile teacher, was problematic because his uniquely emotional style seemed foreign to the older man.  However, by 1808 when Vienna’s musical community lionized Beethoven, he made a great public display of respect and affection for the aged Haydn at a momentous concert in his honor.

The orchestra will open with Mozart’s boisterous overture to his opera The Abduction from the Seraglio.  Using faux-Turkish sounds the great Mozart catered to the current rage for Turkish art and music with clangorous percussion sounds. But he also included a tender melody intended for his wife Constanze.

The symphony and the concerto were the unparalleled concert interests of the time, and the Orchestra will play an excellent example of each, beginning with Haydn’s Symphony No. 83.

By the 1780s, when this work was commissioned by the leading Parisian concert society, Haydn was the pre-eminent international figure in music.  His Symphony No. 83 was a great success with the demanding French audience despite the fact that someone said one of the melodies sounded like the clucking of a chicken.  Hence, the Symphony No. 83 bears the nickname “The Hen.”

The young Beethoven’s calling card to Viennese audiences was his Concerto No. 2 in B-flat.  Bakersfield listeners will enjoy its presentation by a finalist from the recent Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Chu-Fang Huang.

This will be a concert that is “Classic” in every sense of the word.