Signore Haydn – Óbudai Danubia Orchestra

Conductor: Máté Hámori
Concert master: Péter Mező
Hosted by Gábor Eckhardt

Program:

Vada adagio, Signorina – aria (Hob.:XXIVb/12)
Secular canons
D’una sposa meschinella – aria (Hob.:XXIVb/2)
E Flat Major String Quartet, op.33 nr. 2 Hob.: III/38.
Philemon et Baucis – Overture Hob.:Ia/8
Arianna a Naxos – cantata
Eszter Wierdl – soprano
Ágnes Anna Kun – mezzo
Péter Mező, Ádám Radics – violine
Dr. Vadinszkyné Tünde Varasdy – viola
Ildikó Horváth – cello

Prince Miklós Esterházy was a glutton consumer of culture, and as far as music was concerned, he was characterised by a very demanding and sophisticated taste. He was an enthusiastic fanatic of the opera, in 1768, he built an all-satisfying opera house in Eszterháza. The company was regularly joined also by Italian singers. In 1779, Italian violinist Antonio Polzelli and his nineteen years old wife Luigia joined the band. Luigia was a singer, and, like Haydn, living in an unhappy marriage. The two people, despite the considerable disparity in age, were soon well matched and an intimate love affair of more than ten years emerged between them. For the currently running opera performances, Haydn composed several dozens of insertion arias for Luigia with great care and passion. The original pieces and composers like Pietro Alessandro Guglielmire or Giovanni Paisiello are barely remembered by now, unlike Haydn’s arias that are often intonated. Amid the frequent and hectic opera seasons, Haydn has no other choice but to abandon some genres like the string quartet. It is after a decade of intermittence that he releases the series No. 33 including six string quartets. In this collection beyond compare, Haydn fit in, among others, his experience with comic operas.