About this work
Born in the small south east Austrian village
of Rohrau on the river Leitha, near the border with Hungary, Joseph Haydn
was one of three brothers who were to become eminent musicians. Their
father, Mathias Haydn (1699-1763), greatly respected in the community,
was a master wheelwright, and functioned as village Marktrichter (magistrate).
According to Haydn himself, his father was 'a great lover of music by
nature', who 'played the harp without reading a note of music'.
Aged six, Haydn left home for Hainau, where
harpsichord and violin lessons began under the direction of Johann Mathias
Franck, a relative by marriage. Aged seven, he was recruited to serve
as a choirboy at the Stephansdom in Vienna, and there for the next ten
years (his brother Michael joining him in 1745) his musical talent was
nurtured amid the pomp, the splendour and the musical tradition of a
great cathedral. There, as Haydn himself states, he remained 'until into
my eighteenth year', but when his voice broke he was obliged to leave,
and to learn to depend upon his own resources. So it was that, renting
an attic in the Michaelerhaus, he continued to study music whilst supporting
himself with occasional work as harpsichord accompanist, singer, violinist
and teacher.
Aged 21, an important figure who came into
his life was the Baron Karl Joseph von Fürnberg (1720-1767), a music-loving
aristocrat who employed Haydn as music master to his children, and invited
him to his palace at Weinzierl, near Wieselburg in Lower Austria. It
was there that Haydn - with the palace priest, the baron's steward and
cellist Anton Albrechtsberger (b.1729, and an older brother of the composer
Johann Georg Albrechtsberger) - played the first of his string quartets.
In 1758 the Baron von Fürnberg recommended
Haydn to Count Ferdinand Maximilian von Morzin in Lukavec (now in Czechoslovakia),
and then in 1761 he became assistant Kappelmeister to Prince Paul Esterházy
(1711-1766). On the latter's death, he was succeeded by his brother,
Prince Nikolaus (1714-1790), and when the new Esterházy palace
was opened in 1766, Haydn took over as Kappelmeister.
Greatly loved, over the years Haydn became
known as 'Papa Haydn'; equally, he was also recognised all over Europe
as 'The Father of the String Quartet'. Over a period of fifty years he
composed no less than sixty-eight quartets, but it was at Weinzierl,
with the earliest of these, that he had established the form, taking
the soloistic ensemble for granted, including solo cello without continuo,
establishing a five-movement pattern and laying the foundations of the
genre as we know it.
Haydn's quartet movements at this period consist
to a large degree of 'tune with accompaniment' which lends itself to
arrangement for solo melodic instrument with harp or keyboard. From these
delightful early works, Derek Smith has selected pairs of contrasting
movements which seem to follow one another in natural sequence, and which
he believes best suited to the instrumental combination of flute and
harp.
©Ann Griffiths 2009
While there has never been any doubt that Hob.III-6
is by Haydn, the quartet Hob.III-17 (containing the famous 'Serenade'
) has sometimes been attributed to his contemporary, Roman Hofstetter
(1742-1815). However, as this quartet appears in the thematic catalogue
of Haydn's music compiled by Eissler in 1765, the alternative attribution
appears less than likely. Indeed, performers on flute and harp have little
reason to doubt that both Hob III-6 and Hob III-17 come from the series
composed for the Baron von Furnberg at Weinzierl in the mid to late 1750s.
About the Arranger
Derek studied conducting with the late
Norman Del Mar and composition with Malcolm Arnold who is a master
of instrumentation. He also learned a lot about musical phrasing while
playing for Colin Davis. After playing brass in the National Youth
Orchestra and horn in a wind quintet, for more than a decade he ran
his own wind ensemble as conductor and arranger. As a hobby cellist
his ambition is to play all the right notes in at least one late-Beethoven
Quartet! He is also a materials scientist and was formerly on the faculty
of Queen Mary College, University of London.
He publishes much of his own
music and transcriptions under the title GEMMA MUSIC (www.gemmamusic.co.uk)
but also has a publisher ARIEL MUSIC (www.arielmusic.co.uk)
which handles some of his larger ensemble pieces for brass and for wind
dectet. He has recently been working with the professional chamber group
Oboeworks, based in Bristol, being Imogen Triner (oboe), Roger Huckle
(violin), Moira Alabaster (viola) and Richard May (cello). They premiered
his realisation of Schubert's Oboe Quartet in C after D74 at the international
Roskilde Schubertiade in August 2005 which was broadcast on Danish radio.
Recent musical activities
have included conducting ESO Winds in a CD of six Harmonienmusik by Haydn
arranged from the lyra organizzata pieces for nine wind players; outright
winner of the Henschel String Quartet composition competition for a work
for string quartet and voices called Carolingua (will be recorded by
the Henschel in May and released in the Autumn in support of the SOS
childrens' charity; will also be included in their international tour
programmes at Christmas 2009); Elisabet Waage, the international harpist,
and her ensemble premiered Mozart arr Smith Quintet for flute, harp and
string trio after the concerto KV299 in Reykjavik on the anniversary
of Mozart's birthday, 27th January 2009. A UK premiere is planned for
later in 2009.
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