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In Search of Haydn

In this eagerly-awaited documentary, Phil Grabsky’s biographical account of Haydn’s life is a visual and aural extravaganza, including breath-taking performances by some of the world’s most celebrated musicians.

A delight for music lovers and does honour to a central composer we too often take for granted’ – Santa Fe New Mexican

Following his award winning documentaries, In Search of Mozart and In Search of Beethoven, Phil Grabsky completes the trilogy with In Search of Haydn.

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) was one of the greatest musical innovators. Mozart and Beethoven greatly looked up to him as an inspiration and yet today in concert halls he is perhaps too often overshadowed in favour of his younger contemporaries.

As Andras Schiff recently pointed out:
 “The world needs to appreciate him much more: of all the really great composers, he is still the most underrated”.

By speaking to some of the greatest living exponents of Haydn’s music, this film redresses the balance and sheds light on the master and his work. Phil Grabsky hopes that Haydn will reach a wider audience who will be surprised, entertained and enthralled by Haydn’s wit, humanity and insatiable creativity.

Haydn’s life spanned from the end of the Baroque period to Napoleon’s invasion of Vienna, outliving his younger friend Mozart. He was one of the most prolific composers, producing more than 100 symphonies, 64 quartets, 16 extant operas, 51 piano sonatas and the oratorios ‘The Creation’ and ‘The Seasons’.

His seemingly light-hearted, placid temperament embraced the troubles and tribulations of life with casual humour and irony. Though blessed by an encouraging patron, running his own orchestra and opera company for some 30 years on the Esterhazy Estate, he was exposed to the usual upstairs-downstairs antics of an aristocratic household and follies of an artistic world. These years proved to be enormously productive, inspiring Haydn to write numerous works to please his patron and his eminent guests with witty theatrical evenings, jokes and the occasional prank.

Phil Grabsky follows the same format of presenting the composer’s biography and music chronologically. Through intimate and revealing interviews with experts and detailed extracts from Haydn’s personal recollections, the audience gains tremendous insight not only into Haydn’s music but an appreciation of the artist himself. The emphasis of the film, as with the previous films, is on the performance – and interpretation – of Haydn’s music, with performances from the world’s greatest musicians and orchestras.

DVD Special Features: 9 full movements and an interview with the director, Phil Grabsky.

Narrator: Juliet Stevenson

Interviewees & Performers:

Gianandrea Noseda
Music Director of the Teatro Regio Torino, Gianandrea Noseda is among the most sought-after conductors of our time.
 
Sir Roger Norrington

The Orchestra of the 18th Century with Frans Brüggen
Once the world’s most famous recorder player, today Frans Brüggen is considered among the foremost experts in the performance of eighteenth century music. In 1981, Brüggen and friends founded the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, which consists of some fifty-five members from more than twenty different countries.

Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques

Ian Page and the Classical Opera Company

Ronald Brautigam
Ronald Brautigam, one of Holland’s leading musicians, is remarkable not only for his virtuosity and musicality but also for the eclectic nature of his musical interests.

The Endellion String Quartet
The Endellion is renowned as one of the finest quartets in the world. Everywhere, the Endellion String Quartet ‘sets the audience ablaze’ (Daily Telegraph) and ‘captivates concertgoers with a remarkable rapport, playing to each other with a sense almost of discovery, communicating to the audience on a level of unusual intimacy’ (Guardian).

Gautier Capuçon  Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège with Pablo González  Marc-André Hamelin

Sophie Bevan Wilke te Brummelstroete Alison Balsom
Twice crowned ‘Female Artist of the Year’ at the Classic BRITs, Alison Balsom has cemented an international reputation as one of classical music’s great ambassadors and is ranked among the most distinctive and ground-breaking musicians on the international circuit today.

Emanuel Ax
Rémy Baudet 
Tim Blanning
Jonathan Impett
David Wyn Jones 
Joseph Kalichstein
Bayan Northcott 
Rupert Ridgewell
Dr. Walter Reicher 
Richard Wigmore

‘An ideal introduction to one of the greatest composers of his time’ *****
BBC Music Magazine

‘Following his excellent films on Mozart and Beethoven, the British documentarist Phil Grabsky completes an admirable trilogy with this riveting study of Haydn.’ ****
The Observer

‘Quietly inspiring’ ***
The Times

‘This film sweeps away preconceptions with a very thorough broom.’ ***
The Evening Standard

‘Bracing, refreshing…simply very good indeed.’ ****
The Guardian

‘Joyous, thrilling, informative and accessible.’ ****
Empire

‘Some of the world’s best musicians giving flawless renditions of Haydn’s works.’ ****
London West End Extra

‘The film rescues Haydn from any neglect he may previously have suffered.’ ****
The Sunday Times

‘superlative performances’
The West Australian

‘You don’t need to be interested in classical music to find the results engrossing’
Time Out Chicago

‘beautiful…fascinating…and the musical examples are never less that well-chosen and splendidly played’
Chicago Tribune

‘Grabsky has a great gift for showing how a piece is put together. The music is the thing.’
The Sydney Morning Herald

‘A delight for music lovers and does honor to a central composer we too often take for granted’
Santa Fe New Mexican

In Search of Haydn Trailer

The Orchestra of the 18th Century: Symphony no. 45 in F sharp minor

Gautier Capucon: Haydn Cello Concerto in C major

Alison Balsom on Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto in E flat

Performances featured in the film (in order of appearance):

Keyboard Concerto in F
Ronald Brautigam
Concerto Copenhagen
Conductor – Lars Ulrik Mortensen
Courtesy of BIS Records, Sweden

Antonio Caldara
Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo
Orchestre de la Schola Cantorum Basiliensis Conductor – René Jacobs Courtesy of Harmonia Mundi

Keyboard Sonata no.1 in G
Ronald Brautigam

Keyboard Sonata no.9 in D
Ronald Brautigam

Symphony no.6 in D ‘Le Matin’
The Hanover Band
Conductor – Roy Goodman
Courtesy of Hyperion Records Ltd

Cello Concerto in C
Gautier Capuçon
Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège
Conductor – Pablo González

Keyboard concerto no.4 in G
Christophe Rousset
Les Talens Lyriques

Symphony no.30 in C
The Orchestra of the 18th Century
Conductor – Frans Brüggen

Keyboard Trio in G minor
Van Swieten Trio
Courtesy of Brilliant Classics

Keyboard Sonata no.33 in C minor
Ronald Brautigam

String Quartet 20/4 in D
The Endellion String Quartet

String Quartet 20/6 in A
The Endellion String Quartet

Keyboard Sonata no.34 in E minor
Marc-André Hamelin

Symphony no.45 in F sharp
The Orchestra of the 18th Century
Conductor – Frans Brüggen

Keyboard Sonata no.47 in B minor
Ronald Brautigam

Salamelica, Semprugna cara
from the opera Lo Speziale
Sung by Sophie Bevan
The Classical Opera Company
Conductor – Ian Page

Placidi ruscelletti
from the opera La fedeltà premiata
Sung by Ana James
The Classical Opera Company
Conductor – Ian Page

Wenn am weiten Firmamente
from the opera Philemon und Baucis
Sung by Thomas Hobbs
The Classical Opera Company
Conductor – Ian Page

Navicella da vento agitato
from the opera Il marchese
Sung by Sophie Bevan
The Classical Opera Company
Conductor – Ian Page

Reprieve of Placidi ruscelletti
from the opera La fedeltà premiata
Sung by Ana James
The Classical Opera Company
Conductor – Ian Page

Mozart
Piano Sonata no.13 in B Flat, K 333
Ronald Brautigam

My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me from Seven Last Words The Endellion String Quartet Recording courtesy of The Foster Charitable Trust

Symphony no.82 in C
The Orchestra of the 18th Century
Conductor – Frans Brüggen

Symphony no.84 in E flat
Les Talens Lyriques
Conductor – Christophe Rousset

Symphony no.86 in D
The Orchestra of the 18th Century
Conductor – Frans Brüggen

Aria di Giannina
Sung by Wilke te Brummelstroete
The Orchestra of the 18th Century
Conductor – Frans Brüggen

String Quartet no.54/2 in C
The Endellion String Quartet

String Quartet no.64/5 in D
The Endellion String Quartet

Symphony no.94 in G
The Orchestra of the 18th Century
Conductor – Frans Brüggen

Beethoven
Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II Corydon Orchestra and Singers Conductor – Matthew Best Courtesy of Hyperion Records

String Quartet no.74/3 in G minor
The Endellion String Quartet

Keyboard Variations in F minor
Marc-André Hamelin

Keyboard Trio in B flat
The Florestan Trio

Symphony no.100 in G
The Orchestra of the 18th Century
Conductor – Frans Brüggen

Symphony no.101 in D
The Orchestra of the 18th Century
Conductor – Frans Brüggen

Symphony no.104 in D
The Orchestra of the 18th Century
Conductor – Frans Brüggen

Missa in tempore belli
Trinity Choir
Rebel Baroque Orchestra
Conductor – J. Owen Burdick
Courtesy of Naxos

String Quartet no.76/3 in C
The Endellion String Quartet

Trumpet Concerto in E flat
Alison Balsom
Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
Courtesy of EMI Classics

Trumpet Concerto in E flat
Jonathan Impett
The Orchestra of the 18th Century
Conductor – Frans Brüggen

The Creation
Nederlands Kamerkoor
Soprano – Johannette Zomer
The Orchestra of the 18th Century
Conductor – Frans Brüggen

The Seasons
Cavatina: Licht und Leben sind geschwachet Part IV: Winter Sung by Marlis Petersen RIAS-Kammerchor Freiburger Barockorchester Conductor – René Jacobs Courtesy of Harmonia Mundi

String Quartet no.103 in D minor (unfinished) The Endellion String Quartet

Nun beut die flur das frischegrun
from The Creation
Sung by Luba Orgonasova
The Gulbenkian Choir
The Orchestra of the 18th Century
Conductor – Frans Brüggen