Saturday, March 12, 8.00pm
Sunday, March 13, 8.00pm
Sanders Theatre

Christopher Hogwood, conductor
Rev. Peter J. Gomes, narrator

CLICK HERE to listen to Music Director Grant Llewellyn discuss this program.

In 1785 the cathedral of Cadiz commisisoned Franz Joseph Haydn, then at the height of his fame, to compose a series of instrumental meditations on the Seven Last Words of Christ. Haydn responded with a deeply-felt set of “sonatas” which were first performed on Good Friday of 1787. He wrote that “each sonata, or movement, is expressed by purely instrumental music in such a way that even the most uninitiated listener will be moved to the very depths of his soul.” In the original performance, the Bishop of Cadiz gave a short sermon on each text before the orchestra played; in our performances, the distinguished Rev. Prof. Peter J. Gomes, one of the great preachers of our time, will deliver a series of readings on appropriate themes.

For further information:

http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/haydnj.html
A good Haydn biography

http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/special/insights.htms?ID=emerson-haydn
An interesting discussion of Haydn’s quartet version of this work