On the Waves with the Knights of St. Stephen

Azzolino Bernardino della Ciaja (1671 – 1755), Antonio Vivaldi (1678 – 1741)

harpsichord solo (one hour programme with commentary)

Italian organist, harpsichordist, composer and organ builder Azzolino Bernardino della Ciaja was born in Siena but spent most of his life in Pisa. He stayed also in Florence and Rome and his collection Sonate per cembalo con alcuni saggi ed altri contrapunti di largo e grave stile ecclesiastico per grandi organi, op. 4 (Rome, 1727) comes right from this period. He was a member of the Order of the Knights of St. Stephen. read more...

Joseph Haydn: The Seven Last Words of Christ

Original version of the famous Haydn's oratorio for harpsichord or fortepiano (Hob. XX/1c)

harpsichord solo (one hour programme with commentary)

In 1785, the canon of Cádiz requested Haydn to compose a special piece for Holy Week service in church of St. Cueva in Andalusia. Every year, a new oratorio was performed here during Lent. It was a customary in the cathedral that, after a short introduction, the priest read always one of the seven last Christ's sentences and afterwards, he knelt before the altar and meditated on these words together with the believers. Haydn was to compose music right for these moments of contemplation, music which would deepen the meaning of the uttered words.  read more...

Jan Ladislav Dussek (1760-1812): Works for Fortepiano

Fortepiano solo (one hour programme with commentary)

The list of publishers who issued Dussek’s works during his lifetime reads like a “Who´s who” of publishing history around 1800. In London as well as in Paris – the Bohemian musician’s main places of activity – some twenty different publishing or music houses, large and small, offered piano works by Dussek to the public. But particularly the Breitkopf & Härtel Publishing House in Leipzig rendered outstanding services for the dissemination of his works. Almost all other publishers, many still known today and back then at the beginning of their corporate histories, scrambled to obtain his works, for example, Simrock in Bonn, C.F. Peters and Hoffmeister & Kühnel in Leipzig, Schott in Mainz, Johann André in Offenbach, Artaria and Diabelli in Vienna, Nägeli in Zurich, and Ricordi in Milan, not to mention those as far afield as St. Petersburg, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. read more...

Musae inter arma

(A. Wranitzky, J. L. Dussek)

Johannes Gebauer – classical violin, Alena Hönigová – fortepiano

This concert reminds of the unsettled time of the Napoleonic Wars. A number of music composers responded to it. Wranitzky's program composition describes events preceding the first peace with Napoleon. Dussek's “Naval Battle” in turn describes in detail the legendary victory of the English admiral Duncan over the Dutch fleet. This battle is famous for the dramatic upheavals that accompanied it and it entered the history of war tactics. Some people said that this great naval success of Admiral Duncan was more due to coincidence and chaos than any tactical skills. People narrated about the battle long after it and undoubtedly also Dusík told this ''musical story'' to entertain English salons. read more...

Sonatenabend

Johannes Gebauer - Violine (Antonio Casini, 1683)
Alena Hönigová - Fortepiano (William Stodard, 1818)