It seems like such an obvious choice during
Holy Week, but Franz Josef Haydn’s "The Seven Last Words
of Christ" is not performed as often as, say, Bach’s "St.
Matthew Passion," the latter usually considered the absolute
peak of religious music.
But for its final concert of the 2002-2003 season, Brooklyn Friends
of Chamber Music presents Haydn’s "Seven Last Words,"
appropriately enough, on Palm Sunday, April 13, at the Lafayette
Avenue Presbyterian Church.
Performing the weighty, hour-long sole piece on the program are
members of the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra, under the direction
of conductor Nick Armstrong, and the Rev. David Dyson of Lafayette
Avenue Presbyterian Church.
Haydn composed "Seven Last Words" in 1786, on a commission
from the Cadiz Cathedral in Spain. Of course, by that time, the
54-year-old composer had already distinguished himself as one
of the most respected and venerable musicians of his day, prompting
no less a personage than Mozart – who was 24 years younger –
to dedicate a group of six string quartets to Haydn.
Written specifically for believers to help with their Holy Week
meditations, "Seven Last Words" is divided into seven
adagios, or slow movements, each of which are inspired by the
final utterances of Jesus Christ while on the cross at Calvary
– from the first, "Lord forgive them, for they know not
what they do," to the final words spoken before he died,
"Into thy hands I commend my spirit."
Although "Seven Last Words" is a purely instrumental
work, performances of it usually include readings related to
each section’s utterances. The Brooklyn Friends performances
will be no different, with Dyson taking the role of speaker for
these non-musical interludes.
Haydn’s profoundly spiritual music for "Seven Last Words"
is perfectly encapsulated in the composer’s own words on the
subject: "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,"
he wrote.
Most interesting about "Seven Last Words" is that Haydn
originally scored the work for a full orchestra, which is how
it was premiered in the Cadiz Cathedral. While the orchestral
parts were being printed, Haydn arranged the music for a string
quartet, then the music publisher – with the composer’s blessing
– created another version, a piano reduction of the full orchestral
score. The work is also performed in an arrangement for a choir
and an orchestra.
The power of the music in its fully orchestral glory cannot hope
to be matched by a mere four instrumentalists in the quartet
version, but Haydn was nothing if not canny in his transposition
of the work to quartet. Since the Cadiz Cathedral was a massive
edifice, the orchestral sound reverberated throughout; the string
quartet version would have been dwarfed in such a place.
However, the quartet version has its own strengths, most particularly
in its unmatched intimacy, since each part in the score is played
by a single instrument. And because Haydn’s music for this piece
is a glorious example of the concision and subtlety of his compositional
technique, this "slimmed-down" version may be the most
affecting and emotionally involving of all the versions of this
most sublime music.
Music has always been a common unifier for many people, transcending
as it does all boundaries and borders, whether artistic, economic,
cultural or even religious. Haydn’s "The Seven Last Words
of Christ" – along with Bach’s "B-Minor Mass"
and the aforementioned "St. Matthew Passion," Beethoven’s
"Missa Solemnis" and Mozart’s unfinished "Requiem"
– is one of the pinnacles of music that transcends religion and
reaches listeners in a truly secular way.
Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music presents Haydn’s "The
Seven Last Words of Christ," performed by members of the
Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra, at the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian
Church, Lafayette Avenue at South Oxford Street in Fort Greene,
on April 13 at 3 pm. Tickets are $15, $12 seniors and $5 students.
For more information, visit the Web site at www.brooklynfriendsofchambermusic.org
or call (718) 855-3053.
