Daylight Music is a lazy Saturday afternoon for all ages with music, tea and cake. In this September edition the OAE Experience Ensemble perform music by three remarkable composers from the classical period: Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Maddalena Lombardini, and Franz Joseph Haydn.
In an age when slavery was endemic, Saint-Georges, who was mixed-race, was one of its most celebrated men. Not only was he among the most important musicians in pre-revolutionary Paris but he was considered one of the finest swordsmen in Europe, a fencer of extraordinary speed, flexibility and grace, qualities which he also exhibited as a violinist and composer.
Maddalena Lombardini Sirman isn’t a household name today but she was quite a superstar in her lifetime. She remains one of the first female musicians with a substantial and varied career.
Franz Joseph Haydn was the ultimate musical inventor. He composed as if he were in a laboratory. He invented the symphony, but then reinvented it with each one he composed – making then breaking the rules. Symphony 74 is no exception, with twists and turns in the music that set up our expectations and then thwart them with innovation and vitality.
