Charles Burney, missed dates, 2025
This Week in Classical Music: April 7, 2025. Musical Writings and Missed Dates. It occurs to us typically: we miss an vital date, try and catch up, and within the course of, miss different anniversaries. That’s what occurred final week: as we celebrated Pierre Boulez, one thing we must always’ve completed two weeks in the past, we missed a number of vital birthdays: Franz Josef Haydn’s, Sergei Rachmaninov’s and Alessandro Stradella’s. Haydn, born on March 31st of 1732, is one in every of our favourite composers, however we really feel that he was just lately pushed to the periphery of the musical world, fairly undeservedly, as we predict he firmly belongs within the very middle of it. We love his piano sonatas and suppose that a few of them are a minimum of pretty much as good as Mozart’s, if not higher. He virtually invented the style of the string quartet, and his symphonies (which, to a big extent, have been additionally his invention) are nice. It appears he grew to become a greater symphonist as he obtained older: a few of his finest ones belong to the final cycle of symphonies referred to as “London,” from quantity 93 to 104. Haydn completed it in 1795, when he was 63, a sophisticated age for the 18th century. Right here is Haydn’s Symphony No. 103, Drumroll. Herbert von Karajan conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
Alessandro Stradella was one of many most interesting Italian composers of the second half of the 17th century. He additionally led a really turbulent and colourful life, which may’ve served as a foundation for a TV collection, so full it was of seductions and murders. That, and his expertise, deserves a separate entry, which we promise to jot down. A little bit of thriller surrounds his birthday. Grove Music says that Stradella was born on April 3rd of 1639 in Nepi, close to Viterbo. Britannica says it was 1642, with out offering any specifics. And Wikipedia believes that he was born in Bologna, on June 3rd of 1643. Each Wiki and Grove state that he was born right into a noble household, however they differ of their origins. With out figuring out any higher, we’ll go along with Grove.
At present is the birthday of Charles Burney, a minor composer and an influential author on music, who was born in Shrewsbury, a city within the West Midlands area of England, in 1724. His father was a musician and dancer, and Charles studied music as a boy. On the age of 20, he grew to become an apprentice to the composer Thomas Arne, now remembered principally for his tune Rule, Britannia. Arne linked Burney with Handel, in whose orchestras Burney performed a number of instances. In 1746, Burney met Fulke Greville, a wealthy aristocrat who made Burney his musical companion. Burney spent three years in Greville’s retinue however then left to marry one Esther Steep. They lived in London, the place Burney grew to become a part of the cultural group, which included the painter Joshua Reynolds (who painted Burney’s portrait, above), Samuel Johnson, a poet and playwright well-known for his Dictionary, and Edmund Burke, a statesman and politician. For a few years, Burney contemplated writing a e book on the historical past of music. Whereas in London, Burney performed the organ, taught music to modern individuals, and composed incidental music for common performs. In 1751, after falling sick, he and his household moved to King’s Lynne, the place they stayed for 9 years and the place Burney labored as an organist. When he returned to London, his influential pals helped him to reestablish his profession within the theater (he collaborated with the nice actor and producer David Garrick) and as a trainer.
In 1770, Burney traveled to France and Italy, the place he met the younger Mozart and, upon return, revealed a e book, The Current State of Music in France and Italy. Then, in 1772, he went to Germany and the Netherlands and wrote a e book in regards to the music of these nations. This was the start of Burney’s literary profession, his declare to fame, which we’ll discover additional subsequent week.
