Friday 10 April 2009 at midday
Good Friday Service
Haydn - Seven Last Words on the Cross (orchestral version)
Andrew Morley - conductor
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In 1785, Haydn was commissioned to write a set of Sonatas to be performed during Holy Week at the Cathedral in Cadiz. Haydn wrote in his preface to the score:
It was customary at the Cathedral of Cadiz to produce an oratorio every year during Lent, the effect of the performance being not a little enhanced by the following circumstances. The walls, windows and pillars of the church were hung with black cloth, and only one large lamp hanging from the centre of the roof broke the solemn darkness. At midday, the doors were closed and the ceremony began. After a short service, the bishop ascended the pulpit, pronounced the first of the seven words (or sentences) and delivered a discourse thereon. This ended, he left the pulpit ... and the interval was filled with music. The bishop then in like manner pronounced the second word, then the third, and so on, the orchestra following on the conclusion of each discourse.
While the church of St Paul in Deptford might not quite manage the grandeur of the Cathedral in Cadiz, nonetheless we anticipate this concert/service being an intensely moving affair. Haydn wrote to his English publisher, 'Each Sonata, or each setting of the text, is expressed only by instrumental music, but in such a way that it creates the most profound impression even on the most inexperienced listener'; and a contemporary review commented that 'We are able to guess in practically every note what the composer meant to convey by it'. The seven slow movements that express in music the seven last utterances of Jesus on the cross are meditative and inward-looking, but at the same time intense and as varied as the utterances themselves. After the contemplative nature of the seven Sonatas, the mood is suddenly shattered by the violence of the final Presto e con tutta forza, which depicts the earthquake after Jesus's death, when 'The veil of the temple was rent in twain'.
We hope you can join us for this very special concert.
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Performance given as part of Good Friday services - admission free
