Fowl Play: Haydn and Mozart with Cédric Tiberghien.

By the time they had mastered their craft, both Mozart and Haydn were ready to have a bit of fun.  

Take Haydn’s Symphony No.89, affectionately nicknamed ‘The Hen’. Though the title wasn’t his own, it’s easy to hear why it stuck. The clucking violins and oboes evoke a whole farmyard of strutting and bobbing poultry. It’s a light-hearted moment from the man often called ‘The Father of the Symphony’. 

Mozart, too, had a mischievous streak. Credited with shaping the piano concerto as we know it today, Mozart had the confidence to defy expectations in his music, like in his Piano Concerto No.23 where the final movement playfully pits piano and orchestra in a cheeky musical chase. 

Also in this concert is music from Haydn and Mozart’s contemporaries; Marianna Martines – the first woman to write a symphony – and Boulogne.