Between Haydn and Mozart

Viennese composer Franz Joseph Haydn wrote over a hundred symphonies. Of course, symphonies were also written elsewhere in Europe. Cities such as Vienna, Brussels and Paris were popular among composers such as Pieter Van Maldere and Hébert Leemans who followed new paths, like Haydn and Mozart. Terra Nova will also play Mozart’s magnificent Clarinet Concerto.

Both Haydn and Mozart thought highly of Pieter Van Maldere, and Bruges resident Hébert Leemans built a major career in Paris, something Mozart would never succeed in.

Clarinettist Vlad Weverbergh and the strings and horns of Terra Nova Collective love performing 18th-century music by forgotten composers from the Low Countries. They are known for their use of historic instruments, their authentic approach and well-founded tempi. They are happy to put this unknown or vanished valuable music alongside established names from our western musical culture.

Leemans published his Ninth Symphony in 1766. It possesses a compelling slow movement

expressing an inner religious emotion, reminiscent of Haydn’s Symphony No. 49 from barely two years later.

By alternating and relating symphonies by both composers,

Terra Nova points us to the affinities between the two composers’ oeuvres. However, this way of performing is not an invention of Terra Nova. It was very common at public concerts in the 18th century to alternate separate movements from symphonies or concertos and perform pieces by various composers interchangeably. Terra Nova Collective supports this historical way of performing.

More info

www.terranovacollective.com

with Vlad Weverbergh (basset clarinet and artistic direction) orchestra Terra Nova Collective