The birth of the symphony

Program

Johann Christian Bach – Allegro uit Symphonie Nr.6 in g moll, op.6 (1770)

Joseph Haydn – Symphonie Nr.44 “Trauer” (1772)

W.A. Mozart – Symphonie Nr.25 in g moll (1773)

Performed on Viennese instruments between 1750 and 1775.

Anima Insight

The musicians are in place. Music is playing. Business as usual. But what comes before the notes? In this new concert formula Anima Insight, Anima Eterna wishes to turn the spotlight on a few untold tales behind the score, between the notes, beneath the sounds. Wonderer Olav Grondelaers (Klara) speaks out and guides the listener inside the orchestra.

With Anima Insight, we want to bring the audience close to the score with an insight into exactly how a particular style was put together and what was innovative. – Bart Van Reyn

During the final decades of the eighteenth century, the symphony emerged, a new genre destined for a unique future. All manner of experiments were carried out before the symphony finally achieved the form we now call ‘classical.’ Bart van Reyn and Anima Eterna have chosen this juncture, this turning point spanning two musical eras, to give form to their collaboration. Anima’s Insight concert welcomes listeners to the heart of Sturm und Drang, an artistic movement essential to this transition period. Sturm und Drang heralded the dawn of a new consciousness in literature through such authors as Herder and Goethe, as well as in music, especially in Austria and Vienna. There was a heightened emphasis on subjectivity and an appetite for chiaroscuro, muted colours, and minor keys, coupled with a search for the strange and unexpected, theatricality and abrupt dramatic effects. Haydn contributed more than anyone to the development of the symphony, and, like Mozart, he was briefly swept away by the Sturm und Drang movement. In 1770, both composers produced scores that would become the genre’s blueprints, seeming to express its quintessence while dealing exhaustively with its subject matter. Both Haydn and Mozart mastered the approach and soon transcended it. Following their example, Sturm und Drang became an essential component of a style then coming to life: Viennese Classicism.