Joseph Haydn’s No. 48, C major symphony bears the name Maria Theresa because, according to tradition, the composer wrote the work on the occasion of the visit to Eszterháza of the empress in 1773. The truth is that the work had been completed years before, in 1768 or 1769. However, since the sobriquet stuck to the symphony, the work is still mentioned this way. Mozart’s catalogue number K. 467 Piano Concerto in C major is representative of the composer’s mature Viennese concerto style from 1785 – at the same time, it is one of the most popular Mozart concertos. Pietro Metastasio was the most important librettist of the age. He is associated with the librettos of numerous operas. Haydn composed his two-act azione teatralé L’isola disabitata (The Uninhabited Island) to his text. The work premiered in the court of the Esterházys in 1779. Mozart’s concert aria Ch’ io mi scordi di te? was written for the English soprano Nancy Storace, and it also contains a piano obbligato. Storace and the composer jointly presented the representative concert piece evidencing the composer’s most mature Viennese style at the soprano’s farewell concert at the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna on 23 February 1787. Haydn’s dramatic cantata Scena di Berenice from 1795 closes the programme. Similarly to L’ isola disabitata, this was also written for the libretto of Metastasio; it depicts – using dramatic means – the pain of the heroine separated from her lover. Petra Somlai completed studies at the Liszt Academy, in England and Amsterdam. Bart van Oort was one of her masters. Katalin Szutrély attended first the Liszt Academy in Budapest before continuing her studies in London as a student of solo singing under Vera Rózsa. She has long been an active participant in Hungarian music life both on the concert podium and opera stage. Orfeo Orchestra, who have been playing for more than thirty years, are one of the most important workshops in Hungary for period-correct early music performance. They are led to this day by György Vashegyi, their founder and conductor carrying out significant work as both teacher and researcher.
