Haydneum Eszterháza Festival – Rachel Podger and Kristian Bezuidenhout

The concert opens and closes with two sonatas for violin and piano by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, and between them there are two Mozart compositions in the same genre, as well as a solo piano piece, Haydn’s particularly personal, confessional, late Variations in F minor. The programme compilation provides an excellent opportunity for audiences to discern the difference between the so-called empfindsamer Stil (sensitive style) leading from Baroque to First Viennese School and the repertoire of methods and expressive mode of the First Viennese School itself – Johann Sebastian Bach’s second son, or as he was known, the ‘Berlin’ or ‘Hamburg’ Bach, was the most significant artist of the former. Carl Philipp Emanuel exercised enormous influence on the art of Haydn: without him, the surprise elements and originalities typical of the court musician to the Esterházys could never have developed. However, Mozart also learnt a lot from the music of C. Ph. E. Bach. He also met the elderly master, about whom he once said: “He is the father, we are the children. Those of us who know anything at all learned it from him.” The Baroque violinist Rachel Podger is the pride of Great Britain, her art is deemed unique by critics. Kristian Bezuidenhout, who was born in South Africa but is an Australian pianist, has specialized on playing early keyboard instruments.