Masterworks VI: This Midnight Hour

We wrap up our season by reminding you of our tagline:  “Expect the Unexpected” by revisiting themes from Masterworks I: identity, freedom, community, and connection to our homeland. Haydn began his career in a tucked-away area of the Austro-Hungarian empire but ended it quite famously and to great accolades with “London”, his last symphony.  Clyne, a contemporary British composer living in New York brings to life beautiful atmospheric poetry through her This Midnight Hour.  Finally, Sibelius, widely regarded as Finland’s greatest composer, ends our season with his Symphony No. 2. 

Music is an emotional experience that takes us on a journey: each piece expresses who we are, where we are, who we want to be, and where we want to go. Franz Joseph Haydn spent most of his life in a rural area on the Austria-Hungary border, making music for nobility but hoping for recognition as an important composer. He found this respect in England, a land that sincerely appreciated his music and which inspired twelve of his late symphonies, all successful. Tonight we bring you the final of the twelve, aptly named “London”. 

Anna Clyne, writing nearly 250 years after Haydn, is a composer from the United Kingdom who has worked as composer-in-residence in European capitals and now lives in New York. Her work brings forth the terroir of a moment and place in time in her This Midnight Hour. 

Finnish nationalist Jean Sibelius composed music that spoke to freedom, independence, and cultural preservation, unintentionally becoming widely regarded as his country’s greatest composer. His music is often credited with helping Finland develop a national identity during its struggle for independence from Russia.