Joseph Haydn - and his
Trumpet Concerto.
(Born 1732 in Austria - died 1809
in Vienna)
Unlike
many works, fashionable in their time but which fall quickly from
favor, the Haydn concerto still retains a youthful freshness even
today. It is the composers's most popular instrumental concerto.
(Edward H. Tarr ITG Journal,
Sept. 1996)
The Concerto was written in 1796 for
a Viennese trumpeter, Anton Weidinger, the developer of the keyed
trumpet.
Weidinger started developing his keyed trumpet in 1793 and this trumpet
(unlike the earlier natural trumpet) had 4-6 holes
or keys. It could produce all the chromatic tones between (Eb) G and
3Bb,
but would usually be played at a lower pitch because of the range of
the
concerto. This Eb trumpet was evidently a forerunner of his 4-6 keyed
trumpet
(c.1801).
There is some evidence that Weidinger
knew
Haydn before requesting the Concerto, and Haydn may well have been the
best man at Weidinger’s wedding in 1792.
Rediscovery
of the concert.
After the first performance (-es) by Weidinger, the concerto was
forgotten.
In the late 1800 it was rediscovered. Paul Handke (who moved to USA and was
trumpeter with Chicago Symphony Orchestra),
wrote down the
solo trumpet part
from the original Haydn maunuscript in 1899.
In 1908, Professor Franz Rossbach, Solo-Trumpet with the Wien
Philharmonik performed it again in Vienna.
Then in March 1914, Eduard Seifert (1870-1965), Solo-Trumpet with the
Dresdner
Staatskapelle performed the concerto in Dresden. Seifert copied
the manuscript
from Rossbach.
Recordings
of the
concert:
Thursday night, June 23, 1938, Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto
was broadcasted by B.B.C.
Soloist was the English trumpeter George Eskdale. He played the second
and third part, (Andante and Allegro).
This broadcast was later made into a 78 rpm phonograph
by Columbia Records (Col. 70106-D). It is believed to be the first
recording
of the Haydn Trumpet Concerto.
Here is a list of recordings.
Other
resources:
Neil Davidson: "Comparison between
J. Haydn Trumpet Concerto in Eb and A. Arutiunian Trumpet
Concerto in Ab". Here is the whole comparison
as PDF-file. (Acrobat Reader - version 3.x or higher)
Piano
Accompaniment: .. the concerto in MIDI
version, and
MUS version (Finale 98). The files are
packed in ZIP format.
Thanks to Verena Jacobsen Barth for
information!