This Week in Classical Music: April 7, 2025. Musical Writings and Missed Dates. It happens to us often: we miss an important date, attempt to catch up, and in the process, miss other anniversaries. That’s what happened last week: as we celebrated Pierre Boulez, something we should’ve done two weeks ago, we missed several important birthdays: Franz Josef Haydn’s, Sergei Rachmaninov’s and Alessandro Stradella’s. Haydn, born on March 31st of 1732, is one of our favorite composers, but we feel that he was recently pushed to the periphery of the musical world, quite undeservedly, as we think he firmly belongs in the very center of it. We love his piano sonatas and think that some of them are at least as good as Mozart’s, if not better. He practically invented the genre of the string quartet, and his symphonies (which, to a large extent, were also his invention) are great. It seems he became a better symphonist as he got older: some of his best ones belong to the last cycle of symphonies called “London,” from number 93 to 104. Haydn finished it in 1795, when he was 63, an advanced age for the 18th century. Here is Haydn’s Symphony No. 103, Drumroll. Herbert von Karajan conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
Alessandro Stradella was one of the finest Italian composers of the second half of the 17th century. He also led a very turbulent and colorful life, which could’ve served as a basis for a TV series, so full it was of seductions and murders. That, and his talent, deserves a separate entry, which we promise to write. A bit of mystery surrounds his birthday. Grove Music says that Stradella was born on April 3rd of 1639 in Nepi, near Viterbo. Britannica says it was 1642, without providing any specifics. And Wikipedia believes that he was born in Bologna, on June 3rd of 1643. Both Wiki and Grove state that he was born into a noble family, but they differ in their origins. Without knowing any better, we’ll go with Grove.
Today is the birthday of Charles Burney, a minor composer and an influential writer on music, who was born in Shrewsbury, a town in the West Midlands region of England, in 1724. His father was a musician and dancer, and Charles studied music as a boy. At the age of 20, he became an apprentice to the composer Thomas Arne, now remembered mostly for his song Rule, Britannia. Arne connected Burney with Handel, in whose orchestras Burney played several times. In 1746, Burney met Fulke Greville, a rich aristocrat who made Burney his musical companion. Burney spent three years in Greville’s retinue but then left to marry one Esther Steep. They lived in London, where Burney became part of the cultural community, which included the painter Joshua Reynolds (who painted Burney’s portrait, above), Samuel Johnson, a poet and playwright famous for his Dictionary, and Edmund Burke, a statesman and politician. For many years, Burney contemplated writing a book on the history of music. While in London, Burney played the organ, taught music to fashionable people, and composed incidental music for popular plays. In 1751, after falling ill, he and his family moved to King’s Lynne, where they stayed for nine years and where Burney worked as an organist. When he returned to London, his influential friends helped him to reestablish his career in the theater (he collaborated with the great actor and producer David Garrick) and as a teacher.
In 1770, Burney traveled to France and Italy, where he met the young Mozart and, upon return, published a book, The Present State of Music in France and Italy. Then, in 1772, he went to Germany and the Netherlands and wrote a book about the music of those countries. This was the beginning of Burney's literary career, his claim to fame, which we’ll explore further next week.
Charles Burney, missed dates, 2025
This Week in Classical Music: April 7, 2025. Musical Writings and Missed Dates. It happens to us often: we miss an important date, attempt to catch up, and in the process, miss other anniversaries. That’s what happened last week: as we celebrated Pierre Boulez, something we should’ve done two weeks ago, we missed several important birthdays: Franz Josef Haydn’s, Sergei Rachmaninov’s and Alessandro Stradella’s. Haydn, born on March 31st of 1732, is one of our favorite composers, but we feel that he was recently pushed to the periphery of the musical world, quite undeservedly, as we think he firmly belongs in the very center of it. We love his piano sonatas and think that some of them are at least as good as Mozart’s, if not better. He practically invented the genre of the string quartet, and his symphonies (which, to a large extent, were also his invention) are great. It seems he became a better symphonist as he got older: some of his best ones belong to the last cycle of symphonies called “London,” from number 93 to 104. Haydn finished it in 1795, when he was 63, an advanced age for the 18th century. Here is Haydn’s Symphony No. 103, Drumroll. Herbert von Karajan conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
Alessandro Stradella was one of the finest Italian composers of the second half of the 17th century. He also led a very turbulent and colorful life, which could’ve served as a basis for a TV series, so full it was of seductions and murders. That, and his talent, deserves a separate entry, which we promise to write. A bit of mystery surrounds his birthday. Grove Music says that Stradella was born on April 3rd of 1639 in Nepi, near Viterbo. Britannica says it was 1642,
without providing any specifics. And Wikipedia believes that he was born in Bologna, on June 3rd of 1643. Both Wiki and Grove state that he was born into a noble family, but they differ in their origins. Without knowing any better, we’ll go with Grove.
Today is the birthday of Charles Burney, a minor composer and an influential writer on music, who was born in Shrewsbury, a town in the West Midlands region of England, in 1724. His father was a musician and dancer, and Charles studied music as a boy. At the age of 20, he became an apprentice to the composer Thomas Arne, now remembered mostly for his song Rule, Britannia. Arne connected Burney with Handel, in whose orchestras Burney played several times. In 1746, Burney met Fulke Greville, a rich aristocrat who made Burney his musical companion. Burney spent three years in Greville’s retinue but then left to marry one Esther Steep. They lived in London, where Burney became part of the cultural community, which included the painter Joshua Reynolds (who painted Burney’s portrait, above), Samuel Johnson, a poet and playwright famous for his Dictionary, and Edmund Burke, a statesman and politician. For many years, Burney contemplated writing a book on the history of music. While in London, Burney played the organ, taught music to fashionable people, and composed incidental music for popular plays. In 1751, after falling ill, he and his family moved to King’s Lynne, where they stayed for nine years and where Burney worked as an organist. When he returned to London, his influential friends helped him to reestablish his career in the theater (he collaborated with the great actor and producer David Garrick) and as a teacher.
In 1770, Burney traveled to France and Italy, where he met the young Mozart and, upon return, published a book, The Present State of Music in France and Italy. Then, in 1772, he went to Germany and the Netherlands and wrote a book about the music of those countries. This was the beginning of Burney's literary career, his claim to fame, which we’ll explore further next week.