Following his award winning documentaries, In Search of Mozart and In Search
of Beethoven, Phil Grabsky continues the series with In Search of Haydn. Joseph
Haydn (1732–1809) was one of the greatest musical innovators. Mozart and
Beethoven greatly looked up to him as an inspiration and yet today in concert
halls he is perhaps too often overshadowed in favour of his younger
contemporaries. By speaking to some of the greatest living exponents of
Haydn's music, this film redresses the balance and sheds light on the master
and his work. Phil Grabsky hopes that Haydn will reach a wider audience who will
be surprised, entertained
and enthralled by Haydn's wit, humanity and insatiable creativity.
Haydn's life spanned from the end of the Baroque period to Napoleon's invasion of Vienna, outliving his younger friend Mozart. He was one of the most prolific composers, producing more than 100 symphonies, 64 quartets, 16 extant operas, 51 piano sonatas and the oratorios ‘The Creation’ and ‘The Seasons’