Haydn: The Seven Last Words of Christ
Pražák Quartet, Helen Kearns- JOSEPH HAYDN - The Seven Last Words of Christ, I. Introduzione. Maestoso ed adagio
- JOSEPH HAYDN - The Seven Last Words of Christ, II. Sonata I (Largo. Pater, dimitte illis, non enim sciunt quid faciunt)
- JOSEPH HAYDN - The Seven Last Words of Christ, III. Sonata II (Grave e cantabile. Amen dico tibi: hodie mecum eris in paradiso)
- JOSEPH HAYDN - The Seven Last Words of Christ, IV. Sonata III (Grave. Mulier, ecce filius tuus, et tu, ecce mater tua)
- JOSEPH HAYDN - The Seven Last Words of Christ, V. Sonata IV (Largo. Deus meus, ut quid dereliquisti me?)
- JOSEPH HAYDN - The Seven Last Words of Christ, VI. Sonata V (Adagio. Sitio) Focus track
- JOSEPH HAYDN - The Seven Last Words of Christ, VII. Sonata VI (Lento. Consummatum est)
- JOSEPH HAYDN - The Seven Last Words of Christ, VIII. Sonata VII (Largo. Pater, in manus Tuas commendo spiritum meum)
- JOSEPH HAYDN - The Seven Last Words of Christ, IX. Il Terremoto (Presto e con tutta la forza)
Joseph Haydn was commissioned by a canon of Cádiz, José Sáenz de Santamaría, Marquès de Valde-Íñigo, to compose a work for performance on Good Friday 1787 in the city’s Oratorio de la Santa Cueva. The result was the orchestral version of The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross, which Haydn arranged shortly afterwards for string quartet, a version that was to prove an enduring success.
More recently, in 2008, the composer José Peris Lacasa, a student of Milhaud, Boulanger and Markevitch, provided a version for string quartet and soprano voice, with the latter singing the Latin text originally written by Haydn under the first violin part. Far from distorting the original piece, this version, performed here by the Prazak Quartet with the Irish soprano Helen Kearns, sheds new light on one of Haydn’s great masterpieces.