Anyone as prolific, pragmatic and busy as Haydn could hardly afford the luxury of dwelling on a project once it was completed. You would assume that once he had delivered The Seven Last Words of Christ, an orchestral work commissioned during the mid-1780s for Good Friday services in Cadiz, Spain, he might have considered his job done and moved on.
But this work--a potent sequence of seven adagio movements (called sonatas) framed by a slow introduction and a fiery finale clearly lingered with Haydn, who was reported to have called it one of his finest creations. Responding to an unauthorized choral adaptation, Haydn made one of his own. He approved a solo piano arrangement prepared by a student and, at the very least, had a hand in creating a string quartet version now accepted as part of his official canon.
But this work--a potent sequence of seven adagio movements (called sonatas) framed by a slow introduction and a fiery finale clearly lingered with Haydn, who was reported to have called it one of his finest creations. Responding to an unauthorized choral adaptation, Haydn made one of his own. He approved a solo piano arrangement prepared by a student and, at the very least, had a hand in creating a string quartet version now accepted as part of his official canon.
