Welcome from the Artistic Directors

WELCOME TO MUSIC@MENLO

Dear Friends, In the twilight of our festival’s second decade, the world took a wrenching detour as it dealt with the reality of a deadly virus. Music@Menlo, through one winter and two summers, transformed itself into a festival of the possible. This summer, Haydn Connections brings us back to the Music@Menlo we know and love. The consequences of Joseph Haydn’s music resonate deeply with the significance of Music@Menlo’s milestone season. His work is a tree of musical life, whose roots grew from the rich soil left by Bach into branches extending across cultures and centuries, upwards towards music’s firmament. Haydn reinvented music, establishing forms which support dialogue, conflict and resolution, and equity among voices. Ever fresh in the ear, his symphonies, oratorios, trios, quartets, and piano sonatas are miracles of inspired ingenuity. With Haydn as a point of both arrival and departure, we will marvel at the wit and profundity of his chamber music, and also delight in the surprising connections his art so convincingly creates, with Greek mythology, cellos, Shostakovich, folk music, Beethoven, and even the sport of hunting. Haydn embraced his past, reveled in his present, and gifted posterity with invaluable ideas and ever inspiring music. It is in this spirit that Music@Menlo returns to its roots and gazes towards its future. Please join Music@Menlo as we strive to follow Haydn’s supreme example of service to the art of music.

David Finckel and Wu Han Artistic Directors The Martin Family Artistic Directorship

HAYDN CONNECTIONS

It is the melody which is the charm of music, and it is that which is most difficult to produce. The invention of a fine melody is a work of genius.

— Joseph Haydn

Christian Ludwig Seehas (1753–1802). Portrait of Joseph Haydn, 1785, oil on canvas. The Haydn Foundation, Eisenstadt, Germany. Photo credit: Walter Reicher