Keyboard Concerto in D major, Hob. XVIII:11

Program notes

About the Work

Haydn wrote a number of keyboard concertos (some of the works once published under his name are now thought to be by others), and most of them are heard only occasionally today. The Concerto in D major, Hob. XVIII:11, is the exception. It was his last keyboard concerto, composed in the early 1780s and published in 1784, and it became the most popular of the set, both in his lifetime and since. Today it is, for most listeners, simply “the Haydn piano concerto”.

It was written for harpsichord or fortepiano, a sign of a period when the two instruments shared the same repertoire and a publisher wanted to sell to owners of either. The writing, though, points forward. The solo part is full of quick repeated notes, crisp articulation and contrasts of loud and soft that suit the newer, touch-sensitive piano, and that is the instrument on which it is usually played now. The orchestra is small: two oboes, two horns and strings. There are no flutes, no clarinets and no trumpets or drums, so the colour comes from the bright D major string sound, the reedy oboes and the horns holding long notes underneath.

Writers on the concerto often compare it with Mozart. It is closer in manner to the piano concertos Mozart was writing in the same years than to Haydn’s own earlier keyboard concertos. Whether Haydn was consciously learning from the younger composer is hard to prove, but the resemblance is there in the way soloist and orchestra trade material as partners rather than taking turns.

Tonight the work has a particular resonance. Rudolf Buchbinder made his early name with recordings of Haydn’s complete piano sonatas and other keyboard works, and here he directs the orchestra from the piano.

What to Listen For

I. Vivace. The orchestra opens with a bright, clipped theme built from short repeated notes. When the piano enters it takes up the same idea, and the whole movement grows out of that opening figure, passed between the soloist and different sections of the orchestra. Listen for the way the piano sometimes leads and sometimes decorates what the strings are playing, and for the cadenza near the end, the moment the orchestra falls silent and the soloist improvises (or seems to) on the movement’s themes.

II. Un poco adagio. The slow movement moves to A major and slows the pace right down. The strings introduce a lyrical melody, and the piano answers by ornamenting it: trills, turns and running figures that spin out a single, song-like idea rather than introduce new ones. It is laid out in three parts, the opening music returning after a contrasting middle section.

III. Rondo all’Ungarese: Allegro assai. This is the movement that made the concerto famous. The piano launches a quick, stamping tune, the orchestra answers, and the ball is thrown back and forth at speed. “All’Ungarese” means “in the Hungarian style”, and Haydn signals it with offbeat accents, snapping rhythms and a switch into the minor for the first episode. The main tune keeps coming back between the episodes, each time with fresh energy, and the movement ends abruptly, with a flick rather than a flourish.