ENLIGHTENMENT AND INSPIRING DECADENCE
Presentation
TUESDAY NOVEMBER 24, 7:30 PM
PRESENTED BY PROF. HERBERT LACHMAYER
DA PONTE INSTITUTE VIENNA
In honor of the bicentennial of Joseph Haydn's death in 2009, the Da Ponte Institute is organizing two exhibitions in Vienna, the de facto capital of music in the supranational Europe of the 18th century. Concurrently, a lecture on Haydn's era will take place at the ACFNY on November 24.
Between the Baroque and Romantic eras lies Viennese Classicism or Wiener Klassik, a period whose principal protagonists included such personalities as Haydn, Mozart, and last but not least Beethoven. The enlightenment inspired by the reign of Emperor Joseph II stimulated an obsessive drive towards freedom and individualism that in turn fostered social ambiguities and antagonism between the aristocracy and an increasingly proto-bourgeois society.
It was a time of chamber music and conversation, of "pornosophic fantasies" and the "art" of erotic seduction. Everyone was challenged by a certain obligation for developing an "intelligent taste," strategies of gallantry and a (pre-disciplinary) knowledge of philosophy, the sciences, the arts, and diplomacy as well as practical skills.
