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Local scholar finds 'lost' masterpiece
Date published: 10/21/2009
By JENNIFER STROBEL Mistakes happen--and sometimes that can be a good thing. That was the case for Steven Fisher, a Fredericksburg violist and a world-renowned scholar of the 18th-century classical composer Joseph Haydn. Known as the "Father of the Symphony," Haydn composed music for the court of Nikolaus Esterhazy, prince of the Austrian Empire. He was also popular with the aristocracy of Spain and sent pieces there, as well. Music-appreciation texts have long attributed 104 symphonies to Haydn (which is pronounced like hidin'). Turns out, another work was "hidin'" all these years--a previously unknown symphony that Fisher discovered by accident more than three decades ago. This Friday, the University of Mary Washington-Community Symphony Orchestra will perform the unpublished work, which has been silenced for centuries. "To have a discovery like this in the world of music, and then to unveil it in Fredericksburg, a town that loves history--this is, without any embellishment, one of the most important music events that I can ever think of happening here," said Kevin Bartram, UMW music professor and orchestra director. "One of my colleague professors said it is like uncovering a new Michelangelo in Fredericksburg, or a new Faberge egg in Fredericksburg." As Martha Fickett, UMW music professor, said, "It's every music historian or musicologist's dream to go up in their attic and find something like this. Of course, this wasn't in Steve Fisher's attic, it was in the Library of Congress." FINDING HISTORY Fisher remembers the date of his serendipitous discovery in 1976. It was Feb. 17--his grandmother's birthday. Then a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania, he had celebrated with her in North Carolina, then headed north again, stopping off at the Library of Congress to do a bit of research. The library had bought a large Spanish collection that included Haydn's works in 1909, the centennial of his death. Fisher wanted to study a symphony in D and asked a library staffer to retrieve it. Once he had the manuscript, he recognized the first two movements--Haydn had first written them as an opera overture--but the discrepancies from his initial request soon became apparent. For one thing, the piece he held was written in a different key altogether (C). It was written in four movements, as expected, but he'd never seen the last two.
Date published: 10/21/2009
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