Izabella Simon, Ágnes Langer & Eszter Karasszon Haydn Evening Presented by Liszt Academy

The three piano trios featured in this performance by Izabella Simon and her fellow musicians trace the outlines of a forbidden romance. Joseph Haydn first visited England in 1791–92 as a married man, where he met Rebecca Schroeter, a cultivated and captivating widow. Haydn cherished twenty-two letters from her, keeping copies for himself, and later confessed the depth of their connection to his biographer, Albert Christoph Dies: “These letters are from an English widow in London who loved me... I should certainly have married her, had I been free at the time.”

While no letters survive from after Haydn’s departure in the summer of 1792, the two clearly remained close. During his second London residency, the composer dedicated these three trios to her, and later records suggest their bond was never truly severed. Throughout the evening, the audience will be invited into more than just the world of Haydn’s refined chamber music; by interweaving the scores with excerpts from the composer’s personal letters and contemporary documents, the performers bring an intimate, human dimension to this extraordinary repertoire.