Grace Cathedral, San Francisco

Four of America’s leading early music artists, The Novello Quartet, present the rare quartet setting of Franz Joseph Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Christ at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco’s landmark cathedral on Nob Hill. Alan Jones, Dean of Grace Cathedral, will offer meditations on the last words of Christ to introduce each movement of the work.

The performance will be given on Sunday, April 9 at 3:00 p.m.

Composed in 1786, The Seven Last Words of Christ was first presented on Good Friday in 1787 in Cadiz, Spain. Haydn wanted the piece to be accessible to all listeners. “Each sonata, or movement, is expressed by purely instrumental music in such a way that even the most uninitiated listener will be moved to the very depths of his soul,” he wrote. Each one based on a final phrase of Jesus on the cross, the work’s seven main sections were prefaced by brief, spoken homilies by the Bishop of Cadiz. Alan Jones, Dean of Grace Cathedral, will offer his own meditations on each phrase to introduce each movement.

The Novello Quartet was founded in the winter of 2002 to perform Joseph Haydn's rarely programmed quartet setting of The Seven Last Words of Christ. The quartet's passion for the music of Haydn and his contemporaries has led to an ongoing artistic partnership among four of America's leading early music artists. The Novello Quartet's musical collaboration has led them also to perform and record quartets from Haydn’s Opus 50, written just before The Seven Last Words. The members of the Novello Quartet, Tekla Cunningham and Cynthia Miller Freivogel, violins, Anthony Martin, viola, and Elisabeth Reed, cello, are active in the Bay Area and America's most prominent early music groups, including Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, Apollo's Fire Orchestra in Cleveland, Musica Angelica in Los Angeles, Santa Fe Pro Musica, Portland Baroque Orchestra, and the San Francisco Bach Choir.

Admission is free.

Grace Cathedral is located atop Nob Hill in San Francisco at 1100 California Street, at Taylor Street.