Review No.37: In Search of Haydn

So I was originally going to compose my blog of the month but then I realised that the majority of the categories were taken up by Shame which was by far the film of last month and the only thing that was able to be anywhere near as good as it was The Muppets. So instead I kick March off with a documentary about a classical composer who, though unknown to most, was in fact the teacher of both Mozart and Beethoven. Joseph Haydn is a name that you may've heard of but you would be hard pushed to name any of his compositions unless you had a special interest in classical music. This film uses experts in the field from historians of classical music to composers to musicians and opera singers to both explain and illustrate the life of this man. Unlike those who would come after him I learnt that Haydn kept working until he was well into sixties and indeed composed some of his best known work in this time also unlike these later composers his work was a lot less subtle as he tried to compose music that would appeal to the masses. We also learnt of Haydn the man who as a child was a practical joker and as an adult liked to play away from home once he discovered his wife was infertile. Essentially the film resembles a composition with the talking heads played alongside a narrative voice and exerts from the man's diary.

In Search of Haydn is essentially a specialist piece and one I am only reviewing because it received a brief cinematic release before it made its way onto DVD which is how I was able to see it. The director Phil Grabsky obviously has a love of classical music and has already directed similar documentaries on both Mozart and Beethoven. This is a hard film to review in that I felt that this was an uncomplicated biography of a man who is often neglected when people talk about the great composers but on the other hand it was about a man that I had little interest in. The film did little to apply relevance to this man outside the world of classical music so for people who have little interest in the classics, such as me, tend to feel left out. I feel that if I were a music teacher looking to provide some history on the classic composers then this film would be extremely useful but as a piece of pure entertainment I feel it doesn't work. The talking heads are completely earnest and the musicians and singers are extremely talented but outside of an admiration of the director's passion for the subject personally I found little to enjoy in this piece.

Verdict: As a specialist piece for classical music fans this works a treat but personally I have little interest in the subject matter so I can only award it 6/10