Nuria Rial: Haydn Arias for Lugia Polzelli explore the Secret Love of Haydn

Soprano Nuria Rial is about to herald the Haydn year in style. Her latest full-length “Haydn Arias for Lugia Polzelli” will shed some musical light on the creative influence of the composer’s longtime muse and features a selection of his so-called “Einlagearien” in her honour. Polzelli was a singer herself (credited as being part of the Eszterházy establishment) and it is rumoured that Haydn not only had an affair, but in fact one or even two children with her. Throughout his life, however, she remained his secret love and Rial’s recording therefore researches whether the music he composed for her will also serve to uncover personal secrets on Haydn’s part or at least lesser-known aspects of his personality. And even though the Einlegearien have been performed in concert before (such as, recently, during the Haydn Festspiele at Eisenstadt), they are all too often sadly neglected, turning the album into an item to watch out for when celebrations and commemorations begin in ernest in January of 2009.