Haydn personally transcribed the orchestral version of The Seven Last Words for string quartet, which was published a month after the original.
Haydn's The Seven Last Words of Christ was commissioned by a canon in Cádiz, Spain, for a unique Good Friday service.
The Cuarteto Casals recorded excerpts from this album at the Oratorio de la Santa Cueva, the original venue for which Haydn's work was intended.
The original performance of Haydn's work in Cádiz involved a darkened church, with the bishop delivering homilies between musical movements.
Haydn faced the challenge of composing seven adagios, each lasting about ten minutes, to follow one another without fatiguing the listener.
The Seven Last Words inspired Manuel de Falla, a Spanish composer born in Cádiz, who heard it as a child and played it in his first public recital.
