Haydn Symphonies Nos 99 101 Danishchamberorchestra Adam Fischer

The late Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra present a collection of Haydn’s expressive and resplendent London Symphonies alongside the spirited and melodic Oxford Symphony.

Arturo Toscanini (/ɑːrˈtʊəroʊ ˌtɒskəˈniːni/; Italian: [arˈtuːro toskaˈniːni]; March 25, 1867 – January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his eidetic memory.

Until 1985, the orchestra chose to work without a principal conductor instead inviting a series of talented guest artists to lead the ensemble. The ECO has a reputation for giving young conductors important opportunities. Among those who have benefited from this policy are Sir Colin Davis, Daniel Barenboim and Pinchas Zukerman. During the orchestra's Silver Anniversary celebration in 1985, it was announced that Jeffery Tate had been chosen to fill the newly created position of principal conductor, and in 2000 he was succeeded by Ralf Gothóni. As of the 2009-2010 season, Paul Watkins has served as music director, and Roy Goodman has been the orchestra's principle guest conductor.

Ivan Ilić came across these transcriptions, scarcely known at all, through the most unlikely and serendipitous sequence of events. Carl David Stegmann (1751-1826) was a tenor, keyboard player, conductor, and composer, who worked mostly in the field of opera. Employed by the Court Theatre in Mainz (where he sang in the first German-language production of Don Giovanni), he also gave a number of acclaimed performances in Frankfurt. Trained as an organist, he made transcriptions of string quintets by Mozart and Beethovens Trios, Op. 9 as well as keyboard transcriptions of twenty-five of Haydns symphonies. Ivan Ilić writes: It is unclear to me whether these transcriptions were ever meant to be played as concert repertoire, in public. Nevertheless, the enthusiasm I have encountered wherever I have played them has persuaded me to make this recording, to allow more people to hear Stegmann's idiomatic arrangements.

In the 1980s, as the movement for historically informed performance was booming, there was a sudden flurry of attempts by period-instrument ensembles to record all of Haydn’s 106 symphonies. It was perhaps inevitable that none of them would reach the summit of this musical Everest – most made it about halfway up to this ambitious and costly undertaking.

Otto Klemperer (1885-1973), im Jahr 1933 wegen seiner jüdischen Herkunft aus Deutschland vertrieben, verbrachte seine letzten Lebensjahre überwiegend in London und leitete dort das von Walter Legge 1946 gegründete Philharmonia Orchestra, eine ausgezeichnete Orchestervereinigung, die in erster Linie zu Schallplattenproduktionen herangezogen wurde, aber auch im Londoner und internationalen Konzertleben eine herausragende Rolle spielte. Er starb allerdings 1973 hochbetagt in Zürich, wo sich auch seine letzte Ruhestätte befindet.

The "Esterhazy Music Collection" series with the Orfeo Orchestra conducted by Gyorgy Vashegyi on the Accent label is dedicated to presenting musical treasures of the Esterhazy family, many of which have been largely forgotten over the centuries. The recordings usually take place in the Apollo Hall of the Esterhazy Palace in Fertod-Eszterhaza, whose acoustics are among the best in the world. The present production is the third volume and offers a selection of earlier symphonies by Joseph Haydn. In addition to Symphonies Nos. 24, 42 and 43 from the years 1764 to 1771, No. 30, which already bore the epithet "Alleluja" on contemporary copies from 1765, is also heard. This is based on the use of the Gregorian Alleluia of the Easter liturgy in the main theme of the first movement. The symphony may have been composed for ecclesiastical use; a possible performance took place on Easter Sunday 1765.

Continuing their acclaimed live series on CORO, the Handel and Haydn Society presents one of Haydn’s early Sturm und Drang (storm and stress) symphonies – No. 26 in D minor. More commonly known as ‘Lamentatione’ because of its association with Easter week, Haydn incorporates an old plainsong chant ofthe Passion of Christ juxtaposing it against the furious opening theme.

Brahms was 43 years old when, after a long period of maturation, his First Symphony was published. Felix Weingartner commented on it ‘taking hold like the claw of a lion’ and its urgency marked a new phase in Brahms’ musical development. The Second Symphony is traditionally seen as the pastoral element in the cycle, while the Third, with its melodic beauty, has the courage to end quietly, an act of astonishing serenity. The compelling Passacaglia finale of the Fourth Symphony represents a fitting summation to one of the greatest symphonic cycles in the classical canon.