Richard Hickox Haydn London Vol. 1

During Joseph Haydn’s lifetime, concertos for solo instruments and ensemble were generally written for a particular musician. In the case of Haydn’s violoncello Concerto in D major Hob.VII:2, this person was Anton Kraft, first cello in the Esterházy ensemble and later one of Vienna’s greatest virtuosi. This composition for a particular occasion has become a masterpiece for the ages; an autograph score by the composer survives, dating from 1783. The services of Haydn specialist Sonja Gerlach have been obtained for this edition of the concerto with piano accompaniment. She enriches the Urtext edition with a detailed preface that also examines the execution of the ornaments and the cadenzas.

As with the previous disc in this series, Richard Hickox and his expert forces bring their usual mix of freshness, rhythmic élan and sensitivity to this attractive, often impressive work. Choir and orchestra respond eagerly to the conductor's enthusiastic direction. And the soloists, led by the ever-eloquent Susan Gritton, interact and blend with true chamber musical finesse.

This disc not only completes Richard Hickox’s Elgar cycle but also provides a fourth recording of the Third Symphony in Anthony Payne’s ‘elaboration’. Indeed, it collates all three of Payne’s Elgar realisations – including recorded debuts of the 1932 memorial ode for Queen Alexandria and the Pomp and Circumstance March No. 6…in terms of recording, then new disc (with a succinct and informative note by Anthony Burton) is a clear winner, the SACD sound having a depth and spaciousness that does justice to Payne’s Elgarian sound-world.

For some years the Third Symphony was a repertory piece, at least on BBC programmes, but it fell out of favour in the late 1950s. Commentators have noticed a certain Sibelian cut to its opening idea (with woodwind in thirds) but everything else strikes you as completely personal.

Fresh from their critically acclaimed series of the complete symphonies of Beethoven (8.505251) and Brahms (8.574465-67), the Danish Chamber Orchestra and Adam Fischer turn to Haydn’s late symphonies, beginning with the first three of the twelve ‘London’ symphonies, composed during Haydn’s first visit to the capital. Arguably his greatest achievements in the genre, they include the enduringly popular ‘surprise’ in the slow movement of No. 94. Fischer and his orchestra, who have performed together for over two decades, employ varied bowing and playing styles in the strings and innovative dynamic techniques in the winds that bring new levels of excitement to these masterpieces.

The fourteenth volume of the Haydn2032 edition is entitled L'Imperiale , after the nickname given to Symphony no.53 in the nineteenth century. This was perhaps Haydn's most famous symphony during his lifetime. Premiered in the theatre at Eszterháza Palace in 1778, it was published in London around 1781, and its melodious Andante was arranged more than thirty times for various instruments between 1783 and 1820. It made a decisive contribution to Haydn’s success, opening the way for him to perform in England. Symphony no.54 , whose entertaining, theatrical style is a perfectly match for the atmosphere of the legendary court festivities given at Eszterháza around 1775, completes this programme along with no.33, one of his first festive works with trumpets, composed c.1761. In his introductory text, Giovanni Antonini revels in the ‘capricious’, whimsical character of certain passages in the last movement of Symphony No. 53 ; he also offers an alternative finale of the work at the end of the album.

This disc shows Rubbra (1901-86) becoming more mature on one hand (Symphony No. 2 of 1937), and on the other, returning to more experiments in tonality than most other composers of his generation (Symphony No. 6 of 1954). The disc starts off with Symphony No. 6, which is much more user-friendly. It's more tonal, more engaging in lyrical ideas; yet these ideas do not draw from folk-music sources. It only alludes to them obliquely, then moves on. Symphony No. 2 avoids folk-music sources altogether and is more of an experiment in polyphonic patterns. It's quite an intense work; it's also quite brilliant.

Like so many British composers Dyson, even before he died in 1962, suffered neglect through writing in a conservative idiom that critics were all too ready to label 'out of date'. Originally written for the Three Choirs Festival in Hereford in 1939, its first performance was-cancelled because of the outbreak of war, and it was only given its premiere in Hereford a decade later.