Esterhazy

This 37-disc box set is the only brand new and fully digital recording of the complete symphonies of Haydn. Performed by the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester (Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra) and conducted by Dennis Russell Davies, the recordings were done live in connection with concerts of the whole cycle. The series received fantastic reviews by the press, and The Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra was awarded the European Chamber Music Prize in 2008. Available at a fantastic price, the set is released to tie in with the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death in 2009.

The music of Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) is so technically superb, so widely imitated, and so rich in quality and quantity that almost since the moment of its creation it has exemplified the Classical style. More than any other single composer, it was Haydn who created the Classical-era symphony. And his 68 string quartets? They are the standard by which all other Classical string quartets were and are judged. No less an expert than Mozart wrote that it was from Haydn that he had learned how to write quartets.

Ekaterina Derzhavina's name was new to me, but this 9-CD set of Haydn's complete piano sonatas should broaden her recognition considerably…Not surprisingly, since she plays all the sonatas, you can find better performances of some individual pieces, especially the later ones. But viewed as a survey of the entire corpus, her feel for Haydn's originality comes through brilliantly. Derzhavina is an exceptional artist, and rather magical.

Ars Antiqua Austria & Gunar Letzbor - The Music Of The Habsburg Empire (2015) {10CDs Box Set Pan Classics}
FLAC (tracks) - 44/16 bits - Digital Download (qobuz) -> 2.87 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 1.43 Gb
Artwork (pdf+jpg) -> 31 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2015 Pan Classics / Note 1 Music / NDR | PC 10311
Classical / Baroque / Concerto / Sonata

The Habsburg Imperial Court was a melting pot of many different cultures in which the zest for living of southerners, the Slav melancholy, French formalism, Spanish courtliness and the original German-speaking Alpine cultural region intermingled. Together with his Ars Antiqua Austria ensemble, Gunar Letzbor occupied himself over a ten year period to produce this 10CD ""Klang der Kulturen"" box, a musical tour of the individual countries that formed the roots of and influences on the music of baroque Vienna, documenting them in live recordings, with each CD representing one country.

Music patronage is something many musicians today look back to with deep nostalgia. The presence of rich, frequently aristocratic men and women who liked to spend a conspicuous part of their wealth on music, thus providing bread and opportunities to countless composers and performers, is regarded as a true blessing for art history and for those who lived it.