Haydn Symphonies

Haydn's Symphony No. 31 is known as the "Hornsignal" from its prominent horn parts in the first and last movements. Written in anticipation of palace-warming festivities at the Eszterháza estate, the symphony has a celebratory air in its bold fanfares and hunting calls. Haydn's originality is evident not only in his clever motivic development of these ideas, but also in his placement of the horn pairs at a distance from each other. Haydn's experimentation was unusual for its time, but it shows some of the freedom he enjoyed as Prince Nicholas' court composer.

Wiedergaben, die durch präzise Konturierung, plastische Artikulation, instrumentalen Farbenreichtum und Detailgenauigkeit charakterisiert sind. Die Symphonien Michael Haydns erweisen sich als veritable Entdeckung. Rätselhaft ist, daß sie nicht schon längst weitere Verbreitung im Konzertsaal gefunden haben. Mit dieser CD jedenfalls kehrt ein Komponist zurück in die Musikgeschichte.

In Harry Christophers’ expert hands, Haydn comes to life in the first in a series of new live recordings from the Handel and Haydn Society. This disc showcases one of Haydn’s Paris Symphonies, L’ours (‘The Bear’), a festive and jubilant work commissioned by a Parisian orchestra in the 1780s, as well as one of his earlier symphonies, No. 6 Le matin, which is characterised by unusual virtuoso writing across the orchestral ensemble. Completing the disc is Haydn’s Violin Concerto in G major performed by Handel and Haydn’s fiery and expressive Concertmaster, Aisslinn Nosky, who makes her solo debut on the CORO label.

It would be a sad day if Haydn and Mozart symphonies were only to be heard on period instruments, but with Sir Georg Solti and Sir Colin Davis jointly perpetuating the tradition of Haydn performances which Beecham created in the 78rpm era, with its combination of elegance and warm humanity, we need have no fears on this score.

Michael Haydn is understandably overshadowed by his famous older sibling, as Salieri and Leopold Mozart are by Wolfgang Amadeus. In all three cases, these Chandos recordings go a long way towards restoring the balance. With just a handful of recordings of his music, the disc or download of Michael Haydn’s music becomes mandatory for a real appreciation of Mozart’s relation to his contemporaries, especially as one of Michael Haydn’s symphonies was long attributed to Mozart as his No.37 – he actually wrote only the slow introduction.

This CD, recorded live, will leave you smiling with delight and amazement. These symphonies are among Haydn's greatest; written in 1788-89, they exhibit every facet of his technical skill, inspired inventiveness, and emotional range. At the height of his mature mastery, he experimented with new forms, daring modulations and key changes, and breathtaking swings of mood and character. One of his fingerprints is the alternation between serene major and somber minor, especially in his variations; but he has surprises in store everywhere, as solemnity gives way to sprightliness, elegance to rusticity, tragedy to mischievous humor.

Jos van Immerseel aime le son ou plutôt les sons… Il est capable de se passionner pour un pianoforte Walter (ca 1795-1800) comme pour les Erard 1897 ou 1904 du disque " Pièces à deux pianos " ou pour un Bechstein, ou Tröndlin… toujours à la recherche de la diversité et du singulier. C'est également cette passion du " sonner juste " qui l'a poussé à créer Anima Eterna, véritable laboratoire des acoustiques du XVIII au XX.

These three early symphonies join the series of ASMF/Marriner recordings of all the 'named' symphonies of Haydn. They are delightfully lightweight with unusual prominence given to the woodwind, and they receive here wholly enjoyable 'chamber-music' style performances of great style and precision. The recorded balance has ideal spread and depth, the harpsichord being just in evidence. The sum of its many musical and technical virtues makes this CD compulsive listening through every one of its 13 movements.

This is part of a series of releases on the Naxos label devoted to the 40 symphonies of Michael Haydn, younger brother of Franz Joseph. These have been commercially successful, and it's easy to see why: there's music of unsuspected high quality here, and you can see why the younger Haydn's work was taken for Mozart's in several cases for decades, and why Mozart, who was spare in his praise of other composers, bestowed it upon this one. All four of these symphonies are in the three-movement form that Mozart had mostly left behind by the late 1770s and 1780s (when the Haydn works were composed), but the individual movements are quite confidently handled, with the elegant but harmonically wide-ranging slow movements perhaps the best of the lot.

Charles Mackerras doesn’t put a foot wrong anywhere. The “Military” Symphony features sprightly tempos in its outer movements, with percussion that’s exciting but never vulgar in the famous Allegretto. In addition to one of the best-ever accounts of its slow movement, the “Drumroll” offers Haydn’s original thoughts on the finale, with its surprising modulations in the closing pages. Fabulous playing, informative booklet notes, and superb sound cap a release that deserves far more acclaim that it has received to date. There’s no point in enumerating the disc’s virtues any further: listen and enjoy them for yourself. You can do “different”, but you can’t do better.