Haydn Jacobs

Haydn’s three authentic violin concertos fit ideally on a single disc and are an integral part of every aspiring fiddler’s arsenal. It’s easy to see why: even if they don’t display the virtuosity or depth of feeling of Mozart’s five, they nevertheless have challenges of their own, framed in music of effortless charm and Haydn’s own brand of earthy melodiousness. Lisa Jacobs fields a band of no more than 14 string players, with a very present harpsichord accompaniment. Ensemble and phrasing are ideal, and Jacobs’s own cadenzas are in keeping with their surroundings. Her tone is clear and consistent.

When Nature took on new meaning. The transition from Winckelmann to Rousseau marked one of the biggest upheavals of thought in the Enlightenment - and it is perfectly illustrated in these four Seasons with their decidedly Romantic 'descriptivism'! In this music, even though lambs frisk, fish teem and thunder booms, it is the question of Man within Nature that is the central issue. By going back to the very first version of The Seasons (with the orchestral introductions played in their entirety), René Jacobs enables us to relive that day in April 1801 that saw the triumph of old 'Papa' Haydn.

First , and most important, Rene Jacobs and the Frieburger Orchestra play superbly and all the singing is excellent or even better in the finest tradition. Now for some details.
Two hundred years after his death Haydn's most popular opera during his lifetime is unearthed as a treasure . Musically it stands on its own, but why buy a cd when this dvd has imaginative acting that attracts the eye, engages the mind, and makes us laugh out loud? For Orlando Paladino, a comic opera, stage directors Nigel Lowery and Amir Hasseinpour use Monty Pythonesque humor that propel it into the 21st century.. Virtually the first Haydn opera to come out on dvd (here with highest engineering quality), this live performance recording is one to watch many times and a terrific start to hours of enjoyable discussion. More reviews are sure to follow–see for yourself what is going to be talked about.

Franz Joseph Haydn's Die Schöpfung (The Creation) is one of the greatest oratorios, beloved for its moving religious content and admired for its abundant melodies, stirring choruses, imaginative scene-painting, and colorful orchestration. An argument can be made that period instrumentation and historically informed performance practices give a real boost to Haydn's scoring and effects, in ways conventional modern ensembles can't, and experts in early music make it especially striking by employing the sonorities the composer would have known and wanted.

Marlis Petersen, Tom Randle, Victor Torres, Pietro Spagnoli, Magnus Staveland, Sunhae Im, Arttu Kataja, Alexandrina Pendatchanska, Nigel Lowery, Amir Hosseinpour Freiburger Barockorchester René Jacobs In the Summer of 2009, the British director Nigel Lowery and the Iranian choreographer Amir Hosseinpour brought to the stage of the Berlin State Opera “Unter den Linden”, with colour and full of humour, the fantastic and imaginative adventures of “Racing Roland”. On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the death of Joseph Haydn, the composer’s most renowned opera during his lifetime,“Orlando Paladino”, was performed, a heroic-comical stage piece based on Ariost’s famous “Versepos”. Singers such as Marlis Petersen (Angelica), Tom Randle (Orlando), Alexandrina Pendatchanska (Alcina), Pietro Spagnoli (Rodomonte), Sunhae Im (Eurilla) and Victor Torres (Pasquale) performed under the musical direction of period-music specialist René Jacobs. The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra completed this high-class production giving the music a beautiful sound and lively swing.