Haydn Symphony 192

Jean-François Paillard leads his chamber orchestra in this reference recording of Couperin's "Les Nations". "Les Nations" is a vast project in which the virtues of both the French and Italian styles are set next to each other. Each of the four ordres celebrates a Catholic power of Europe – France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and the Savoy dynasty of Piedmont – and each is a combination of an Italianate trio sonata with its free-form virtuosity and a large-scale and elaborate French dance suite.

Like the first two releases in The Mozartists’ ongoing ‘Sturm und Drang’ series, this record- ing comprises three highly dramatic and turbulent orchestral works interspersed with similarly highly-charged vocal items. The repertoire dates from between 1771 and 1788, and again includes one of Haydn’s great minor-key symphonies – this time arguably the greatest of them all, the ‘Trauer’.

Recorded in St John's Church West Norwood, London in March 2022, this recording involves eighteen members of Florilegium, the exact same number Haydn had at his disposal when he composed these symphonies shortly after arriving at Esterhazy in 1761.

Anshel Brusilow was for many years the celebrated concertmaster of the legendary Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy. In 1965 he founded the Chamber Symphony of Philadelphia with whom he recorded six albums for RCA Victor until 1968, now available for the first time, freshly restored and as a 24-bit remaster. The wide-ranging repertoire of the carefully selected musicians extends from symphonies by Haydn and Cherubini to the First Serenade by Brahms and the Fourth Suite by Tchaikovsky to works by Arensky, Ibert, Wolf, R. Strauss, Ravel, Francaix and a haunting cantata by Richard Yardumian (a composer whom Eugene Ormandy also supported).

The music of Brahms held an important place in Sir John Barbirolli's repertoire, and these recordings of the symphonies, made with the Vienna Philharmonic in 1966 and 1967, stand as one of the peaks of his discography.

Klemperer and Brahms had much in common, which may go some way to explaining the empathy with which Klemperer conducts the works of the great composer. As Richard Osborne says in the accompanying liner notes: ‘no detail was insignificant, yet none was allowed to subvert the larger whole’. The recordings in this box have all been remastered in HD from original tapes for the Otto Klemperer Complete Edition in 2023.

Otto Klemperer (1885–1973) was widely regarded as one of the leading conductors of the 20th century along with his compatriots, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Bruno Walter.

Born in London of Italian-French parents, Sir John Barbirolli (1899–1970) trained as a cellist and played in theatre and café orchestras before joining the Queen’s Hall Orchestra under Sir Henry Wood in 1916.

Carlo Maria Giulini - Schubert- Symphony No. 8, D. 75

Carlo Maria Giulini Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian conductor. From the age of five, when he began to play the violin, Giulini's musical education was expanded when he began to study at Italy's foremost conservatory, the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome at the age of 16. Initially, he studied the viola and conducting; then, following an audition, he won a place in the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.9 -Unfinished- - Brahms- Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56a

Legendary conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler leads the Wiener Philharmoniker in this programme of works from Brahms.