Haydn The London 71

Haydn wrote the six quartets of Opp 54 and 55 in 1788, by now a celebrated composer across Europe and still opera Kapellmeister at Esterházy. These period instrument players, whose very name declares their affinity for Haydn, excel in the latest in their Hyperion series. Ever spry in fast movements, faultless in dexterity and intonation, they find a special warmth of feeling in the slower moments: the songful Adagio Cantabile of Op 55 No 1, the puzzling, melancholy Andante of Op 55 No 2, the dark, hymn-like first bars of Op 54 No 2’s Adagio, out of which the violin soars in almost improvised, bluesy reverie. Too many pleasures to enumerate. Try for yourself.

The London Haydn Quartet continue their critically acclaimed series celebrating their namesake, which The Guardian raves has, ''too many pleasures to enumerate.'' This volume, featuring the String Quartets of Op.64, is another unmissable double-disc set performed with the quartet's usual mix of intelligence and humanity.

One can never own enough recordings or hear enough performances of the Haydn string quartets. Not only did Haydn invent the quartet form, he was composing, even early in his career, at a level that no one else could even come close to matching, according to Classical Era authority, Charles Rosen. These Opus 20 'Sun Quartets' (so-called because of the drawing of a sun on the title-page of the original published edition) were among the eighteen early quartets Haydn wrote around 1770 in which he made a huge advance on what had previously been a form more like a divertimento; in so doing he more or less invented 'high classicism'.

The London symphonies, sometimes called the Salomon symphonies after the man who introduced London to Joseph Haydn, were composed by Joseph Haydn between 1791 and 1795. They can be categorized into two groups: Symphonies Nos. 93–98, which were composed during Haydn's first visit to London, and Symphonies Nos. 99–104, composed in Vienna and London for Haydn's second visit.
Every London Symphony, apart from one (No. 95), has a slow introduction to the first movement.

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.

'When we speak of Joseph Haydn,' wrote Ernst Ludwig Gerber in his Lexicon der Tonkunstler of 1790-92, 'we think of one of our greatest men: great in small things and even greater in large… Everything speaks when he sets his orchestra in motion.' Gerber was among the first to recognise 'new and surprising' traits in Haydn's output, particularly among his Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) works of the early 1770s. Espousing spontaneity and passion as sources of creativity, Sturm und Drang despised the new rationalism of the Enlightenment, offering darkness and pessimism to counterpoise its orderly logic.

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.

"What is striking in the Symphonies 97 en 98 are the beautiful slow movements: Haydn again shows us that he is the master of our feelings. The menuets are catchingly dansant, the trios are refreshing. The first movements of these symphonies start with - as often is the case with Haydn- with a short, slow introduction and directly after that they burst into a fast tempo full of joyfulness and inventiveness. He makes simple themes develop into masterworks in an unsurpassed way. The closing movements, fast in character and starting off with only the strings, are astonishing because of their vitality and structure. Haydn is at his best in the 12 London Symphonies."