Poverina

In addition to some 47 keyboard sonatas, Haydn wrote a variety of other pieces including arrangements of earlier orchestral or chamber works, and dances intended for occasional use. The 10 kleine Klavierstucke (10 Little Piano Pieces) contain five symphonic movements- including the second movement from one of his most popular, No. 53 in D major, known as L’Imperiale- a single movement from a string quartet and three extracts from his witty Eszterhaza opera La vera constanza. The dance movements were popular in Vienna’s many ballrooms. This is the penultimate release in Jeno Jando’s project of recording the complete solo piano music by Joseph Haydn. Of the complete piano sonatas release, Audiophile Audition commented: “Jando is every inch the professional, his years of experience and his muscular playing full these [works] with vivacious life.”

The opera opened in 1786, the same year as Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro , and both were revived in Vienna three years later. In the revival of Il bubero di buon cuore , since Martín y Soler was then in the court of Catherine the Great in St. Petersburg, Mozart wrote two new arias for Madama Lucilla. “Chi sa qual sia l’affano” and “Vado, ma dove, o Dei?,” which are beautifully sung on this recording by Véronique Gens, the first aria on CD 1, track 18, and the second on CD 2, track 4.

The 200th anniversary of Haydn's death arrived in 2009, and this mammoth box boasts one CD for every year that's passed! Well, not quite, but only a composer as prolific as this Viennese-classical master could even come close: 150 CDs of symphonies, concertos, operas, chamber music, oratorios and more beautiful music that have challenged performers and inspired composers for centuries.

The 200th anniversary of Haydn's death arrived in 2009, and this mammoth box boasts one CD for every year that's passed! Well, not quite, but only a composer as prolific as this Viennese-classical master could even come close: 150 CDs of symphonies, concertos, operas, chamber music, oratorios and more beautiful music that have challenged performers and inspired composers for centuries. You'll hear the symphonies performed by the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra; the piano and violin concertos played by L'Arte dell'Arco; the trumpet, horn and cello concertos played by the Academy of St.-Martin-in-the-Fields; the string quartets performed by the Buchberger Quartet; the lieder performed by Elly Ameling and Joerg Demus, and much, much more!

This opera semiseria is late Donizetti, composed a good ten years after the popular L’elisir d’amore, a work whose charm it emulates, though its score is less consistently inspired. A huge success at its 1842 premiere in Vienna, Linda never completely disappeared from the international repertoire, and ought to be seriously considered by British opera houses. Serafin conducts a great performance, with a first-rate all-Italian cast of Fifties favourites.