- The trumpet concertos by Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) and Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837) are two of the most celebrated works in the trumpet repertoire, showcasing the instrument's evolving capabilities in the Classical period. Haydn's Trumpet Concerto in E-flat Major was composed in 1796 for Anton Weidinger, a Viennese trumpeter who developed a keyed trumpet capable of playing chromatic notes. This innovation allowed Haydn to explore a wider range of expressive possibilities, incorporating lyrical melodies and rapid passages previously unattainable on the natural trumpet. - Similarly, Hummel's Trumpet Concerto in E-flat Major, composed in 1803, was also written for Weidinger and the keyed trumpet. Hummel, a prominent composer and pianist of the time, crafted a work that emphasizes virtuoso technique and lyrical expression. The concerto opens with a grand, dramatic Allegro, followed by a lyrical Andante, and concludes with a lively Rondo, which tests the soloist's agility and technical prowess. Hummel's concerto reflects the transition from the Classical style of Haydn to the more elaborate, early Romantic idiom. - Played by the young, gifted Italian trumpet player Marianne LI Gregni, accompanied by the Orchestra da camera Domenico Mazzocchi del Civita Festival, conducted by Martin Sieghart.

Frieder Bernius and the Kammerchor Stuttgart have taken on one of the most exciting pieces of Passion music in music history: "The Seven Last Words of Our Savior on the Cross." The new recording with Anna-Lena Elbert, Sophie Harmsen, Florian Sievers, Sebastian Noack and the Kammerchor Stuttgart under the direction of Frieder Bernius achieves an emotionality that can hardly be surpassed. (Carus)

Joseph Haydn: Complete Symphonies Vols 32 - 35 With this box set of four CDs, you now have the final missing piece of the jigsaw of the complete recordings of all of Haydn's symphonies, as performed by the Heidelberg Symphony Orchestra. "Heidelberg Haydn is a paragon of dynamism, freshness, wildness, humour, and a richness of surprise. I am delighted that the journey continues, and that the cycle is completed. My musical encounters with the Heidelberg Symphony Orchestra have always been journeys to happiness. Idealism, the love of music, and technical perfection combine here with the will to create something very special, and it all fits perfectly into the symphonic world of Joseph Haydn. Full of anticipation, I look forward to the future!" Johannes Klumpp

The fourteenth volume of the Haydn2032 edition is entitled L'Imperiale, after the nickname given to Symphony No. 53 in the nineteenth century. This was perhaps Haydn's most famous symphony during his lifetime. Premiered in the theatre at Eszterhaza Palace in 1778, it was published in London around 1781, and it's melodious Andante was arranged more than thirty times for various instruments between 1783 and 1820. It made a decisive contribution to Haydn's success, opening the way for him to perform in England. Symphony No. 54, whose entertaining, theatrical style is a perfectly match for the atmosphere of the legendary court festivities given at Eszterhaza around 1775, completes this programme along with No. 33, one of his first festive works with trumpets, composed c.1761. In his introductory text, Giovanni Antonini revels in the 'capricious', whimsical character of certain passages in the last movement of Symphony No. 53; he also offers an alternative finale of the work at the end of the album.

Haydn's Symphony No. 31 from 1765, known as the 'Horn Signal', lends it's name to this 13th volume of the Haydn 2032 series. Not only does the symphony feature four horns in their full majesty, but the entire ensemble of Il Giardino Armonico, directed with ardour by Giovanni Antonini, perform this music with characteristic impetuousness. The numbered vinyl recording that accompanies this volume includes a musicological introduction, a CD of the same programme, and a download code (like every vinyl release in the Haydn 2032 series). This particular volume also includes a catalogue of all the recordings already released and gives us another opportunity to admire the images taken by the photographers of the Magnum agency, our partner from the outset of the series.

This programme focuses on fantasy and pleasure, with three symphonies punctuated by lightness and wit. In addition to ten photos by Magnum photographer Cristina Garcia Rodero, a literary text that appears exclusively on the vinyl edition of the series provides a continuation of the musical experience. Philippe Claudel, President of the Academie Goncourt, here focuses on the pleasure and sensuality of a fleeting youthful encounter: "The third movement of the symphony accompanies us towards the taut velvet of the great lime trees. We are no longer walking through life. We tread upon a dream. And music gives this dream the profundity of legend. [...] I experience my own mythology in this May evening. We lie on the lawn. Our eyes search for each other in the darkness. Our pupils are stars cast into the lofty skies of May. I am not fifteen. I am no longer fifteen. This does not mean anything. Time does not exist."

The selection on this CD is a cross-section of the composer's successive creative phases. Haydn composed keyboard music over about four decades (ca. 1755-1796). In his day, the word "Clavier" was used as a generic term for various keyboard instruments that coexisted, namely the harpsichord, the clavichord, and the fortepiano (Hammerflugel).�Although on this recording I have decided to record all works on a modern grand piano, I found it important to take into account which instruments these pieces were intended for when deciding on matters of interpretation and performance. (Schaghajegh Nosrati)

What happens when three different musical personalities with different backgrounds but a common home in Georgia join forces and decide to form a trio? This can lead to an unconventional journey, as in the case of Ketevan Sepashvili, Temo Kharshiladze and Sandro Sidamonidze. They met in Vienna in 2019 and realised that it was only logical to embark on a musical path together. Flute, cello and piano are not a particularly common combination on the concert scene and in the repertoire, which is why arrangements of works originally created for other instruments are often on the desks of Trio Revolution. During their first concert project together, in which they performed Mendelssohn's D minor Trio, Ketevan, Temo and Sandro experienced the fascination of collective energy. The charisma of this encounter was immense, which led to an engagement for another concert - this time at a sold-out concert at the Vienna Musikverein! For this CD, the Trio-Revolution decided to explore original works especially for flute, cello and piano - music through which the three native Georgians, now living in Austria and the USA, will take you on an exciting and unconventional journey.

In 1800, France was passionate about Haydn's music. The Paris Opera decided to stage a French version of his oratorio La Creation du Monde (The Creation of the World) in Paris, which had been completed two years earlier and premiered in Vienna. The first French performance of the work took place on December 24, 1800, a date that became historic because Bonaparte, First Consul and future Napoleon, decided to attend and narrowly escaped an explosion that killed 40 people and destroyed 15 houses... This French version has now been revived thanks to Julien Chauvin, who almost by chance came across the first edition (piano-vocal) of the French version of The Creation and who, with Le Concert de la Loge, the Choeur de Chambre de Namur, and leading vocal soloists (Julie Roset, Stanislas de Barbeyrac, and Nahuel Di Pierro), now presents the very first recording of it: "Haydn succeeds in developing an incredible palette; the orchestra is really there to personify and colour the verses, " says the conductor.

The genesis of the oratorio The Seven Last Words of Christ is one of the most exciting stories in music history. In 1786, Haydn (who by then was already a famous composer throughout Europe) was commissioned by José Saluz de Santamaria, a priest from Cadiz, to write a piece of purely instrumental music for Holy Week. The maestro himself considered the piece to be one of his finest achievements. The instrument on this recording is a copy of an instrument made in 1805 by Viennese fortepiano maker Anton Walter.

This recording is the first of a collaboration between Rene Jacobs, the Kammerorchester Basel, the Zurcher Sing-Akademie and Alpha Classics and will involve the release of four albums between 2025 and 2028; the first of these is the Missa Cellensis, then three albums devoted to Haydn's last six masses. Haydn was commissioned in 1766 to write a Missa Solemnis, the Latin term for a fully scored mass with trumpets and timpani; it is the third and largest of Haydn's fourteen masses. It was under this erroneous name that the 1766 Missa Cellensis remained known until 1975, when a fragment of the autograph score containing the title page, Kyrie I and Christe was found in Bucharest and revealed that Haydn had in fact composed two Miss� Cellenses. It is the first of these (1766) that is recorded here. Rene Jacobs puts all his expertise and enthusiasm at the service of this music that he loves so much, in collaboration with soloists with whom he works regularly, an orchestra that is also a longstanding partner, and the remarkable choir of the Sing-Akademie of Zurich.

Per il Luigi is the 17th volume of the complete Haydn 2032 collection and presents a number of Haydn's earliest symphonies; these had been composed to display the talent of the musicians who had joined the Esterhazy court orchestra during the same period as Haydn himself. The centre of the programme is the Symphony No. 13 in D major from 1763, whose orchestration includes four horns and whose final movement features a prefiguration of the famous theme of Mozart's 'Jupiter' symphony, to be composed twenty-five years later. The violin concerto in C major is marked fatto per il Luigi in Haydn's catalogue of works and was dedicated to Luigi Tomasini (1741-1808), a violin virtuoso born in Pesaro and a friend of Haydn. Two centuries later, the young Baroque violin virtuoso Dmitri Smirnov now brilliantly champions this repertoire with the Kammerorchester Basel under Giovanni Antonini.

Joseph Haydn's The Creation - a musical masterpiece that was celebrated from the very beginning. For Simon Rattle there is no question that Haydn's Creation contains everything. The whole world. It looks both towards the past and far into the future of everything music can be. It is balance and revolution at the same time - a true work of the Enlightenment. "Magnificent choruses, graceful melodies, the finest polyphony, all firmly anchored in an optimistic view of humanity - anyone who doesn't automatically feel better after hearing it really needs help, " says Simon Rattle with a wink. "The Creation is healthy in a very honest way, " he adds. But health also includes a good dose of humour, and Haydn provides it, even in a setting as sacred as the Creation story. At the same time, a work radiating light also casts a few shadows on our own present. What has remained of the spirit of the Enlightenment? And what have we done with "this world, so great, so wonderful"? To mark his inauguration as Chief Conductor of the Bavarian Radio Chorus and Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle chose Joseph Haydn's oratorio The Creation. After two concerts on September 21 and 22, 2023 in Munich's Herkulessaal, the work was performed on September 24 in the historic basilica of Ottobeuren in Upper Swabia, together with the three outstanding soloists Lucy Crowe, Benjamin Bruns and Christian Gerhaher. The Munich recording of the inaugural concerts is now being released on 2 CDs by BR-KLASSIK. With this late work, Joseph Haydn celebrated his greatest triumph: The acclaim he received for his oratorio The Creation placed all his previous successes firmly in the shade. He was already very famous as a symphonic composer, his string quartets had won him the adoration of countless nobles and amateur musicians, and his late masses had secured the unwavering approval of his Esterhazy prince. However, at it's first performance in 1798, "The Creation" caught the spirit of the age - and continues to do so today. The work unites Haydn's orchestral finesse with powerful choruses, combining the vivid account of the creation story with subtle musical interpretation and making it a musical manifesto, as it were, of the Age of Enlightenment. In this regard, the oratorio has enjoyed an unbroken performance tradition, and continues to pose a challenge to every world-class ensemble today. In 1946, one year after the end of the war, Haydn's masterpiece was the first oratorio ever to be performed in the basilica in Ottobeuren - at that time still in the organ loft. The 1986 performance by the Bavarian Radio Chorus and Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Bernstein remains legendary to this day.

This 19th volume of Haydn's complete symphonies coincides with the 40th anniversary of Il Giardino Armonico, the ensemble created and conducted by Giovanni Antonini, artistic director of the Haydn 2032 series. Il Giardino has made it's mark on the baroque world with it's revolutionary approach to Vivaldi, but Haydn has long been part of the Italian group's history, and Symphony No. 44, featured in this volume, was the first work by Haydn performed by the ensemble and Antonini. The title of this symphony, known as the "Funeral Symphony", inspired the inclusion in this programme of Scheidt's Paduana Dolorosa, published in 1621 at the beginning of the bloody Thirty Years' War, and Arvo Part's Da pacem Domine, dedicated to the memory of the victims of the 2004 Madrid train bombings: 'It's contemplative fixity and the sad Paduana dolorosa take on an almost cathartic function which, in my opinion, shows a perfect integration between music that is so stylistically and chronologically distant,' says Antonini, who also conducts Symphonies Nos. 108 (1762) and 52 (1771).

A household word when speaking of repertoire, legendary flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal devoted just as much effort to establishing the masterpieces in their rightful place as to unearthing countless works from the baroque, classical and romantic eras. As far as concertos are concerned, cornerstones by Bach, Mozart and Vivaldi thus gained worldwide fame, and it went the same way for Ibert, Jolivet and Nielsen. Unfailing lyric sense, purity of style, magnificent tone, grace of phrasing, fabulous virtuosity, tremendous commitment... Critics, colleagues and the public were all running out of superlatives. Immediately valued as references, his recordings still fascinate and often leave the listener exhilarated. This 12 CD set tries the challenge of surrounding these marvels with some of the most dazzling rediscoveries, offering famous and less famous music, but equally glorious interpretations.

A few years after a complete recording of Mozart’s solo piano works that has gradually come to be regarded as a benchmark, Kristian Bezuidenhout has taken all the time he needed to tackle Haydn, the other towering figure of the Viennese Classical keyboard repertory: “Preparing for this recording has been a vivid reminder that it is remarkably difficult to play Haydn’s music well, but that with enough care, and attention to detail, his music has the potential to come jumping from the page. It would be hubris to suggest that I am even close to unlocking any of its secrets, but I am so humbled by the sheer beauty, humanity, wit and delightful irony of this music, that the desire to continue is irresistible.”

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REVIEW:

The listener is drawn in by the myriad subtleties of Bezuidenhout’s playing and by the glorious sounds he draws from his instrument. Soon you’re hanging on every note of this sequence that seems to travel from darkness to darkness. Most important, though, is Bezuidenhout’s playing itself. Technique is obviously not an issue. Decoration, too, is sparing rather than trowelled on. This is the very opposite of ‘look-at me’ pianism.

– Gramophone

Classical Music

LONDON SYMPHONIES 99 & 100

Following an acclaimed disc of cello concertos and symphonies by C. P. E. Bach, the musicians of the Ensemble Resonanz continue their exploration of eighteenth-century orchestral music. For several years now, under the direction of its inspired conductor Maestro Riccardo Minasi, the ensemble has taken up the challenge of playing contemporary instruments with complete mastery of historically informed performance practice. Forty years after what has been called 'the Baroque revolution', what a pleasure to rediscover these nine orchestral movements literally inhabited by the last words of Christ on the cross - and displaying that rhetorical skill of which Joseph Haydn was a peerless exponent.

The great popularity of the piano trio enabled Haydn to explore countless formal and harmonic experiments; while the keyboard remains the central element in the musical structure, the strings give the discourse a subtle colouration, and the violin is often assigned independent musical ideas. This elegant three-way dialogue, conducted here by the Trio Wanderer, is as impressive for its originality as for its supreme stylistic virtuosity. Haydn was a past master at this little game, and still remains so centuries later!

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REVIEW:

These are beautifully played performances. There is enough clarity around each instrument to make every line audible, the sparer textures of the Classical trio style help greatly in this respect. It’s a treat to hear Haydn trios played with such care for their sound and texture.

– Gramophone

Classical Music

... a merry chase: Hen Hunts Queen! - If you are captivated by this gimmick, you need not regret your weakness: because what the Polish Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Wojciech Rajski, on a TACET recording, has to offer, is sparkling, finely-tuned Haydn. (NWZ)

"The Naxos recordings by the Kodaly Quartet are outstanding in every way and would be highly recommendable even without their considerable price advantage. The digital recording has vivid presence and just the right amount of ambience: the effect is entirely natural."

-- Penguin Guide [2003/4 Edition]

Classical Music

Classical Music

The Seven Words are a composition which Joseph Haydn was commissioned to write. They were intended to be performed in churches, with each of the seven pieces following a short text or sermon by the priest. The texts between the pieces of music on this recording reflect the original plan and "performance practice". The role of the priest was played by the famous rhetorician Walter Jens.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Recorded in: Blackheath Halls, London 27-29 November 1996 Producer(s) Nicholas Anderson Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Richard Smoker (Assistant)

Haydn: String Quartets, Vol. 1 — Op. 20 Nos. 1-3