Giovanni Antonini has been recording the complete symphonies of Joseph Haydn with the Alpha label for more than five years. Now the series is enriched by another monument by the Austrian composer: Die Schöpfung (The Creation), recorded in 2019 with the Bavarian Radio Chorus and his own orchestra, Il Giardino Armonico. This great oratorio was inspired by those of Handel, which Haydn heard performed by very large forces during his visits to England. The Creation, composed between September 1796 and April 1798, demanded such a colossal effort of him that he even fell ill just after its first performance; but the work enjoyed immense success.

This ninth volume of the Haydn2032 series focuses on the composers psychological subtlety in its focus on a central work: his Symphony no.45, known as the Abschieds-Symphonie (Farewell Symphony), composed in 1772. It is said to have got its nickname from a symbolic message Haydn conveyed to Prince Esterházy when he and his orchestra were required to stay longer than planned in the Princes summer residence. On the occasion of the symphonys first performance, Haydn had arranged for the musicians to leave their places one by one during the final Adagio.

Founded in 1956, the Philharmonia Hungarica emerged from turbulent post-war times as a crack ensemble of émigré Hungarian musicians who had fled Communism for the West. While they gave concerts in Europe and the US, it was through these seven albums on Mercury and Philips that they became famous, and synonymous with the name of the conductor Antal Doráti.

Volume 2 of Discovering the Classical String Trio is a continuation of The Vivaldi Project's exploration of the 18th-century string trio, of its relationship to the earlier Baroque trio sonata (as exemplified by Vivaldi and contemporaries) and of its role as an important genre in its own right, side-by-side with the emerging string quartet. The string trio, although largely overlooked during the past century, was manifestly popular in its day at its compositional peak (c. 1760-1770) out-publishing the string quartet by a ratio of more than five to one! These forgotten works, some 2000 string trios by more than 200 composers, reveal not only a wonderful amalgam of instrumental techniques and styles, but also a significant, untold part of chamber music history.

This was to be the end of the line for Italian word-setting by Viennese composers: once the confident sentiments that belonged to the poet Metastasio's opera seria felt the chill and threatening wind of Enlightenment and Revolution, their time was up. Even we, for the most part, prefer to remember the German-speaking Beethoven, Schubert and Haydn. So it is good to be reminded of their responses to the Italian muse (usually as part of their craft-learning student work) in this particularly well-cast recital. Central Europe, in the person of Andras Schiff meets Italy, in Cecilia Bartoli, to delightful, often revelatory effect.

‘The Time of Day’ provided Haydn with an inspiration to compose and his Symphony numbers 6, 7 & 8 collectively became known as The Day Trilogy. Celebrating their 30th anniversary, Sigiswald Kuijken and La Petite Bande are highly respected exponents of this repertoire and this recording is no exception to their consistently high standards. Carrying on with their ‘one instrument to a part’ policy, the recording is presented in a wonderfully light and airy way, allowing the music to shine through.

Georg Joseph Vogler, called Abbé Vogler, was born in Würzburg in 1749. He became famous as an expert in music theory, conductor and composer. In 1772, he accepted a position at the court of Prince Elector Karl Theodor in Mannheim and later followed his employer to Munich. From 1786 onwards, he worked at the court of the kings of Sweden as a conductor.

The six keyboard sonatas selected for this CD are taken from Haydn’s middle period, all written between 1773-1776 when he was loyally at the service of Prince Nikolaus Esterházy (and to whom three of the sonatas are dedicated). Even in the context of the vast development and change in his style in 60 years of composition – moving from the early Classical period and Style Galant, through the Empfindsamkeit and C.P.E Bach’s influence, to establishing and refining what is now the essence of “The Classical Style”- Haydn displays in a short period of 3 years an astonishing diversity of compositional techniques, modes of expression, style and characters.

This recording covers approximately five decades of literature for violoncello and orchestra. The fifty years between the two concertos by Vivaldi (ca. 1720), Haydn (ca. 1763) and Boccherini (publ. 1770), through a present and modern interpretation performed on period instruments.

Since it's founding in Freiburg in 1958, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi has been one of the most important and ambitious labels for period performances. Over decades, globally-acclaimed recordings were created with outstanding musicians. The limited edition "Deutsche Harmonia Mundi: 100 Great Recordings" contains 100 outstanding DHM recordings with some of the most important and best artists in their field: Nuria Rial, Dorothee Mields, Al Ayre Espanol, Hille Perl, Concentus Musicus Wien, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, the Freiburger Barockorchester, Skip Sempé, Capriccio Stravagante, La Petite Bande, Gustav Leonhardt, Andrew Lawrence-King, Frieder Bernius, the Balthasar-Neumann-Chor, Thomas Hengelbrock and many others.

Count Anton George Apponyi was a relative of Haydn's patrons the Esterhazys. Although commissioned by Count Apponyi, the quartets that bear his name were actually inspired by a series of successful public concerts of Haydn's music in London organized by Johann Peter Salomon. These concerts made Haydn an international music superstar and brought about a decided change in the composer's style. The emotional, virtuosic and powerful music found in these quartets presages the spirit of the Romantic period. Following on their decidedly symphonic reading of Haydn's Seven Last Words, the Pražák Quartet is fully in tune with the grand gestures found in these first three of the six Apponyi quartets.

This CD, recorded live, will leave you smiling with delight and amazement. These symphonies are among Haydn's greatest; written in 1788-89, they exhibit every facet of his technical skill, inspired inventiveness, and emotional range. At the height of his mature mastery, he experimented with new forms, daring modulations and key changes, and breathtaking swings of mood and character. One of his fingerprints is the alternation between serene major and somber minor, especially in his variations; but he has surprises in store everywhere, as solemnity gives way to sprightliness, elegance to rusticity, tragedy to mischievous humor.

Alison Balsom’s fourth CD for EMI Classics features Franz Joseph Haydn and Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s evergreen trumpet concertos, coupled with concertos by Johann Baptist Georg Neruda and Giuseppe Torelli. Balsom also directs Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.

On this recording of The Seven Words, the Rosamunde String Quartet offers a compelling rendition of one of Haydn's most complex compositions. The Seven Words was originally composed for a full orchestra as a series of seven adagios, which were meant to be interludes during a congregation's meditations on the last seven words of Christ on the Cross. Haydn struggled with a way to compose seven connected pieces of music that were solemn and yet varied enough to keep the listener from getting bored. The members of the Rosamunde Quartet are technically brilliant as they demonstrate the composer's solutions to this musical puzzle. Even though the tempo is slow, they never let the music become ponderous or oppressive. But to Haydn, The Seven Words was more than just an aural conundrum. He felt the composition was perhaps his most sacred work, and the quartet plays this music with reverence for the composer's spiritual intentions. This is a profound piece of music, and the Rosamunde does it justice on each of its many levels.