Haydn

Haydn: Requiem / Mass (Robert King) [2 CD]

Haydn: String Quartets Op 76 [2 CD]

Haydn: Violin concertos (Jan Stigmer) [CD]

Takács Quartet <br/><br/>These quartets date from 1793 and were written when Haydn returned home to Vienna after a visit to London which had cemented his international fame as a composer and public figure.<br/><br/>The composer wrote a set of six string quartets for Count Anton Apponyi, a chamberlain at the Imperial Court. The set was broken up into two groups of three and sold to separate publishers, thus becoming the Op 71 and Op 74 Quartets, both released this month by the acclaimed Takács Quartet.<br/><br/>The quartets possess an orchestral sonority, and the frequent modulations, dynamic variations and increasingly virtuosic writing can be derived from elements of the six London Symphonies. They demonstrate the composer's astonishing elegance, lyricism and his immense skill in fusing the profound with the light-hearted.<br/><br/>In these compelling interpretations the Takács Quartet display an absolute unanimity of tone and style and cement their reputation as one of today's greatest string quartets.

Tionde (!) volymen i London Haydn Quartets magnifika Haydn-cykel innehåller hans "Seven Last Words" i kompositörens egna arrangemang för kvartett, ihop med Op. 77 som var de sista kvartetterna Haydn komponerade.<br/>2CD till priset av 1CD!

Haydn: String Quartets Op 64 [2 CD]

Haydn Sinfonietta Wien (playing on period instruments)<br/>Manfred Huss, conductor<br/>Simon Standage, leader & solo violin<br/><br/>Haydn Sinfonietta Wien and Manfred Huss have possibly done more than any other performers when it comes to spreading the music of Haydn's earliest years, resurrecting scores which for decades and even centuries have been lying forgotten in archives. Their endeavours began already in the 1980s, and recordings of the composer's Scherzandi (the forerunners of the symphonies) and many other works were released on the Koch Schwann label in the 1990s. Long since deleted from the catalogue, these have become collectors' items, with asking prices reaching upwards of USD 150 even for used copies. <br/><br/>Beginning in 2009, the team's collaboration with BIS has resulted in new and important additions to the Haydn discography, such as Acide, the earliest surviving stage work, and a collection of rare arias composed for the opera house at Eszterháza Palace. But parallell to these new projects, the acclaimed recordings of instrumental works have been resurrected, and remastered versions have been released together with newly written texts by Manfred Huss, taking in the results of the latest in Haydn research. Previous such collections are the 6-disc set of Scherzandi, Baryton Octets and Lira Concerti (BIS-CD-1796/98) and the 2-disc set of the complete overtures (BIS-CD-1818). Forming a worthy finale to this series of re-releases, the present set of five discs includes all of the extant early Divertimenti by Haydn: works composed in the 1750s and 60s for ensembles of winds and strings in various combinations and typically scored for between 5-9 players. <br/><br/>The earliest divertimenti reveal roots in the Baroque (with beautifully eloquent slow movements), but also offer ample evidence of the young composer's powers of invention and eagerness to experiment, both in terms of form (the minuets suggestive of those in much later symphonies) and instrumentation - besides some spectacular writing for the French horn, Haydn was one of the first to use both the clarinet and cor anglais extensively. A common factor in the works including strings is the all-important, and often virtuosic parts for the first violin - here safely entrusted to the eminent Simon Standage, who is also the soloist in the Violin Concerto in C major Hob.VIIa:1 which has been chosen as the closing work of the box. Besides the recordings originally released by Koch/Schwann on five separate CDs, this set also includes 70 minutes worth of new recordings, focussing on the Feldparthien - those divertimenti which only involve wind instruments.