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Stereo

Classical - Orchestral

Joseph Haydn:
Symphony No. 35 in B flat major, Hob. I:35
Symphony No. 45 in F sharp minor 'Farewell', Hob. I:45
Scena di Berenice, Hob. XXIVa:10
Symphony No. 15 in D major, Hob. I:15

Sandrine Piau (soprano)
Il Giardino Armonico
Giovanni Antonini (conductor)


Looking forward to the three hundredth anniversary of the birth of Haydn in 2032, the Joseph Haydn Stiftung of Basel has joined forces with the Alpha label to make a complete recording of the composer’s 107 symphonies. This ambitious project is placed under the artistic direction of Giovanni Antonini, who will share the recordings between his ensemble Il Giardino Armonico and the Basel Chamber Orchestra, which he conducts regularly.

The aim is to celebrate one of the key composers in the history of music, one of the most prolific (he wrote more than 300 large-scale works, symphonies, string quartets, piano sonatas, concertos, oratorios, operas), but also one of the subtlest. Seeing the music of Haydn as ‘a kaleidoscope of human emotions’, Giovanni Antonini has decided to tackle the symphonies not in chronological order, but in thematically based programmes (‘La passione’, ‘Il filosofo’, ‘Il distratto’, etc.). Moreover, the Italian conductor believes it is important to establish links between these works and pieces written by other composers contemporary with Haydn or in some way connected with him. Hence, alongside his symphonies, the volumes will include music by figures like Gluck, W. F. Bach, Mozart, Cimarosa and Kraus.

This ninth volume of the Haydn 2032 series focuses on the composer’s 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 Prince’s summer residence. On the occasion of the symphony’s first performance, Haydn had arranged for the musicians to leave their places one by one during the final Adagio. The day after the concert, all the musicians were able to return to their families and bid farewell to the Prince, who had obviously taken the point of this poetic request for ‘liberation’ expressed in music. The programme is completed by Symphonies nos. 15 and 35 and a cantata sung by Sandrine Piau, the heart-rending ‘Berenice, che fai?’ on a text by Metastasio that was a real ‘hit’ of the eighteenth century, set by some forty composers.