Release Date: 08 January 2004
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 747313209323
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: HAYDN
Description
Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)Symphonies Nos. 37-40Franz Joseph Haydn was born in the village ofRohrau in 1732, the son of a wheelwright. Trained at thechoir-school of St Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, hesubsequently spent some years earning a living as besthe could from teaching and playing the violin orkeyboard, and was able to profit from association withthe old composer Porpora, whose assistant he became.Haydn's first appointment was probably as early as 1758as Kapellmeister to a Bohemian nobleman, Count vonMorzin, whose kinsman had once served as patron toVivaldi. This was followed in 1761 by employment asVice-Kapellmeister to one of the richest men in theEmpire, Prince Paul Anton Esterhazy, succeeded afterhis death in 1762 by Prince Nicolaus. On the death in1766 of the elderly and somewhat obstructiveKapellmeister Gregor Werner, who had found much tocomplain about in the professionalism of his young andresented deputy, Haydn succeeded to his position, toremain in the same employment, nominally at least, forthe rest of his life.On the completion of the magnificent palace atEsterhaza in the Hungarian plains under PrinceNicolaus, Haydn assumed command of an increasedmusical establishment. Here he had responsibility for themusical activities of the palace, which included theprovision and direction of instrumental music, opera andmusic for the theatre, as well as music for the church.For his patron he provided a quantity of chamber musicof all kinds, particularly for the Prince's own peculiarinstrument, the baryton, a bowed string instrument withsympathetic strings that could also be plucked.Prince Nicolaus died in 1790 and Haydn foundhimself able to accept an invitation to visit London.There he provided music for concert seasons organizedby the violinist-impresario Salomon. A secondsuccessful visit to London in 1794 and 1795 wasfollowed by a return to duty with the Esterhazy family,the new head of which had settled principally at thefamily property in Eisenstadt, where Haydn had startedhis career with them. Much of the year, however, was tobe spent in Vienna, where Haydn passed his final years,dying in 1809, as the French armies of Napoleonapproached the city yet again.Haydn lived during the period of the eighteenthcentury that saw the development of instrumental musicfrom the age of Bach and Handel to the era of theclassical sonata, with its tripartite first-movement formand complementary two or three further movements, theformer the basis now of much instrumental composition.The symphony may claim to have become the mostimportant form of orchestral composition and owes agreat deal, if not its precise paternity, to Haydn. He firstattempted such composition some time before 1759 andwrote his last symphonies for London in the last decadeof the century.Symphony No. 37 in C major was seemingly thework of 1758, a date established on what is the earliestsurviving manuscipt of any Haydn symphony. It presumablymarks the start of his employment by Coun
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Various
Various
Lully
