Release Date: 09 January 2005
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 747313257126
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: HAYDN
Description
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)Symphonies Nos. 1-5Joseph Haydn was born in the village of Rohrau in1732, the son of a wheelwright. Trained at the choirschoolof 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 as1758 as Kapellmeister to a Bohemian nobleman, Countvon Morzin, whose kinsman had once served as patronto Vivaldi. This was followed in 1761 by employmentas Vice-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 forthe musical activities of the palace, which included theprovision and direction of instrumental music, operaand music for the theatre, as well as music for thechurch. For his patron he provided a quantity ofchamber music of all kinds, particularly for the Prince'sown peculiar instrument, the baryton, a bowed stringinstrument with sympathetic strings that could also beplucked.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,the former the basis now of much instrumentalcomposition. The symphony may claim to have becomethe most important form of orchestral composition andowes a great deal, if not its precise paternity, to Haydn.He first attempted such composition some time before1759 and wrote his last symphonies for London in thefinal decade of the century.Haydn probably wrote his Symphony No. 1 in Dmajor in 1758 or 1759 for Count von Morzin, whoemployed a body of musicians at his castle at Lukavec.The work is scored, like the other symphonies includedhere, for the
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
