Post by erik on Aug 28, 2021 12:20:43 GMT -5
A very early symphony from the father of said genre, Franz Joseph Haydn, is in the Classical Works Spotlight for this final week of August 2021.
Haydn: SYMPHONY NO. 9 IN C MAJOR
For decades, one of the great composers of Western music, Franz Joseph Haydn, was in the employ of Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy as the official composer of the Esterhazy family’s Eisenstadt estate. Haydn’s involvement with the Esterazy family, in terms of his symphonic canon, began with the Fifth, and would continue for many decades thereafter, up to the point in 1790, when he was to go to London to create his final twelve symphonies. The early symphonies, with their use of the harpsichord as a continuo instrument, were the bridge between the Bach/Handel Baroque era and the Classical period that Haydn, and, decades later, his young contemporary Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, would dominate. They were also relatively small in scale, neither lasting more than twenty minutes each; timpani wouldn’t appear in a Haydn symphony for another few years until the Thirteenth Symphony. The Ninth, which Haydn composed in 1762, may seem even more limited in scope than its eight predecessors, but it was principally because the Esterhazy family could only, during that time, afford a small cadre of players. In this case, the orchestra consisted of pairs of flutes, oboes, and French horns; a single bassoon; harpsichord continuo; and a modest string section. The symphony, like many of Haydn’s early works, would remain relatively obscure until the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, when Hungarian-born conductor Antal Dorati recorded the entirety of the Haydn symphonic canon with the Philharmonia Hungarica, followed by the flood of period-instrument ensembles to follow over the next three decades.
Philharmonia Hungarica/ANTAL DORATI (London)
Included:
SYMPHONIES NOS. 1-8 + 10-16
Haydn: SYMPHONY NO. 9 IN C MAJOR
For decades, one of the great composers of Western music, Franz Joseph Haydn, was in the employ of Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy as the official composer of the Esterhazy family’s Eisenstadt estate. Haydn’s involvement with the Esterazy family, in terms of his symphonic canon, began with the Fifth, and would continue for many decades thereafter, up to the point in 1790, when he was to go to London to create his final twelve symphonies. The early symphonies, with their use of the harpsichord as a continuo instrument, were the bridge between the Bach/Handel Baroque era and the Classical period that Haydn, and, decades later, his young contemporary Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, would dominate. They were also relatively small in scale, neither lasting more than twenty minutes each; timpani wouldn’t appear in a Haydn symphony for another few years until the Thirteenth Symphony. The Ninth, which Haydn composed in 1762, may seem even more limited in scope than its eight predecessors, but it was principally because the Esterhazy family could only, during that time, afford a small cadre of players. In this case, the orchestra consisted of pairs of flutes, oboes, and French horns; a single bassoon; harpsichord continuo; and a modest string section. The symphony, like many of Haydn’s early works, would remain relatively obscure until the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, when Hungarian-born conductor Antal Dorati recorded the entirety of the Haydn symphonic canon with the Philharmonia Hungarica, followed by the flood of period-instrument ensembles to follow over the next three decades.
Philharmonia Hungarica/ANTAL DORATI (London)
Included:
SYMPHONIES NOS. 1-8 + 10-16