What do modern scholars of Joseph Haydn have to say about the Paris Symphonies? Robbins Landon calls them "a remarkable fusion of brilliance, elegance, and warmth." Charles Rosen writes: "There is not a measure, even the most serious, of these great works which is not marked by Haydn's wit; and his wit has now grown so powerful and so efficient that it has become a sort of passion, a force at once omnivorous and creative.”
Parisian audiences loved the works of the Austrian Haydn, and were thrilled when the Comte d'Ogny commissioned a set of six symphonies for performance by the finest orchestra in Paris at Le Concert de la Loge Olympique.
Fortunately in our time, this re-release of the Paris Symphonies also has a superb group of the finest musicians in Jeanne Lamon and the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra.
October 2012
****
“Bruno Weil's punchy, generous-hearted accounts of Haydn's symphonies for Paris are crowned by a gripping La reine anointed with plenty of incisive instrumental bite”
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