Haydn: Sinfonia Concertante in B flat major, Op. 84, Hob. I/105

Presenting Volume 18 of Thomas Hey’s masterful and critically acclaimed series of Joseph Haydn’s Symphonies. This disc includes symphony numbers 89, 102 and the Sinfonia Concertante.

In the series of live recordings with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, this outstanding recording took place both in Germany and abroad. Jansons’ previous Ravel/Bartók recording has received an ECHO Klassik in 2008. On this new album, the orchestra presents key symphonic works by Joseph Haydn: the Sinfonia Concertante No. 105 and symphonies No. 100 and No. 104. Once again Jansons and the Orchestra prove to have a superb flair for the musical content of those works.

The art of arranging music so that the works can be played in a small venue or domestic environment is as old as time. Before the advent of mechanical music reproduction around the time of World War I, the parlour piano and reductions of orchestral and operatic scores for small ensemble were the only ways a wider public could enjoy such music in the home.

On this CD, two popular works are given similar treatment in skilful arrangements by Mordechai Rechtman. Dvorák’s serenade for wind ensemble dates from 1878, and is a genial work of grace and charm written for a group of friends. Dvorak admired the wind serenades of Mozart, and coupled with the earthiness of Czech rhythms and folk dances, the serenade has become one of Dvorák’s most popular and engaging works.

Haydn’s Symphonia Concertante is a late work written in the 1790s. It is one of the last examples of a genre that is directly descended from the Baroque concerto grosso – Beethoven’s Triple Concerto being probably the final example. Typically, it is wonderfully fresh energetic music of undimmed inventiveness and humour, and belies the fact that Haydn was now an old man.

This important CD gathers together, for the first time, four of the finest performances of the music of Haydn and Mozart conducted by the great Fritz Busch (1890-1951), conducting in the years following the end of World War II the Danish State Radio Symphony Orchestra, which he had raised to a position of supreme pre-eminence before his untimely death in 1951. These recordings were very highly praised when they were briefly available on 78rpm discs with limited circulation in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and have been much sought-after by collectors throughout the world. Now they have been brought together for the first time, enabling later generations to appreciate the genius of Fritz Busch, famous for his pre-war Glyndebourne recordings of Mozart operas, in orchestral music by the master and by his great contemporary Haydn. The sound has been considerably improved, and collectors today can appreciate these vital performances as never before.