Haydn: Variations on 'Gott erhalte Franz, den Kaiser' in G major (after Hob.III/77ii)

The legendary Viennese pianist, Paul Badura-Skoda, has issued a new recording of five piano masterworks by Joseph Haydn, for the bicentenary of his death. Johann Schantz's fortepiano from Badura-Skoda's collection, is the most appropriate instrument available today for interpreting Haydn's music. In a letter to Marianne von Genzinger dated 4 July 1790, Haydn refers to Johann Schantz as "the best pianoforte maker". In the late '80s and early '90s Paul Badura-Skoda recorded a small collection of four single volumes on the same instrument, with Michel Bernstein and for Astrée. The booklet contains notes (in four languages) by Badura-Skoda himself. In 1945, Badura-Skoda entered the Vienna Conservatory, and two years later won a scholarship which allowed him to study with Edwin Fischer. In 1949,Wilhelm Furtwängler and Herbert von Karajan became aware of his outstanding talent and invited him to play and practically overnight he became world famous. Since then, Badura-Skoda has been a regular and celebrated guest at the most important music festivals, and a soloist with the world´s most prestigious orchestras, recording a vast repertoire: more than 200 LPs and dozens of compact discs including the complete cycles of the piano sonatas of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. He performs with equal authority on both period and modern instruments and was a pioneer in proposing the use of period pianos in perfomance.

Gary Cooper is now established as one of the foremost ambassadors of the harpsichord and fortepiano - in particular, as an interpreter of Bach’s & Mozart’s keyboard music – and as a director of period performance in concert, and in opera. Gary is ‘Artist in Residence’ of the exciting Belgian period instrument ensemble, B’Rock, directing orchestral and opera productions, recordings, and is guest artistic director of a new festival in Bruges. This coming season, Gary appears at major festivals such as the Flanders Festival, the Bruges, Utrecht, Potsdam and Innsbruck Early Music Festivals and throughout the UK.

The Duo partnership of Gary Cooper with Rachel Podger has taken them worldwide. Their recordings, with Channel Classics, of Mozart’s Complete Sonatas for Keyboard & Violin has received countless awards and accolades, including multiple Diapason d’Or awards and Gramophone Editor’s Choices, and hailed as ‘benchmark’ recordings.

"The inspiration for this recording was derived from that all-too-rare occurrence: a perfect marriage of instrument and composer's music. The language of Haydn's later keyboard writing, containing such infinitesimal subtlety of expression, inflection, dynamic range, colour, and every mood under the sun, from tempest to sunny wit, seems to me perfectly matched by the gem of a piano used for this recording,dating from Vienna c.1785. In truth, I have never encountered an instrument capable of such breadth of touch and response from this period: to my mind, Haydn's last, and greatest, keyboard works, richly deserve being heard on such a piano, in order that the fullest range of expression and depth of imagination contained in these remarkable pieces may be brought alive.” Gary Cooper

This complete Haydn music for solo keyboard box set includes 15 CDs featuring 55 sonatas as well as sets of dances and variations and various independent pieces. Included is also an unusual keyboard arrangement of The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross, published in 1787 with the composer’s approval. These recordings were originally released between 1999 and 2004, in instalments which received universal acclaim, including a Cannes Classical Award in 2004.