Haydn | Symphonies Nos 6, 7, 8

The second album of Wrocław Baroque Orchestra with three excellent Joseph Haydn’s symphonies.

Date of release: 2011

Publishers: National Forum of Music, CD Accord

Conductor: Jarosław Thiel

Performers: Wrocław Baroque Orchestra

Although the vast majority of the titles of Haydn’s symphonies were given to them by the audience, critics or biographers, the names of the “times of day” symphonies seem to be the composer’s original idea. In the preserved autograph of Symphony in C major No. 7, we find the heading Le midi, written in Haydn’s hand – although we know the other two compositions of the cycle only from copies, it is assumed that this is a sufficient clue confirming the authenticity of their descriptions. We also have indirect evidence: in the library of the Esterházy princes, in addition to a copy of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, there was also Werner’s composition A New and Very Peculiar Instrumental Musical Calendar, describing all the months of the year. Perhaps the initiator of the idea of works depicting the time of day was the prince, who liked such associations, as suggested by another biographer of Haydn, Albert Christoph Dies. However, his memories would suggest that the prince meant string quartets, but we do not know of any. Whatever the case, Haydn (unlike e.g. Vivaldi and his Sonnets) did not leave us any specific literary programme that would be the key to the interpretation of the symphony. The only two fragments in the entire cycle (“sunrise" – Adagio from the first movement of the Symphony in D major No. 6 and “storm” in the finale of the Symphony in G major No. 8) which can be read as an imitation of nature would rather indicate that neither the titles nor did the composer particularly suggest a literary programme.

While recording this wonderful music, we felt a bit like players of Haydn’s orchestra 250 years ago. We are a young orchestra that wants to show its skills, and working on the symphonies was a real pleasure for us. We hope that we will give the listeners of this album the same amount of joy.

Jarosław Thiel

Awards: Nomination for Fryderyk 2012