Haydn - Late Symphonies Vol.1: Nos. 93-95
£12.30
In stock - available for despatch within 1 working day
Despatch Information
This despatch estimate is based on information from both our own stock and the UK supplier's stock.
If ordering multiple items, we will aim to send everything together so the longest despatch estimate will apply to the complete order.
If you would rather receive certain items more quickly, please place them on a separate order.
If any unexpected delays occur, we will keep you informed of progress via email and not allow other items on the order to be held up.
If you would prefer to receive everything together regardless of any delay, please let us know via email.
Pre-orders will be despatched as close as possible to the release date.
Label: Naxos
Cat No: 8574516
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Orchestral
Release Date: 11th August 2023
Contents
Works
Symphony no.93 in D major, Hob.I:93Symphony no.94 in G major, Hob.I:94 'The Surprise'
Symphony no.95 in C minor, Hob.I:95
Artists
Danish Chamber OrchestraConductor
Adam FischerWorks
Symphony no.93 in D major, Hob.I:93Symphony no.94 in G major, Hob.I:94 'The Surprise'
Symphony no.95 in C minor, Hob.I:95
Artists
Danish Chamber OrchestraConductor
Adam FischerAbout
Fresh from their critically acclaimed series of the complete symphonies of Beethoven (8505251) and Brahms (857446567), the Danish Chamber Orchestra and Adam Fischer turn to Haydn’s late symphonies, beginning with the first three of the twelve ‘London’ symphonies, composed during Haydn’s first visit to the capital. Arguably his greatest achievements in the genre, they include the enduringly popular ‘surprise’ in the slow movement of no.94. Fischer and his orchestra, who have performed together for over two decades, employ varied bowing and playing styles in the strings and innovative dynamic techniques in the winds that bring new levels of excitement to these masterpieces.
The Hungarian-born conductor Adam Fischer (b. 1949) graduated from the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest and undertook further studies in Vienna. Adam Fischer has been associated with the Danish Chamber Orchestra since 1997, serving as chief conductor from 1998, where he still is a major driving force and initiator both in Denmark and internationally. In 2019, he was awarded the international Wolf Prize for Music, was nominated Conductor of the Year by Presto Classical in the UK, and received the BBC Music Magazine Awards Orchestral Award for his recording of Mahler’s Symphony no.1 with the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra.
Adam Fischer has conducted the Danish Chamber Orchestra for over two decades. In 2022 he was awarded with the International Classical Music Award for this lifetime achievements and has received – among others – the renowned Wolf Prize of the Wolf Foundation in Jerusalem and the Gold Medal in the Arts of the Kennedy Center, Washington DC. He has been a member of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights for more than 20 years. Since 2016 he has presented the Tonhalle Düsseldorf Human Rights Award every year.
He has performed at the Vienna State Opera, La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera as well as directing orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
Fischer has two major cycles already recorded for Naxos – the first is the complete Beethoven symphonies on 8505251 praised by Gramophone: ‘I find these performances utterly fascinating… The recorded sound is excellent.’ The second is the complete Brahms symphonies on 857446567, which received similar critical praise: ‘fascinating performances’ (The Guardian).
The Danish Chamber Orchestra is perhaps one of the most reactive, sensitive and expressive orchestras in the world because of Fischer’s involvement. ‘The Danish Chamber Orchestra’s excellent playing ensures a set in which relationships, between orchestral groups, between sections of movements, and between symphonies, are thoughtfully and provocatively delineated. These renditions showcase Beethoven’s revolutionary side in a way few other sets even come close to managing’ (Fanfare).
The Hungarian-born conductor Adam Fischer (b. 1949) graduated from the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest and undertook further studies in Vienna. Adam Fischer has been associated with the Danish Chamber Orchestra since 1997, serving as chief conductor from 1998, where he still is a major driving force and initiator both in Denmark and internationally. In 2019, he was awarded the international Wolf Prize for Music, was nominated Conductor of the Year by Presto Classical in the UK, and received the BBC Music Magazine Awards Orchestral Award for his recording of Mahler’s Symphony no.1 with the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra.
Adam Fischer has conducted the Danish Chamber Orchestra for over two decades. In 2022 he was awarded with the International Classical Music Award for this lifetime achievements and has received – among others – the renowned Wolf Prize of the Wolf Foundation in Jerusalem and the Gold Medal in the Arts of the Kennedy Center, Washington DC. He has been a member of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights for more than 20 years. Since 2016 he has presented the Tonhalle Düsseldorf Human Rights Award every year.
He has performed at the Vienna State Opera, La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera as well as directing orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
Fischer has two major cycles already recorded for Naxos – the first is the complete Beethoven symphonies on 8505251 praised by Gramophone: ‘I find these performances utterly fascinating… The recorded sound is excellent.’ The second is the complete Brahms symphonies on 857446567, which received similar critical praise: ‘fascinating performances’ (The Guardian).
The Danish Chamber Orchestra is perhaps one of the most reactive, sensitive and expressive orchestras in the world because of Fischer’s involvement. ‘The Danish Chamber Orchestra’s excellent playing ensures a set in which relationships, between orchestral groups, between sections of movements, and between symphonies, are thoughtfully and provocatively delineated. These renditions showcase Beethoven’s revolutionary side in a way few other sets even come close to managing’ (Fanfare).
Sound/Video
Paused
-
1Symphony No.93 in D major: 1. Adagio – Allegro assai
-
2Symphony No.93 in D major: 2. Largo cantabile
-
3Symphony No.93 in D major: 3. Menuetto. Allegro – Trio
-
4Symphony No.93 in D major: 4. Finale. Presto ma non troppo
-
5Symphony No.94 in G major ‘The Surprise’: 1. Adagio cantabile – Vivace assai
-
6Symphony No.94 in G major ‘The Surprise’: 2. Andante
-
7Symphony No.94 in G major ‘The Surprise’: 3. Menuetto. Allegro molto – Trio
-
8Symphony No.94 in G major ‘The Surprise’: 4. Finale. Allegro molto
-
9Symphony No.95 in C minor: 1. Allegro
-
10Symphony No.95 in C minor: 2. Andante
-
11Symphony No.95 in C minor: 3. Menuetto – Trio
-
12Symphony No.95 in C minor: 4. Finale. Vivace
Europadisc Review
Following their acclaimed, historically-informed sets of Beethoven and Brahms symphonies on Naxos, Adam Fischer and the Danish Chamber Orchestra now turn their attention to one of the great musical figures behind both those composers: Joseph Haydn. Their first release in a series of all Haydn’s late symphonies from the ‘Paris’ Symphonies onwards comprises the first three ‘London’ Symphonies (nos. 93–95), from the series of six that Haydn composed for his phenomenally successful initial visit to the British capital in 1791–92. Despite the periodic neglect that Haydn’s music has experienced over the years (partly, one suspects, because of its sheer quantity), the 12 ‘London’ Symphonies have never been short of recordings, from old-school giants like Beecham, Szell and Jochum to period-instrument advocates such as Brüggen and Norrington. The range of interpretative styles on offer is indeed wide.
Fischer himself has previously recorded the complete Haydn symphonies, with the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra, and it is clear both from his ‘mission statement’ in the accompanying leaflet and in these new performances (recorded in Copenhagen last autumn) that this is music he cares about deeply. Deploying an impressive-sounding but not swamping string section, with first and second violins seated antiphonally to the listener’s left and right, Fischer and his players have given great thought to such matters as attack, bow-strokes, dynamics, quality of sound, and the shaping of wind notes and phrases. The results – of a sort familiar from their Beethoven and Brahms recordings – breathe freshness into these well-known works, and the performances are consistently lively and engaging.
The disc opens with the Symphony no.93 in D major, composed in 1791 but, like no.94, not heard until the spring of 1792. This is Haydn in splendidly ceremonial mode, with an imposing slow introduction not a million miles away from that to Beethoven’s Second Symphony, and trumpets and drums make their presence felt from the outset. Fischer is no slouch, and the main Allegro assai is taken at a fair lick, with plenty of air both in the sails and within the textures. Some listeners will respond more positively than others to this brisk-and-breezy, slightly choppy approach, but listen with close attention and you’ll marvel at the variety of attack and tone that the Danish players produce.
Starting with just a solo string quartet, the Largo cantabile is one of the unheralded pearls among the ‘London’ Symphonies as a whole; the notorious bassoon ‘fart’ near the movement’s end is treated to an almighty rattling crescendo to underscore its vulgarity. The Minuet – complete with martial trumpet-and-drum calls, has an indulgent swing, while the Presto finale zips along with just enough space for the witty exploitation of pauses to be effective.
More familiar to audiences is Symphony no.94 ‘The Surprise’, first performed a month after no.93. Among its ear catching moments are crushed grace notes added by Fischer and his players to the violins’ leaping figure in the first movement’s main Vivace assai. The second movement’s famous ‘Surprise’ is played relatively straight compared to some rivals on disc, but the attack on the fortissimo chord is razor-edged, and the pianissimo that precedes it is played at barely a whisper. There are other surprises in store, too, most striking of which is the strings’ col legno accompaniment to the clucking oboe at the beginning of the woodwind variation: naughty but nice! The Minuet again goes with a real swing, with the strings reduced to just solo players in the Trio (another highly effective intervention), and the violins’ use of ricochet in the opening pages of the Finale is another instance of the care and thought put into these performances.
The austere opening octaves of Symphony no.95 in C minor – the only one of the ‘London’ Symphonies in a minor key – seem to have put early audiences off; the Minuet is similarly severe. Yet against these should be set the sunny grace of the first movement’s E flat major second subject, and the lovely cello solo in the Minuet’s Trio section. The warmth of the Andante second movement, and the way the C major Finale eases itself into action are further reasons why this work should by no means be seen as a return to the Sturm und Drang of Haydn’s middle period. Fischer’s way with this work lets the light flood in, figuration on the clipped rather than expansive side, but the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it minore episode in the Finale still makes its presence felt. It’s a splendid conclusion to the disc as a whole.
Fischer and his players clock in the three works at 61 minutes, shaving a good 4–5 minutes off such HIP rivals as Norrington and Goodman. It’s a dizzying ride, but every moment is worth it. Even in the context of the renewed attention Haydn’s symphonies are receiving in the run-up to 2032’s tercentenary, Fischer’s new recording cuts quite a dash, and it bodes well for the future of this project. The performances amply demonstrate just how astonishing these works can still be when played with the imagination and flair they deserve. In his booklet notes Fischer writes, ‘We believe that boredom must be declared war upon. … We want to show everyone how great, dramatic, lively and emotional this music is.’ He and his players have certainly achieved their objective!
Error on this page? Let us know here
Need more information on this product? Click here