Haydn2032 No. 20 _FOR ENGLISH GENTLEMEN

Haydn Night “For English Gentlemen“ pm: CONCERT BASEL CHAMBER ORCHESTRA GIOVANNI ANTONINI, CONDUCTOR Joseph Haydn (1732-1809): SYMPHONY IN E FLAT MAJOR HOB. I:76 (1782) Allegro / Adagio ma non troppo / Menuet. Allegretto - Trio / Finale. Allegro ma non troppo SYMPHONY IN B FLAT MAJOR HOB. I:77 (1782) Vivace / Andante sostenuto / Menuet. Allegro - Trio / Finale. Allegro (spiritoso) Interval (25 min) Johann Christian Bach (1735–1782): SYMPHONY IN G MINOR OP. 6 NO. 6 (BEFORE 1769) Allegro / Andante più tosto adagio / Allegro molto Joseph Haydn (1732-1809): SYMPHONY IN C MINOR HOB. I:78 (1782) Vivace / Adagio / Menuet. Allegretto - Trio / Finale. Presto ‘Last year I composed three beautiful, splendid symphonies, not too long, scored for two violins, viola, bass, two horns, two oboes, one flute and one bassoon, but all of them very easy and not containing too much concertante writing, for English gentlemen, which I wanted to deliver in person and perform there; but since a single circumstance has prevented this, I am prepared to give these three symphonies into [other] hands . . .’ (Haydn to the Paris publisher Boyer, Eszterháza, 15 July 1783) ‘ . . . io mi trovo di salute passabilmente: ma ho quasi sempre un humore Inglese, cioè melanconico e sarò forse mai di questo humore, che l’avevo mentre che sono stato con te.’ (I am in tolerable health, but am almost always in an ‘English humour’, that is to say, a melancholy one, and perhaps I will never again be in the [good] humour I experienced when I was with you.) (Haydn to Luigia Polzelli, London, 14 January 1792) Joseph Haydn very nearly set out on his first journey to England not in December 1790, but a number of years earlier. At any rate, a certain Willoughby Bertie, Fourth Earl of Abingdon, a passionate amateur composer who was one of the most important patrons on the London music scene, endeavoured to secure Haydn’s presence for the 1783 season of the Hanover Square Grand Concerts, a new series that he co-financed, intending it as the successor to the Bach-Abel concerts discontinued in 1782. Haydn was finally unable to accept the invitation, probably because his employer, Prince Nikolaus I Esterházy, had refused to grant him leave of absence . . . whereupon he had no choice but to sell to various publishers in London, Paris and Vienna the three symphonies he had written ‘for English gentlemen’, which he really had ‘wanted to deliver in person and perform there’. Those symphonies, now known as nos. 76, 77 and 78, are the master’s earliest orchestral works written primarily for a foreign audience. Haydn2032 In the lead-up to the 300th anniversary of Joseph Haydn’s birth in 2032, the Joseph Haydn Foundation in Basel is organising, producing and financing the performance and recording of all 107 of the composer’s symphonies by Il Giardino Armonico and Basel Chamber Orchestra under the artistic direction of Giovanni Antonini, one of the most highly-respected specialists in baroque, early classical and classical music, with its project Haydn2032. The recordings are released on CD and in a luxury vinyl collector’s edition in book form. The French group Outhere Music / Alpha Classis acts as partner for the recordings. The first fourteen volumes have been released on CD and 9 volumes on vinyl with two further volumes planned for release every year. Joseph Haydn Foundation, Haydn2032 (c) Martin Parr, Magnum Photos