Not Enough Haydn?

Photograph of Haydn-lover and conductor Leonard Slatkin rehearsing the Orchestre National de Lyon (photograph by KokotheDog made on March 23, 2016, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license)

Having written yesterday about the recordings made by Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam in performances of operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, this morning I embarked on the next stage of my listening experience. This involves Mozart’s contemporary among the First Viennese School composers, Joseph Haydn. Thirteen of Haydn’s symphonies are included in the collection, the earliest being Hoboken I:68 in B-flat major, completed in 1776. The other twelve are the last of the symphonies, known collectively as the “London” symphonies, since that is where Haydn composed them. This accounts for six CDs; and, as I write this, I am still in the first of those CDs, reflecting on how long it has been since I last listened to Hoboken I:68! Nevertheless, I am eager to continue this journey, since I still live by Leonard Slatkin’s precept: “You can never conduct enough Haydn or Schubert.” Watch this space for further developments!