Australian Haydn Ensemble - Haydn’s Oxford

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Haydn’s London Symphonies: Part 1

Part 1! How enticing. If a CD revival eventually eclipses the current vinyl vogue, can we look forward to a 300th birthday /Brisbane Olympics “boxed set” of all 12 by 2032?

Violinist and impresario Peter Salomon was the guardian angel (slash shrewd businessman) who put Haydn on a boat to London after a younger “less enlightened” (ok, philistine) Esterházy sacked all his musicians and kept the composer on for domestic duties. English audiences went wild, symphonies poured out and sterling poured in but these “tours” represented a genuine sea-change in music history: the fans were middle to upper-middle class music lovers, not diversion-seeking aristocrats. And in the absence of a foyer CD (let alone vinyl) stall, they were all ravenous to listen again at home. So… you guessed it, Salomon added a lucrative by-line in downsized arrangements for amateur parlour use.

As AHE listeners will know, these versions, often for string sextet and flute, are a long way from pale imitations: newly imagined for the medium, they are actually a refreshing listen when compared to the brass and drum heavy “warhorse” school of orchestral playing.

Alright, pedants put up your quills: we know No. 92 The Oxford is not officially a Londoner. It premiered in Paris, but such was Salomon’s haste to get Haydn his doctorate, he didn’t have time to write any new ones and so white-lied in his exam by recycling his most recent, sweetened by some palindromic canons for the…