top
Home Labels Contact
Organ Concertos
Joseph Haydn

Organ Concertos

Ton Koopman / Catherine Manson / Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra

Label: Challenge Classics
Format: CD
Barcode: 0608917239027
barcode
Catalog number: CC 72390
Releasedate: 01-10-10
The always radiating music of Joseph Haydn in a sparkling and lively interpretation of Ton Koopman, Catherine Manson (violin) and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. Haydn’s soloparts are not that simple but it is not in the first place the virtuosity that is the main theme here: it is more about the coherence between soloist and orchestra. About unity.
 
  • Ton Koopman and his Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir are internationally renowned artists
  • Ton Koopman is an international specialist in the field of baroque and (early) classical music
  • Recently Koopman won the ECHO Klassik Award, for Buxtehude, Opera Omnia, Vocal Works III (CC72246)
  • Koopman won the Editor's Choice in Gramophone (september 2009) for Opera Omnia X- Organ Works, Vol.5 (CC72249)
  • In 2008 Ton Koopman won the BBC Music Award  for part 22 of the Bach-Cantata series. The jury says: ‘...with superb control of style and technique.’
It is unclear how many organ concertos Joseph Haydn has written in total. Several of them are of doubtul authorship. Previously, ten concertos were attributed to Haydn, but these days, scholars have serious doubts about at least four of them. There is also discussion about the particular solo instrument for which the concertos were written. In the second half of the 18th century, the German word ‘Klavier’ denoted at least four instruments: pianoforte, harpsichord, organ en clavichord. There is little chance that these concertos were written for clavichord, mostly because it is unable to produce the required volume. The pianoforte is an instrument that plays a more prominent role in Haydn's later works, but was not yet in fashin when Haydn was 'Kapelmeister' at the court of Esterhazy.

There are also some indications that Haydn himself had the organ or harpsichord in mind for instance for the Concerto in C Hob.XVIII. He mentions so in the so-called ‘Entwurf-Katalog’, in which Haydn listed all of his own works.

These early concerto's are not about 'showing off' of one's solistic qualities, but more about the creative mixture and combining of solo and tutti, and finding new colours.