Joseph Haydn's concertos for violoncello and orchestra stand out for their lightness and elegance. The Concerto in C major Hob. VIIb:1 was most likely written between 1762 and 1765, when Haydn was alr...
Haydn's last piano work is also considered to be his most famous single work for this instrument. The minor theme is filled with emotional depth: 'a melancholy andante in f minor, with variations, as...
During Joseph Haydn's lifetime, concertos for solo instruments and ensemble were generally written for a particular musician. In the case of Haydn's violoncello Concerto in D major Hob.VII:2, this per...
The preface by Christin Heitmann provides illuminating background information. Haydn did not assign the nickname 'Sun Quartets': it alludes to an edition of the time, in which the title page was decor...
Haydn allowed about ten years to pass before composing a new cycle of string quartets after opus 20: the so-called 'Russian Quartets'. This is the first series of quartets that we know he wrote with p...
At the end of the 18th century, the Viennese court trumpeter Anton Weidinger (1767-1852) invented the 'Klappentrompete' keyed trumpet, which allowed the trumpet to play the octave in chromatic (half-s...
Dvorák's famous Symphony from the New World abounds in melodic turns and phrases that call up the atmosphere of 'Indian melodies' and spirituals. Among them are pentatonic (five-tone) tunes, and synco...
Two of Joseph Haydn's three concertos for horn and orchestra have been lost, while two further horn concertos have often been mistakenly ascribed to him. Haydn's sole surviving horn concerto, whose au...
Clementi not only dedicated himself to the piano as a virtuoso and composer but also as a teacher, music publisher and instrument maker - so it is no wonder that he was referred to as the 'Father of t...
The works in this volume show the development of keyboard instruments in an exemplary manner: the early works were intended for harpsichord, two of which were for an instrument with the so-called 'Vie...
