RECORDING OF THE MONTH     CHOPIN Waltzes and Impromptus Vladimir Feltsman £11 post free World-wide VIVALDI The four seasons London Mozart Players/Juritz £12 post free World-wide BEETHOVEN Symphonies 4 and 5 LSO/Yondani Butt £12 post free World-wide

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[Johann] Michael HAYDN (1737 - 1806) Symphony P.4 (1764) [15.26] Symphony P.9 (1766) [13.29] Symphony P.44 (1771) [23.04] Symphony P.15 (1782) [23.08] Bournemouth Sinfonietta/Harold Farberman Recorded at Christchurch Priory, Dorset, UK, June 1985 Notes in English. Key signatures of the works not given. REGIS RRC 1188 [75.28]

Comparison Recordings in the Michael Haydn Symphony Series: Vox Turnabout PVT 7124: #’s P.20, P.32, P.42. Vox Box CDX 5020 #’s P.10, P.12, P.19, P.28, P.30, P.32 P.43. All these recordings of symphonies by Joseph Haydn’s younger brother Michael were made in the 1980s, but have been released a few at a time on various labels. The market for music by Michael Haydn is perceived to be small, even though he is the man who wrote "Mozart’s 37th Symphony;" Mozart borrowed the work (with permission), wrote a few bars of introduction to it and it was passed off as his own for many years. It’s a fine work, but now that it’s known not to be by Mozart it just isn’t played any more. It’s sort of like Bach’s Cantata #53; that used to be one of Bach’s most popular and frequently played works, but now that we know it’s really by Stölzel, it’s not played at all! What kind of silliness is this? Doesn’t anyone actually listen to the music? Can someone make sense of this to me? Michael Haydn’s works sound generally like those of his brother Franz Joseph, but are more daring rhythmically and harmonically — perhaps "quirky" is the right word. It’s as though Joseph Haydn got really drunk and had a dream wherein he met Prokofiev and Liszt and next morning tried to write down what he had heard. These performances capture all the energy, humour, and surprise that is in the music and the recordings have a sweet, natural, well-balanced sound. The last movement of P.44 quotes a tune that Mozart twenty years later gave to Papageno in the Magic Flute. The first movement of P.15 suggests a motif Joseph Haydn used in the first movement of his 45th Symphony. The "P" numbers refer to the catalogue compiled in 1907 by Lothar Perger. It was careless work, and included many symphonies by other composers, but much of that has been straightened out by now, by Farbermann in his preparations for these recordings. There are now thought to be a total of 41 authentic J. M. Haydn Symphonies (instead of Perger’s total of 52). Farbermann and the Bournemouth Sinfonietta seemed committed to recording them all, but disappointing disk sales have aborted the project at about half way through. The notes to this recording hint that Regis have a second CD’s worth to release this coming year, IF the sales of this disk warrant it. Consider this disk a blessing of great music. Buy it that ye may be further blest. Paul Shoemaker Advertising Rates Visitor stats MusicWeb International has over 40,000 Classical CD reviews on offer Discs received Having a problem Donating? Gerard Hoffnung Concerts & The Bricklayer Story   New Releases New Releases   MusicWeb sells the Polish catalogue CDAccord £10.50 post free W-W MusicWeb sells the Arcodiva catalogue £12.00 post free W-W £11.75 post-free world- wide MusicWeb can now offer you discs from the following catalogues: Prices include postage [Acte Préalable £13.50] [Arcodiva £12.00] [Avie from £6.25] [British Music Society £12.00] [CDACCORD from £13.50 ] [ClassicO £12.50] [Hallé from £11] [Heritage £10] [Hortus £14.99 ] [Lyrita ONLY £11.75 ] [Nimbus Special prices] [Northern Flowers £13.50] [REDCLIFFE £11 ] [Sheva £11] [Tactus £11.50 ] [Talent from £12.00 ] [Toccata Classics £10.50 ] Musicweb Special Offers Monthly Best Buys     Google Ads - for information about privacy matters, click here.  Amazon Musicweb International is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

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