Luogo e data di registrazione		Glenn Gould Studio, Toronto, Ontario (Canada) - 15/19 February 1994
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer / Recording supervisor		Wolf Erichson
	Recording Engineer / Editing		Markus Heiland (Tritonus)
	Prima Edizione LP		-
	Prima Edizione CD		Sony / Vivarte - SK 66 296 - (CD) - durata 71' 04" - (p) 1994 - DDD
	Cover Art		Haydn at the Piano (Goauche) by Johann Zitterer (1761-1840) - (Archiv für Kunst und Geschichte, Berlin)
	Note		-

Haydn: Paris Symphonies Haydn's music was immensely popular in 18th -century France. In 1764 the first Haydn symphonies and string quartets were published in Paris, and in the course of the next two decades French publishers capitalized on the composer's popularity, issuing symphonies, quartets, string trios, piano sonatas, piano trios, and the Stabat Mater. Haydn earned nothing from these wily publishers; they secured Viennese copyists, who fed them “Haydn” in a steady illegal stream. By the end of the 1760s the publishers had run out of authentic material and began to issue quantities of spurious works under the composer`s name. Thus it happened that symphonies and quartets by other Austrian composers whose music sounded like Haydn's were pirated and published under his name in France: favourite sources include Haydn's brother in Salzburg, Johann Michael, but also Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Leopold Hofmann, Johann Baptist Vanhal, and Carlos d'0rdoñez. In one case we can even observe how the engravers operated; a set of string quartets by one Pater Roman Hoffstetter - a monk in an obscure South German monastery - arrived in Paris, and the engravers began to work on them. Midway, they decided that the works could be marketed as “Haydn”, and so they erased (but not thoroughly) Hoffstetter's name and substituted Haydn`s. In this fashion came into dubious being the now-celebrated “Haydn” Quartets, Op. 3, with the famous Serenade. Bearing in mind, then, the composer`s colossal popularity in France, we turn now to the commission that produced Haydn's finest symphonies of his pre-London period - the set of six composed for Paris in 1785-1786. The initiator of this scheme was a remarkable French aristocrat named Claude-François-Marie Rigoley, Comte d'Ogny (1757-1790), one of the backers of a celebrated Parisian concert organization, Le Concert de la Loge Olympique, founded by a distinguished group of liberal Freemasons. D'Ogny`s father had been the Intendant Général des Postes, a prestigious position inherited by the son in 1785. In order to begin negotiations d'Ogny asked the orchestra leader (chef d'orchestre), le Chevalier Joseph-Boulogne de Saint-Georges - a colourful native of the French colonies who was equally proficient as a violinist, composer, and lady-killer - to write to Haydn with the commission. Later, in 1871, H. Barbette reported the details of this contract in Le Ménestrel, stating that negotiations began in 1784 or early 1785, and that the Concert agreed to pay Haydn 25 louis d'or for each of the six symphonies (“ce qui avait paru à Haydn un prix colossal, car jusqu'alors ses symphonies ne lui avaient rien rapporté'”). Haydn was also to receive a further 5 louis d'or for the publication rights. This fee, according to a recent study by Gérard Gefen (Les Musiciens et la franc-maçonnerie, Paris, 1993: 77), was five times that which the Concert usually offered for a symphony. For comparison, twenty-five louis d 'or represents about 300,000 fr., DM 100,000, or $ 60,000 in today's money. Haydn wrote at least two symphonies (Nos. 83 and 87) and possibly a third (No. 85 - no autograph survives) in 1785. The others (Nos. 82, 84, 86) were written in 1786, judging from the evidence of Haydn's dated autographs. The first edition of the set, published by Imbault in Paris, is ordered: 83, 87, 85, 82, 86, 84, possibly the order in which Haydn wrote and sent them to the Loge Olympique. Artaria in Vienna, who also published an authentic two-part edition of the “Paris” Symphonies (as they are now universally called), used the order common today - although it is chronologically false. The orchestra of the Loge Olympique - “rempli indépendamment par les plus habiles amateurs de Paris” - contained forty violins and ten double basses. They were dressed in skyblue coats and wore swords at their sides. Symphony No. 85 became a favourite of Marie Antoinette, and on Imbault`s first edition it was entitled “La Reine de France”. The first performance appears to have taken place in the 1787 season, for in January 1788 the Mercure de France published an announcement by Imbault, advertising the six new works for sale: “These Symphonies, of a most beautiful character and of an astonishing standard, should be studied with the most vivid enthusiasm by those who had the good fortune to have heard them, and - even by those who do not know them. The name of Haydn [sic] guarantees their extraordinary merit.” Reviewing performances of these new works in the Concert Spirituel for the 1788 season, and in particular their concert of Saturday, April 5, 1788, the Mercure de France offered the following Commentary: “In all the concerts one played symphonies by M. Haydn. Each day, one listens more carefully, and, consequently, the more one admires the productions of this vast genius who constructs, in each of his works, such rich and varied developments from a single subject. [He is] quite the opposite of those sterile composers who pass continually from one idea to another instead of choosing a single, variable one; and who produce mechanically one effect after another, without linking them, and without taste. The symphonies of M. Hayden [sic] - always sure in their effect - would have been heard to even greater advantage had the room been more resonant, and if its shape had permitted the director of this concert to place the orchestra more advantageously... ”. Once the "Paris" Symphonies had been engraved by Imbault with the express indications, “Grave d'apres les partitions originales appartenant à la Loge Olympique”, they passed into history and became so popular that French audiences began to attach names to them. Thus No. 82 became “L'Ours” (The Bear), No. 83 “La Poule” (The Hen); and, as we have seen, No. 85, on the first and subsequent French editions, was called “La Reine de France”. In Sieber's Parisian edition, passed for publication on January 9, 1788 by the famous composer Grétry (1741-1813) (acting for Monseigneur le Garde des Finances), No. 85 was moved into first place, to honour the soon to be dishonoured queen. We consider now the “Paris” Symphonies, not in their presumed chronological order (see commentary above), but in the order in which they are now generally known. Symphony No. 85, La Reine de France, has remained one of the most popular works in this series. The introduction (Adagio) is one of Haydn's veiled tributes to French taste; the dotted rhythms call immediately to mind the rhythmic characteristics of the old French overture. The ensuing Vivace is based on a striking subject, highly legato in the top line and highly staccato in the bottom. Haydn goes to the trouble of marking the melody cantabile. The lead-back to the recapitulation is particularly effective. The next movement is a romance (Allegretto) based upon an old French folk-song called “La gentille et jeune Lisette”, from which Haydn forms an exquisite set of variations. The Trio of the Menuet comes to an extraordinary high point in the second section, where time seems magically to stand still as Haydn spins out his melody over a gigantic pedal point in the horns. The Finale is a perfect example of sonata-rondo form, which Haydn seems not only to have perfected, but also invented. An extraordinary tale is connected with Marie Antoinette, imprisoned in the “Temple”- as that fortress was known - with her husband and children: “Another of those who came to the Temple was Lepitre, a young professor who became a member of the provincial Commune on December 2nd [1792]. With him on duty one morning was Toulan, a man who did all he could to make life more bearable for the royal family. There was a harpsichord by the door of Madame Elizabeth`s room, which he tried to play, only to find it was badly out of tune. Marie Antoinette came up to him: 'I should be glad to use that instrument, so I can continue my daughter's lessons, but it is impossible in its present condition, and I have not succeeded in getting it tune.' Lepitre and Toulan sent out a message, and the harpsichord was tuned the same evening. As we were looking through the small collection of music that day, upon the instrument we found a piece called La Reine de France [Haydn's Symphony No. 85]. “Times have changed”, said Her Majesty, and we could not restrain our tears.” [John Hearsey, Marie Antoinette, 1974: 190] Symphony No. 86 is the second work of the “Paris” set to use trumpets and timpani, which Haydn puts to brilliant use in the quick movements. After the D major grandeur of the opening movement (which includes a rhapsodic slow introduction), we encounter the most enigmatic and intellectually challenging movement of the six symphonies. Haydn calls it a Capriccio (Largo), and it is almost like an improvision that the composer has written down. It is indeed an unusual movement, whose emotional content defies normal description; it is neither happy nor sad, but inhabits a magical world of its own. The Menuet is a large scale affair in which we find elements of a sonata form in miniature; the middle section works out the material much in the manner of a development. Its Trio, on the other hand, presents no intellectual challenge; it is the direct predecessor of the Austrian waltz, and its delightful melody and simple accompaniment stand at the beginning of a tradition that was to lead - via Mozart and Schubert - to the music of the Strauss dynasty. The symphony concludes with a brilliant and witty Finale (Allegro con spirito), whose splendid orchestrational tapestry may conceal from the unwitting listener an incredible display of counterpoint and fine motivic work. Symphony No. 87 is in the bright key of A major. Haydn employs this key in the first movement (Vivace) not only for its enhancement of the sturdy and rhythmically concentrated opening, but also for its adaptability to singing passages. In these passages the innate warmth of A major is so ingratiating that we feel almost transported to south of the Alps. The slow movement (Adagio) features one of those grand melodies that might have come directly from our grandmother's hymn book. In this grave but lovely movement, the fine use of woodwinds can hardly escape notice. The rather aggressive Menuet is set off nicely by a brilliant oboe solo in the Trio. The Finale (Vivace) opens with one of those artful tunes that later lends itself to contrapuntal treatment. Notice especially how Haydn treats the melody in the development section. Altogether, one cannot help but believe that Haydn sometimes wrote such movements backwards, composing, as it were, the complicated development section first. This “facture étonnante”, as the French referred to it, is one of the great things about the “Paris” Symphonies. The craftsmanship is never obtrusive, and it never prevents the listener from apprcciating these symphonies purely and directly for their warmth, strength, and beauty. © 1994 H. C. Robbins Landon