Harmonia Mundi's Cantatas pour les Esterházy, featuring Andreas Spering, the VokalEnsemble Köln, and the Capella Coloniensis of the WDR, addresses a neglected part of Haydn's output: the early cantatas Haydn composed for Prince Nicolaus I's court. At the time Haydn assumed the post of vice kapellmeister at the Esterházy estate in 1761, he had only been working as a professional composer for a short time and was regarded by his rivals as an inexperienced upstart; he wasn't named to the top position until 1766. Haydn's ...
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Harmonia Mundi's Cantatas pour les Esterházy, featuring Andreas Spering, the VokalEnsemble Köln, and the Capella Coloniensis of the WDR, addresses a neglected part of Haydn's output: the early cantatas Haydn composed for Prince Nicolaus I's court. At the time Haydn assumed the post of vice kapellmeister at the Esterházy estate in 1761, he had only been working as a professional composer for a short time and was regarded by his rivals as an inexperienced upstart; he wasn't named to the top position until 1766. Haydn's cantatas from this early period are rare and the majority of them are either lost or only survive in fragmentary form with their texts replaced. This disc features three of the survivors; both Destatevi, o miei fidi (1763) and Al Tuo arrivo felice (1764) have never been recorded before; annotator Andreas Friesenhagen informs us that previous editions of Qual dubbio ormai (1764) -- previously recorded by Nikolaus Harnoncourt -- originate with an inaccurate copy made in the...
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