The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, despite its name and despite the fact that the skills needed to produce convincing period-instrument readings of Classical-era music are very different from those for the Baroque, has emerged as one of the top ensembles performing music of the period roughly defined by Haydn's career. The group has outdone itself with this release of Haydn's early trilogy of daypart symphonies: the Symphony No. 6, "Le Matin"; Symphony No. 7, "Le Midi," and Symphony No. 8, "Le Soir." There are countless ...
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The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, despite its name and despite the fact that the skills needed to produce convincing period-instrument readings of Classical-era music are very different from those for the Baroque, has emerged as one of the top ensembles performing music of the period roughly defined by Haydn's career. The group has outdone itself with this release of Haydn's early trilogy of daypart symphonies: the Symphony No. 6, "Le Matin"; Symphony No. 7, "Le Midi," and Symphony No. 8, "Le Soir." There are countless recordings of these works available, but their programmatic aspects have perhaps never been so vividly realized. Start with the slow introductions to the opening movements, with the string textures that come in somewhere between purring and murky; it is very lovely and evocative of dawn at the beginning of the "Le Matin" symphony. The period brasses and winds used create a lot of extramusical noise in the tutti passages, but out of this rush of sound emerge the solo passages that are the...
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