The charming, elegant music of Joseph Haydn’s London symphonies is repeatedly punctuated by flashes of tragedy. But no sooner has the listener adjusted to a change of mood than it is over again. It’s these rapid changes of colour that are characteristic of Haydn, a composer of great versatility, depth of thought and wit. The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen under the direction of its chief conductor Paavo Järvi makes all this audible and tangible. In the second part of their concert series on the London Symphonies at the Vienna Konzerthaus, they perform three more of Haydn’s London Symphonies, the Symphonies No. 93, No. 97 and No. 101 “The Clock”. For the recording of two of the London symphonies, Symphonies Nos. 101 and 103, the orchestra was honoured with the “Orchestra of the year 2023” award from the British classical music
magazine “Grammophone”, one of the most important awards in classical music.
Haydn was composer in residence in London twice: in the 1791/92 season and in the 1794/95 season. At that time, the city was in the throes of music fever, to which Haydn had contributed significantly. Today, one of his London symphonies often merely stands at the beginning of a concert in which a musical heavyweight by another – later – composer follows. The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, on the other hand, devotes itself entirely to the “Shakespeare of Music”, as Haydn was called by the press. The program includes an overture by his London composer friend William Shield and three of his London symphonies, for which Haydn reached into his great compositional bag of tricks.
“Haydn in particular has to be played as vividly as possible, and deliberately sometimes quite unconventionally, so that the hidden wit of his symphonies comes to the fore. And Paavo Järvi, Artistic Director of the Kammerphilharmonie Bremen for almost two decades, and his orchestra are true masters at this.” (Hamburger Abendblatt)
