COMPOSERS: Haydn
LABELS: Decca
WORKS: Eight Notturni, Hob. II:25-32
PERFORMER: The Music Party/Alan Hacker
CATALOGUE NO: 458 075-2 ADD Reissue (1976)
These delightful pieces were originally written for small chamber ensemble including two lire organizzate, simple mechanical street organs similar to the hurdy-gurdy, and were commissioned by the King of Naples who was reputedly an enthusiastic exponent of this instrument.
Haydn subsequently rescored them, omitting the lire organizzate, for the celebrated Salomon concerts in London, and this is the form used for these period-instrument recordings. The performances, dating from the mid-Seventies, are generally stylish, though the tendency to bulge on long notes is occasionally irritating and, for me, the clarinet playing is at times too strident and dominant. Tim Payne