Haydn: Piano Concertos Nos. 3, 4 & 11

�Hamelin and Les Violons du Roy play that gypsy finale [of the D major Concerto] with irresistable verve...If there's an incongruity between the sound of Hamelin's modern piano and that of the period-band that accompanies him, it's one that's easy to get used to...it's hard not to enjoy Hamelin's showmanship and the eloquence of his slow movements is an added bonus.� --BBC Music Magazine, May 2013 ****

�Hamelin could probably hum these concertos into a battered plastic kazoo and they�d still sound great. Everything works. There�s the requisite dynamism and energy, coupled with a superhuman lightness of touch...Hyperion�s sound is beyond reproach. Another entry in my provisional "Best of 2013" list.� --The Arts Desk, April 2013

�[in the F major] Hamelin weaves an enchanting spell, approaching an almost Mozartian pathos...[in the finale of the D major] he pushes forward without dropping the tempo, heightening the delirium of this whirling gypsy dance. Add to that some unmarked col legno earlier in the same movement for an authentic touch of Hungarian paprika and the result cannot fail to raise a smile.� --Gramophone Magazine, May 2013

�Hamelin�s songful legato in the F major�s largo cantabile and bravura in the presto finales make the strongest possible cases for these works, and I don�t know a more exhilarating account of the D major � but it ought to be the disc�s climax.� --Sunday Times, 21st April 2013

Haydn: Piano Sonatas Volume 5

�Bavouzet continues to demonstrate his deep engagement with the sonatas through his ever-questing insistence on viewing the score merely as a working document� --Gramophone Magazine, July 2013

�As each volume appears, Bavouzet goes from strength to strength...As in the previous volumes, one gets the immediate impression that he clearly loves these works and plays them with great commitment.� --MusicWeb International, 27th June 2013

�These are landmark recordings, thanks to the French pianist�s stylistic command and sheer delight in the music. The latest disc is dominated by the jolly Sonata No 15 in E, the tripping ornamental motifs of which tumble out with a mixture of nonchalance and elegance...Bavouzet reveals the music�s expressive charm and craftsman-like ingenuity.� --Financial Times, 6th April 2013 ****

�lively and nuanced pianism in translucent recorded sound� --BBC Music Magazine, June 2013 ****

The Haydn Project

In celebration of its 25th anniversary season, the Emerson String Quartet turns its attention to Franz Joseph Haydn with this collection of some of the composer's best-known string quartets. Haydn is the natural choice for such a commemoration -- he established the string quartet as a genre -- and the Emersons, who play here with characteristic precision and intensity, waste no time finding the lyricism, wit, and pure joy in his wonderful music.

The program of seven works is organized chronologically, beginning with the Fifth Quartet from the breakthrough Opus 20, in which the composer first showed the profound artistic potential of the new genre. The following Quartet Op. 33 no. 2, called "The Joke," is the first of several with titles, this one derived from the work's humorous ending without an end. Listeners unfamiliar with its pause-filled finale will simply not know when it has finished. With the second disc, we encounter Haydn's quartets in full maturity, especially Op. 76 no. 2, the "Quinten" or "Fifths" Quartet, where a new experimental spirit can be heard, as well as premonitions of Beethoven, who studied with Haydn.

A third "bonus disc" offers an anthology of samples from the Emerson's extensive recording catalogue -- ranging from Mozart and Beethoven to Ives and Shostakovich. Their recording of the complete Shostakovich quartets won a 2001 Grammy Award. Curiously, the Emersons have not often recorded Haydn's quartets. This set, then, is not only a timely tribute to them; it's a crucial addition to their growing collection of superb recordings.

Haydn: String Quartets, Op. 33 Nos. 1-6 (complete)

�What is most impressive is the Borodin's sensitivity to the Haydnesque features that lend the music its special character, most notably its wit, in the sense of both humour and imagination...In the Borodin's superb accounts, we are reminded of all [Haydn's] virtues in a way that comes closer to the heart of the music than do most of the other [performances] I have heard.� --International Record Review, April 2011

�readings that are remarkable for their consistency of tone and security of technique. They rattle off fast movements with �lan...and serve slow movements well with their rapt concentration� --Gramophone Magazine, July 2011

Haydn composed his six string quartets op.33 between 1778 and 1781. He wrote that he had composed them �in a new and special way�. This was a rather mischievous claim, as the quartets do not represent a revolutionary compositional advance, rather a shift in style towards intimacy and subtlely from the flamboyant op.20 set of nearly ten years earlier. It was, though, a rather good promotional and sales gimmick on Haydn�s part.

These quartets are the lightest and most humorous in nature of all his mature quartets and do break new ground in having scherzos in place of the old minuet. This new term and the nature of the scherzo would appeal in a few years time to Haydn�s young pupil from Bonn, Ludwig van Beethoven.

Good humour abounds throughout op.33, especially the repeated false ending to the finale of no.2, where Haydn was said to have made a bet with friends that there would be applause at several points before the work ended. The nickname �The Joke� was quickly applied to this work.

Trumpet Concertos by Haydn, Albinoni, Neruda & Hummel

��listeners will find in this 20-year old Norwegian a musician who plays with an especially beguiling, sweet and shimmering line, nonchalant technical authority and stylish understatement.� --Gramophone Magazine, March 2008

�- Helseth relishes Haydn?s epoch-making excursions into chromaticism with alacrity, especially in the slow movement, which she shapes with disarming naturalness. A splendid d�but disc. More please!� " --International Record Review

Tine Thing Helseth (trumpet)
Norwegian Chamber Orchestra

The young trumpet virtuoso Tine Thing Helseth came to the attention of audiences and critics when she was awarded 2nd prize in the 2006 Eurovision Young Musicians finale in Vienna. With her debut CD, which includes a stunningly fresh new recording of the ever-popular Haydn concerto as well as terrific performances of works by Albinoni, Hummel and Neruda, she seems destined to take the world of classical music by storm.