Search - Franz Joseph Haydn, Haydn Trio Eisenstadt, Lorna Anderson :: Joseph Haydn: Scottish Songs for George Thomson I

A long delayed Important event

W. R. Shindle | Westminster, MD | 09/17/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Over two centuries ago, between 1800 and 1804, in agreement with George Thompson, Haydn made arrangements of about 125 or more Scottish Folk Songs accompanied by piano, violin and violoncello. Until recently, they were more or less regarded as trifles. With the appearance of the first 112 plus 6 variations of these songs in the Joseph Haydn Werke (JHW, XXXII,3) by Marjorie Rycroft, assisted by Warwick Edwards and Kirsteen McCue in 2001, and now with the recording of this complete volume by Lorna Anderson and Jamie MacDougall, two Scottish singers, accompanaed by the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt, on 5 cds (one in Vol. 1 and 4 in Vol. 2), we can now begin to recognise what masterpieces these trifles are. According to the agreement between Thompson and Haydn, the composer was to compose the opening and closing "symphonies." Given the fact that Haydn was not supplied with the text, a number of which is in Scottish dialect, it is surprising how he understood the essence of each song, and it was to the advantage in these performances that we had the two Scottish singers who could sing in the dialect and transmit to the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt the basic character of each song. It should be noted that at the same time Haydn was working on this project, he was also composing three of his late masterpieces, the Creation Mass, the Harmonie Mass, and the Oratorio, The Seasons. Highly commended."