Johann Michael Haydn: Vocal & Instrumental Works (2007)

Recordings of music by Joseph Haydn's younger brother Michael show up from time to time on compilations of Classical-period choral or instrumental music, but this Belgian release is among the few discs to take on the task of communicating his style in general terms. Except in the rather bumptious humor of the minuet from the Divertimento for string quartet in A major, MH 299, he would seem to have been influenced more by Mozart than by his brother. This isn't a surprise, for Michael Haydn spent most of his career in the ... Read More

Recordings of music by Joseph Haydn's younger brother Michael show up from time to time on compilations of Classical-period choral or instrumental music, but this Belgian release is among the few discs to take on the task of communicating his style in general terms. Except in the rather bumptious humor of the minuet from the Divertimento for string quartet in A major, MH 299, he would seem to have been influenced more by Mozart than by his brother. This isn't a surprise, for Michael Haydn spent most of his career in the city where Mozart began his, serving the ecclesiastical authorities and noble families of Salzburg. The reader does not learn the composition date of he Sinfonia in E flat major , MH 340, but one can understand after hearing it how Haydn's works could have been taken for Mozart's at one time. The relationship is especially close in the two religious works included on the album. The Responsoria ad Matutinum in Nativitate Domimi, HG 639, short, sunny pieces for the offices of Christmas... Read Less