Haydn All-Stars (Haydn, Ravel, Fontyn, Brahms)

Featuring

Stanislas Gosset
Natasha Roqué Alsina
Clément Dami
Trio Ernest
Joseph Haydn
Maurice Ravel

Jacqueline Fontyn
Johannes Brahms

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Compositional Technique

Jacqueline Fontyn's piece 'Lieber Joseph!' is an explicit tribute to Haydn, drawing inspiration from his Sonata no. 62 and incorporating a 'Haydnish' liveliness and humor despite its modal atonality.

Instruments

The cellist of Trio Ernest, Clément Dami, plays a Claude-Augustin Miremont cello from Paris, 1874, generously loaned by François Guye.

Composition History

In 1909, to mark the centenary of Joseph Haydn's death, the Revue musicale française commissioned six composers, including Maurice Ravel, to write piano pieces in tribute, using the melodic transliteration of H-A-Y-D-N as a theme.

Composer Biography

Johannes Brahms, a composer featured on this album, kept a porcelain bust of Joseph Haydn in his bedroom, indicating a special musical intimacy.

Composition History

Joseph Haydn's Piano Trio no. 41, 'Jacob's Dream,' was originally a sonata for piano and violin, composed as a practical joke to encourage a virtuoso violinist to play in lower registers.

Recording & Production

Carlos Roque Alsina, a pianist-composer-improviser-arranger, created the arrangements for the Brahms and Ravel pieces on this album, reimagining works with reduced instrumentation for piano trio.

Composer's Artistic Vision

The album aims to present a vision of classical music that is alive and in perpetual motion, promoting Haydn's free and daring trios in dialogue with Romantic, modern, and contemporary music.