Symphonies No 49 "La Passione" & No 80 / Violin Concerto No. 1 in C major

"Andreas Friesenhagen's booklet essay for Rene Jacobs's new disc of Haydn symphonies argues that these works were avant-garde in their time.
Working with the inspirational Freiburger Barockorchester, Jacobs provides the perfect justification of this proposition.
Jacobs is celebrated in the operatic field, and Haydn's various Allegros are delivered with a sense of expectation. But the slow movements say it all. In the Oxford Symphony's Adagio, a piano weaving through the score anticipates the mood of a Schumann Romance; the Andante of Symphony 91 is deliciously spiked with breathtaking improvisation.
And, as if this were not enough, mezzo Bernarda Fink's impassioned Scena di Berenice might well send you out on the Haydn operatic trail ... with many rewards guaranteed."
(William Dart NZ Herald)

The musicians of the Freiburger Barockorchester chose to highlight the craggiest 'Sturm und Drang' side of the composer in August 2008 when they recorded this symphony known as 'La Passione'. Composed in the deliberately chosen key of F minor, the work bathes in an intensely emotional atmosphere entirely characteristic of this pre-Romantic movement which came shortly before the arrival of the classical style. It is coupled here with Violin concerto No. 1 and Symphony No. 80, two calmer pieces which enable listeners to return to terra firma.