Haydn / Ligeti: Concertos & Capriccios

'Humour and seriousness, for me, always go together' György Ligeti

'In a moment of most excellent humour I have written a quite new Capriccio for the pianoforte whose tastefulness, singularity and special construction cannot fail to win applause from connoisseurs and amateurs alike' Joseph Haydn

Shai Wosner has established himself as one of today's leading Schubert interpreters. He also is equally at home in classical, romantic and contemporary repertoire, often in unusual combinations which are both thought provoking - Brahms and Schoenberg for example, or delightfully quirky as on his new recording for ONYX of the concertos and capriccios of Haydn and Ligeti . Shai Wosner writes - 'There aren't too many composers in music history who are likely to use subtitles such as 'It takes eight of you to castrate a boar' ('Acht Sauschneider müssen sein'). Like a naughty smile under the more official Capriccio in G Major by Joseph Haydn from 1765, its origin remains mysterious - most likely a forgotten Austrian folk song - but it would have no doubt been relished wholeheartedly by the 20th-century composer of the Nonsense Madrigals.

Apart from connections with Central-European folk music (Haydn's "Ungarese" style, Ligeti's early Capriccios, for example) or the fact that both were towering figures already in their lifetime (like 'Papa' Haydn, Ligeti carries unparalleled direct or indirect influence on almost every young composer today), a particular richness of humour that transcends centuries links their music music - like two distant relatives sharing an old family joke'.