Michael Haydn, Violin & Flute Concertos Capella Savaria & Zsolt Kalló

• Michael Haydn (1737 - 1806): Flute Concerto No. 2 in D Major, MH 105:
• 1 Haydn: Flute Concerto No. 2 in D Major, MH 105: Allegro moderato 06:29
• 2 Haydn: Flute Concerto No. 2 in D Major, MH 105: Andante 07:09
• 3 Haydn: Flute Concerto No. 2 in D Major, MH 105: Allegro assai 06:14
• Violin Concerto in A Major, MH 207:
• 4 Haydn: Violin Concerto in A Major, MH 207: Allegro ma non troppo 07:12
• 5 Haydn: Violin Concerto in A Major, MH 207: Adagio 05:45
• 6 Haydn: Violin Concerto in A Major, MH 207: Rondeau. Presto 07:04
• Flute Concerto No. 1 in D Major, MH 81:
• 7 Haydn: Flute Concerto No. 1 in D Major, MH 81: Allegro moderato 06:03
• 8 Haydn: Flute Concerto No. 1 in D Major, MH 81: Adagio 06:02
• 9 Haydn: Flute Concerto No. 1 in D Major, MH 81: Menuet 02:33
• Violin Concerto in G Major, MH 52:
• 10 Haydn: Violin Concerto in G Major, MH 52: Allegro moderato 06:30
• 11 Haydn: Violin Concerto in G Major, MH 52: Adagio amoroso 06:38
• 12 Haydn: Violin Concerto in G Major, MH 52: Allegro 06:00
• Total Runtime 01:13:39

Info for Michael Haydn, Violin & Flute Concertos

Michael Haydn was a great composer — just not as great as his older brother Franz Joseph. The two were both highly regarded during their lifetimes. But over time Franz Joseph’s popularity completely eclipsed Michael’s.

To be fair, choral music was Michael Haydn’s forte. But his relatively few orchestral works are more than historical curiosities. One of his string quartets, for example, was misattributed to Franz Joseph. And for years, Michael Haydn’s Symphony No. 25 was credited to Mozart.

The Capella Savria present four of Michael Haydn’s concertos. These include his two flute concertos and two of three violin concertos. Haydn composed the works in Salzburg, where he was a friend of the Mozarts.

The concertos bear some similarities to Leopold Mozart’s style. The melodic phrases are balanced and clearly defined. The solo parts require a high degree of skill to play. But they’re not especially flashy. The elegance of expression tempers the technical challenges.

The Capella Savaria performs on period instruments, tuned to A=430 Hz. Modern orchestras tune to A=440 Hz. The lower tuning gives the ensemble an added warmth. It also softens the extremes of the upper registers for both the solo flute and violin. To me, the lower pitches added the overall beauty of the works.

Andrea Bertalan performs with a wooden transverse flute. Her playing capitalizes on the mellow tones of the instrument. The lyricism of the slow movements especially benefits from her performance.

As a soloist, Zsolt Kalló plays with tasteful energy. There’s excitement in his performances that’s in sync with the style of the music. He delivers a clean, singing tone from his instrument that I found quite appealing.

Just give this album a listen. Franz Joseph Haydn admired his brother’s music. You should too.

Capella Savaria
Zsolt Kalló, violin, artistic director
Andrea Bertalan, transverse flute

Capella Savaria
Founded in 1981, in Szombathely, Capella Savaria has earned its fame as the first period-instrument chamber orchestra of Hungary. Its innovative efforts created quite a sensation at the time in musical circles. The ensemble’s objectives were, from the onset, to play baroque and classical music in an authentic way by relying on genuine documents of the period. The founding artistic director was Pál Németh, followed by Zsolt Kalló who has been directing the ensemble since 1999. The members of the ensemble play authentic 18th-century instruments, or their copies. Capella Savaria performs chamber and orchestral pieces as well as operas or oratorios. They have made over 80 recordings, issued by Hungaroton, Centaur Records, Quintana, Harmonia Mundi, Dynamic, Naxos, and Dorian Records, five of which have been awarded with the Hungarian “Record of the Year” prize. The conductor of their opera and passion series, Nicholas McGegan (the orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor), has recorded 20 CDs with Capella Savaria. Their CDs also include some genuine rarities such as Hungarian music from the 18th century and the works of Druschetzky, Roman, A. Scarlatti, B. Marcello, Telemann, Werner, Naudot, Rameau, Fasch and Muffat. They have given concerts in 22 European countries outside Hungary and have appeared in both the Northern and the Southern parts of the American continent and in Israel. They are regular participants of Hungarian early music festivals (in Sopron, Fertőd, Budapest, and Zemplén) but have featured such festivals in Brugge, Innsbruck, Regensburg, Göttingen, Halle, Utrecht, Zerbst, Warszawa, Wroclaw. They often perform on Hungarian TV and radio, and were awarded with the prestigious Liszt Prize in 1991. On the 25th anniversary of the ensemble’s foundation in 2006 the chamber orchestra was honoured with the Prima Primissima Prize in Vas County. The Canadian Opus Magazine has described Capella Savaria as “one of Europe’s best ensembles”.

Zsolt Kalló
acts as the concertmaster, soloist and artistic director of Capella Savaria. He studied violin as Eszter Perényi’s student at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, Budapest and graduated in 1990 as an honoured violin artist. He also studied with Sándor Végh in Salzburg between 1988 and 1989. As a concertmaster, he has played with several acclaimed chamber orchestras including Sonora Hungarica, Aura Musicale, Concerto Armonico, and the Orfeo Orchestra but he has also impressed audiences as a soloist via his numerous CD, radio and TV recordings. He is also renowned for founding the Trio Antiqua and the Authentic Quartet. He has been invited as a professor to various early music courses. He currently teaches at the Szombathely Conservatory of Music and at the ’Varga Tibor’ Institute of Musical Art, Széchenyi István University in Győr as a university professor. He was honoured with the Halász Ferenc Prize for his outstanding educational work in 2008. He earned his DLA degree in 2010. He is also known as the first artist to play the violin concertos of Tomasini, Kraus and Michael Haydn for Hungarian audiences. In 2012, he was awarded with the prize “For the Culture of Vas County”. In 2014 he received the Liszt Prize, and in 2018 he habilitated.

Booklet for Michael Haydn, Violin & Flute Concertos