This first, single-CD volume of Haydn’s songs for Scottish publisher George Thomson concludes with a very interesting item: Macpherson’s Farewell, to a text (mostly) by Robert Burns. This poem also was chosen by Shostakovich as one of his Songs to Texts by English Poets, and the tune he created for this modern setting became the central section of the second movement of the 13th Symphony. Obviously, Haydn’s setting of the original lives in a different world, musically speaking, but both composers quite successfully capture the irony of this dance “beneath the gallows tree”. There’s also a haunting ballad called William and Margaret that strongly recalls the despairing tone of Haydn’s F minor Variations for piano.
In other words, the tunes are wonderful, the arrangements expert and quite Haydnish, and as with Volume 2 (released first in these parts for some odd reason), the performances are extremely fine. Also, if you want to sample before taking the plunge, by all means start here with this single disc. Wonderful as this stuff is, Volume 2 contains four discs, and even though they represent a bargain at the Brilliant Classics price, you will know just how many of these songs you will want to have on hand. The excellent booklet, essentially the same as that provided for Volume 2 but with a few lines included about the specific numbers (in addition to the full English texts), gives no indication of whether or not these forces intend a complete edition of the 400 or so folk-song settings that Haydn made for various publishers. We can only hope. [8/2/2005]
