Freiburg Baroque Orchestra

The 31-year-old Joseph Haydn, newly engaged as vice Kapellmeister by the Austro-Hungarian house of Esterházy (which would employ him for much of his life), was given the compositional task of following up Vivaldi's perennial The Four Seasons with a sequence of symphonies evoking the times of the day. The project yielded a trio of works—Symphony No. 6 "Le Matin" (Morning), Symphony No. 7 "Le Midi" (Noon), and Symphony No. 8 "Le Soir" (Evening)—that constituted the young Haydn's boldest entry yet into the realm of orchestral composition. With the concertante feel of the Baroque concerto grosso, these symphonies abound in alternately graceful and energetic passages for solo string instruments and winds. A joyous character predominates, with even the lovely slow movements being more sanguine than solemn. Playing without a conductor (as Haydn led the works from the violin), the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra performs this inventive music with real zest and remarkable precision.—BB