Haydn published two sets of ‘Lieder für das Klavier’ in Vienna in 1781 and 1784. They were enormously popular and elicited responses from various poets to fashion them into bona fide songs with piano accompaniment. In 1786 the English composer William Shield arranged some of these songs with renditions into English and further publications and reprints followed from this through to the 1790s in the hands of Dr Samuel Arnold and Thomas Haigh.
Recordings of Haydn songs have appeared sporadically over the last decade, including one complete set on Brilliant Classics, however, few artists have ventured as far as to recreate them entirely in a period setting. The Café Mozart ensemble have done exactly this. With superlative vocal performances from early music stars Emma Kirkby and ...
