Sturm und Drang, Vol. 1: Beck, Gluck, Haydn, Jommelli, Traetta The Mozartists & Ian Page

• Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714 - 1787):
• 1 Don Juan, Final Scene (Larghetto) 06:18
• Niccolò Jommelli (1714 - 1774): Fetonte:
• 2 Fetonte: "Ombre che tacite qui sede" 04:18
• Franz Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809): La Canterina, Hob. XXVIII/2:
• 3 La Canterina, Hob. XXVIII/2: “Non v’è chi mi aiuta” 02:50
• Franz Ignaz Beck (1734 - 1809): Symphony in G Minor, Op. 3, No. 3:
• 4 Symphony in G Minor, Op. 3, No. 3: I. Allegro con spirito 07:10
• 5 Symphony in G Minor, Op. 3, No. 3: II. Andante un poco adagio 06:00
• 6 Symphony in G Minor, Op. 3, No. 3: III. Minuetto e Trio 03:44
• 7 Symphony in G Minor, Op. 3, No. 3: IV. Presto 05:09
• Tomasso Traetta (1727 - 1779): Sofonisba:
• 8 Sofonisba: “Crudeli, ahimè, che fate?” 05:15
• 9 Sofonisba: “Sofonisba, che aspetti?” 04:30
• Franz Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 49 in F Minor, Hob. I/49 ‘La Passione’:
• 10 Symphony No. 49 in F Minor, Hob. I/49 ‘La Passione’: I. Adagio 12:12
• 11 Symphony No. 49 in F Minor, Hob. I/49 ‘La Passione’: II. Allegro di molto 06:16
• 12 Symphony No. 49 in F Minor, Hob. I/49 ‘La Passione’: III. Menuet e Trio 04:16
• 13 Symphony No. 49 in F Minor, Hob. I/49 ‘La Passione’: IV. Presto 03:02
• Total Runtime 01:11:00

Info for Sturm und Drang, Vol. 1: Beck, Gluck, Haydn, Jommelli, Traetta

This is the first project in a seven-volume series exploring the Sturm und Drang movement, which swept through all art forms in the between the early 1760s and 1780s. The purpose of this movement was to frighten and perturb through the use of wild and subjective emotional means of expression.

This series of Sturm und Drang recordings incorporates iconic compositions by Mozart, Gluck and, above all, Joseph Haydn, but it also includes largely forgotten or neglected works by less familiar names. The music featured on this disc was all composed in the 1760s. It includes ballet and opera as well as symphonies, but is drawn together by the hallmarks of the remarkably visceral and dynamic style of music that we now call Sturm und Drang.

"Page’s projects with The Mozartists are distinguished not only by exemplary standards of performance but also by the ambition and imagination that underpin them…[Skerath] is suitably dramatic in first recordings of arias from operas by Jommelli and Traetta…What horns (Gavin Edwards and Nick Benz), and with what freedom they are encouraged to make their mark!...The playing throughout is excellent and the programme is as deeply satisfying as the project’s entire conception." (Gramophone Magazine)

"This music from the turbulent 1760s — the first part of a seven-disc project, performed with great brilliance — is a startling ear-opener...it’s composers ignored in most textbooks — Tommaso Traetta (a ferociously dramatic recitative from his opera Sofonisba) and Franz Beck(a remarkable G minor symphony) — who really make you sit up." (Sunday Times)

"The real discovery here is the 22-minute symphony by Franz Beck from the early 1760s which sounds as though it should have been written 35 years later; a real gem for strings and horns only. The Swiss soprano Chiara Skerath is splendidly dramatic and elegantly hysterical (a truly 18th-century concept) without straying from period norms." (Classical Music)

Chiara Skerath, soprano
The Mozartists
Ian Page, conductor

Ian Page
is the founder, conductor and artistic director of Classical Opera and The Mozartists. He began his musical education as a chorister at Westminster Abbey, and studied English Literature at the University of York before completing his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London. At the start of his career he worked on the music staff at Scottish Opera, Opera Factory, Drottningholm and Glyndebourne, working with such conductors as Sir Alexander Gibson, Nicholas McGegan, Mark Wigglesworth, Ivor Bolton and Sir Charles Mackerras.

With Classical Opera he has conducted most of Mozart’s operas, including the world premières of the “original” version of Mitridate, re di Ponto and a new completion of Zaide, as well as the UK premières of Gluck’s La clemenza di Tito, Telemann’s Orpheus and Jommelli’s Il Vologeso, and the first new staging for 250 years of Johann Christian Bach’s Adriano in Siria. In 2009 he made his Royal Opera House début conducting Arne’s Artaxerxes at the Linbury Studio Theatre, and his studio recording of the work was released in 2011 on Linn Records.

He also devised and conducted Classical Opera’s recordings of ‘The A-Z of Mozart Opera’ (Signum Classics) and ‘Blessed Spirit – a Gluck retrospective’ (Wigmore Hall Live), both of which were selected for Gramophone magazine’s annual Critics’ Choice, and in 2012 he embarked on a new complete cycle of Mozart opera recordings with Classical Opera. He is the creator and driving force behind of MOZART 250, a ground-breaking 27-year journey through Mozart’s life, works and influences, and in 2017 founded The Mozartists to facilitate his ever-expanding concert work.

Ian is deeply committed to nurturing and championing outstanding young singers and players – for several years he was a professor at the Royal College of Music, and he has given masterclasses for the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and The Royal Opera’s Jette Parker Young Artists Programme. He is also a passionate spokesman for classical music, opera and the arts, and has broadcast on BBC 4 and Sky Arts.

The Mozartists
were created in 2017 by conductor, Ian Page, as a natural extension of his pioneering work with internationally renowned opera company, Classical Opera.

Classical Opera is best known for its current series, Mozart 250, in which they perform each year the operas and music that Mozart and his contemporaries composed 250 years ago. Comprising many of today’s leading period instrumentalists, The Mozartists perform alongside some of the world’s most exciting young singers.

In this concert, The Mozartists present a wide- ranging selection of works by Haydn, including a piano trio, songs, duets and some of his most delightful folksong settings, interspersed with two dramatically charged A minor sonatas by Mozart and Koželuch, played on the fortepiano by Steven Devine.

Booklet for Sturm und Drang, Vol. 1: Beck, Gluck, Haydn, Jommelli, Traetta