Joseph Haydn - Haydn 2032, Vol. 18 Il maestro di scuola (Giovanni Antonini)

Information

Composer: Joseph Haydn

• Symphony No. 56 in C Major, Hob. I:56
• Symphony No. 29 in E Major, Hob. I:29
• Symphony No. 55 in E-Flat Major, Hob. I:55 "Il maestro di scuola"
• Franciszek Lessel - Symphony No. 5 in G Minor: Finale. Molto presto

Kammerorchester Basel

Giovanni Antonini, conductor

Date: 2025

Label: Alpha Classics

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Joseph Haydn, throughout his career, taught singing, keyboard, theory, and composition to students including Ignaz Pleyel, Sigismund Neukomm, and Polish composer Franciszek (Franz) Lessel. In 1805, Haydn gifted Lessel the autograph score of his Symphony No. 56 (1774), which pairs with Symphony No. 55, “The Schoolmaster,” from the same year. Both symphonies, along with Symphony No. 29 (1765)—noted for its playful finale likened to children escaping a strict teacher—appear in the eighteenth volume of the Haydn2032 series. The Kammerorchester Basel, conducted by Giovanni Antonini, also recorded the surviving finale of Lessel’s Fifth Symphony in G minor, the only extant movement of his orchestral output.

Giovanni Antonini, born in 1965 in Milan, studied at the Civica Scuola di Musica and the Centre de Musique Ancienne in Geneva. He co-founded and has led the ensemble Il Giardino Armonico since 1989, performing globally. He collaborates with prominent artists such as Cecilia Bartoli, Isabelle Faust, Sol Gabetta, and Viktoria Mullova. Antonini serves as Principal Guest Conductor of the Kammerorchester Basel and Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg and regularly leads major orchestras including the Berliner Philharmoniker and London Symphony. He has conducted opera at La Scala, Salzburg Festival, and Opernhaus Zurich, recorded for major labels, and directs the Wratislavia Cantans Festival and the Haydn 2032 project to perform and record all of Haydn’s symphonies.