Derek McCulloch has very kindly sent us the following early notice of a forthcoming CD release.  The Piano in question is the Southwell in the picture below, but this picture was taken on a different occasion, in Chawton Parish Church.

Haydn à l’anglaise

Emma Kirkby soprano Rogers Covey-Crump tenor Jenny Thomas flute Ian Gammie guitar Alastair Ross square piano

Nimbus NI6174

Dear Friends and Followers,

A new Caf€ Mozart CD will soon be available. It will be issued by Nimbus in February 2012 and launched in the Bodleian Library in Oxford on March 30^th, in the context of a lecture and an Exhibition of the scores, all of which are housed in the Library.

Of the 20 Tracks no fewer than 18 are world premieres. The CD comprises 9 songs, 6 “ballads”, 2 Canzonettas and 3 keyboard solos by Haydn’s pupil Thomas Haigh ‘of Manchester’, based on music by Haydn, to whom they are in part dedicated. All the vocal items are sung in English, mostly to the texts that had been published in the 1780s prior to Haydn’s arrival in 1791. Two of the texts, for reasons given in the 24pp booklet, are new translations by Derek McCulloch. Two others are sung to the original texts, before they had been set by Haydn to German translations. Neither Haydn nor the English publishers will have been aware of the provenance of those two texts.

Those songs that describe themselves as “ballads” will have come as something of a surprise to Haydn, if he ever heard them. Indeed they were originally not songs at all, but are instrumental music “adapted to English words”, in fact poetry by the leading figures in 18^th century England.

Two of Haydn’s most popular English ‘canzonettas’ of the mid-1790s, The Sailor’s Song and My Mother bids me bind my Hair, lead seamlessly into adaptations for solo piano or harpsichord by Thomas Haigh, played on our square piano of c1798. All the instruments used are period instruments.

The star-studded cast of Caf€ Mozart comprises some of the most prominent names in the field of early music, both nationally and internationally. They are, however, personal friends who have known us and worked with us at some time since we all set out together some 40 years ago.

When issued the CD will retail at £13. However, if you agree to buy from us directly between now and the end of March, we will sell them at a special subscription price of £10 incl. p&p (or €12.50). We will not ask you for any money until the CDs are with us, when we will send you a reminder of your order. Cheques should be made payable to “Cafe Mozart”. Paypal payments must be made in £sterling via the e-mail address below. Orders from within Germany can be settled via my Euro account: Postbank (BLz 70 11 00 88, Konto-Nr 3051 278 329). Unfortunately payments from elsewhere in the Eurozone cannot be made into that account. Other than Paypal we suggest bank notes well concealed as the cheapest form of payment (2 copies for €25 will avoid send coins!). If your company would like to purchase as corporate gifts we have a special price and we can incorporate the firm’s logo in place of the bar code (multiples of 25 only). Please enquire if interested.

Please reserve for me _____ copy/copies of Haydn à l’anglaise at the special subscription price of £10 (€12.50) incl. p&p. I will make appropriate payment when the CD is issued in February 2012.

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