‘My compliments on the keyboard version, very well and carefully carried out,’ wrote Haydn on the 23rd of June 1787 to Artaria, his Viennese publisher, stipulating that he wanted a new contract for this highly profitable version which came immediately after the initial versions for orchestra and string quartet. Haydn himself pointed out that the music, thus deprived of vain ornaments, ‘makes a profound impression even on the most inexperienced souls’. Today, this music reveals the beauty of timbre and fullness of sound of the instrument used: a copy of a pianoforte built by the Viennese firm Walter & Sons in 1806.
PRD/DSD 250 196