Haydn 2032, Vol. 8: La Roxolana (LP)

For its eighth volume, Haydn2032 invites us on a musical journey that takes the Balkan route. Of all the 'Viennese Classical School', Joseph Haydn is certainly the composer closest to folk music, first because he spent his early years in the countryside and also because, unlike his colleagues who worked in the urban centres of the Habsburg monarchy, Haydn was in contact with Croats, Roma and Hungarians throughout his life. These influences were omnipresent in his music, to the delight of Prince Nikolaus I Esterházy and his guests, but by some accounts were not to the taste of many music theorists in Germany. Haydn gave his Symphony no.63 in C major the title of 'La Roxolana', from the famous sixteenth-century sultana who was the wife of Suleiman the Magnificent after having been his slave. This limited and numbered edition contains two vinyl LPs along with an album of photos by Mark Power (Magnum Photos) and a magnificent unpublished text entitled Crânes (Skulls) by the French writer Mathias Énard, winner of the 2015 Prix Goncourt for his novel Boussole (Compass).