Il Maestro di Scuola

Joseph Haydn taught singing, keyboard instruments, theory and composition throughout his entire life. Among his students were Ignaz Pleyel, Sigismund Neukomm and the Polish composer Franciszek (Franz) Lessel. In October 1805, Lessel received from his teacher the autograph score of Symphony No. 56, dating from 1774. This symphony forms a pair with Symphony No. 55, known as 'The Schoolmaster', from the same year. Both are included in this eighteenth volume of the Haydn series, together with Symphony No. 29 (1765), "whose Presto finale sounds as if a swarm of mischievous children has just escaped from a strict teacher," writes Christian Moritz-Bauer. Giovanni Antonini and the Kammerorchester Basel also recorded the finale of Lessel's Fifth Symphony in G minor, the only movement that has survived from his complete orchestral works, which comprised five other symphonies.