Although the titles ''Le Matin'', ''Le Midi'' and ''Le Soir'' have favoured the popularity of the three works in our days, they served Haydn merely as an inspiring impulse to compose. Haydn's Symphonies Nos. 6-8 are programmatic music only to a limited extent: they were rather an ideal basis for the strong desire to experiment of the new, imaginative vice-kapellmeister of the virtuoso Eszterhazy court orchestra. These compositions, whose form tends more towards the Baroque concerto than the classical symphony, suggest that Haydn wanted to show his employer the individual virtuosity of each of his musicians.

The three symphonies are characterised by their varied arrangement, themes and orchestration, which show Haydn to be an extremely imaginative composer who skilfully put his court orchestra in the ''right light''. This production is the first instalment of the new series ''Esterhazy Music Collection'' with the Orfeo Orchestra conducted by Gyorgy Vashegyi on the Accent label. lt will be dedicated to the presentation of musical treasures of the Esterhazy family, many of which had been largely neglected over the centuries. The recording of these Haydn symphonies took place in the Apollo Hall of the Esterhazy Castle Fertod-Eszterhaza, with its fine historical acoustics that are among the best in the world.

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Recorded at the Apollo Hall of Esterhazy Palace, Fertőd-Eszterháza (Hungary), on 4-6 August 2019.