Apart from the odd baryton trio, there cannot, one supposes, be many of Haydn’s works which have not yet been recorded, yet ‘premieres’ do still crop up from time to time. Haydn’s six English metrical psalm-settings were composed in London, for inclusion in Improved Psalmody, a collection of 75 psalms by various composers published in 1794 by one William Tattersall, a reforming reverend with ‘plainness and simplicity’ on his mind. Haydn’s contributions are certainly simple, but they are never plain; there is always a graceful melodic move here, a telling chromatic inflection there, a little something to put them beyond the reach of less gifted men. This release for the first time gives us all six, two of them performed with a small choir and a tiny group of strings, two with a large congregational choir and organ, and two as part-songs with fortepiano.
Attractive as these Haydnesque nuggets are, however, the sacred works by English-resident composers which frame them are in many ways more remarkable. They include two psalms from the same collection – one touchingly tender by Samuel Webbe senior, the other a pocket drama by William Shield; three relatively sophisticated sacred songs for solo voice and string quartet by Johan Arnold Dahmen; and a charming vocal adaptation for soloists, choir and instruments of the slow movement from Haydn’s Emperor Quartet by William Gardiner, a Leicester hosier who once sent Haydn stockings embroidered with themes from his works.
Peter Holman’s performances confront the discrepancy between slick modern standards of period performance and the parish church environment for which much of this music was intended, by assembling a mixed group of professional performers and amateur singers to produce a deliberately, though not exaggeratedly, rough and ready feel. As such it will probably not strike everyone as ideal for repeated listening, but I found it wonderfully atmospheric, and the contributions of soprano Philippa Hyde, countertenor Timothy Kenworthy-Brown and The Parley of Instruments’ string quartet are particularly enjoyable. No lost masterpieces here, but a fascinating listen.'