This 19th volume of Haydn’s complete symphonies coincides with the 40th anniversary of Il Giardino Armonico – the ensemble created and conducted by Giovanni Antonini, artistic director of the Haydn 2032 series. The Symphony No. 44 in E minor, featured in this volume, was the first work by Haydn performed by the ensemble and Antonini. The title of this symphony, known as the “Funeral Symphony,” inspired the inclusion in this program of Samuel Scheidt’s Paduana à 4, SSWV 43, published in 1621 at the beginning of the bloody Thirty Years’ War, and Arvo Pärt’s Da pacem Domine, dedicated to the memory of the victims of the 2004 Madrid train bombings. “[Da pacem Domine‘s] contemplative fixity and the sad Pavana dolorosa take on an almost cathartic function which, in my opinion, shows a perfect integration between music that is so stylistically and chronologically distant,’ sorays Antonini. The album also includes Haydn’s Symphonies No. 52 in C minor and Symphony No. 108 in B-flat major.