The Haydn Project: Live from Michigan (Camera Michigan, Tigran Shiganyan)

On May 29, Blue Griffin Recording releases The Haydn Project: Live from Michigan from Camerata Michigan and conductor Tigran Shiganyan. The two-disc recording features Franz Joseph Haydn’s (1732–1809) Sinfonia Concertante in B flat Major, Hob. I:105, Piano Concerto in D Major, Hob. XVIII:11, Violin Concerto in G Major, Hob. VIIa:4, and Cello Concerto in D major, Hob. VIIb-2. 

The live recording comes from a concert on Monday, October 6, 2025, at the Fairchild Theater at Michigan State University as part of the Cello Plus Festival. The concert was highlighted by Joseph Haydn’s vibrant Sinfonia Concertante, a rarely performed work which blends symphonic elegance with the intimacy of a concerto. Conductor Tigran Shiganyan leads the Michigan State University student ensemble, Camerata Michigan, alongside soloists Yvonne Lam (violin), Deborah Moriarty (piano), Suren Bagratuni (cello), Michael Kroth (bassoon), and Nermis Mieses (oboe).

Written in 1792 during Haydn’s first triumphant visit to London, the Sinfonia Concertanteis one of his most urbane and sociable works. Cast for four soloists — oboe, bassoon, violin, and cello— it belongs to a hybrid genre that was enormously fashionable in Paris and London at the time, sitting midway between a symphony and a concerto. 

The D Major Piano Concerto, composed between 1780 and 1783, is the crown jewel of Haydn’s keyboard concertos. Its opening movement is confident and ceremonial, with the piano entering not as a supplicant but as an equal, immediately reshaping the orchestra’s material with its own wit and energy.

The G Major Violin Concerto dates from the 1760-1769 period, a time when Haydn was still establishing himself at the Esterházy court and writing prolifically for the gifted musicians in his orchestra. It is a graceful, unpretentious work in the Baroque-inflected style of his early years, before the dramatic intensities of his Sturm und Drang period transformed his language. 

Composed around 1783, the Second Cello Concerto is one of the great works in the instrument’s solo repertoire, and a masterpiece of Haydn’s maturity. Written for the virtuoso Antonín Kraft, principal cellist of the Esterházy orchestra, it makes technical demands that would have been remarkable for the era — high-lying passages, fleet passage-work, and an expressive range that pushes the instrument toward its limits. 

The Haydn Project was made possible by a generous gift from Lauren Harris, and with special thanks to the Michigan State University College of Music.