Haydn Keyboard Sonatas

[Geo Dude]

Any recommendations for a complete set (HIP) of Haydn's keyboard works?  I have the Schornsheim on hand, but I'm finding that it's not something I can enjoy.  Not yet at least.  While her technical skills are jaw-dropping, I find her playing a bit too stiff and cold.  How is Brautigam?  By the way, at this point I don't mind if the entire set is on fortepiano rather than harpsichord as I'm still learning to appreciate the latter instrument.

[Gurn Blanston]

Any recommendations for a complete set (HIP) of Haydn's keyboard works?  I have the Schornsheim on hand, but I'm finding that it's not something I can enjoy.  Not yet at least.  While her technical skills are jaw-dropping, I find her playing a bit too stiff and cold.  How is Brautigam?  By the way, at this point I don't mind if the entire set is on fortepiano rather than harpsichord as I'm still learning to appreciate the latter instrument.

Well, all that being said, then your best choice would be Brautigam, I think. Your second choice would be the set on Brilliant by several fortepianists. Brautigam seemed to be getting hard to chase down, unless a new batch of them has hit the stores. His playing is typically excellent, He is a powerhouse player!

The Brilliant set is very good, it features playing by Oort, Dütschler, Fukuda, Hoogland & Kojima. IMO, they are all good, but Kojima may be best on this set, and surprisingly Hoogland is the least inspired. Overall I would rate the Brautigam as an 8 out of 10, and the Brilliant as a 7. I am happy to have both.

[Geo Dude]

Well, all that being said, then your best choice would be Brautigam, I think. Your second choice would be the set on Brilliant by several fortepianists. Brautigam seemed to be getting hard to chase down, unless a new batch of them has hit the stores. His playing is typically excellent, He is a powerhouse player!

The Brilliant set is very good, it features playing by Oort, Dütschler, Fukuda, Hoogland & Kojima. IMO, they are all good, but Kojima may be best on this set, and surprisingly Hoogland is the least inspired. Overall I would rate the Brautigam as an 8 out of 10, and the Brilliant as a 7. I am happy to have both.

Thanks.  I think Brautigam will have a bit more of that 'feeling' I look for based on samples of his other work.  And yes, the Brautigam is freely available again.  For future reference, is there a set other than Schornsheim's that uses harpsichord and clavichord along with fortepiano, or is she the only one who wishes to be that 'historical' (for lack of a better term)?

By the way, great job with the symphonies essay.

[Gurn Blanston]

Thanks.  I think Brautigam will have a bit more of that 'feeling' I look for based on samples of his other work.  And yes, the Brautigam is freely available again.  For future reference, is there a set other than Schornsheim's that uses harpsichord and clavichord along with fortepiano, or is the only one who wishes to be that 'historical' (for lack of a better term)?

By the way, great job with the symphonies essay.

Beghin on Naxos is even more historically inclined than Schornsheim! I strongly recommend his set, it's a bargain for 13 CD's plus a 3 hour DVD from which I learned a lot! He has divided up the total into 10 programs that are related, and plays each program on a suitable instrument. This is a very interesting set.

Thanks for that, hope you find it useful too.

[Geo Dude]

Beghin on Naxos is even more historically inclined than Schornsheim! I strongly recommend his set, it's a bargain for 13 CD's plus a 3 hour DVD from which I learned a lot! He has divided up the total into 10 programs that are related, and plays each program on a suitable instrument. This is a very interesting set.

Thanks for that, hope you find it useful too.

Ah, yes!  I forgot about Beghin!  I'll have to head to Naxos for some samples to see if I like his playing style.  25% of each track for free is not bad at all.

[Gurn Blanston]

Ah, yes!  I forgot about Beghin!  I'll have to head to Naxos for some samples to see if I like his playing style.  25% of each track for free is not bad at all.

By all means. His style is a bit different than some, no doubt about it. The attraction there for me, of course, was the instruments. They are fabulous, and great sounding too. As an historian, I can scarcely resist hearing a clavichord or a Viennese short-octave bass grand harpsichord, or a Viennese square piano, or ....   

[Geo Dude]

By all means. His style is a bit different than some, no doubt about it. The attraction there for me, of course, was the instruments. They are fabulous, and great sounding too. As an historian, I can scarcely resist hearing a clavichord or a Viennese short-octave bass grand harpsichord, or a Viennese square piano, or ....   

I'll have to do more sampling to know for sure, but I'm liking it thus far.  I prefer the sound of his harpsichord to those on the Schornsheim recording and his playing isn't as mechanical and intense.  And yes, the historical instruments are fascinating, even if I'm still getting used to harpsichord in classical era music.  It's also cheaper than the Brautigam, which is another bonus.  And the DVD that comes with it...a lot of reasons to get this set!  I just need to make sure I like the playing.

[Gurn Blanston]

I'll have to do more sampling to know for sure, but I'm liking it thus far.  I prefer the sound of his harpsichord to those on the Schornsheim recording and his playing isn't as mechanical and intense.  And yes, the historical instruments are fascinating, even if I'm still getting used to harpsichord in classical era music.  It's also cheaper than the Brautigam, which is another bonus.  And the DVD that comes with it...a lot of reasons to get this set!  I just need to make sure I like the playing.

Absolutely. Nothing worse than being burdened with something that doesn't suit your taste. It's funny, when I first got Schornsheim I wasn't too keen on her style, but it was because I found her too, I don't know, feminine in her playing, I guess I would say. But as time went by, and I learned things like that Haydn wrote about 90% of his sonatas specifically for women, it made me listen with a different ear. I don't know if that is good or bad, but there it is.

[Geo Dude]

Absolutely. Nothing worse than being burdened with something that doesn't suit your taste. It's funny, when I first got Schornsheim I wasn't too keen on her style, but it was because I found her too, I don't know, feminine in her playing, I guess I would say. But as time went by, and I learned things like that Haydn wrote about 90% of his sonatas specifically for women, it made me listen with a different ear. I don't know if that is good or bad, but there it is.

Funny story.  By the way, for listening purposes, where would you say the 'mature' sonatas start?  Not that I plan to ignore the earlier ones!  I'd just like to see Haydn's brilliance in full bloom and then work my way back.  I've found that cover-to-cover listening of box sets, so to speak, does not always work out well.

[Gurn Blanston]

Funny story.  By the way, for listening purposes, where would you say the 'mature' sonatas start?  Not that I plan to ignore the earlier ones!  I'd just like to see Haydn's brilliance in full bloom and then work my way back.  I've found that cover-to-cover listening of box sets, so to speak, does not always work out well.

Well, this group here;
YEAR  HOB KEY
1767     12     A
1767     19     D
1768     46    Ab
1770     44     g
1771     18    Bb

I find to be like part of his 'Romantic Crisis' and very much for connoisseurs. Probably the earliest 'mature' sonatas (he was already 35 years old by the first of those).

This set that he wrote to dedicate to the Prince;
Year        Hob           Key
1773      21        C
1773      22           E
1773      23           F
1773      24           D
1773      25          Eb
1773      26           A

are very nice, but clearly are not of the emotional nature or quality of the preceding ones. They are written more in a popular style, so to speak.

But everything after that, from 1779 onwards, that's pretty much as good as it gets until the last 3 from the 1790's. Don't forget to check out the sets of variations that you run across too. Many are very good, a couple are excellent! 

[Karl Henning]

Well, as I wrote in answer to Karl's initial query (about the Buchbergers, actually), I am more than happy with my current crop of string quartets, and so I leave that topic behind for now and move on to a box I received in today's post;


It seems like I have finally found someone who is my musical ideal. I have always admired Beghin, for his playing (in the Trio Galatea doing the Bartolozzi Trios and with Andrea Folan doing the "12 German Lieder with Klavier" from 1781), and for his writing, his essay on rhetoric in Haydn's music in Haydn & His World (ed. E. Sisman) opened up a whole new intellectual avenue for me. When the first iteration of this complete keyboard works came out, I just looked hard at it, but since it was on Blu-Ray, requiring a level of equipment that I didn't have or want). When it was released on CD (with a DVD added), and our friend Navneeth brought it to my attention, I pre-ordered it and now it is mine!

Just having read the liner booklet and most of the way through the "performance" part of the DVD, I am in heaven, as it were. Not only is he a first rate player, but the instruments are incomparable! And his whole concept, which is to try and get inside Haydn's head and "perform as the composer", which was how they did it then, gives an entirely different sound to it.

If you are an historian, either by profession or inclination, I can't recommend this box strongly enough. I may be stuck here for a while....

Oh, this wicked, wicked Haus!

[Gurn Blanston]

Oh, this wicked, wicked Haus!

Yes, but you will find it fascinating, Karl. Frankly, I can root around amongst my prodigious collection of Haydn keyboard disks and come up with a better performance here and there of many of these works. But the keyboards themselves are the stars of this show. You wouldn't regret, I suspect.

[Karl Henning]

I warmly appreciate your extensive researches, generally, and your year-by-year thumbnail chronology, in particular, O Gurn. The following thought certainly gives me pause:

. . . Frankly, I can root around amongst my prodigious collection of Haydn keyboard disks . . . .

Dangerous visions . . . .

[Geo Dude]

Frankly, I can root around amongst my prodigious collection of Haydn keyboard disks and come up with a better performance here and there of many of these works.

This brings me to ask, which single discs (or smaller box sets) would you recommend to supplement the Beghin set?

[Gurn Blanston]

This brings me to ask, which single discs (or smaller box sets) would you recommend to supplement the Beghin set?

These are some of my favorites, Geo;

[asin]B0009W5JDM[/asin] 1 disk, on fortepiano


[asin]B0007AC1GO[/asin] 3 disks, on fortepiano


[asin]B0000AXLTH[/asin]  1 disk, on clavichord


[asin]B002S3BHHW[/asin] 1 disk, on harpsichord


I can do this much better from home, where I have all this stuff. If you look in some of my essay posts you will also find several in there, like Ulrika Davidsson for example. I am not much on modern keyboard, especially for Haydn, but I am told that the 4 disk set by Alfred Brendel is excellent.

[mc ukrneal]

For a single disc of Haydn, on piano, I've enjoyed this one tremendously:
[asin]B00008WT4W[/asin]

[Leon]

I am told that the 4 disk set by Alfred Brendel is excellent.

I have the Brendel set and can attest to it being well worth owning and enjoyable.

[Sergeant Rock]

I have the Brendel set and can attest to it being well worth owning and enjoyable.

He's the king.

[asin]B001JJX7ME[/asin]


Edit: Just noticed his rad Mohawk 

Sarge

[mc ukrneal]

He's the king.

[asin]B001JJX7ME[/asin]

Sarge

Pricey though. You can get the entire Jando set AND have $10 left over (using Amazon prices).

[Sergeant Rock]

Pricey though. You can get the entire Jando set AND have $10 left over (using Amazon prices).

Some things are just worth the extra pennies. Brendel's Haydn is.

Sarge