Haydn's Haus

[Gurn Blanston]

Comments:

The combined orchestras sound great (and are not a huge ensemble or even full-sized by modern standards). Very characterful HIP woodwind soloists. Valveless horns.
Antonini conducts without baton, with generally purposeful hands rather than demonstrative flailing or leaping, although plenty of silly faces. The violins stand up.

90:
The development and recap are repeated in full after the final coda of the first movement. (The latter after quite a long pause, to create a trick ending.) I know other conductors like Harnoncourt do this in certain symphonies, but I'm not familiar with the discussion around this particular practice and why people do it.

More peculiar is the finale. I must admit I was munching on lunch and not paying the closest possible attention. But the movement seemed to end, there was a long pause, and then the players plunged into what sounded like a "Haydn surprise" bonus coda and then the development and recap again, followed, of course, by another long pause and then another "Haydn surprise" bonus coda. This strikes me as foolishness - surely the joke is spoiled if you repeat it, and just becomes a prank? I notice the movement timing roughly doubles the time on Bruggen's recording.

In general, apart from the error in judgment in the finale, this struck me as an extremely good performance and some of the 2032 project's best work. Ensemble sound is wonderful. There was only a tiny bit of not-quite-unison playing at big climaxes. And, on the other hand, good pacing throughout, expressive phrasing, forward winds (even before you consider the excellent flute and oboe solos throughout), and a passionate minuet full of contrasts which was the absolute highlight of the performance.

Full symphony 31 minutes 

Thanks for this review, Brian, looking forward to getting this in my hands. Here is my look at Hob. 90, a very nice work indeed.

Hoboken 90

I agree with you on repeating the surprise ending in this one. I'm not sure why they did it, they must have felt it was appropriate, but I am fairly confident that Haydn would have not agreed, feeling your same sense of imbalance and illogic. And if there is anything Haydn was in his work, it was logical.

To be released when?

[André]

I've heard that finale played both ways a couple of weeks ago. Repeating the 'faux' ending completely spoils Haydn's clever jeu d'esprit.

[Karl Henning]

I've heard that finale played both ways a couple of weeks ago. Repeating the 'faux' ending completely spoils Haydn's clever jeu d'esprit.

Not merely a bad choice, but complete failure to read the composer! 

[Gurn Blanston]

Not merely a bad choice, but complete failure to read the composer! 

Which is quite out of character for Antonini, who is really quite brilliant.

[Karl Henning]

Which is quite out of character for Antonini, who is really quite brilliant.

Agreed.

[Brian]

Thanks for this review, Brian, looking forward to getting this in my hands. Here is my look at Hob. 90, a very nice work indeed.

Hoboken 90

I agree with you on repeating the surprise ending in this one. I'm not sure why they did it, they must have felt it was appropriate, but I am fairly confident that Haydn would have not agreed, feeling your same sense of imbalance and illogic. And if there is anything Haydn was in his work, it was logical.

To be released when?

Thanks for the link! I love the comment that it should be rehearsed at least once. It certainly is an interesting symphony with lots of effects, as he says. I will say Antonini keeps the metronomic regularity of the slow movement's variations intact, but his vision of the scherzo's trio is quite different - the lower string interjections at the end of each oboe solo line are very gruff, martial, and pointed, which only adds to the humor of the contrasts. Even the minuet was not so stately, as he allowed the tempo to relax in calmer moments and surge ahead in the more commanding ones.

I absolutely fell for the joke ending  just ... not the second time 

EDIT:
Oh, forgot to answer the "when." Unfortunately, this was concert #16, we're on CD #11 now, and given their two-per-year schedule, that means we have quite a wait. Here's the current schedule:

Q1 2022: Vol. 11, "Au goût parisien," 24, 87, 2, 82
Q3 2022: Vol. 12, "Les jeux et les plaisirs," 69, 61, 66, Sinfonia in C "Berchtoldsgadener"
Q1 2023: Vol. 13, "Hornsignal," 48, 59, 31
Q3 2023: Vol. 14, "L'imperiale," 33, 54, 53
Q1 2024: Vol. 15, "Majestäten," 62, 50, 85 + violin concerto in A with Christian Tetzlaff
Q3 2024: Vol. 16, "The Surprise," 90, 98, 94 + Rossini

[Gurn Blanston]

EDIT:
Oh, forgot to answer the "when." Unfortunately, this was concert #16, we're on CD #11 now, and given their two-per-year schedule, that means we have quite a wait. Here's the current schedule:

Q1 2022: Vol. 11, "Au goût parisien," 24, 87, 2, 82
Q3 2022: Vol. 12, "Les jeux et les plaisirs," 69, 61, 66, Sinfonia in C "Berchtoldsgadener"
Q1 2023: Vol. 13, "Hornsignal," 48, 59, 31
Q3 2023: Vol. 14, "L'imperiale," 33, 54, 53
Q1 2024: Vol. 15, "Majestäten," 62, 50, 85 + violin concerto in A with Christian Tetzlaff
Q3 2024: Vol. 16, "The Surprise," 90, 98, 94 + Rossini 

Thanks for looking up the schedule. I stopped doing that a while ago when they got so far behind in the releases, it just made me feel bad.

It would certainly be nice to see Vol 11 finally, Vol. 10 was so long ago I've nearly forgotten it already. Guess I'll have to sit and listen to it again, darn the luck!   

[André]

Which is quite out of character for Antonini, who is really quite brilliant.

The other version I heard is by Bruno Weil, also HIP and perfectly in tune with the work's spirit.

[Gurn Blanston]

The other version I heard is by Bruno Weil, also HIP and perfectly in tune with the work's spirit.

Yes, I favor that version for sure, as well as Kuijken / LPB who do a really nice job with the whole set (88-92).

[Madiel]

Kuijken is the set I have.

The fake ending gets me pretty much every time. I can't imagine sitting through a repeat of it though.

[Brian]

This comes with a Symphony No. 49 "La Passione" with a small stage organ instead of a woodwind section. (The orchestra has no wind players.) The trio of the minuet is practically an extended organ solo in this reading. A strange choice!

(Maybe even stranger is that this is at least Alpha's third "La Passione" after recent recordings by Antonini and Barbara Hannigan.)

[Jo498]

Very odd. The trio of #49 is dominated by French horns and the only extended section in the major mode in that symphony.

[aukhawk]

Interest piqued, I just had a listen and I think it's a beautiful rendition of this, one of my favourite Haydn symphonies.  Actually the very first note you hear, at the start of the 1st movement, comes from the organ and it is an ever-present throughout all four movements.  I really like it.

[Madiel]

I find myself more and more wanting to really get a grip on Haydn's chronology (as much as it is known) and where to place various music.

Yes, I know Gurn has done all the work for me. It's just that breaking it down into chunks my brain can handle is going to be tricky. That darn Haydn produced music for too many decades...

I've probably got about 70 CDs worth of Haydn's music by now (I don't know if I should actually go count: symphonies, piano trios, maybe two-thirds of the quartets, masses, cello concertos, The Creation), and I have this constant uneasiness that I haven't yet grasped what goes where!

At the very least I want to try to sort out the music from the 1780s onward. I should know what comes from the period of the London trips, for example, besides the symphonies. Wish me luck.

[Gurn Blanston]

I find myself more and more wanting to really get a grip on Haydn's chronology (as much as it is known) and where to place various music.

Yes, I know Gurn has done all the work for me. It's just that breaking it down into chunks my brain can handle is going to be tricky. That darn Haydn produced music for too many decades...

I've probably got about 70 CDs worth of Haydn's music by now (I don't know if I should actually go count: symphonies, piano trios, maybe two-thirds of the quartets, masses, cello concertos, The Creation), and I have this constant uneasiness that I haven't yet grasped what goes where!

At the very least I want to try to sort out the music from the 1780s onward. I should know what comes from the period of the London trips, for example, besides the symphonies. Wish me luck.

I DO wish you luck, and congratulate you on wanting to do it. Fascinating stuff, really!  In my blog you can see some sidebar links to pages that go to the music broken down by decade (with year identified). That is as much as I wanted to go precision-wise. 

[Madiel]

I DO wish you luck, and congratulate you on wanting to do it. Fascinating stuff, really!  In my blog you can see some sidebar links to pages that go to the music broken down by decade (with year identified). That is as much as I wanted to go precision-wise. 

Yes I'm aware of those links. Heck, if one does a google for something like "Haydn chronology", your site frequently comes up. I do actually want to read the more detailed posts as well (I have read some of them before).

It seems to me that around 1779, when Haydn got the extra freedom to produce works for the general public, is as good a dividing line as any from which to start mentally organising, and it actually does a reasonable job of splitting his career in roughly 2 halves. And then maybe the next division is before London, during and between London trips, and post-London...

[Gurn Blanston]

Yes I'm aware of those links. Heck, if one does a google for something like "Haydn chronology", your site frequently comes up. I do actually want to read the more detailed posts as well (I have read some of them before).

It seems to me that around 1779, when Haydn got the extra freedom to produce works for the general public, is as good a dividing line as any from which to start mentally organising, and it actually does a reasonable job of splitting his career in roughly 2 halves. And then maybe the next division is before London, during and between London trips, and post-London...

Yes, 1780 is a good dividing line, I was always surprised when I would discover yet another major change in his life that coincided with the turn of a decade.  🤠😎

[kyjo]

Previously I was listening to the Cello Concerto No. 2 in D major. I thought it was like too much "polite" and polished of a performance for me.

Are there any recordings of his cello concertos with more robustness, vigour and audacity?

I highly recommend Alisa Weilerstein and the Trondheim Soloists on Pentatone! Robustness and vigour aplenty (but not too HIP).

[Symphonic Addict]

I highly recommend Alisa Weilerstein and the Trondheim Soloists on Pentatone! Robustness and vigour aplenty (but not too HIP).

Thank you, Kyle. I missed this post for some reason. I'll take them in mind.

For now, I'm getting quite fascinated by his String Quartet, Op. 74-3 in G minor. Absolute genius. The way he creates tension and discussion among the instruments and each other; it's the sort of magic that accomplished composers knew how to print on their outputs.

[calyptorhynchus]

Reading about Haydn's last, unfinished, quartet, Op 103. Apparently Haydn wrote the two inner movements, a slow movement and a Menuetto, but then discovered he didn't have the strength, at his age, to composer a first and last movement.

Do we know if Haydn usually wrote this way earlier in his career, ie writing the inner movements of SQs (and symphonies perhaps) first?