Haydn's Haus

[TheGSMoeller]

Actually, I suspect this one will;

[asin]B001NBS5NE[/asin]

(Dennis Russel Davies)

Which would be a pity.... :-

Not a fan?

[Bogey]

Well, we'll always have Paris Fischer.

[Gurn Blanston]

Not a fan?

Not particularly, although any stab at Haydn's music is better than none. I would have preferred the last complete cycle to be at least on period instruments. Hogwood, Goodman, Solomons, Freiburg Baroque,...... Concerto Köln!!!!!. But not just another modern instrument cycle by a conductor I never even heard of before this. It's impertinent. 

[Gurn Blanston]

Well, we'll always have Paris Fischer.

Here's lookin' at you, kid...

[Gurn Blanston]

Gurn, it's good to see another little Haydn project coming up. If I may make a suggestion, perhaps you could do this in a separate thread with only your entries, mainly for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the flow and continuity will be maintained throughout: discussions can happen here, so that the essays and the general Haus chatter won't disrupt each other, and each will get the attention it deserves. Secondly, you can provide a single link as a reference instead of worrying about many (of course, if the need arises, you could always link to a single post).

The alternate-thread idea is not bad at all, but I wonder if you'd consider starting a dedicated Haydn blog, Gurn.  Your "amateur" (lover's) scholarship and investigation is nothing to be ashamed of, and a blog (which could always be made private/invite-only at your pleasure) could collect the entries in a second form without the intervening conversation and variation of topic (which of course I enjoy immensely), to be read one entry after the next.  For the world to see!  Please do not panic.
Similar blogs in loads of other well-tilled fields have yielded excellent conversations and impressed jaded pros.  Two cents from me.

I've succumbed to ye're blandishments and started that other thread. Hope it works out in reasonable fashion. 

[Sergeant Rock]

Release date of Feb 26th in the US. Anyone have it yet?

I have it pre-ordered but it hasn't shipped yet. It was supposed to be released in Germany yesterday (11 Feb), but neither Amazon nor JPC has it in stock. Odd.

Sarge

[Karl Henning]

I've succumbed to ye're blandishments and started that other thread. Hope it works out in reasonable fashion. 

\m/

[TheGSMoeller]

I have it pre-ordered but it hasn't shipped yet. It was supposed to be released in Germany yesterday (11 Feb), but neither Amazon nor JPC has it in stock. Odd.

Sarge

Things take a while to leave The Shire, I'm guessing. 

[Sergeant Rock]

Things take a while to leave The Shire, I'm guessing. 

Yeah, they are a bit relaxed about business matters. They are too busy eating and smoking.

Sarge

[TheGSMoeller]

Yeah, they are a bit relaxed about business matters. They are too busy eating and smoking.

Sarge

What a life.

I'm excited to hear No.27 though, interested in hearing Fey roughen it up a little. 

[Sergeant Rock]

What a life.

I'm excited to hear No.27 though, interested in hearing Fey roughen it up a little. 

Did you read the Hurwitzer review of the Hogwood cycle? Wimpy, he called it.    Whatever faults he sometimes finds in Fey's Haydn, wimpiness is not one of them 

Sarge

[Gurn Blanston]

Did you read the Hurwitzer review of the Hogwood cycle? Wimpy, he called it.    Whatever faults he sometimes finds in Fey's Haydn, wimpiness is not one of them 

Sarge

Hurwitz is a well-known idiot, so what he says doesn't matter. He is my personal "Santa Fe Listener"....

[Brian]

What a life.

I'm excited to hear No.27 though, interested in hearing Fey roughen it up a little. 

It's on NML now! I've never heard this symphony before, but I am having a darn good time. Very outgoing horns, comparatively recessed harpsichord, which suits me cuz I'm generally speaking not a fan of harpsichord continuo in my Haydn (thus my preference for Weil over Kuijken).

[TheGSMoeller]

It's on NML now! I've never heard this symphony before, but I am having a darn good time. Very outgoing horns, comparatively recessed harpsichord, which suits me cuz I'm generally speaking not a fan of harpsichord continuo in my Haydn (thus my preference for Weil over Kuijken).

Thanks for the link, Brian.
Listening now, and once again I love Fey's take on Haydn, just as with the previous 18 volumes.    Yes indeed, outgoing horns on No.26, and great balance between the woodwinds and strings. I've always enjoyed the brawn Fey delivers in some movements only to be followed by a sweet admiration for the Adagios.

On to No.42, Fey delivers.

[Bogey]

From the H-blog, and I quote:

It is very difficult when discussing Haydn's works to simply toss out this or that one, since even his least inspired effort frequently exceeds the best of others.

I think we all agree that when it comes to Gurn on Haydn is that you can't stop him, you can only hope to contain him.  Love the blog!  Time for some chronological symphonies:

Fischer with 1(1)-dig those horns in the opening!

have to make sure I do not leave the room for my nightly cup of decaf or I might miss half of it.

[Gurn Blanston]

  Thanks, Bill. Glad you are enjoying. Sometimes having more information available only increases the enjoyment. For example, looking at the mentions above by Greg and Brian of Hob 27(6), it would have been hard to believe that it was Haydn's only 6th symphony just by hearing it. And the inference that Count Morzin must have had some great hornists then arises naturally from the music itself. That's what makes the music come alive for me, hopefully others will feel that too. 

[Sergeant Rock]

I'm excited to hear No.27 though

Me too...because I currently only have one version of 27 (Fischer) and I'm keen to hear a different performance.

Hurwitz is a well-known idiot, so what he says doesn't matter. He is my personal "Santa Fe Listener"....

I'm a fan but, yeah, he can make idiotic assertions. The Haydn review is especially unfair to Hogwood (and that despite the fact Hurwitz points out objections I have with some of Hogwood's choices). Although supposedly a review of the entire 81 symphony box, he only actually reviews one symphony in detail, 48 "Maria Theresia." Anyway, he praises Hogwood for leaving out the harpsichord but damns him for not taking advantage of that:

"Now the entire point of the continuo is to support the harmony of music which was never intended to support itself, something patently untrue of Haydn's symphonies. So you would think that Hogwood would proceed to show how terrific the music sounds without the continuo: how big, bold, and colorful. Nope. Instead, he chooses the smallest possible forces, omitting trumpets and drums wherever they seemed to be later additions, however authentic. Never mind that these additions show that Haydn preferred larger forces, and that–as with most composers of the period–the ensemble he had likely bore scant resemblance to those he would have deemed optimal."

Me, I sometimes like hearing the music played "small" ....there are plenty of other versions that play up the pomp and ceremony when I want to hear it that way.


Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

I think we all agree that when it comes to Gurn on Haydn is that you can't stop him, you can only hope to contain him.  Love the blog!  Time for some chronological symphonies:

Fischer with 1(1)-dig those horns in the opening!

have to make sure I do not leave the room for my nightly cup of decaf or I might miss half of it.

  Yeah, that's a great 12 minutes of music. I think I'll listen to it now.

Sarge

[Gurn Blanston]

"Now the entire point of the continuo is to support the harmony of music which was never intended to support itself, something patently untrue of Haydn's symphonies. So you would think that Hogwood would proceed to show how terrific the music sounds without the continuo: how big, bold, and colorful. Nope. Instead, he chooses the smallest possible forces, omitting trumpets and drums wherever they seemed to be later additions, however authentic. Never mind that these additions show that Haydn preferred larger forces, and that–as with most composers of the period–the ensemble he had likely bore scant resemblance to those he would have deemed optimal."

But Sarge, those additions don't say one single thing about what Haydn's preferences were. Most times they weren't added by him in the first place, but even when they were, it was because the music was being played in a place that had that sort of thing available and wanted to use it and they will have requested parts from him when they asked for the score. So is necessity the mother of preference then?   

Anyway, I like trumpets and drums as well as the next man, but with all the crap that flies in the direction of the HIMP movement, it shouldn't be on the receiving end of the same criticisms when it DOES do something correctly, even when that doesn't agree with Mr. Hurwitz's taste. 

Of course, that's merely my opinion, I could be wrong.

[TheGSMoeller]

Me too...because I currently only have one version of 27 (Fischer) and I'm keen to hear a different performance.
Sarge

Brian linked the Naxos Library site that has this Fey disc, that is if you don't want to wait to hear it.