Haydn's Haus

[Herman]

That's OK, I've been hated before (married 3 times, you know?).

seriously? Wow.

[karlhenning]

Wonderful idea, Karl, and timely too since the 200th anniversary of his passing is upon us (May 31). You know, I think there are still ideas there that remain to be explored by composers, even of today. Just sayin'...

And here we go!

I am just plain jiggered at what consistently fine listening all these are making!

[Gurn Blanston]

And here we go!


I am just plain jiggered at what consistently fine listening all these are making!

0:)

(Honestly, there's not a clinker in the bunch).

[karlhenning]

0:)

(Honestly, there's not a clinker in the bunch).

After such a strong start, I don't see how there could be (aught like unto a clinker).

[jlaurson]

Three more days and I want to see this thread BUZZING!  

Here's my first lob.

Haydn 2009 - Minetti Quartet(t)

Haydn, String Quartets Opp.64/4, 74/3 & 76/5, Mintetti Quartet(t)
- Haenssler

I first heard the Minetti Quartet in January 2006 at an Embassy Series recital that honored Mozart's birthday. Afterwards I wrote: "Mozart's Birthday, but a Minetti celebration" and I haven't stopped thinking about them, since. A second recital in Washington assured that their excellence was not a fluke but repeatable, and alongside groups like the Quatuor Ebene, the Jerusalem and Jupiter Quartets, and perhaps soon the Acies Quartet, they are among the finest there are, which is saying much in a field that becomes ever more crowded with ensembles the average quality of which we could not have even imagined a decade or two ago...

Continued at WETA

Edit:
good thing no one noticed how I misspelled Haydn. Wow. How mortifying. :-)
(Corpus delicti removed and replaced)

[karlhenning]

Edit:
good thing no one noticed how I misspelled Haydn. Wow. How mortifying. :-)

I had noticed. Thanks for dropping that superfluous e! 

[jlaurson]

I had noticed. Thanks for dropping that superfluous e! 

I blame it on Haendl!

[Florestan]

I had noticed. Thanks for dropping that superfluous e!  

Yet he was right. Tom Hayden will turn 70 this year.

[karlhenning]

Delighted at the do-re-fa-mi which Haydn employs as a cantus firmus against which he writes florid counterpoint in the finale of the Symphony № 13.  The movement is on a much more modest scale than Mozart's famously effulgent finale to the K.551; but no disgrace to Papa on this head.

[Bogey]

Having you hang out in this Haus has added greatly to its foundation, Karl.  I was trying to recall the Symphony number of the live Haydn you heard some time ago.  I believe you and your wife attended the concert in Boston.  Was possibly 22 or 24?

[karlhenning]

Cheers, Bill! "The Philosopher," № 22, with the two cors anglais.

[Bogey]

Cheers, Bill! "The Philosopher," № 22, with the two cors anglais.

I will see if I can fit that into my listening tonight.  Thanks!

[karlhenning]

I could just possibly make my way to 22 "on plan" this evening, too 

[Cato]

From an AP story:

"In Haydn commemorative year it's _ mostly Mozart

May 31, 2009 10:07:53 AM EDT
By GEORGE JAHN
Mostly Mozart. Hardly Haydn.

Joseph Haydn died 200 years ago Sunday, and Austria has been officially marking the occasion with hundreds of concerts, exhibitions and other events dedicated to the music and memory of one of the country's greatest sons.

There is no doubt that Haydn was a giant. The "Father of the Symphony" was also key in developing genres such as the string quartet, the sonata and the concerto. His oratorios are the gold standard. And he was unusually prolific, leaving behind more than 100 major works and hundreds of shorter pieces.

But Haydn has it hard in a country that also gave birth to Amadeus.

Mozart was a wunderkind, a creator of more than 600 works, whose death at 35 perpetuated his fame. His genius propelled him to superstar status even before the Oscar-winning "Amadeus" in 1984 made his name a household word to even non-music lovers. He loved scatological jokes; he was impertinent, flamboyant, endearingly human.

Haydn himself idolized his younger friend's genius.

"How inimitable are Mozart's works, how profound, how musically intelligent, how extraordinarily sensitive!" he wrote. And Mozart's father, Leopold, cited Haydn as telling him: "Your son is the greatest composer I know."

Haydn is loved by those who know him.

But the majority does not.

So it's tough to drum up Mozart-like enthusiasm for the man who was staidly known as "Papa Haydn;" who died at 77 after an ordered life, most of it in the countryside; whose instrumental works are unjustly considered rigid and mannered by some when compared to Mozart's, and who remains largely unknown to the non-classical world.

"Everything is Mozart here," said Ibrahim Erneten, who peddles concert tickets to tourists thronging the Austrian capital's upscale Graben pedestrian zone abutting the opera house." The tourists don't know about Haydn."

Fellow ticket-hawker Armand Djakova says only "two or three" of his 50 or so daily inquiries are about Haydn. Bewigged and brocaded in Mozart style as he stalked the next customer, Djakova said the others want to either hear Mozart or waltz king Johann Strauss.

Few are more aware of the difficulties of selling Haydn than Franz Patay, an organizer of festivities marking the bicentenary.

"If you show someone a (Haydn) bust they'll think it's Mozart," says Patay, who was also involved in the all-Austrian hoopla surrounding the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth three years ago. Patay says the Haydn budget of around euro40 million -- around $56 million -- was about a quarter of what was allocated to the Amadeus year.

He says trying to establish who was greater musically is like deciding on "whether green or yellow is the nicer color." But he credits Haydn for "creating formats that are still relevant today, whereas Mozart did not live long enough to have that opportunity."

Under the baton of Adam Fischer, Haydn's oratorio "The Creation" was performed Sunday at the Esterhazy Palace at Eisenstadt, the southeastern Austrian town that was home to the composer for much of his musical life. The audience filling the ornate palace concert hall -- the venue for Haydn's performances -- exploded into prolonged applause for Fischer and soloists Annette Dasch, Christoph Strehl and Thomas Quasthoff.

The Eisenstadt event was part of 21 performances Sunday around the globe of one of the world's greatest classical works.

But there is more to Haydn than the grandeur of "The Creation." The man -- and his music -- also had a warm, humorous side.

His "Farewell Symphony" has instrumental parts ending in sequence -- and was written to reinforce his musicians' complaints that Haydn's patron, Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy, was deaf to their needs for vacation time. Esterhazy got the message at the premiere performance as the musicians left the stage one by one until only Haydn was left standing.

And with Esterhazy occasionally dozing off, Haydn placed an unexpected loud chord in his "Surprise Symphony" that was meant to shake the prince out of his dreams

A lover of wine, Haydn insisted that a part of his yearly salary be paid in it. He worshipped women -- except for his wife, who used to rip up his scores and use the paper as hair curlers. Haydn was a mentor to Mozart, who credited him with teaching him how to write string quartets -- and who freely used elements of the elder composer's music in his works.

And -- despite his relative obscurity now compared at least to Mozart -- he was BIG in his time.

Mozart died impoverished and with his musical legacy unsecured. Haydn, in contrast, dined at the table of Esterhazy -- one of Europe's most powerful princes -- and members of the British royal family bowed to him during his London sojourns.

As Haydn lay dying 200 years ago and Vienna was in the hands of Napoleon's armies, the emperor himself ordered that an honor guard do vigil outside. And his skull was studied after his death in attempts to ascertain the origins of musical genius, with German composer Johannes Brahms placing it on his desk for inspiration while composing.

Little of that fame is now palpable on a casual tour of the Graben shopping district.

The "Mostly Mozart" souvenir shop does brisk business in Mozart bags, Mozart CDs, Mozart marzipan and nougat sweets and Mozart tee-shirts. There are busts Mozart, Strauss and Beethoven -- a German -- and other non-Mozart items.

But no Haydn.

"There's no demand," explained sales associate Marjorie Francisco.

But those who know the man and his music are paying homage, in less obtrusive ways.

Bronx-born Lanny Louis says his CD shop is selling "at least five times as much" Haydn this year, compared to previous years.

"People are starting to realize that there is there is another great Austrian composer outside of Mozart." "

From:  http://www.mail.com/Article.aspx?articlepath=APNews\General-Entertainment\20090531\EU-Austria-Hardly-Haydn.xml&cat=entertainment&subcat=&pageid=1

[jlaurson]

From an AP story:

"In Haydn commemorative year it's _ mostly Mozart

May 31, 2009 10:07:53 AM EDT
By GEORGE JAHN
Mostly Mozart. Hardly Haydn.

What a mostly moronic article. Haydn isn't at the top of the list of Vienna-bound tourists? No shit. What a revelation. And as far as "Haydn has it hard in a country that was the birthplace (it was not) of Mozart", well, ask any half-way civilized Austrian concert-goer or classical music lover for the "Austrian National Composer" or "most Austrian composer" and you'll get "Haydn" in 9 out of 10 answers. And the (annual, btw.) Haydn Festival this year in Eisenstadt is UN BE LIEVABLE. Every symphony... every mass, every big name in music.

Alas, that would not have made as catchy a story.

[Opus106]

And with Esterhazy occasionally dozing off, Haydn placed an unexpected loud chord in his "Surprise Symphony" that was meant to shake the prince out of his dreams.

Wasn't the symphony premiered in London, to give the Londoners a surprise?

Mozart died impoverished and with his musical legacy unsecured.

Hm, really? Though not as prosperous as Haydn was when he died, Mozart was fairly well-to-do in 1791, wasn't he?

Johannes Brahms [placed Haydn's skull] on his desk for inspiration while composing.

And, is this true?

[Gurn Blanston]

Wasn't the symphony premiered in London, to give the Londoners a surprise?

Absolutely. Needs to do his research a little better...

Hm, really? Though not as prosperous as Haydn was when he died, Mozart was fairly well-to-do in 1791, wasn't he?

Yes, he was doing OK by then. And he was never "impoverished" as such. How culd he waste so much money if he didn't have it to waste?

And, is this true?

I would be amazed. Never heard it before. Although Brahms was a big fan of Haydn (the man knew his music!)




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Listening to:
NBC Symphony / Toscanini - Op 125 Symphony #9 in d 3rd mvmt - Adagio molto e cantabile - Andante moderato

[Lethevich]

I sound like a parrot whenever I say this, but this time it is perhaps more apt, as one might not expect Wikipedia to have such an article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haydn's_head

No mention of Brahms at all.

[Bogey]

Nice piece on National Public Radio this morning about Papa.  Even refers to the "classical period", Gurn. 

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104731623

[Gurn Blanston]

Nice piece on National Public Radio this morning about Papa.  Even refers to the "classical period", Gurn. 

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104731623

Ah, thanks Bill. Short and sweet as obituaries should be"

Joseph Haydn died 200 years ago today. He was, by any measure, a prolific composer. In addition to the five dozen or so string quartets, he wrote hundreds of trios, piano sonatas, oratorios, masses, operas, songs and concertos, as well as more than 100 symphonies.

In Haydn's time, promising talent didn't sign with a music company. Instead, one found a patron — some rich family that would sponsor all musical endeavors. When Haydn left school and St. Stephen's boys choir in Vienna, however, he didn't have many composition skills, his voice had cracked and he wasn't even very attractive. But music historian Robert Greenberg says that didn't stop Haydn.

"What he had going for him at that age was determination, his energy and an amazing personality," Greenberg says. And, if a famous quote is any indication, Haydn was well aware of his own wit, which often found its way into his music. He said, "Since God has given me a cheerful heart, he will forgive me for serving him cheerfully."

Haydn finally found his rich benefactor, and for nearly three decades (1761-1790), he served cheerfully as music master to Prince Nikolaus, who built a lavish palace outside of Vienna in the Hungarian swampland. Here, Greenberg says, away from the general public, Haydn was free to compose and experiment. He created a body of work, and a style — a relaxed, cheerful, but still emotionally intense style — that we generally refer to today as the "classical" style.

After Nikolaus died in September 1790, Haydn was a free man. Soon, he was approached by a London concert manager, who reportedly knocked on the composer's door, saying, "I am Salomon from London, and I have come to fetch you." Haydn ended up making two extended visits to London, composing his final 12 symphonies (called the "London Symphonies") for his adoring English fans.

As soon as my morning 9th is over, it will be "All Haydn, all day" for me!




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Listening to:
Philharmonia Orchestra \ Karajan - Op 125 Symphony #9 in d 1st mvmt - Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso