Haydn's Haus

[chasmaniac]

Here's a disk that is rarely recommended, but only because not too many people are familiar with the music. It will certainly come up in the 1769 installment of the Chronology though, since I am really quite keen on it.

[asin]B002DYLU0A[/asin]

This is a great disc. Just so happens I listened to it this morning. I must have my Gurnometer synchronized!

[Gurn Blanston]

A note about this before it gets away. I'm lucky to have access to a local bricks-and-mortar classical music shop. They phoned me today to tell me that some orders had come in, and when I asked about this box they had it in stock. So it's been added to the pile I'm picking up tomorrow. Guilty,  . I feel so guilty! 

Chas, you're gonna love it. Fascinating commentary, excellent playing, Haydn's music... what more can you ask? 

This is a great disc. Just so happens I listened to it this morning. I must have my Gurnometer synchronized!

I hope that Geo will have a go at it. It is good music and very well played. I've always liked these 6 works, even when I only had the cello version.

[Antoine Marchand]

Hey, Gurn. I see you have been listening to some mass from the Naxos box. 

[Leon]

Well, here goes a vote to endorse the acquisition of the Amadeus Quartet box. 

I'm not too much objective because they were almost my introduction to these works, but they were able to wake up on me an ever increasing love for this music.

I wouldn't say that they play exactly an over-romanticized Haydn. It's clear that they are not HIP, but I would prefer to call pre-authentic his approach, with well chosen tempi; a severe, but warm interplay; not a lot of vibrato and enjoyable soundstage.

Anyway, I would recommend to avoid -at least initially- the Original Masters set (mono recordings) because of the aged sound quality. BTW, their interpretations include one of my favorite versions of the "Last Seven Words", ideal for their stern style.

My favorite performances are played on period instruments, but among the ensembles playing on modern instruments the Amadeus Quartet and currently the Tatrai Quartet clearly rank at the top of the choices.

Agreed on all counts, even down to the point that this set was also my introduction to these works; on LPs - which I liked enough to transfer to CD and upload to my iTunes library.

[Antoine Marchand]

Gurn (and anyone else interested in helping):  I'm working on building a Haydn instrumental collection and want to know where I should go next.  I currently have a complete set of the keyboard works, the London symphonies, the QM string quartets box set, and the ten disc piano trios box set is in the mail.  What other stuff should I be trying and which recordings are recommended?  Only two restrictions in regards to recommendations:  HIP required and box sets (or really cheap singles on the market place) preferred.

These sets can be recommended with confidence:

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[Gurn Blanston]

These sets can be recommended with confidence:

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Happily seconded. You have seen a couple of them in my recs (even today!) and will see more as time goes by.

[Antoine Marchand]

Agreed on all counts, even down to the point that this set was also my introduction to these works; on LPs - which I liked enough to transfer to CD and upload to my iTunes library.

Excellent! I don't have any of their recordings in my Ipod, so I think I will copy your idea. 

[Geo Dude]

Thanks for the recommendations.  I am definitely interested in the violin and viola duo disc.  I'll make a point of adding the late masses disc and The Creation oratorio to my next vocal order.

By the way, Gurn, head over to the Purchases Today thread to see another order that is your fault.

[kishnevi]

[asin]B001RL8WYC[/asin]

I liked the Divertimenti box so well I ordered that one from MDT right away.  It's in transit to me now. 

And in today's mail arrived the Mosaiques recording of Opp. 64 and 76, and the London Haydn Quartet recording of  Op. 17 (with Op. 9 coming in a separate package).

That's on top of ordering the Goodman set of symphonies, and the stuff already in "listen to" pile.

[Gurn Blanston]

I liked the Divertimenti box so well I ordered that one from MDT right away.  It's in transit to me now. 

And in today's mail arrived the Mosaiques recording of Opp. 64 and 76, and the London Haydn Quartet recording of  Op. 17 (with Op. 9 coming in a separate package).

That's on top of ordering the Goodman set of symphonies, and the stuff already in "listen to" pile.

Ah, Jeffrey, Jeffrey, Jeffrey! You are gonna be in listening heaven for quite some time to come, I think. That listening pile has some of my favorite music in it. Bon appetit! 



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Now playing:

  Accademia Bizantina \ Dantone  Montanari (Violin) \ Dantone (Cembalo) - Hob 18_06 Concerto in F for Violin & Keyboard 2nd mvmt - Largo

[Elgarian]

These sets can be recommended with confidence:

[asin]B000031WJC[/asin][asin]B00000J2PW[/asin]

In the multipage stream of recommended recordings (nearly all of which I neither have, nor have even been aware of their existence, to such an extent that I'm rendered giddy and incapable of posting anything) suddenly two pop up where I can say: 'Yes'!

Those Kuijken Paris symphonies represented my first PI peeping outside the Pinnock Sturm & Drang box, and made me realise that there was indeed symphonic Haydnistic life outside it.

[Leo K.]

We are solidly into what his early biographers called "The Romantic Crisis", but which more recently we call the Stürm und Dräng period. This we will see holds true not only for the symphonic output (look at these from this year alone!), but also for his solo keyboard works, and next year for much of his Op 9 string quartet work too. It is safe to say that he is fully entered into the first great period of his maturity, and at 36 years old, he has mastered his tools to an extent that they can keep up with the genius of his compositional spirit. The greatest composer of his, or most other, time is finally emerging.

I didn't know about Op.9! I happened to just receive the Kodaly Quartet (two discs on Naxos) playing the op.9, and will have to listen soon. I never realized how enjoyable, entertaining, and musically satisfying haydn's early quartets could be until very recently...but better late than never 

Also, I've been introduced now to these works, thanks to this series Gurn:

Hob 01_041 Symphony #41 in C
Hob 01_049 Symphony in f   
Hob 01_059 Symphony in A

Wow, wow, and wow again. I am in symphony heaven, and swimming in 18th century bliss right now.

[Leo K.]

Also, I haven't heard Hob 22_02 Missa "Sunt bona mixta malis" (fragment) yet, but really want to explore this fragment after reading Landon's thoughts in my favorite Haydn book,

[Leo K.]

Man, I LOVE what I'm hearing here...

Hob 16_46 Sonata #31  in Ab for Keyboard

I'm listening to Richard Brautigam's account on BIS. This sonata is quite an epic work in the amazing key of Ab Major. The first movement alone runs around 12 minutes!

Haydn is far and away my preferred composer of solo fortepiano/cembalo sonatas. I love fortepiano/cembalo sonatas from so many classical era composers, but Haydn is the sun (for me).

[Gurn Blanston]

I didn't know about Op.9! I happened to just receive the Kodaly Quartet (two discs on Naxos) playing the op.9, and will have to listen soon. I never realized how enjoyable, entertaining, and musically satisfying haydn's early quartets could be until very recently...but better late than never 

Also, I've been introduced now to these works, thanks to this series Gurn:

Hob 01_041 Symphony #41 in C
Hob 01_049 Symphony in f   
Hob 01_059 Symphony in A

Wow, wow, and wow again. I am in symphony heaven, and swimming in 18th century bliss right now.

I am so pleased that you have become an Haydnisto! There is just so much here to listen and enjoy. I have all of these on my computer, of course, and I can just double-click anywhere and have no fear of going wrong.

I see you liked the "Fire" Symphony. A major was a great key, not only for Haydn, but also for Mozart. Somehow it seemed to inspire composers to greater heights.



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Now playing:

   Trio 1790 - Hob 15_22 Trio in Eb 3rd mvmt - Finale: Allegro

[Gurn Blanston]

Also, I haven't heard Hob 22_02 Missa "Sunt bona mixta malis" (fragment) yet, but really want to explore this fragment after reading Landon's thoughts in my favorite Haydn book,

Leo, unless I am sadly mistaken (and I have been before), that book is the first edition of this book:



which was updated and released in 2009. It is the one that I use for lots of my chronology issue resolutions, for example, and also for definitions. It is a great book.




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Now playing:

  Trio 1790 - Hob 15_23 Trio in d 1st mvmt - Molto andante

[Leo K.]

Leo, unless I am sadly mistaken (and I have been before), that book is the first edition of this book:



which was updated and released in 2009. It is the one that I use for lots of my chronology issue resolutions, for example, and also for definitions. It is a great book.




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Now playing:

  Trio 1790 - Hob 15_23 Trio in d 1st mvmt - Molto andante

Well! I'll be darn...I didn't know there was an updated version of this book! How exciting to know! All these years I've been carrying around my first edition and not knowing it was updated...all this time!

I am so pleased that you have become an Haydnisto! There is just so much here to listen and enjoy. I have all of these on my computer, of course, and I can just double-click anywhere and have no fear of going wrong.

I see you liked the "Fire" Symphony. A major was a great key, not only for Haydn, but also for Mozart. Somehow it seemed to inspire composers to greater heights.

I love that key, and I believe it was reading Alfred Einstein's Mozart book that made me aware of the importance of key and key relationships. Mozart's A major Symphony (#29) made me acutely aware of the key of A Major, as did Mozart's Clarinet concerto.

Now, it's fascinating to hear what other classical-era composers do with A Major and other keys.

Take minor keys for instance. It's a mystery to me why Mozart composed only two minor key symphonies, while Haydn and Vanhal (to name a few) dipped freely into the minor key pool for inspiration. Perhaps it comes down to practical matters, i.e., commissions and what was needed for a performance? It seems Haydn dropped off writing in the minor key in his symphonies in his later period, with only the C Minor for his London series. Interesting to ponder!

[mc ukrneal]

These sets can be recommended with confidence:

[asin]B000031WJC[/asin][asin]B00000J2PW[/asin]

I have to majorly disagree here. I cannot think of any worse Haydn performances that I have ever heard, particularly the first disc (which is actually two discs). They are far too severe (for my tastes), and I cannot hear the spirit of Haydn here. It is because of these recordings that I generally stay away from Kuijkin, fearing that he will do to other composers what he did to Haydn. And it is not so much a question of instrumentation, but one of interpretation I think. Sorry guys (and gals)...

[Leo K.]

Right now I'm reading an interesting interview, an interview with H.C. Robbins Landon (his last), found here:

http://www.earlymusicworld.com/id29.html

Here are some quotes I really enjoyed:

"Let me tell you a new story you won't know – Haydn conducting the "Coronation" Mass [K317]. Now why would he be doing that at Eisenstadt? He was doing that because his princess [Princess Marie Hermenegeld, the wife of Haydn's patron Prince Nicolaus Esterházy] had heard the Mass at the coronation in Prague in 1791 and she obviously thought it so marvellous that she asked Haydn to get hold of a copy. So Haydn went to Constanze and asked her for a copy, which he obviously paid for. It was done at Eisenstadt, where it was a huge success."

And on his discovery of Haydn, Landon says:

"In 1939, when I was 15 [recte 13] years old. During the 1939-1940 season a series of broadcast concerts conducted by Fritz Stiedry in New York introduced a number of resuscitated Haydn symphonies, most of which had never been heard there before. At the time I was at Asheville School in North Carolina and my music teacher there was a guy called Mathias Cooper. I told him of my great enthusiasm for these Haydn symphonies and that I would love to work in music. He told me that if that was the case I should certainly concentrate on Haydn. So I asked him "Why Haydn?" and he told me that Haydn needed a Gesamtausgabe. I said, "What's a Gesamtausgabe?". He explained that it was a complete edition of a composer's works and everyone has one: Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, even Buxtehude. But not Haydn. I asked him why and he told me that forty years ago the German publisher Breitkopf and Härtel started to collect all Haydn's works, but got bogged down. It was too expensive and nobody cared. So that was what I had to do and he'd show me why. Whereupon he got out a brand new recording of Beecham conducting Symphony No. 93. We listened to it and I said, "Professor, you mean there are more symphonies like this? They must be out of their minds!". He said, "Exactly!". "

[Gurn Blanston]

I have to majorly disagree here. I cannot think of any worse Haydn performances that I have ever heard, particularly the first disc (which is actually two discs). They are far too severe (for my tastes), and I cannot hear the spirit of Haydn here. It is because of these recordings that I generally stay away from Kuijkin, fearing that he will do to other composers what he did to Haydn. And it is not so much a question of instrumentation, but one of interpretation I think. Sorry guys (and gals)...

I think the problem lies not with Kuijken, but with the players. I can't remember another disk where he led someone other than La Petite Bande, and they always produce what is to me a nice, warm sound. I have their London Symphonies as well as the 'Chunnel' set shown here and they have quite a different sound than the OAE.

My favorite set of the Paris Symphonies is this one:


But to get to your actual complaint, things like 'severity', 'dryness', 'cold'... I think those are subjective feelings that may be very real to that particular listener, but may not be universal. That's why you rarely see an adjective in my feedback; I usually say I either liked it or I didn't like it, I always think no one else can feel the same way I do about it.



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Now playing:

  Quatuor Festetics - Hob 03_22 Quartet in d for Strings Op. 9 #4 1st mvmt - Moderato