Haydn's Haus

[Jared]

I feel it is vitally important for someone trying to put on superior airs to be able to spell and have some grasp of grammar.   I love Amazon for those sorts of things, it's an open forum.

hey Gurn, look what I found going for a peach of a price on ebay a couple of weeks ago...



one the basis of the above erm... research... do you think I ought to return them and ask for my money back?

[Gurn Blanston]

hey Gurn, look what I found going for a peach of a price on ebay a couple of weeks ago...



one the basis of the above erm... research... do you think I ought to return them and ask for my money back?

Not just them, Jared, but apparently ALL your Haydn. Well, he is the most boring composer, after all...

[Jared]

Wagner (2,363)
Haydn (2,335)

the scandal of it all!   

I tell you.... never trust a Poll... 

[Gurn Blanston]

I want Haydn to stay put in his pecking order and stay away from the level of "overly known" to the masses.  It's always nice to drop Papa's name when a friend inquires of which composer to start with when venturing into classical music.  The answer is something like this:


"Well, you cannot go wrong with Mozart or Beethoven, but you may want to given Haydn a try.  Heard of 'em?"

And, just for fun, here are the number of available recordings from Arkiv Music of different composers.  I only chose the ones with 2,000 or more, but included Vivaldi because he was close.  Interesting who is ahead of Haydn considering how prolific he was with composition.:

Mozart (7,249)
Bach (6,914)
Beethoven (5,582)
Schubert  (3,855)
Verdi (3,491)
Tchaikovsky  (3,333)
Handel  (2,945)
Schumann (2,832)
Mendelssohn  (2,665)   
Debussy (2,393)
Wagner (2,363)
Haydn (2,335)
Puccini  (2,246)   
Vivaldi (1,971)

I'm thinking that this is due to redundancy. If a man has fewer than 100 opus numbered works and yet 3,333 recordings, how does that stack up to someone with over 800 works and 2300 recordings? Hell, I have 2300 Haydn recordings, for that matter....

[Jared]

Not just them, Jared, but apparently ALL your Haydn. Well, he is the most boring composer, after all...

well, I'd defy anyone with a pulse (never mind whether they were into CM or not) to listen to the Hickox boxset of Haydn Masses and come to the conclusion...

... that he was boring... 

[Gurn Blanston]

the scandal of it all!   

I tell you.... never trust a Poll... 

Wanna hear my 5 minutes with Wagner?     

[Jared]

Wanna hear my 5 minutes with Wagner?     

I think I'd rather hear your 5 minutes on Wagner than your 5 minutes on Mahler.. being as I love the latter, but simply can't cope with the former...

The older I get, the more ridiculous it all seems.. 

[Bogey]

What Haydn needs is a movie about him directed by Spielberg....and starring Daniel Day-Lewis....and throw in Jessica Alba!  The heck with accuracy....look what it did for Wolfie!  *pounds table really, really, hard*

[Gurn Blanston]

I think I'd rather hear your 5 minutes on Wagner than your 5 minutes on Mahler.. being as I love the latter, but simply can't cope with the former...

The older I get, the more ridiculous it all seems.. 

I merely bemoan the lack of concision after 1830. It (prolixity) did reach its peak about 60-80 years later though, didn't it? Of all the things that subsequent composers could have taken from Beethoven, somehow they missed out on his  almost magical ability to telescope great statements down to a few terse notes. Haydn had it, Mozart too. Maybe that is the nut of Classicism?

[SonicMan46]

Well, a pleasant change of pace for me w/ the new arrivals below - a half dozen of the Londons in chamber arrangements by Peter Solomon; instruments include flute, fortepiano, & string quartet w/ the Arco Baleno Ensemble; the fortepiano is from the workshop of Chris Maene (HERE) based on one by Anto Walter, Vienna 1794 - plenty of interesting information and pictures on that site for those interested.


 

[Gurn Blanston]

What Haydn needs is a movie about him directed by Spielberg....and starring Daniel Day-Lewis....and throw in Jessica Alba!  The heck with accuracy....look what it did for Wolfie!  *pounds table really, really, hard*

Haydn:  But I never wore a cape. And those leotards   Can't we just keep the girl without dressing me up?

Salomon:  But Joe, dammit, your buns are still as hard as steel! London will be all a buzz over the suit. The S on your chest stands for Sonata...

Haydn: Doh!

[Leon]

I merely bemoan the lack of concision after 1830. It (prolixity) did reach its peak about 60-80 years later though, didn't it? Of all the things that subsequent composers could have taken from Beethoven, somehow they missed out on his  almost magical ability to telescope great statements down to a few terse notes. Haydn had it, Mozart too. Maybe that is the nut of Classicism?

What I think is that during the Classical period expressing the "ego" of the artist was not an end in itself, but a means to expressing the music.  During the height of the Romantic era, it seems to me that the artist's personality, and stormy emotions, took center stage and the music became a means to expressing that end.

I much prefer the priorities of the Classical period.

[Gurn Blanston]

Well, a pleasant change of pace for me w/ the new arrivals below - a half dozen of the Londons in chamber arrangements by Peter Solomon; instruments include flute, fortepiano, & string quartet w/ the Arco Baleno Ensemble; the fortepiano is from the workshop of Chris Maene (HERE) based on one by Anto Walter, Vienna 1794 - plenty of interesting information and pictures on that site for those interested.


 

Nice, Dave. Are those from the Marketplace? I need to wishlist them if so. I've had those arrangements in the back of my mind for a while now, looking for nice versions. These might be the ones.

[Gurn Blanston]

What I think is that during the Classical period expressing the "ego" of the artist was not an end in itself, but a means to expressing the music.  During the height of the Romantic era, it seems to me that the artist's personality, and stormy emotions, took center stage and the music became a means to expressing that end.

I much prefer the priorities of the Classical period.

Very much agree with that, Arnold. I was thinking of means while you were thinking of motives. They go together though. I prefer the priorities of Classicism too.

[Bogey]

What I think is that during the Classical period expressing the "ego" of the artist was not an end in itself, but a means to expressing the music.  During the height of the Romantic era, it seems to me that the artist's personality, and stormy emotions, took center stage and the music became a means to expressing that end.

I much prefer the priorities of the Classical period.

Simple Arnold....they had better managers promoters!

[Jared]

Very much agree with that, Arnold. I was thinking of means while you were thinking of motives. They go together though. I prefer the priorities of Classicism too.

I'm afraid I will always continue to sit on the fence over this one... I love Romanticism as much as I do the product of the Enlightenment mind, even though they are polar opposites. I enjoy alternating Renaissance, Baroque, Classical & Romantic, every bit as much as I do Orchestral, Chamber, Instrumental & Choral/ Vocal. I certainly think however that discovering the joys of Haydn are to be worked at, and are not as immediate as many other composers.

[Bogey]

I'm afraid I will always continue to sit on the fence over this one... I love Romanticism as much as I do the product of the Enlightenment mind, even though they are polar opposites. I enjoy alternating Renaissance, Baroque, Classical & Romantic, every bit as much as I do Orchestral, Chamber, Instrumental & Choral/ Vocal. I certainly think however that discovering the joys of Haydn are to be worked at, and are not as immediate as many other composers.

Quote of the day!

[Gurn Blanston]

I'm afraid I will always continue to sit on the fence over this one... I love Romanticism as much as I do the product of the Enlightenment mind, even though they are polar opposites. I enjoy alternating Renaissance, Baroque, Classical & Romantic, every bit as much as I do Orchestral, Chamber, Instrumental & Choral/ Vocal. I certainly think however that discovering the joys of Haydn are to be worked at, and are not as immediate as many other composers.

That's totally fair. I went through that same phase for nearly 20 years, I was absolutely delighted to listen to nearly anything (of quality). It is only recently that I have decided to specialize a bit. Somewhere I had to reconcile my passion for music with my equal one for history. That means picking something and settling down for a while. Haydn, the greatest under-appreciated composer remaining, was pretty much a natural for me. Not that I couldn't be a music-whore again some day.



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Now playing:

   Chamber Orchestra of Lausanne; Dorati Auger; Mathis; Stade; Terrani; Johnson - Hob 28_07 Opera 'Il Mondo della Luna' pt 48 Act II - (Finale II) Buonafede tondo

[Jared]

That's totally fair. I went through that same phase for nearly 20 years, I was absolutely delighted to listen to nearly anything (of quality). It is only recently that I have decided to specialize a bit. Somewhere I had to reconcile my passion for music with my equal one for history. That means picking something and settling down for a while. Haydn, the greatest under-appreciated composer remaining, was pretty much a natural for me. Not that I couldn't be a music-whore again some day.

We are probably quite similar in this regard... whilst not being a Historian per se, my interest in CM was initially sparked through this aspect. A knowledgeable ex-neighbour, with whom I have shared many a history book, got me into listening to CM, initially through lending me the Requiems of Mozart, LvB & Dvorak along with some info on the stylistic differences and why they were written. Although ironically her first and main love is the Renaissance (Victoria, Gabrieli et al) I have to say that the occasion... 3 1/2 years ago now, had me hooked, because I have long been fascinated with the transition from Classicism to Romanticism.. an even more ideological earthquake than the introduction of Enlightenment thinking on an age pre-occupied with the delightful frivolities of the Rococco...

[Karl Henning]

My ears remain pan-epochally voracious. Yet indeed I am enjoying hanging out more frequently here at Da Haus.