Haydn's Haus

[Gurn Blanston]

After Googling, I found out that some people collect those things, and I guess, are willing to pay more to have them.

Go figure.

Go indeed. I can't figure either...

I have two from the Das Wiener Philharmonia Trio on the Camerata label....Vols. 3 and 4.  Great music making on these, by the way.



Do you know how many volumes they issued?

PS Snow day here....looking at 12 inches or so.

Yes, 6 is it. I have the first 4, but the last 2 are virtually impossible to get any more. Unless you got them when released, you are probably out of luck. The lack of recordings of these excellent works is an ongoing mystery.

Just left a short post (quoted below) in the listening thread - as stated, most of this keyboard oeuvre of Papa Haydn is new to me - the Derek Adlam  single disc has him performing a handful of these works on a clavichord, which he made in 1982 (copy on an instrument from 1763 by Johann Adolph Hass, Hamburg, and strung in brass).

The Bart van Oort box consists of 5 discs of a wide variety of Haydn's non-sonata keyboard works composed over an approximate 30 year period and played on fortepiano (instrument  from 2000 by Chris Maene after Walter ca. 1795).  A listing of the works on these CDs can be found HERE.  A short review of the box set is on the All Music website HERE for those interested.  The box includes an excellent 23-page booklet (only in English) of notes by van Oort & Sylvia Berry, a specialist in Viennese music of the late 18th & early 19th centuries - a bargain on the Amazon MP!

I've been listening to the first 2 discs, i.e. Variations & Dances and agree w/ the reviewer above; varied and delightful works performed ably as expected by van Oort in well recorded sound; the fortepiano has a pleasant full tone - the Adlam disc just started, so will enjoy some of these pieces on the clavichord -

Yeah, Dave, 2 sets of really good tunes. We have touted them both here, the Oort as recently as for the 1792 dances on there. I think you will like that Adlam, I know you like clavicord, and that's a good one.

I received a mail earlier this morning from Abeille that I will be refunded the amount for this box, since their stock somehow vanished after I placed my order. So the only Haydn disc of the parcel will be the 'Haydn in London' (Winter & Winter), which made an appearance in this thread a few pages ago.

Well, Navneeth, it's only one, buts it's a good one anyway. That's an excellent disk!

[Bogey]

Go indeed. I can't figure either... :-\Yes, 6 is it. I have the first 4, but the last 2 are virtually impossible to get any more. Unless you got them when released, you are probably out of luck. The lack of recordings of these excellent works is an ongoing mystery.

Criminal at best.  We are playing through the two I have right now...might be some of the best Haydn performances and sound I have on the shelf.

[SonicMan46]

Yeah, Dave, 2 sets of really good tunes. We have touted them both here, the Oort as recently as for the 1792 dances on there. I think you will like that Adlam, I know you like clavicord, and that's a good one.

Well, Navneeth, it's only one, buts it's a good one anyway. That's an excellent disk!

Hi Gurn - yes I've been keeping up on your installments and saw the van Oort box a few pages back; think that I had already ordered it from the Abeille Musique site - cost was about 9 bucks only!  From Navneeth's comments, I may have gotten one of the last ones they had?

I've had the clavichord disc for a while and just finished listening to the recording - still love that instrument; a nice contrasting sound to the fortepiano - thanks again for all of the work you've put into your Haydn chronological review - Dave

[chasmaniac]

Yes, 6 is it. I have the first 4, but the last 2 are virtually impossible to get any more. Unless you got them when released, you are probably out of luck. The lack of recordings of these excellent works is an ongoing mystery.

Now that's news. I have 2 discs of Haydn that Gurn wants and doesn't  have!

How's this - the 2 cds plus an ice fishing hut on Lake Simcoe for a hacienda in the sun.

[Gurn Blanston]

Now that's news. I have 2 discs of Haydn that Gurn wants and doesn't  have!

How's this - the 2 cds plus an ice fishing hut on Lake Simcoe for a hacienda in the sun.

I can provide you with a nice little lot with trees that you can build an hacienda on. That would be a fair trade.

Hi Gurn - yes I've been keeping up on your installments and saw the van Oort box a few pages back; think that I had already ordered it from the Abeille Musique site - cost was about 9 bucks only!  From Navneeth's comments, I may have gotten one of the last ones they had?

I've had the clavichord disc for a while and just finished listening to the recording - still love that instrument; a nice contrasting sound to the fortepiano - thanks again for all of the work you've put into your Haydn chronological review - Dave

Well, that's a darn fine price. It's funny what a range you see this set going for. I saw it for $75 the other day   I felt like $25-30 is fair, but 9 is amazing!!

Thanks for the kind words. We are running out of years pretty soon here though. Time for some essays on genres and stuff.

Criminal at best.  We are playing through the two I have right now...might be some of the best Haydn performances and sound I have on the shelf.

I know, it's a great set and I'm sorry not to have it all. The Japanese are just too stingy with their distribution.

[Gurn Blanston]

Part 43

1794

What a great year! Something for everyone in 1794. On 19 January 1794 Haydn departed for London, accompanied by the former Esterházy copyist Johann Elssler, now his valet, copyist and constant companion. They arrived on February 5. On the way they stayed in Passau, where he heard a choral arrangement of the Seven Last Words by the local Kapellmeister, Joseph Friebert, something which stuck in Haydn's mind for a long while and bore fruit 2 or 3 years later.

The Professional Concert was so thoroughly trounced financially after their 1792 debacle that they disbanded. So in 1794 Haydn and Salomon had the city music scene to themselves. Symphony Hob 99 had its premiered on February 10th, Hob 101 on March 3rd and Hob 100 on March 31st, incidentally Haydn's 62 birthday. In the summer Haydn traveled to Portsmouth, the Isle of Wight, Bath and Bristol. He really did make the most of his opportunity being in a foreign land; his off-seasons were all spent traveling about visiting and seeing the sights.

Haydn's compositions from 1794 are more heterogeneous than those from 1791–2. He returned to piano music for the first time since 1790, composing the set of trios (accompanied sonatas, lest we forget) Hob 15:21–23, Maria Hermenegild, the wife of Anton's successor Prince Nicolaus II. In addition he wrote what were to be his last 3 keyboard sonatas. His friend Therese (Jansen) Bartolozzi, a student of Clementi who was at that time still an amateur, but as good as nearly any professional, received the dedications of #60 & 62 (Hob 50 & 52). Hob 52 is the most technically demanding sonata in Haydn's entire output, and a mainstay in the repertory even today.

Another genre he took up again owing to the influence of a lady was the solo song. The muse was Anne Hunter (1742–1821), another well-to-do widow (of the famous surgeon John Hunter) and a minor poet, who supplied the texts for at least nine of Haydn's 14 songs in English; 12 appeared as two sets of Original Canzonettas, six in 1794 and then six more the year following. He also composed numerous arias, divertimentos, marches, canons and other works.

Haydn's London visits were the highpoint of his career up to that time. Griesinger reports that he earned 24,000 gulden and netted 13,000 (the equivalent of more than 20 years' salary at the Esterházy court), and that he 'considered the days spent in England the happiest of his life. He was everywhere appreciated there; it opened a new world to him'.

The music of 1794;

Hob 01_102 Symphony in Bb
   Hanover Band / Goodman
Hob 01_103 Symphony in Eb
   La Petite Bande / Kuijken



Hob 04_01 Trio in C for 2 Flutes & Cello   
Hob 04_02 Triosatz in G for 2 Flutes & Cello
Hob 04_03 Trio in G for 2 Flutes & Cello
Hob 04_04 Triosatz in G for 2 Flutes & Cello
   Camerata Köln


Hob 15a_32 Sonata in G for Violin & Keyboard
   Bologni (Violin) / Modugno (Fortepiano)



Hob 15_21 Trio in C
Hob 15_22 Trio in Eb
Hob 15_23 Trio in d
Hob 15_32 Trio in G
   Trio 1790



Hob 16_50 Sonata #60 in C for Fortepiano
   Bart van Oort
Hob 16_51 Sonata #61 in D for Fortepiano
   Richard Burnett
Hob 16_52 Sonata #62 in Eb for Fortepiano
   Andreas Staier



Hob 24a_09 Mare Clausum
   Tafelmusik / Weil



Six Original English Canzonet's (on Poems by Ann Hunter) Book I
Hob 26a_25 Song with Keyboard - 'The mermaid's song'
Hob 26a_26 Song with Keyboard - 'Recollection'
Hob 26a_30 Song with Keyboard - 'Fidelity'
   Emma Kirkby (Soprano) / Marcia Hadjimarkos (1790's Walter reproduction Fortepiano)
Hob 26a_27 Song with Keyboard - 'A pastoral song' (My mother bids me bind my hair...)
Hob 26a_28 Song with Keyboard - 'Despair' (The anguish of my bursting heart)
Hob 26a_29 Song with Keyboard - 'Pleasing pain'
   James Griffett (Tenor) \ Bradford Tracey (1798 Broadwood Fortepiano)



Hob 28_13 Overture in C to 'Windsor Castle' & 'L'Anima del Filosofo'
   London Classical Players / Norrington



"We will start out our evening's entertainment with a new grand ouverture by Dr. Haydn....."  The symphony Hob 102, a popular favorite and played here in lovely fashion by the always perky Hanover Band / Goodman. Composed in late 1794 for the 1795 season, this work showcases Haydn's compositional maturity, and this disk does a fine job of letting the music speak out. So too with Hob 103, another late 1794 work premiered in 1795. Our performers this time, La Petite Bande / Kuijken are at their best here. Nice performance that is always a pleasure to listen to.

Our next set of works is a chamber music gem that is all too often overlooked. There 4 trios for 2 Flutes and Cello are very pleasant entertainment indeed. This version, one of several reasons to find this Camerata Köln disk (it also has the three trios for Fortepiano, Flute & Cello Hob 15_15-17 in nice versions). Sitting here right this minute listening to these little flute duets even has ME wanting to listen to flute music! 

OK, so let's talk violin sonatas for a moment here. Did Haydn ever actually write any violin sonatas? Well, in order that you should be in on what Bologni & Modugno have to say about that subject, I will tell you in a short bit what they say in lengthier form in the liner notes. There are three "attributed to J. Haydn" works on this disk, and very nice they are too. Nicely written and nicely played. However, there is no evidence to substantiate an attribution to Haydn, and I learned a long time ago that "it sounds like, it has to be..." doesn't cut it when it comes to "who wrote that?" kinds of questions. Also included here is a duet version of the lovely Trio Hob 31 in e minor, with the "Jacob's Dream" finale that he composed for Jansen as well: the finale originated as an occasional piece titled 'Jacob's Dream!', designed to amuse her by showing up the insufficiencies of a self-important violinist in the higher registers. Now, the final work here, Hob 15a_32 Sonata in G for Violin & Keyboard, is also a trio "accompanied sonata". For years it was believed to be Haydn's only actual violin sonata. Whether it is or isn't is hard to tell, since it was published in London and Vienna (Artaria) at the same time, and in London it was a trio and in Vienna it was a violin sonata. I am keeping it MY version of the list because I think it has a legitimate claim. And next year I will use the same logic to include Hob 15a_31 in e on the list. Why? Well, I really like them, and these versions are especially nice to listen to. And because it's my list, and you can not include them in your list.  

And speaking of accompanied sonatas, there is another trio of trios, in fact, a quartet of trios, in this year's crop. First, Hob 21-23 are dedicated to Maria Hermenegild, the wife of Anton's successor Prince Nicolaus II. Then, the previously discussed Hob 32 in G. As I have vowed, I have stayed with Trio 1790 here too, despite having 7 or 8 very fine other versions of them. You will probably find whatever version you have to be eminently satisfactory, although if you are shopping still for a box'O'trios, you could do far worse than the Trio 1790, which is recently released in a collected box.

Oort, Burnett & Staier. I'm back again all over the place with my sonata selections though. I really do hate to leave anyone out. If you have a nice big box by one artist, like Brautigam, Schornsheim or Beghin, then don't despair, I would have gladly had any one of them. The music here is excellent, and if Hob 52 doesn't make you recalculate Haydn's musical abilities (not that anyone would ever sell him short), you are too far beyond me! 

The "Mare clausum" is a little cantata for Bass with chorus and instruments that is more properly called "Invocation of Neptune", although it got the name "Mare clausum" because the text of the cantata came from a (early 17th century) book by that name. It is really pretty cool, and it shows up here, surprisingly enough in Weil's "Complete Masses" box!  Go figure.    

We come now to the Book I of the "Original Canzonettas". As something that has flown a bit under the radar, they are surprisingly nice little songs. Strange to hear Haydn sung in English. What most people who even know the works at all probably don't know is that they aren't necessarily written for a woman's voice. Haydn himself sang them for George III and his wife, Queen Charlotte (who was a huge fan of his).  So for this hour or so of entertainment, I have taken three of them performed by soprano Emma Kirkby accompanied by Marcia Hadjimarkos, and interspersed them with three performed by James Griffett accompanied by Bradford Tracey. I think the effect is very much in keeping with what a social evening in a London household would have been like.

Finally, despite it being 'outlawed' to play any music in any venue from the banned performance of 'L'Anima Filosofo' ('Orpheo et Euridice'), Haydn was called on to contribute an overture to an English Opera by Salomon in Convent Garden entitled "Windsor Castle". What he did contribute was this overture, so it finally did get performed, the only work other than an aria by Storace that ever got performed in Haydn's lifetime. I went with Norrington here, but if you got that Goodman disk for Symphony 102, you will find it on there too. Either version is a nice addition.

So that's 1794. The music and stories of these years are so tightly woven that after all this time (since 1749, it has been!) the chronological method gets difficult to write and follow. That's the point though. The story of Haydn is so poorly told that it is nearly impossible, by any means other than dedicated reading and rereading of the sources, to figure out what happened and when. So I hope that by the end of this saga, you (and I) will have a better grip on it. I think it helps to appreciate this great music even more!

[Gurn Blanston]

I thought some might be interested in this concert announcement from London, 1795. Among other things it shows that Haydn was doing more than his own subscription concerts. He did at least as many of these charity affairs. Notice the lineup. Not only varied, but it's a great long list relative to what we would hear today. Note also that Haydn's contribution (aside from "leading from the fortepiano") is a symphony, and it is played in the place of honor, which is to say, the first piece in Act II.

[Gurn Blanston]

2 notes;

#1; if you don't know, you can click that picture and it gets larger, large enough to easily read.

#2; "Decayed musicians"!   I love that.

[Opus106]

#2; "Decayed musicians"!   I love that.

Decayed and residing in England! I love reading material like these from the past; thanks very much for posting it.

One question: in what sense is the word orchestra used here, and how is it different from "the band" (four hundred performers! What was Karajan doing there?)?

P.S.: What's with the capitalisation of the first letters of a few words popping up in 'weird' places?

[Gurn Blanston]

Decayed and residing in England! I love reading material like these from the past; thanks very much for posting it.

One question: in what sense is the word orchestra used here, and how is it different from "the band" (four hundred performers! What was Karajan doing there?)?

P.S.: What's with the capitalisation of the first letters of a few words popping up in 'weird' places?

Me too, my wife and I had a big laugh while I was scanning it.

I looked at that context several times over and decided that they are using 'orchestra' here to mean a physical place for the performers to perch (usually they stood back then, so I won't say "to sit"). Like you could call a pit an orchestra if you were referring to where they performed from. The noun "band" was nearly always used at that time to denote the musicians themselves. Also, note they are performing Handel as a finale. I am very certain that the huge chorus that was typical at that time in England is included in the overall number of musicians. That's still a bunch!

The upper Case, Apparently randomly used There, is also very typical of the time. Also, Sometimes a large first letter, particularly an S for example, doesn't necessarily Denote a capital, it's just Big.   

[Bogey]

Very cool, Gurn.  Neat that they included some Haydn in the Handel concert.

[Gurn Blanston]

Very cool, Gurn.  Neat that they included some Haydn in the Handel concert.

[Bogey]

On a serious note, where did this image come from?

[Gurn Blanston]

On a serious note, where did this image come from?

I have a very large book (a "coffee table" type of book) called "Haydn; A Documentary Study" by H.C. Robbins-Landon. I scanned the page this AM, it was as big a page as my scanner would handle!

It has some of the nicest pictures in it of any book I own, all printed on great, glossy paper.

[Bogey]

I have a very large book (a "coffee table" type of book) called "Haydn; A Documentary Study" by H.C. Robbins-Landon. I scanned the page this AM, it was as big a page as my scanner would handle!

It has some of the nicest pictures in it of any book I own, all printed on great, glossy paper.

Cool.

[Opus106]

I looked at that context several times over and decided that they are using 'orchestra' here to mean a physical place for the performers to perch (usually they stood back then, so I won't say "to sit"). Like you could call a pit an orchestra if you were referring to where they performed from.

I had never come across the term orchestra used to refer a place where the artists performed, but as it turns out that's in fact the origin of the term! (As per Etymonline anyway.) Well, that's something new for the day.

Also, note they are performing Handel as a finale. I am very certain that the huge chorus that was typical at that time in England is included in the overall number of musicians. That's still a bunch!

But still 400 does seem a lot, what, after this HIP talk of reduced forces back then and all that.... That's like half the strength of a Mahler symphony and we haven't even reached the 1800s.

The upper Case, Apparently randomly used There, is also very typical of the time. Also, Sometimes a large first letter, particularly an S for example, doesn't necessarily Denote a capital, it's just Big.   

[Gurn Blanston]

I had never come across the term orchestra used to refer a place where the artists performed, but as it turns out that's in fact the origin of the term! (As per Etymonline anyway.) Well, that's something new for the day.

Modern writers have a bad habit of glossing that sort of stuff over to avoid confusion. But if you read the old sources (critically) you run into usages like that a lot. I love learning new stuff just that way.

But still 400 does seem a lot, what, after this HIP talk of reduced forces back then and all that.... That's like half the strength of a Mahler symphony and we haven't even reached the 1800s.

It was actually a very humble amount for England at that time. They had choruses of 800-1000 for the Handel festivals. Also, I look at this particular affair as being just like the ones they had annually in Vienna (The Society of Friends of Music) that Haydn also contributed to annually, along with Mozart and every other musician. It was specifically a widows and orphans fund for dead musicians' families. IIRC< he wrote Il Ritorno di Tobia for one of those affairs, and also donated the rights to The Creation and The Seasons for an annual performance every year. The point being (you knew I would get to it) that every musician in Vienna donated his appearance free/gratis for the charity. Lot and lots of them!

[Opus106]

It was actually a very humble amount for England at that time. They had choruses of 800-1000 for the Handel festivals. Also, I look at this particular affair as being just like the ones they had annually in Vienna (The Society of Friends of Music) that Haydn also contributed to annually, along with Mozart and every other musician. It was specifically a widows and orphans fund for dead musicians' families. IIRC< he wrote Il Ritorno di Tobia for one of those affairs, and also donated the rights to The Creation and The Seasons for an annual performance every year. The point being (you knew I would get to it) that every musician in Vienna donated his appearance free/gratis for the charity. Lot and lots of them!

Very interesting. Some more new information.

[Bogey]

What surprised me the most about the document was the abscence of the "s" that was used in a lot of printing of that time where it almost looks like an "f":



Here it is used both ways in the same text;

[Opus106]

What surprised me the most about the document was the abscence of the "s" that was used in a lot of printing of that time where it almost looks like an "f"

It's still there, Bruce (sorry!) Bill -- I had to re-read some of the words to make sense of them. Look at, for example, Musicians (the decayed ones), Consist and Orchestra (Nota Bene) and the plenty of Messrs. Note also that these appear in the middle of the words.

As an aside: That f-like S is still used today, but in a different context.