Haydn's Haus

[Sergeant Rock]

I have the later quartets - "Papa" has a big catalogue and the early works are interesting historically for the creation of the form, but for listening pleasure, I appreciate the mature pieces.

I don't mean to tell you what to listen to, or what pieces you should appreciate...but, you do know that calling masterpieces like the Op.20 quartets "early" works is seriously misrepresenting the music? Haydn was forty years old when he composed them. They are fully mature quartets and much more than merely "historically interesting." By refusing to listen to op.20 (and 33, 50, 54, 55 and 64) you're really doing yourself a disservice, and missing out on some of the greatest quartets ever written.

Sarge

[Scion7]

I've listened to them.  But one only has so much time (and resources!) - I have an extensive [as in literally over 4,000 albums-call me crazy!] classical, jazz, folk, blues, and some of the more advanced rock stuff - I can't spend time on everything!     When I say "mature" I should have said "late" - Opus 20 certainly nailed the string quartet to what the form was from that point on.
It's ok if I don't grab Op.1, 2, 9, 17?  Argh, my house runneth over as it is.   Now you've planted the Op.20 bug and I must resist!

What with the late Mozart qts, the middle & late Beethoven, the Schubert and Brahms, Dvorak, the Bartok, the Schoenberg-Berg-Webern, the Shostakovich and Bacewicz and Prokofiev, just to name a 'few' - that's a bunch of string quartet to digest, along with all the other music, over a lifetime!
   
 

[Karl Henning]

What's your hurry? ; )

[Scion7]

I enjoy the cd's of the late quartets - mostly purchased for travel purposes,
but at home I still put on - Op.76 & 77 & 103:



Good English London pressings - pretty quiet - warm sound.  Nice box set with informative 8pg insert.  Early 70's recording.

I saw the violist, Margaret Major, on tv once - promoting a concert, I think - and I see she has published an arrangement of Sevcik Op.3 for viola.

[Scion7]

Same for this one:



Did I read somewhere that Haydn had a Dutch "enemy" so to speak - either a publisher or composer?  Anyway, I seem to recall that this guy was personally critical of Haydn in various social circles.

[Gurn Blanston]

Same for this one:



Did I read somewhere that Haydn had a Dutch "enemy" so to speak - either a publisher or composer?  Anyway, I seem to recall that this guy was personally critical of Haydn in various social circles.

Not Dutch, I think. Maybe Deutsch? His critics were mainly massed on the Berlin /Potsdam axis. By and large, and for such a successful person, Haydn had very few enemies, not even of the merely catty sort.

[Sergeant Rock]

I've listened to them.  But one only has so much time (and resources!) - I have an extensive [as in literally over 4,000 albums-call me crazy!]

I understand. I have myriad musical interests, too, and over 10, 000 albums, including 4000 to 5000 LPs:

Same for this one:

I have that Aeolian Quartet box too     Must've been one of my first Haydn quartet purchases.

Sarge

[Scion7]

Ha ha - does EVERYONE use that same make/model bookshelf for shelving their albums??!?!
That's what I and just about everyone I know uses.  A couple have Peaches crates, but their collections are not as large.

[Karl Henning]

We all of us just use the same stock photograph . . . .

[Sergeant Rock]

does EVERYONE use that same make/model bookshelf for shelving their albums??!?!

My brother-in-law, the carpenter, will be extremely offended 

Actually, he built the shelves specifically for my LP collection. A wedding present for Mrs. Rock and me.

Sarge

[Karl Henning]

: )

[Ataraxia]

We all of us just use the same stock photograph . . . .

[George]

We all of us just use the same stock photograph . . . .

[kishnevi]

Ha ha - does EVERYONE use that same make/model bookshelf for shelving their albums??!?!
That's what I and just about everyone I know uses.  A couple have Peaches crates, but their collections are not as large.

I don't have those bookshelves.  I have some CD shelving from The Container Store, a bookcase for CDs from Target,  some CD racks from K-mart, and a bunch of cardboard boxes lying on the floor.  All of it in my bedroom,  leaving just enough space for my desk, my closet, my TV and my CD player/alarm clock.  Oh, and there's a bed in there too somewhere   I'm not sure how many I have,  since I stopped counting at about 700. but I remain well short of Sarge status.  Somewhere between 1500 and 2000 is my best guess.

[eyeresist]

We all of us just use the same stock photograph . . . .

I can't even afford the photo 

[Karl Henning]

You know, you cruise along, enjoying the overall fine musicking of this Haydn chap, digging the fact that as you hear more and more of his catalogue, it's musical time very well spent — and then he'll whap you upside da haid with an extra-exquisite Adagio. Like this F Major piano sonata, f'rinstance (HXVI:23)

[Gurn Blanston]

You know, you cruise along, enjoying the overall fine musicking of this Haydn chap, digging the fact that as you hear more and more of his catalogue, it's musical time very well spent — and then he'll whap you upside da haid with an extra-exquisite Adagio. Like this F Major piano sonata, f'rinstance (HXVI:23)

Yeah, slow movements were his specialty, many of them reach levels of sublimity. I often play one two or three times on the way by, as it were.

[Karl Henning]

And I love how Beghin avails himself of an occasional lute stop, Gurn.

[Leon]

Oh, yes I like the Beghin set quite a lot, and generally prefer period instrument recordings, especially of the keyboard works.  However, there are some recordings on piano which I also enjoy.  I've had the John McCabe set for ages, I think it was my first complete set - and it holds up.  There's the 4-disc Brendel set that is really fantastic. There are others, but I've never focused on modern recordings so I don't have Hamelin, and wish I didn't have Gould. 

Now we come to Jean-Efflam Bavouzet who seems to be embarking on a complete set of the Haydn sonatas.  I've liked his playing in Debussy, and even Gershwin - but had not heard him in Classical era works.   I know of three volumes of Haydn so far, and took the plunge.  These are not indulgent performances, no unstylistic over-pedaling, or other pianistic elements which I find distracting when used on Haydn, or other pre-piano composers.  Some reviews have complained of a loss of focus after the first disc, but I have not lived with them long enough to confirm that judgement.

Not overly reverberant, and his playing is not uncharacteristic for these works.  If that sounds like faint praise, it's not - it is just that I am not prone to indepth analysis of recordings and only want to convey a general impression.  Also, as I said, I haven't lived with these very long and am still listening to them for the first time.  So far I like them at least as much as the McCabe.

Recommended but not for doctrinaire PIons.

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[Gurn Blanston]

That seems like a very fair assessment, Arnold. I also have the McCabe, and it was also my first complete traversal. I like McCabe because he makes a modern piano not sound like a modern piano. Much like Ingrid Haebler does in Mozart;



While both of these artists are able to bring it off, most modern pianists in either of these cycles of work tend to turn me off with overly reverberant sound. Stylistically, the commonly used (today) legato that was aspired to by the early Romantics and most pianists since then simply doesn't work that well in these works. So overall, I'll probably give most of the moderns a miss (especially Gould! ), but as I always do, I say again that one should go with whatever pleases him, since the music is the thing.