Haydn's Haus

[Karl Henning]

Oh, nor durst I speculate which adjectives.

[Gurn Blanston]

Oh, nor durst I speculate which adjectives.

Suffice to say, they are the colorful ones.    0:)



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Now playing:

Musicians of the Louvre, Grenoble \ Minkowski - Hob 01_100 Symphony in G 1st mvmt - Adagio - Allegro

[TheGSMoeller]

Suffice to say, they are the colorful ones.    0:)



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Now playing:

Musicians of the Louvre, Grenoble \ Minkowski - Hob 01_100 Symphony in G 1st mvmt - Adagio - Allegro

You're gonna have to moderate yourself on this one, Gurn.

[Madiel]

iTunes has an album of Op.50, Nos 1-3 by the Buchberger Quartet labelled as "Clean Lyrics".

The mind boggles.

[jlaurson]

Ionarts-at-Large: David Fray on a Day in D-Minor

complauding [kuhm-plawd-ing]
Gerund
1. The contemporaneous grumbling and praise of the presence of Haydn on a concert program, but performed as the first piece, thereby subliminally or overtly suggesting that Haydn is 'nice', but 'not really that important'. When of course he is that important. And more.

[Gurn Blanston]

Ionarts-at-Large: David Fray on a Day in D-Minor

I love those rare moments when someone who actually 'gets' Haydn has the podium, if even for a moment. Nice reading.

[TheGSMoeller]

Ionarts-at-Large: David Fray on a Day in D-Minor

Looked like a good program, I'm very fond of #26 so it's nice to see it performed, thanks for sharing, Jens.

[Karl Henning]

Suffice to say, they are the colorful ones.    0:)

In Texas, all the adjectives are colorful (they say).

[Uncle Connie]

Update on my adventures with Thomas Fey:  I got a little carried away by cheap prices for third-party copies on Amazon.  The following four (sic!) are now on order:

1.  34, 39, 40, 50
2.  41, 44, 47
3.  57, 59, 65
4.  69, 86, 87

All four, combined, have set me back just over US $20 including shipping.  I am a bit worried that there are so many cheap sell-offs - can that bode well? - but, I wanted to know, so I'm going to now a lot!  And each of those volumes gives me at least one "special" favorite:  (1) 34, 39 and 50!!!; (2) 41, 44;  (3) 57 and (4) 86. 

So what else did I buy today? 

[asin]B006IZFMMM[/asin]


(If you want it but want actual discs instead of MP3, try Arkiv.)

Mogens Wöldike (1897-1988) had a real 'thing' for Haydn in his day, and recorded the six symphonies on this set in the early 50s.  43 and 50 were paired on a Haydn Society LP and those 'Haydn Society high horns' were apparently shipped to Copenhagen after being used in 56 in Vienna, and re-used in 50.  61 was also recorded for the Haydn Society but it was never released as the company went bankrupt.  44 and 48 were done for (English) Decca, the latter unfortunately without benefit of the high horns.  And 91 was done for a Danish company and released on 78 rpms! - unfortunately cutting the repeats in order to fit those discs.  Set also includes an eccentric and not-worth-bothering D Major 'cello con., and a handful of German dances.  (Not included, darn it, are Syms. 99-104 which Wöldike did in Vienna a few years later for Vanguard; in those, they performed directly from Haydn's autograph scores, thereby fixing various errors that had crept in (e.g. the opening drumroll of 103 which had until then always started pp - cresc.- ff -decresc. pp.)

Until today, with this purchase, I had never ever heard 61 or 91.  Didn't even know the latter existed!  I, of the fondness for older versions, am in hog heaven today....

[Uncle Connie]

"Image unavailable?"

Well, just 'click to buy' (but of course you needn't follow through) and it shows up.

[Uncle Connie]

Third post today - do I have a real life?

Update on Thomas Fey, yet again.  The first of my CDs arrived this afternoon - ordered via Amazon 3d-party seller yesterday!  It turns out she lives 10 miles from me and went to the P.O. immediately....

Syms. 34, 39, 40 and 50.  The first order of business of course was the greatest one, 39, once dubbed by a critic "The Fist" for its stern inflexibility.  The verdict after one play, 3 mvts. very fine indeed, but I really prefer not to rush the first mvt. and I think Fey does.  Perhaps I'll get more used to it but at this point I do think it's so fast as to eviscerate the tension more than a bit slower pace would.  To me it's almost as if Fey is counting this in 2/2 instead of 4/4. 

Number 50 - remembering my posts just above where I also got the aged Wöldike reading of the same work - excellent but I do still like some things in Wöldike better.  Points in favor of Fey:  He does use a continuo, and even though Wöldike was using those special high horns we've mentioned, Fey brings them out much better.  And also Wöldike takes the Minuet too slow - they all did back then - though not nearly as draggy as, say, Beecham (most of the time) or e.g. Bruno Walter....  Points in favor of Wöldike, the sense of 'theatre' (remember this symphony derives from a marionette opera prelude) is much stronger at the outset and much more fulfilled by the finale; in other words, I hear Wöldike playing a sequence of interrelated and progressive movements in a cohesive order, vs. Fey just playing four movements.  This is the sort of intangible review comment that I normally abhor; how the hell can anyone possibly "hear" something like that in a symphony?  But that's what popped into my febrile (feeble?) brain, so I typed it.  Sue me.

Number 34 - first movement, no thanks.  I get no sense at all of the Baroque stateliness from which this movement derives.  Fey is all artifice, and beautifully played artifice, lovely to hear on that level, but frankly it almost - not quite - brings Movement One down to the superficiality of the following three.  Maybe that's a plus after all; this is really a great symphony for one movement only, and as such is all out of balance.  I think however I'd rather hear Haydn unbalanced than Haydn diminished. 

Haven't played 40 yet.  Definitely one of the Haydn things low on my popularity list.  As another anecdote from music's Neanderthal period, I first heard this on a monaural 45-rpm (sic!) English disc, conducted by Beecham.  He treated it as one of his famous "lollipops," light and facile and essentially empty.  I've since heard Dorati and Fischer and a couple of others, and you know what?  Much though I love Haydn, Beecham may have had a point....

Sincerely yours,

Uncle Connie

who is an only child and so cannot be an uncle, and who utter abhors the nickname 'Connie.'  In case you care

[Gurn Blanston]

Conrad, thanks for all this info on classic recordings. I know a substantial number of our Hausmates are very keen on this aspect of collecting, both CD and vinyl. And it is one of my pathological character defects that causes me to not be the one who supplies that need! So by all means, any info you want to share in this regard is appreciated, I know you will soon have a regular readership.

Some little nuggets: "The Fist"? Really? I've always been very partial to the g minor symphony, yet I've never thought of it in that way. I guess that's where imagination takes us.   

Minuet tempo and speed. This is definitely something that needs worked up into a solid discussion. I'm going to work on that. I've been reading quite a bit in Landon lately, and I think I have a solid essay on it stashed away in my library too.

#40 is actually #27 in the New Chronology, and it dates from 1763 instead of the expected 1769 S & D era. I think that contributes to its more laid back presentation. 39 & 41 tend to beat up on it a bit. 



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Now playing:

Orchestra of the 18th Century; Frans Brüggen - Hob 01_103 Symphony in Eb 1st mvmt - Adagio - Allegro con spirito

[TheGSMoeller]

I noticed in my iTunes playlist that my Pinnock #39 was labeled as "The Fist", but don't think it's listed in the disc's booklet. I'll put it next to Bruckner's "The Saucy Maid" title, as in I will only be referring to the piece by it's number. 

[Gurn Blanston]

I noticed in my iTunes playlist that my Pinnock #39 was labeled as "The Fist", but don't think it's listed in the disc's booklet. I'll put it next to Bruckner's "The Saucy Maid" title, as in I will only be referring to the piece by it's number. 

Maybe Conrad wrote their list for them?    I just looked again at Pinnock's original (Vol 1) and despite the fact that he plays up #59 being named "Fire", there is no mention anywhere of "The Fist". Not that I dispute that anyone hung any sort of name on a Haydn symphony (it was a sport, after all) but just wondering what their info source was, if not the original disk.

"Saucy Maid" indeed.   I don't use names for any works. The concept just never appealed to me. Damned old stick-in-the-mud that I am.



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Now playing:

Chamber Orchestra of Europe \ Harnoncourt - Op 125 Symphony #9 in d 4th mvmt Presto - 'O Freunde, nicht diese Töne' - Allegro assai

[TheGSMoeller]

Please don't take this as a "Look at this proof, Gurn!!" post...I just wanted to share, cause it still throws me off guard, maybe users have access to the iTunes library to name tracks and albums.

[Gurn Blanston]

Please don't take this as a "Look at this proof, Gurn!!" post...I just wanted to share, cause it still throws me off guard, maybe users have access to the iTunes library to name tracks and albums.

Oh no, I totally believed you. When it comes to classical music, nothing surprises me after seeing the "Overture to 'Le nozze di Figaro'" used to sell drain cleaner...  

One nice thing for me about using Media Monkey as a player; it doesn't do anything except play music. I love that!   



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Now playing:

La Petite Bande \ Kuijken - Hob 01_104 Symphony in D 3rd mvmt - Menuetto: Allegro - Trio

[TheGSMoeller]

Oh no, I totally believed you. When it comes to classical music, nothing surprises me after seeing the "Overture to 'Le nozze di Figaro'" used to sell drain cleaner...  

One nice thing for me about using Media Monkey as a player; it doesn't do anything except play music. I love that!   



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Now playing:

La Petite Bande \ Kuijken - Hob 01_104 Symphony in D 3rd mvmt - Menuetto: Allegro - Trio

I may have to checkout Media Monkey. I like iTunes, but sometimes the "grace note" that identifies tracks from the discs you burn are sometimes out of sync and confusing.

[Gurn Blanston]

I may have to checkout Media Monkey. I like iTunes, but sometimes the "grace note" that identifies tracks from the discs you burn are sometimes out of sync and confusing.

Well, I do all my tagging in a lovely little piece of freeware called (amazingly) "MP3 Tag". Download anywhere. Then I turn off tag seeking features in Media Monkey and only allow it to play what it finds on my hard drive(s). The result is that I get what I want and not what my software wants. 

There was a major upgrade to MM not long ago (now version 4) but I didn't like it and have continued on using Version 3, which has always been especially nice and easy to use. The upgrade caters to folks who use all sorts of media types (to the detriment of plain old music listeners, of course), which I only use flac and mp3 anyway.



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Now playing:

La Petite Bande; Kuijken - Hob 01_088 Symphony #88 in G 3rd mvmt - Allegretto

[TheGSMoeller]

Well, I do all my tagging in a lovely little piece of freeware called (amazingly) "MP3 Tag". Download anywhere. Then I turn off tag seeking features in Media Monkey and only allow it to play what it finds on my hard drive(s). The result is that I get what I want and not what my software wants. 

There was a major upgrade to MM not long ago (now version 4) but I didn't like it and have continued on using Version 3, which has always been especially nice and easy to use. The upgrade caters to folks who use all sorts of media types (to the detriment of plain old music listeners, of course), which I only use flac and mp3 anyway.

Sounds like I need to give it a try. Thanks, Gurn.

[jlaurson]

I may have to checkout Media Monkey. I like iTunes, but sometimes the "grace note" that identifies tracks from the discs you burn are sometimes out of sync and confusing.

Just for playing, Media Monkey is good, as is (at least that's the word; i've only just intstalled it after finalloy chucking iTunes which continued to crash my computer) foobar2000. The king of tagging and library management, if you are not afraid of complexity, is http://musichi.eu/. Built from scratch for the obsessive compulsive classical music freak.