Haydn's Haus

[TheGSMoeller]

I do $10 a month so I can listen through my phone...which I'm doing as we speak! 

Droid or iPhone?

[Ataraxia]

Droid or iPhone?

iPhone 3G.

[TheGSMoeller]

iPhone 3G.

Thanks. 

[Karl Henning]

iPhone 3G.

Lackey of the Evil Empire, eh?

[Ataraxia]

Lackey of the Evil Empire, eh?

Customer of, more like.

[Uncle Connie]

BRO stock of Fey as of five minutes ago (11 a.m. Monday Pacific time):

94-95

83-84-85

34-39-40-50

     at $6 a pop.  But check every few days, as you well know they add/subtract all the time.

[Karl Henning]

Thanks for the research, Connie!

[Uncle Connie]

Hi again.  It's Mr. Obscure Stuff at your service.  Today I have something that, for me at least, excites me a whole lot.  Viz.:

For us older-timers with Haydn, the ne plus ultra is probably Max Goberman's aborted complete series, issued 1960-62; he got about a third of the way and then died at age 51.  MAN OH MAN have we geezer-type fanatics hoped for a reissue.

Well, I found one.  And I also found a reissue of the old Nonesuch (or Pye) series by Leslie Jones in London; not quite as exciting, but still a real find.  (The tip, for both of these, was the review on ArkivMusic.com of the complete Naxos boxed set.  Fascinating, if longish, commentary; you might enjoy reading it as well, whether or not you want the box.)

Go to this web site, and no it has nothing to do with Gurn translated to English:

www.haydnhouse.com/home.htm

If you do nothing else, look around, and then be SURE to take the trouble to play the little snippets of MP3 they offer.  Especially the 48th.  WOW!  Talk about high horns....

(But no continuo, you'll notice.  In those days the standard practice was, discrete continuo for symphonies through No. 40, none thereafter.)

I am now going to go buy a couple, and when they arrive I'll report.  (Eventually there are a couple of Leslie Jones's that I want as well; e.g. best 75 I've ever heard.  But Goberman first.)   If they're good enough (they are apparently made direct from LPs) I'll buy some more.  And thereby goeth the road to bankruptcy, as these aren't going to be discounted or put up on Berkshire.

[Uncle Connie]

Update:  Ordering is tricky, they only want PayPal in some form, or a paper check.  I don't use PayPal.  The check is in the mail, so it will be a min. week before I can report, maybe longer unless they reply immediately and use first class.  Their interface to get to the shopping cart sucks, but I finally figured out the (very bad) system.  Which proved irrelevant as I chose the paper check option....   

At one place in the site it says that the price includes US postage, at another place it says you pay $2 per disc, so I included postage and we'll see what they do with it.

I ordered:

HS3 - Syms. 12, 51, 56 - I remember 51 and 56 as being absolutely stellar, hair-raising, and every possible superlative I can think of.  Think horns!!!  I don't remember Goberman's 12 at all.

HS5 - Syms.  3, 24, 41, 96 - The big gem here is 41, one of the most unbelievably good Haydn performances I have ever known in my life.  24 (which was the 'flip' side of the original LP formatting) is almost as fine, save only the long slow movement which I think is Haydn at his most wandering.  I remember being a bit disappointed in 3 because of the continuo, which I felt needed to be stronger to really carry the music along.  I remember 96 only for the corrected note in the Minuet, but it's my least favorite of the Salomon sets so I didn't pay that much attention overall.

[Gurn Blanston]

Got a new disk today, one that was rec'd here some time ago, and which I never saw what I felt was a good deal on it.



I got it brand new for $14 all inclusive. Not bad for an OOP 2 disk set! Now to pop it in for a listen. As you know, my rec for these Hob 4:6-11 trios for flute, violin & cello has been this one, on cpo;



and I still feel that it is an excellent choice. I have quite a bit of previous experience with the Kuijken's though, and I figure the Ensemble Sans Souci is probably in for a run for their money! No matter, it's a win:win for me no matter who turns out on top. I'll report back though.

Meanwhile, thanks, Conrad, for some interesting reading and research. I haven't been to that link yet, but I'm hoping they have something there for me, too! I had very close friend, now gone on, who started collecting records as a senior in high school, the year I was born (1951), and he had all the Leslie Jones LP's. He used to bitch loud and long that they weren't (at that time) available on CD. I might pick up a disk or two just in memoriam.

I assume this is the book you were speaking of?



I bought it at a used book store about 15 years ago for the price on the cover. It is virtually pristine except for some age discoloration on the covers. I have read it a couple of times and found it at the very least highly interesting. The guy knew every record made up to that time, a veritable encyclopedia!! 




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Now playing:

Capella Augustina; A, Spering  Vocal Ensemble Köln - Hob 21_1 Oratorio "Il Rotorno di Tobia" pt 13 - Quando mi dona un cenno

[kishnevi]

I know not everyone enjoys his approach to Haydn, but...the third installment of Marc Andre Hamelin's Haydn series will be released next month.  Like the previous two, this will be a double CD.

[Gurn Blanston]

I know not everyone enjoys his approach to Haydn, but...the third installment of Marc Andre Hamelin's Haydn series will be released next month.  Like the previous two, this will be a double CD.

While that is true for me personally, I would add though that he is one of the musicians appearing in that "In Search of Haydn" movie, and I was impressed with his obvious devotion to the music. If he would only give it a Schantz.... 

[Karl Henning]

I know not everyone enjoys his approach to Haydn, but...the third installment of Marc Andre Hamelin's Haydn series will be released next month.  Like the previous two, this will be a double CD.

I have yet to dig in properly to the two-fer I've already fetched in.

And the Harnoncourt recording of the Stabat Mater landed yesterday! But it's a Teldec disc which seems to baffle Windows Media Player . . . bah, may be Thursday before I can listen.

On the bright side, though, the DG box of Lenny landed, too! No lack of Haydn joy, then!

[chasmaniac]

Bunch of Sony Vivarte boxes out, including Tafelmusik's Haydn symphs at a very fetching price. Looking forward to hearing this.

[asin]B005TLWOH2[/asin]

[Gurn Blanston]

Bunch of Sony Vivarte boxes out, including Tafelmusik's Haydn symphs at a very fetching price. Looking forward to hearing this.

[asin]B005TLWOH2[/asin]

As you should. They are really an excellent choice, IMO. I got the same box in this format last year;

[asin]B001U0HB60[/asin]

because I had several singles but could never seem to get the remainder. For $15 I couldn't go wrong!

[Karl Henning]

Well, there's another Haydn trigger pulled . . . .

[Uncle Connie]

Hi people.  To celebrate the one-day anniversary of the last message I posted here, I just bought two nifty MODERN Haydns.

[asin]B0008GIYFO[/asin]

This is not a new disc; this particular format dates from 2005 but the original release on Calig was several years earlier.  For quite some time now I have been wondering whatever became of my Calig copy....I really do not make a habit of losing CDs, but this one just plain disappeared.  So I finally bought a new one.  Period performance (thus proving I'm not all about surface noise and distortion) and gorgeously sung.  But if for some reason you want your XXII.5 even newer and even more 'authentic,' here's the other thing I ordered:

[asin]B001QSD8CW[/asin] 

And the little note on Arkiv claims that this is Vol. 1 of the complete Masses, but if so it's already 2.5 years old and I haven't heard a whiff about Vol. 2.  Any ideas? 

I wonder which of these two up-to-date versiopns I'll like best, when put up against all the ANCIENT ones I have without so much as a peep of period-style about them?  (Hint:  The only one I'm aware of issued before the stereo era, on the Haydn Society LP label, has never been reissued, and even in my LP days it's one I was never able to find a copy of.  So, in this case, really sorry, I can't comment to the usual accompaniment of horrid tape hiss.  Jochum's has a very tiny bit, will that help?)

[Gurn Blanston]

Very interesting, Conrad. I haven't seen that first one yet, but the second has been mentioned here before with a good recommendation. That's one I'm likely to get, although I will be interested in your take on them when they arrive. I'm a latecomer to masses (not being inclined that way and unfortunately letting it affect my musical taste for a while), and so I started off with 4 box sets (Hickox, Weil, Harnoncourt and Burdick). Now I think it is time to investigate some of these single releases. These could be a good place to start, if the hiss-free aspect of the music doesn't make you just fall out...   

[Gurn Blanston]

What a haul at the mailbox today! I've been trying to gather up the various loose single disk PI chamber music, which can be a daunting task unless you are a seasoned Haydnista, accustomed to the hunt.



Despite that it is the same music as yesterday's Kuijken Trio disk, I also got, and finally received, this disk by the Ensemble Agora which has been on the fringe of my radar screen for quite some time. It is going in the queue right behind the Kuijken, so verdict returned soon.

But for me, the item I ave been working on for actually 3 years now. This book, "Haydn, Mozart & the Viennese School 1740-1780" has been OOP since at least 2006, and copies of it have been ludicrously priced at up to $700 in the AMP. I wouldn't pay that for any book! But finally, after all this time, an honest seller was vending a nearly perfect copy for a very fair price, and I couldn't refuse any longer;



It is pictured here with the other volume in the set that deals with Vienna specifically, although the middle volume is also a superb recounting of the stile galant in Europe in general. So now I can tuck in with some reading that suits me to a T. Heartz, for those who haven't read any of his books, is a very readable writer. The amounts of outright heavy music theory are nowhere near as bad as in Rosen, for example. It is music history at its best.



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Now playing:

Christine Schornsheim - Hob 16_29 Sonata #44 in F for Keyboard 1st mvmt - Moderato

[kishnevi]

Bunch of Sony Vivarte boxes out, including Tafelmusik's Haydn symphs at a very fetching price. Looking forward to hearing this.

[asin]B005TLWOH2[/asin]

I've ordered that, together with the L'arcobudelli boxes of Beethoven and Mozart. 

It's true that I paid more than $15, on the other hand I get an image on the cover that conveys the divine better than Rococo stone angels can.