Haydn's Haus

[Uncle Connie]

As to Manfred Huss, I'm rather keen to hear his 'Philemon und Baucis,' just arrived, thereby completing my collection of all three known versions. 


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Currently playing in this domicile, the following, of which (brag brag) I have all known versions as well (six):


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Hint:  From what I've heard of this one, don't bother.  Sound is tolerable, performance decent enough, singing good to very good - but they're Russians!, fer gosh sakes, and there isn't enough Haydn spirit in there to fill a very tiny thimble.  They try - and Bonynge really ought to have the idea well enough - but there are better, so why waste time with this merely 'acceptable' effort?  (Kindly do not ask why I've done so.)

My favorite of the six, though I know the Bartoli/Hogwood has lots of partisans:


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It's simply the one of the six with the fewest flaws and the most consistent overall  "Haydnesqueness."  (Good word if you ask me....)

[eyeresist]

Second is the (minor, but annoying) mention that when Jane Glover took over, she changed the Latin pronunciation from Central European i.e. "Haydnesque" (e.g. Osanna in ex-TSEL-sis) to the English and American style (Osanna in ex-CHEL-sis).

What the article said: "Mr. Burdick, for example, chose to use an Italianate pronunciation of the Latin texts; Ms. Glover opted for a Germanic pronunciation."

[Karl Henning]

As to Manfred Huss, I'm rather keen to hear his 'Philemon und Baucis,' just arrived, thereby completing my collection of all three known versions.

Well, so perhaps you're a compleatist after all!

[Gurn Blanston]

Well, so perhaps you're a compleatist after all!

Karl. Anyone who has more Haydn than I do is a completist by any stretch of the definition! No "perhaps" needed. 

As to "L'Anima del Filisofo"I not only like Hogwood/Bartoli, but I'm not repelled by La Stagione either;
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I've seen that Orfeo disk, but not tried it yet. Might be worth a shot.

[Gurn Blanston]

Well played but I'm not sure I'm keen on all the instruments he uses.  The fortepiano on this CD seemed especially tinkly.  So when it finished I switched over to the first listen of an MI performance--Quatour Ebene doing opp. 64/5, 33/1, and 76/1.  Apparently a live performance (I think this was their first recording--on Mirare).  So far (now in the first movement of 33/1) they seem to be doing an excellent job.

Clearly a different philosophy.   I have heard that Quatuor Ebene is quite skilled. You are seeming to confirm that. That is certainly a nice program they are playing!

[Karl Henning]

Karl. Anyone who has more Haydn than I do is a completist by any stretch of the definition! No "perhaps" needed. 

Je-je-je-je!! : )

[jlaurson]

Clearly a different philosophy.   I have heard that Quatuor Ebene is quite skilled. You are seeming to confirm that. That is certainly a nice program they are playing!

  "Quite skilled" is rather an understatement for what might be the only string quartet -- certainly of its generation -- on which one could any sort of consensus about it being in fact the best. These boys are amazing. When they're rested. http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/02/mozart-woche-salzburg-you-must-hear.html

[Uncle Connie]

What the article said: "Mr. Burdick, for example, chose to use an Italianate pronunciation of the Latin texts; Ms. Glover opted for a Germanic pronunciation."

Thank you - and my apology, I had it reversed.  Teach me to type something from memory without bothering to check the source....

[Uncle Connie]

Orfeo - well, we've got three of them up already, here are the others:

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I like it too.  As well as the Schneider.  I just happen to like Hager better.


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(There are various other editions of this performance, all ultimately pirated.)  Don't bother.  The sound is excruciating, you can't understand so much as a syllable of what Dame Joan sings, and really, with the other choices, there's no need for this.


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Anybody for World Premiere of the whole opera?  1950, Vienna; never before heard in full form by any human anywhere.  The sonics are best called "rugged" and the lead soprano is ghastly, but there is a good deal of excitement and intensity in much of the rest that no other version ever quite matches.  Apart from sound, the Genio is the best of all, never mind that Cecilia and Joan and the Russian lady all sing the part in addition to Euridice, which is stupid....

[Karl Henning]

Ghastly lead soprano . . . all in a day's singing, really . . . . (← joke)

[kishnevi]

Orfeo - well, we've got three of them up already, here are the others:

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I like it too.  As well as the Schneider.  I just happen to like Hager better.

Hmm.  $12 on Amazon MP.  The opera that's not in the Dorati box.  Two of my favorite singers.  AAM...okay,  that one's been ordered.

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(There are various other editions of this performance, all ultimately pirated.)  Don't bother.  The sound is excruciating, you can't understand so much as a syllable of what Dame Joan sings, and really, with the other choices, there's no need for this.

I've had almost uniformly bad experience with the sound quality on Opera d'Oro, so the SQ problem here may no be in the source material.  I'm going to be ordering the Opera d'Oro issue of Marschner's Der Vampyr because I've been assured on the Havergal Brian thread that one has exceptionally good quality compared to most of their other releases, and because it's probably the only version available on CD.    But if you come across another issue of that performance, they may be worth checking into, pirated or not. (Not that I've heard any of them, of course.)

[Karl Henning]

I've had almost uniformly bad experience with the sound quality on Opera d'Oro

+ 1

[Karl Henning]

Well, thinking now of how rum life is.  The musical world would be poorer if all the performances of The Creation were like Lenny's on DG.  But I cannot help feeling that the m. w. would be poorer, too, without this fairly large-boned, but not musclebound, account.

[jlaurson]

Well, thinking now of how rum life is.  The musical world would be poorer if all the performances of The Creation were like Lenny's on DG.  But I cannot help feeling that the m. w. would be poorer, too, without this fairly large-boned, but not musclebound, account.

Of course, the Creation was always meant to be very large-boned! (See McCreesh, who uses 'original sized forces' of quadrupling everything.) http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2008/12/best-recordings-of-2008.html

[Karl Henning]

Of course, the Creation was always meant to be very large-boned!

Fair point, too.

[Uncle Connie]

Hmm.  $12 on Amazon MP.  The opera that's not in the Dorati box.  Two of my favorite singers.  AAM...okay,  that one's been ordered.

I've had almost uniformly bad experience with the sound quality on Opera d'Oro, so the SQ problem here may no be in the source material.  I'm going to be ordering the Opera d'Oro issue of Marschner's Der Vampyr because I've been assured on the Havergal Brian thread that one has exceptionally good quality compared to most of their other releases, and because it's probably the only version available on CD.    But if you come across another issue of that performance, they may be worth checking into, pirated or not. (Not that I've heard any of them, of course.)

I've heard the same Sutherland performance on two different CD reissues - the second one is pictured below, on Myto - and also on an LP set some aeons ago.  They're all awful, and supposedly it's because the original source was someone sitting in the audience at the Edinburgh Festival with a tape recorder under their coat.  I flatly don't believe that, more likely it came off the radio - but regardless, the sound is at best "rough." 

Also not in the Dorati box were Le Pescatrici, La Cantarina, Philemon and Acide - of course, to be fair, I think only Philemon existed at the time in a performable edition....

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[Gurn Blanston]

Also not in the Dorati box were Le Pescatrici, La Cantarina, Philemon and Acide - of course, to be fair, I think only Philemon existed at the time in a performable edition....

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The Dorati box claims to only have the operas that were written for the Esterháza opera house. Le Pescatrici, La Cantarina, Philemon and Acide are all too early for that, and Philemon (and Die Fueuerbrunst) are marionette operas so probably disqualified too. Which leaves only "Orfeo...", which was composed for London, of course. Haydn's operas have never received the acclaim which they are due. I have found all of these works to be most enjoyable!

I had some back and forth with Herr Huss through his rep at BIS, and I urged him to do "Le Pescatrici" as his next project. No word ever received on what he thought of the idea....

[Gurn Blanston]

Oh, I would hate if we left out one of my early favorites, Der Apotheker.

I think there are a couple of recordings of it, but this one has always satisfied me;



Simple yet amusing.

[Gurn Blanston]

Conrad,
Over the years, have you run into some good recordings of dances and/or marches? They are both sadly underrepresented in the current catalog, but I see releases from time to time, like a recent one on Australian Eloquence by the Academy of St Martin etc / Marriner that includes "German Dances", but doesn't say which they are. I have the great "24 Minuets Hob 09:16" disk by Dorati et al, and would be delighted to be able to fill out my collection of orchestral dances with some others of that nature, but don't know if they exist or not. Also, on the subject of marches, someone gave me years ago some MP3's of all the marches, but he had no vague idea who recorded them (they were on the radio, he says). That disk would just thrill me to pieces if it could be had. Of course, I have piano reductions of all those works, but it isn't the same, is it?



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Now playing:

Lola Odiaga (Fortepiano) - Hob 16_32 Sonata #47 in b for Keyboard 1st mvmt - Allegro moderato

[kishnevi]

I've heard the same Sutherland performance on two different CD reissues - the second one is pictured below, on Myto - and also on an LP set some aeons ago.  They're all awful, and supposedly it's because the original source was someone sitting in the audience at the Edinburgh Festival with a tape recorder under their coat.  I flatly don't believe that, more likely it came off the radio - but regardless, the sound is at best "rough." 

Also not in the Dorati box were Le Pescatrici, La Cantarina, Philemon and Acide - of course, to be fair, I think only Philemon existed at the time in a performable edition....

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Given what I've heard from some of these releases,  I find "tape recorder under the coat" eminently believable.  I have one issue of Furtwangler's La Scala Ring (Siegfried) in which the orchestra comes through rather clearly, and sometimes very loudly, but you often have to strain to hear the singers.  Apparently whoever did the taping was sitting IN the orchestra pit, or at least very close to it (like first couple of rows).   Most of these releases seem to be taped from back of the audience or something--muffled sound and so forth.  Even if it were taped off the radio,  I think the sound would be better.  (I had a friend in college who taped every performance of the Met's Saturday  afternoon broadcasts.  I have no idea of where he is, if he kept it up after college, or what the state of those recordings are.  I hope he was able to preserve them--they'd be a tremendous archive now.)