Haydn's Haus

[Gurn Blanston]

Part 5
Hob 18:1
Concerto in C for Organ Solo, 2 Oboes & Strings
In Haydn's hand on autograph "1756"

3 movements;
I   Moderato
II  Largo
III Allegro molto

Recordings;






Circa 1755, Haydn, by now 23 years old and feeling the urges of maturity, met and fell in love with Therese Keller, daughter of a wig maker in Vienna. As the second daughter, the Keller's were determined that Therese would become a nun. For the mass at which she took her vows, Haydn composed this concerto in C, and possibly also his Salve Regina in E major. It is the only concerto that exists still in its original autograph, dated by Haydn (possibly in later years) as 1756. It is scored for 2 Oboes, string section and 2 Clarini (Trumpets) but without timpani in the original score. Since it was unheard of to use trumpets without timpani, it is never played that way. Probably they were improvised then, and they have been scored many times over since then. So, a quite large orchestra (3 or 4 1st Violins, 3 or 4 2nd Violins, Viola, Cello, & Double Baß (Holzapfel here uses a Violone instead) as well as the winds, which likely included a bassoon or two reinforcing the continuo). Finally, a work that can justify the larger forces that most bands prefer!   

I would like to begin with the Academy of Ancient Music / Hogwood (Leader / Organ). This is the only organ concerto that they had a go at, and they did it up rich. I'm guessing they were thinking about filling up St. Stephan's Cathedral! Violins are 6 & 6, 3 Violas, 2 Cellos, Double Baß, 2 Oboes, Bassoon, 2 Clarini, 1 Timpanist and Hogwood himself on the chamber organ, described as 'by Goetze & Gwynn, an early 18th century English model'. It has a nice tone to it, not much else to say about it. The liner notes, despite having a lot of text, don't really tell you much if you take my meaning. There is no doubt that all of those people are playing; this is the 'biggest' version yet of any concerto in this review. The playing is, as always with this group, brilliant. I think it fair to say that if you want a version done in the large church sort of way, and you already have this disk for the trumpet concerto anyway, you don't have to shop further for this particular work. Hogwood is, in the event that one doesn't know this, a really fine keyboard player. His solo work here is first rate.

Schornsheim, always one of my favorite keyboardists, is accompanied here by the full forces of the Neue Düsseldorfer Hofmusik, which two 1st Violins, two 2nd's, two Violas, one Cello and a Double Baß, with a Bassoon in the continuo. The liner notes for this set, as lovely as the disks are, are just not up to snuff for telling you what's what. For example, I assume that the pair of horns listed are only used in the later concertos for cembalo (3, 4 & 11) but I don't know. Can't hear them anyway. Ms. Schornshiem is playing an organ by Klop from 2008, but there is no further information about it. It sounds like a rather nice chamber organ, although that may merely reflect restraint on her part. Her playing is impeccable as always, and the band is really quite fine too. I like the overall balance they strike here. Not as large as the AAM, but very room filling in any case.

Holzapfel follows Hogwood's lead in having a large orchestra in this work. Not quite as large, however. He has three 1st Violins, three 2nd's, two Violas, one Cello and a single Violone. In addition to the two Oboes, there are two Clarini (Trumpets) & one Timpani. Here, Holzapfel plays a 1750 Hencke organ in the Pilgrimage Church of Maria  Kirchbüchl just south of Vienna. It is virtually identical to the original organ that Haydn played for the Brothers of Mercy in Leopoldstadt. It is super! Holzapfel has added the Clarini parts from manuscripts found at the monastery of Kremsier in Moravia, while Hogwood used parts found at Melk. I'm sure a keener ear than mine can detect the differences. The Largo in this version is particularly fine, slower than the others, and very sensitively portrayed.

Koopman's original (1979) version is interestingly different in that, since he couldn't get a good idea on the veracity of the trumpet parts, he played it straight. Which is to say Solo Organ, String Orchestra (three Violins I, three Violins II, one Viola, one Cello and one Violone), two Oboes & Bassoon (continuo). His playing of the work certainly legitimizes this "stripped down" instrumental unit. As throughout this set, Koopman uses the Lindsen organ at Beek-Ubbergen. One little difference I hear is that the band play more in the Largo than in other versions, which feel more like a solo for the organ. I like the balance this gives. Haydn's mastery of slow movements is apparent even at this early stage in his career.

Koopman's much more recent (2009) version has many interesting differences. The 30 year period from 1979 to 2009 showed a lot of growth and change in the period instrument movement, and the performance of this work demonstrates that. Koopman has boosted his string section in this newer version, so 1st violins went from 3 to 5, Violin II went from 3 to 4, violas & cellos went from 1 to 2 each, and he has replaced the beautiful but essentially too quiet violone with a double baß. Still no trumpets or timpani, and as before, 2 oboes and a bassoon. This ensemble offers a richer, fuller sound than the earlier one did. The Garnier positif organ is used again as in #2 & 6 reviewed earlier, and still sounds delightfully ideal in this larger scale work. These two versions, having been recorded 30 years apart, present an interesting historical contrast in performance style. If I was choosing between them, the newer version would be my choice, but the pioneering aspects of the first version, which still stands strong in performance and conviction in the music, is a disk I wouldn't want to do without.

Summary
Well, if it needed proving, I think I have managed to demonstrate that writing about music is a lot more difficult for me than writing about history is. However, I have tried here to answer the sorts of questions that I always have when I go shopping for music. I hope that you are feeling somewhat encouraged to do some shopping yourself. These are charming works and well worth having a disk or two of. I hope you will give them a listen and then come back and post your impressions here. Or if you know something more about them that I haven't presented, please, share it with us.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

[TheGSMoeller]

Just recently acquired this fine disc from Jerusalem Quartet. One of the best single disc collection of Haydn SQ I own with pleasing selections from Op.20 (the best from Op.20 IMO) Op.33 and Op.76. Exquisite playing with the cello makeing a nice presence throughout, notably in the Presto of Op.76 No.5. Not sure if this disc has been mention in the Haus, but I would think every Haydn SQ fan should be aware of it.

[asin]B00475Q1W0[/asin]

[Gurn Blanston]

Just recently acquired this fine disc from Jerusalem Quartet. One of the best single disc collection of Haydn SQ I own with pleasing selections from Op.20 (the best from Op.20 IMO) Op.33 and Op.76. Exquisite playing with the cello making a nice presence throughout, notably in the Presto of Op.76 No.5. Not sure if this disc has been mention in the Haus, but I would think every Haydn SQ fan should be aware of it.

[asin]B00475Q1W0[/asin]

Yes, that's one that I haven't got to yet, Greg, but several people have mentioned here being quite fond of the Jerusalem Quartet. Reckon I'll have to round it up. I think they might have 2 disks out there, although that may be faulty memory on my part.

[TheGSMoeller]

Yes, that's one that I haven't got to yet, Greg, but several people have mentioned here being quite fond of the Jerusalem Quartet. Reckon I'll have to round it up. I think they might have 2 disks out there, although that may be faulty memory on my part.

Your memory is just fine, Gurn 



Jerusalem Quartet - Haydn: Quatuor Op. 64 No 5 'L'Alouette' / Quatuor Op. 76 No 2 'Les Quintes' / Quatuor Op. 77 No 1 'Lobkowitz'

[Gurn Blanston]

Your memory is just fine, Gurn 



Jerusalem Quartet - Haydn: Quatuor Op. 64 No 5 'L'Alouette' / Quatuor Op. 76 No 2 'Les Quintes' / Quatuor Op. 77 No 1 'Lobkowitz'

Ah, that's a relief!     Yes, the one on the right I have seen on offer. Boy, talk about some favorite quartets!!   

[TheGSMoeller]

Ah, that's a relief!     Yes, the one on the right I have seen on offer. Boy, talk about some favorite quartets!!   

Yes, sir. They picked some good ones to fill two discs.

[mc ukrneal]

Now, as to why Buchbinder played all of these works on a modern grand, you'll have to ask him.  In any event, from what I've sampled so far it is an excellent set despite the wrong instrument.  But Buchbinder is a wonderful interpreter of the music from this period, and I would expect nothing less.

There is nothing better than Haydn on the wrong instrument!

[jlaurson]

My copy of the Buchbinder sonatas came in and I immediately ripped to my hard drive and read the booklet while it was whirring away.

Excerpt from an essay on Haydn String Quartets in the next issue of LISTEN Magazine :

"Haydn is the vitamins every musician needs", says pianist Rudolf Buchbinder, and complains that orchestras aren't playing enough of it. "We need to play more Haydn. He's even more important than Mozart. When I recorded the whole Haydn [1], it was the most important period in my life. That's when I learned about articulation, phrasing, discipline... everything. Today that helps me in everything I play, from Tchaikovsky to Bach."

[kishnevi]

Glenn Gould on Haydn's piano sonatas (from the liner notes to the newest re-issue (The Glenn Gould Collection) under the rubric Glenn Gould Plays Haydn.
Quoted from a telephone conversation with Jonathan Cott in 1974:
"The Haydn sonatas, for instance, which are much more extensive in the canon than the Mozart--there being fifty-something to seventeen or eighteen--which are also more interesting as pieces, as pieces and as experiments, musically.   It's the only late-night music that I've sat down and really played for myself in the last year, the early one especially, the baroque-ish ones.  They are so beautiful and in every case so delightfully innovative.  One never gets the feeling that any two are cut from the same cookie stamp."

He actually considered recording the full set,  saying he had "a Haydn fit".  The liner notes (by Michael Stegemann) end with this description of his Haydn, which roughly agrees with my impressions after a first hearing (although I don't remember any real extreme sounding tempos).

"Gould's "musical vision" of these Haydn Sonatas was not in the least rococo in style indeed.  Indeed, it could have hardly been otherwise.  But what we hear instead are extremes of tempo, an emphasis on the middle voices in the service of a polyphonic style not immediately apparent from the printed page, radically reduced agogics, and a characteristic avoidance of legato playing that none the less makes these works from the last twenty five years of the eighteenth century sound "baroque-ish' in a way that was dear to Glenn Gould's heart."

The sonatas Gould actually recorded were Hoboken XVI numbers 42 and 48-52, all recorded in 1981, and in this issue, a recording of 49 recorded in 1958.  The 1981 recordings were the last of his recordings to be issued before his death.

[jlaurson]

"The Haydn sonatas, for instance, which are much more extensive in the canon than the Mozart--there being fifty-something to seventeen or eighteen...

Ha! This is a typical Gouldism; his habit of pretending not to know exactly when or how much of something when talking about it...  a meticulous, forcedly casual shtick. Somewhere between endearing and annoying. Once you notice it, you'll read and especially hear it everywhere.

[SonicMan46]

Part 5

Recordings;


Holzapfel follows Hogwood's lead in having a large orchestra in this work. Not quite as large, however. He has three 1st Violins, three 2nd's, two Violas, one Cello and a single Violone. In addition to the two Oboes, there are two Clarini (Trumpets) & one Timpani. Here, Holzapfel plays a 1750 Hencke organ in the Pilgrimage Church of Maria  Kirchbüchl just south of Vienna. It is virtually identical to the original organ that Haydn played for the Brothers of Mercy in Leopoldstadt. It is super! Holzapfel has added the Clarini parts from manuscripts found at the monastery of Kremsier in Moravia, while Hogwood used parts found at Melk. I'm sure a keener ear than mine can detect the differences. The Largo in this version is particularly fine, slower than the others, and very sensitively portrayed.

Hi Gurn - thanks for the further comments of Papa's Organ Concertos - a few days ago I put in an Amazon order for the Holzaphel set - complete, excellent price, and great comments from you - so seems like my 'one-stop shopping' choice!    Dave

[Gurn Blanston]

Who hasn't heard the Mozart Flute & Harp concerto?  But I did not know that Haydn had also written a concerto for the same combination:



(Suzanna Klintcharova, harp & Andràs Adorjàn, flute)

I am listening to it right now and enjoying it immensely!

Well, he didn't, but probably one of his works was adapted. Or else it is one of the many works attributed to him, some of which are fine works in their own right. I am curious, does that disk give a Hoboken number? 

[Gurn Blanston]

Hi Gurn - thanks for the further comments of Papa's Organ Concertos - a few days ago I put in an Amazon order for the Holzaphel set - complete, excellent price, and great comments from you - so seems like my 'one-stop shopping' choice!    Dave

Dave,
I think you will be satisfied with that set. The liner notes are pretty good too, and he gives some info on the organs. Not enough to smarten ME up, but way more than I knew already. Enjoy those, let us know what you think after.

[Gurn Blanston]

There is no Hob. number, but I found the recording on MOG/Spotify with no access to the notes.  After some Google searching I found out that the concerto was an arrangement by Andràs Adorjan - but of what work I do not know.

Ah. It could very easily be an early keyboard trio. Harpists can (and definitely did) play harpsichord parts easily, and flute and violin were often interchangeable. So a good arranger of the continuo with some counterpoint tossed in could make a nice little chamber concerto that way. I'm curious about it, maybe I can find something later when I'm not at work.

[Opus106]

It's Hob. XVIII/6, originally a concerto for violin, harpsichord and strings.

[Gurn Blanston]

It's Hob. XVIII/6, originally a concerto for violin, harpsichord and strings.

Ah! Very good. I've never seen an arrangement of that. Sounds interesting.

[Karl Henning]

Another gold star for Nav!

[Gurn Blanston]

Another gold star for Nav!

The best researcher in the business.

[Bogey]

Have you done a page on the Nelson.....just can't find it. I, like other novices, are intrigued with the name and due to just that I seek it out more.  Totally irrational I know (wasn't even written for him, correct?), but there you have it.

Also, noticed the one above came out October of this year.  I may get it just for the cover....more irrationality!   I believe the chioir here hung with Hogwood as well.  Here is the ensemble....only 27....does this sound correct for the piece, Gurn?

http://www.newcenturybaroque.com/www/about.html

[Gurn Blanston]

Have you done a page on the Nelson.....just can't find it. I, like other novices, are intrigued with the name and due to just that I seek it out more.  Totally irrational I know (wasn't even written for him, correct?), but there you have it.

Also, noticed the one above came out October of this year.  I may get it just for the cover....more irrationality!   I believe the chioir here hung with Hogwood as well.  Here is the ensemble....only 27....does this sound correct for the piece, Gurn?

http://www.newcenturybaroque.com/www/about.html

Hi, Bill,
No, I haven't done a page specifically on the mass itself, although in the 1801 (1800?) year, I explained the background of the title and about Nelson's visit to Eisenstadt with Lady Hamilton et al. I could well do a mass though, I think I have enough material now to write one up. This might be a good one to start on.

27 is more than enough to do this, the original probably didn't have as many as that even (probably close though). The chapel at Eisenstadt where it premiered would have been pretty well filled with sound with 27 musicians!   

Thanks for pointing this out. I hadn't seen it. Looks like it needs to be on the list.