Haydn's Haus

[Gurn Blanston]

Listening to Haydn symphonies, from Hogwood Vol. 3 with numbers 9, 12 and 13.

Hogwood's might be my favorite set.

Can't argue with that, although I think that for myself I've decided that I don't have a favorite set...  

[trung224]

 Gurn, can I ask a stupid question, apart from Symphonies and the Creations, which pieces of Haydn (especially chamber music) is worth hearing or important ?

[Gurn Blanston]

Gurn, can I ask a stupid question, apart from Symphonies and the Creations, which pieces of Haydn (especially chamber music) is worth hearing or important ?

Trung,
Certainly not a stupid question; it is precisely why I am writing this series.

Haydn's contribution to the string quartet tradition is even greater than to the symphonies. If you want to sample the best of that, I would suggest the following works;

6 quartets Op 76, 6 quartets Op 64 or 6 quartets Op 33. I honestly believe that you will come away with a new-found respect for Haydn with those 3 opuses in your hands.

Another genre that he excelled in was the keyboard trio. The ones composed after 1780 especially;

YEAR      #   Hob.  Key
1784   18   5   G
1784   19   6   F
1785   20   7   D
1785   21   8   Bb
1785   22   9   A
1785   23   10   Eb
1788   24   11   Eb
1788   25   12   e
1789   26   13   c
1789   27   14   Ab
1790   29   15   G  (Flute instead of Violin)
1790   28   16   D  (Flute instead of Violin)
1790   30   17   F   (Flute instead of Violin)
1793   32   18   A
1793   33   19   g
1793   34   20   Bb
1794   35   21   C
1794   36   22   Eb
1794   37   23   d
1794   31   32   G
1795   38   24   D
1795   39   25   G
1795   40   26   f#
1795   41   31   eb
1796   43   27   C
1796   44   28   E
1796   45   29   Eb
1796   42   30   Eb

By the time you arrive at the last of the series in 1796, you will have traced a great progression from being simply very nice, usually exciting music to being first rate chamber music. I think Haydn may have been surprised to discover that he in fact really liked piano trios, and as time went by, he put more inventiveness and craft into them than he did in almost any other music of the time. Over the years I have come to like them best of all, and often treat myself to a handful.

[trung224]

  Thanks for your excellent recommendation, Gurn My experience with Haydn's music is very limited, just because he wrote so many thing and I don't know how to begin with. 

[jlaurson]

Gurn, can I ask a stupid question, apart from Symphonies and the Creations, which pieces of Haydn (especially chamber music) is worth hearing or important ?

Further reading:

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2005/01/haydn.html

And yet, according to the formula of "quality over average quantity plus originality," he is the greatest composer to have lived.

Bit of hyperbole on the Beaux Arts... they will be bettered one day, in their Piano Trio recordings. They just haven't quite yet.

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2004/09/dip-your-ears-no-11.html
(Hmm... I'll have to give those posts a make-over; they look dated. Still, the Quatuor Mosaiques is a terrific way to get into the string quartets.
An ideal starter for the SQ4ts is the disc by the Minetti Quartet.
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2011/01/classical-music-for-100-second-100.html & review here: http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=212116

Brendel's Haydn Sonatas (a selection) is terrific (best of Brendel, certainly):
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2009/12/best-recordings-of-2009-3.html (No.3 Reissue)...
and better, still, than this: http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2004/07/dip-your-ears-no-5.html

Totally non-essential Haydn, but super-enchanting all the same: A selection of his Scottish Song transcriptions
(Essentially Piano Trio & Voice)
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2006/02/dip-your-ears-no-53.html

[Gurn Blanston]

  Thanks for your excellent recommendation, Gurn My experience with Haydn's music is very limited, just because he wrote so many thing and I don't know how to begin with. 

You're welcome, Trung. The disks that Jens recommends will be a good place to start. I don't really recommend too much because I've discovered that I like the music more than particular performances. But those are all highly commendable.

[kishnevi]

The Fey CD I ordered landed yesterday and received a listen this morning (symphonies 82, 88 and 95).  I was more impressed it with than with the other one I've posted about. It seemed more obviously PI, and more energetic.  I may not rush out to get the rest of the series,  but I've popped the one just released into my shopping cart.

[Florestan]

Terry Teachout goes some way into explaining Haydn's lack of true and broad popularity (and his fall from grace at the end of the 18th century). [...]

One element of TT's explanation is what I call the "Mendelssohn conundrum of lasting greatness." Much like Mendelssohn, Haydn was a composer who enjoyed job security, had a generally unexciting, (almost) scandal-free private life, was all-around pleasantly mannered, friendly, healthy and hygienic, prosperous; in short, frightfully well adjusted. Of all the things you can do wrong to secure yourself genius status, Mendelssohn nailed but one: dying young. (A big plus, but not enough to make up for his other lack of flaws.) Haydn couldn't even oblige there and had the impunity to live to the ripe old age of 77. There is, as TT points out, no redeeming factor in his biography that would endear him to our still essentially Romantic world view. No brooding, ill-fated, half-mad, badly tempered off-kilter genius here. No wonder Haydn—The Movie has, unlike (distorted) accounts of Beethoven and Mozart, yet to pour forth from Hollywood. And yet, according to the formula of "quality over average quantity plus originality," he is the greatest composer to have lived.

Very well said.

RTWT here.

[Sergeant Rock]

The Fey CD I ordered landed yesterday and received a listen this morning (symphonies 82, 88 and 95).  I was more impressed it with than with the other one I've posted about. It seemed more obviously PI, and more energetic.  I may not rush out to get the rest of the series,  but I've popped the one just released into my shopping cart.

If you want just a small sample of Fey's art, I suggest adding these two eventually. I think the 70/73/75 is also one of Monkey Greg's favorites.




Sarge

[TheGSMoeller]

If you want just a small sample of Fey's art, I suggest adding these two eventually. I think the 70/73/75 is also one of Monkey Greg's favorites.




Sarge

Yes, both are great. And I do consider the 70/73/75 to be the best volume of the series. It's a perfect representation of Fey's approach. This No. 70 was a revelation for me.

[kishnevi]

You guys should know me by now.  Having two entries in a series will bug me no end, and I'll have to get the rest just because of that....

[Florestan]

Hob XV: 28 in E major

This must be one of the funniest opening in all Haydn's output. Pure bliss! Who would have expected, after so much fun, that eerie second movement. almost Bartok-esque in atmosphere? As for the finale... And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor / Shall be lifted—one time more! .

[Florestan]

Hob XV: 35 in A major
Hob XV: 38 in B-flat major
Hob Xv: 29 in E-flat major

Exquisite music!

[Karl Henning]

¡Olé, Haydnistas!

Speaking of the pf trios: the Hob. XV:28 is on here in Boston (well, Malden, just north of town) on 9 March.

You bet I'm going!

[Brian]

Fine, I'll make this a Haydn morning.  Going to just HAVE to listen to the Trio No. 28 and the 70/73/75 Fey disc, none of which I've heard before. What a hardship. UGH. 

[Daverz]

Listened to the Buchberger Quartet in Op. 20/1 last night.  I'm still not sure how much I enjoy their vibrato-less playing (on modern instruments), but their transparency and clarity of the recording allows every line of the music to be followed.  Oddly, the Mosaiques sound much warmer on period instruments.

Then listened to two recordings of the Piano Sonata No. 50 (Hob. XVI:37), Schornsheim and Moravec.  Both were very enjoyable, but Moravec brings a much greater depth of feeling to the slow movement.

[Mandryka]

Listened to the Buchberger Quartet in Op. 20/1 last night.  I'm still not sure how much I enjoy their vibrato-less playing (on modern instruments), but their transparency and clarity of the recording allows every line of the music to be followed.  Oddly, the Mosaiques sound much warmer on period instruments.

Then listened to two recordings of the Piano Sonata No. 50 (Hob. XVI:37), Schornsheim and Moravec.  Both were very enjoyable, but Moravec brings a much greater depth of feeling to the slow movement.

I wonder if Schornsheim deliberately avoids depth, because of some ideas about Haydn's music not being deep. Or whether it's just that Moravec plays Haydn better, from the feelings point of view.

My own thinkng about Haydn this week has centred around the wonderful symphony 46, which is rapidly become one of my most favourite. Does anyone know any really special records of it? I'm listening to Weil, which is certainly not at all bad.

[Gurn Blanston]

Hob XV: 28 in E major

This must be one of the funniest opening in all Haydn's output. Pure bliss! Who would have expected, after so much fun, that eerie second movement. almost Bartok-esque in atmosphere? As for the finale... And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor / Shall be lifted—one time more! .

It is indeed a unique work, one I enjoy a lot. The last keyboard trios are full of auditory surprises. I'm listening to that one as I type.

[Daverz]

I wonder if Schornsheim deliberately avoids depth, because of some ideas about Haydn's music not being deep. Or whether it's just that Moravec plays Haydn better, from the feelings point of view.

Well, it may not be a very fair comparison.

Now listening to Hamelin in the same work.

[Karl Henning]

Well, and "the feelings point of view" angle here is worth re-examining.