Haydn's Haus

[Gurn Blanston]

I need the smelling salts. 

I actually got a Haydn recording before Gurn the Great got it! (I got mine through Arkivmusic.)
I've only given it one listen so far, as usual, but I heard no flaws in it.

  Yes, I kept refusing to pay $35+ for a used copy that someone bought to rip and wanted to double their money from after. $25 is a high enough price for a single disk, even when you really want it!

Hope you listen again. It really is quite fine.

[Gurn Blanston]

Thanks. I'll buy the sonatas on my next trip to the closest brick-and-mortar bookstore (so to speak, it's actually part of a mall... ).

Hard for me to imagine a world with a real glass & aluminum music store in it!  I got it online for around $5 US though, and it's hard to beat that! 

[Sergeant Rock]

The other two are equally high on my list of favorite quartets (somewhat of an oddity for an anthology to actually have 3 for 3 of my top picks)

I can't claim 3 for 3 but two of my Top 10 are on the CD. Looks like another purchase.


Sarge

[Brahmsian]

Happy Haydn Haus Page 300 day! 

[Brian]

Hard for me to imagine a world with a real glass & aluminum music store in it!  I got it online for around $5 US though, and it's hard to beat that! 

Houston has one of the very finest in Joel's Classical Shop!



Joel recently died but his shop lives on. I remember talking to an employee in 2010 who joked, "Well, if we ever do go out of business, at least I'll have enough stuff to listen to for the rest of my life!"

[Gurn Blanston]

I can't claim 3 for 3 but two of my Top 10 are on the CD. Looks like another purchase.


Sarge

Sarge, I guarantee that you'll really like that Op 54 #1 also. They give it a really nice bit of oomph that is lacking in some versions I've heard. You'll be pleased with that purchase, no doubts! 

[Gurn Blanston]

Houston has one of the very finest in Joel's Classical Shop!



Joel recently died but his shop lives on. I remember talking to an employee in 2010 who joked, "Well, if we ever do go out of business, at least I'll have enough stuff to listen to for the rest of my life!"

Damn, almost makes me want to visit the Big City! Hmmm.....

[Brahmsian]

Hmm, for a second I thought that was Gurn's Haydn storage room. 

[Gurn Blanston]

You know me, I downloaded the disc last night and listened to it - fantastic.  I then listened to the other two volumes.  When is #4 goiug to come out?

  Figured you might. Yes, that's a fair assessment, I think. Actually, I had my fears that Vol 3 would never be released, so I'll go with it for now. No worries about there being enough material to fill a Vol 4 (- 40) though, is there? 

[Gurn Blanston]

Hmm, for a second I thought that was Gurn's Haydn storage room. 

Oh, those secret pix must have got out on Instagram....

[kishnevi]

Damn, almost makes me want to visit the Big City! Hmmm.....

Makes me want to move to Houston.  Or at least visit regularly.   

[Wakefield]

The Naxos recordings use a lot of bands.

copy-and-pasted: Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä, Northern Chamber Orchestra, Cologne Chamber Orchestra, Toronto Chamber Orchestra, Nicolaus Esterhazy Sinfonia, Swedish Chamber Orchestra & Capella Istropolitana, Patrick Gallois, Nicholas Ward, Helmut Mühler-Brühl, Kevin Mallon, Bela Drahos & Barry Wordsworth

None of these are HIP, though Kevin Mallon has conducted many HIP recordings. The Sinfonia Finlandia and Swedish, Cologne & Toronto Chamber Orchs are pretty reliably excellent, while the Capella Istropolitana is one of the better of the generic Slovakian recording bands which my father fondly calls the "Bratislava Kitchen Ensembles". They do get trusted with a lot of top symphonies, including Farewell and almost all the Londons. Or maybe all the Londons, I'm not sure.

I can't pretend to have heard anything like all of these. General consensus is that a lot of stuff is indeed worthwhile, especially if you find an awesome price, but that people don't consider it a top choice for the complete cycle.

Just two minor comments:

The Toronto Chamber Orchestra plays PI, AFAIK.

The Cologne Chamber Orchestra was a PI band during 10 years or something so (under the name Capella Clementina) and then decided to play modern instruments. IMO, one of the best HIP bands playing on MI.

[mszczuj]

Happy Haydn Haus Page 300 day! 

6000 replies!

[Madiel]

6000 replies!

Must have been a good question.

[Brahmsian]

Today, from the DRD set, disc # 4 and disc # 34

Disc 4

Symphony No. 11 in E flat major (The breathtaking, gorgeous I. Adagio Cantabile!  Wow....) 
Symphony No. 5 in A major
Symphony No. 32 in C major

Disc 34

Symphony No. 97 in C major (Great timpani, effectively used I found in the III. Menuetto & Trio) 
Symphony No. 99 in E flat major

Now, after 12 discs, I may have to take a break.     Just want to make sure I'm giving each symphony its fair, attentive listen.  Please don't kick me out of the Haus just yet. 

After a break, continued on with the DRD/Stuttgart project.  After 12 discs in October, I'm going on a 5 disc/per month, to allow more absorption and repeated listens to a symphony I feel I didn't give enough proper attention to.  Thus, I have 5 months (including November) to go through the complete cycle once! 

This week, I've listened to the following three discs:

Disc 25

Symphony No. 62 in D major
Symphony No. 74 in E flat major
Symphony No. 73 in D major "La Chasse"  - Great!  Effective pauses in the opening mvt., and that "Hunt" finale is definitely fantastic.

Disc 20

Symphony No. 56 in C major - This one has an utterly sublime Adagio II. mvt.
Symphony No. 57 in D major

Disc 23

Symphony No. 61 in D major - To the symphonies I've heard so far, this may be my favourite opening movement of a Haydn symphony after the Drum-Roll symphony.  Driving, propulsive movement with some lovely solo woodwind passages.  Also enjoy that final movement, with the humourous 'cuckoo' woodwind call, with a surprising but very brief stormy moment.  This was an impact listen!

Symphony No. 53 in D major "L'Imperiale" - Great Menuetto and Trio, and wonderful final movement.  I'd be surprised if Franz Schubert wasn't influenced or at least familiar with this symphony.

Symphony No. 70 in D major - Fantastic fugue finale.  I love Haydn's 'soggy fugues'  , reminiscent of the Opus 20 quartets.

6 of the 8 happen to be in D major!    That suits me just fine. 

[Gurn Blanston]

That's a highly entertaining list, Ray, I can be sure you had a great time with those. I lot of Late Middle period works there, which Haydn was intentionally working at making entertaining rather than studied and deep. I think he was pretty good at that forgotten aspect of music.

I was looking at your last statement about the keys, and I would have tried to figure 'what are the odds?'. I can't do that, being math impaired, but I can tell you how many were written in each key and you can figure it yourself. BTW, both the first and last symphony were written in D major, his most common key.

A   8
B   1
Bb   14
C   19
c   3
D   21
d   3
Eb   11
E   2
e   1
F   7
f   1
f#   1
G   12
g   2
   106

[Brahmsian]

That's a highly entertaining list, Ray, I can be sure you had a great time with those. I lot of Late Middle period works there, which Haydn was intentionally working at making entertaining rather than studied and deep. I think he was pretty good at that forgotten aspect of music.

I was looking at your last statement about the keys, and I would have tried to figure 'what are the odds?'. I can't do that, being math impaired, but I can tell you how many were written in each key and you can figure it yourself. BTW, both the first and last symphony were written in D major, his most common key.

A   8
B   1
Bb   14
C   19
c   3
D   21
d   3
Eb   11
E   2
e   1
F   7
f   1
f#   1
G   12
g   2
   106

That is interesting, Gurn!  Guess what?  In my random DRD/Stuttgart disc listen queue list, the next two discs happen to be Disc 1 and the final Disc 37. 

[Gurn Blanston]

That is interesting, Gurn!  Guess what?  In my random DRD/Stuttgart disc listen queue list, the next two discs happen to be Disc 1 and the final Disc 37. 

That should make an interesting contrast. I've always felt that despite the fact that there are clearly great differences in the sophistication of the style of those two works in particular, it was never a mystery that they were composed by the same person. The 'classic Haydn style' developed early times, IMO. See what you think.

[Brahmsian]

That should make an interesting contrast. I've always felt that despite the fact that there are clearly great differences in the sophistication of the style of those two works in particular, it was never a mystery that they were composed by the same person. The 'classic Haydn style' developed early times, IMO. See what you think.

Hi Gurn, when you are saying Haydn's final symphony, are you referring to No. 104?  Just making sure I'm on the same page. 

[Gurn Blanston]

Hi Gurn, when you are saying Haydn's final symphony, are you referring to No. 104?  Just making sure I'm on the same page. 

Yes, 104, THE 'London' Symphony. In D.