Haydn's Haus

[Wakefield]

Thanks for the pointer, Gordo! That looks interesting. Even though I have the recital disks by Nuria Rial, Bonitatibus and the Huss 'Opera at Eszterházy' among others like Quasthoff and Augér, I don't know that one can cover the breadth of Haydn's operatic writings in just a few disks! I'll have to put this one on the list.

The really different thing about this album is that the band is quite wild and performs with absolute conviction (no prisioners taken!); what matches wonderfully with Larsson's high expressiveness.

[Old Listener]

You might also be happy with Hogwood's similar disk:

[asin]B000006MB8[/asin]

It has the trumpet concerto too, plus the horn concerto #1 (really nice!) and organ concerto Hob 18:1 in C, Haydn's earliest major concerto (1756). Other than giving you a really nice alternative to the already nice trumpet concerto, it gives you 2 other ones you don't have, both early (1756 & 1762). 

The trumpet concerto on this (Hogwood) CD was a welcome change from rather over-inflated modern instruments / modern orchestra performances I had heard.

My current favorite is an over-the-top modern instruments performance by Helmut Wobisch and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra on Vanguard (or the predecessor label.)  The sound quality isn't good but the performance is high voltage in the best way.

[Gurn Blanston]

The trumpet concerto on this (Hogwood) CD was a welcome change from rather over-inflated modern instruments / modern orchestra performances I had heard.

My current favorite is an over-the-top modern instruments performance by Helmut Wobisch and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra on Vanguard (or the predecessor label.)  The sound quality isn't good but the performance is high voltage in the best way.

Haven't heard that one; my only MI performance was Wynton Marsalis. That one is just a touch over-the-top.   I think I have all of the PI performances though. Despite being somewhat rugged (characteristic of AAM), I think this Hogwood is probably my personal tops.

[Gurn Blanston]

1771 was an interesting year, and a quiet one for Haydn for a change! I tried to find some details to share with you, and came up with a few. Check it out if you would like to, always delighted to discuss.

The year of the Cyclopean Oboist

Thanks,

[Old Listener]

Haven't heard that one; my only MI performance was Wynton Marsalis. That one is just a touch over-the-top.   I think I have all of the PI performances though. Despite being somewhat rugged (characteristic of AAM), I think this Hogwood is probably my personal tops.

The Marsalis recording was just not my idea of appropriate Haydn style.  Over the top in the wrong way.

[Gurn Blanston]

1771 was a difficult year to write about. I like to provide context rather than analysis, and despite having a (by now) huge library, there simply was little to provide for these works. They made me work for it, but I think you will like the result. Please feel free to check it out.

Know me by my symphony

Thanks for reading,

[Gurn Blanston]

I like the way Opuses 9 & 17 came together to point the way for Haydn' to move forward and carry the string quartet to the top of the ladder as far as serious music goes. They were necessary for the end result to be able to take place. And are damned fine music in their own right. I try to put a little background to that together for you here, along with some of my own, no doubt outlandish, thoughts on the matter. Feel free to check them out here:

Taking the string quartet (composer) to school

Thanks, and please, feel free to discuss.

[kishnevi]

Conversation among friends has always been the image of quartets, but isn't it possible that other members of the household provided the motive spark, although of once Papa was focused on the genre he doubtless was interested in putting It through its paces.

Mandryka in the listening thread mentioned lute works by Hadyn.  I do not even remember hearing of such works before.  Which ones would they be?

[Gurn Blanston]

Conversation among friends has always been the image of quartets, but isn't it possible that other members of the household provided the motive spark, although of once Papa was focused on the genre he doubtless was interested in putting It through its paces.

Mandryka in the listening thread mentioned lute works by Hadyn.  I do not even remember hearing of such works before.  Which ones would they be?

He didn't compose specifically for lute, but his Op 1 & 2 quartets lend themselves to lutenists quite nicely and are often performed by them.

I know Haydn's cellist Weigl, whom I mentioned specifically in relation to spreading the Op 9 works around, was very interested in quartet playing. As was Tomasini. But other than playing casually in various salons in Vienna, there was nothing formal at either Eisenstadt or Eszterháza. So yes, I think the others around him offered inspiration, as such, but it was not something 'official', shall we say? 

[Gurn Blanston]

Like this:

[asin]B000027EOM[/asin]

I fine disk, BTW.

[kishnevi]

Like this:

[asin]B000027EOM[/asin]

I fine disk, BTW.

Placed into the catalog of Amazon desiderata.

[Karl Henning]

Listening to the D Major Cello Concerto as recorded by Russian cellist Daniel Shafran in August of 1961.  It's some distance from HIP, of course . . . but against that, I find myself grateful that "Papa's" music was always considered a most worthy object of study in the Russian Conservatories.  In the booklet, the following note from the soloist:

The sound of music, the sound of the cello, were with me from the cradle — even before.  My parents were still students when I was due.  It seems that while my [pianist] mother was feeling the first pangs of labor, my father was busy working over passages from Haydn's D Major Concerto in preparation for a recital.  "Let's go to the hospital," my mother pleaded, as my father kept repeating a difficult technical passage.  "Yes, yes, we'll go as soon as I finish."  Finally my mother prevailed, thank goodness.  Now whenever I play this Haydn passage and I'm not satisfied with it, I console myself by saying, "Ah, well — I was born with the passage unfinished."

[Gurn Blanston]

Listening to the D Major Cello Concerto as recorded by Russian cellist Daniel Shafran in August of 1961.  It's some distance from HIP, of course . . . but against that, I find myself grateful that "Papa's" music was always considered a most worthy object of study in the Russian Conservatories.  In the booklet, the following note from the soloist:

Quote from: Daniel Shafran
    The sound of music, the sound of the cello, were with me from the cradle — even before.  My parents were still students when I was due.  It seems that while my [pianist] mother was feeling the first pangs of labor, my father was busy working over passages from Haydn's D Major Concerto in preparation for a recital.  "Let's go to the hospital," my mother pleaded, as my father kept repeating a difficult technical passage.  "Yes, yes, we'll go as soon as I finish."  Finally my mother prevailed, thank goodness.  Now whenever I play this Haydn passage and I'm not satisfied with it, I console myself by saying, "Ah, well — I was born with the passage unfinished."

That's very cool; no wonder he decided to be a cellist, it was karma. Well, you could be doing a lot worse than listening to the cello concertos, no matter the players! 

[Gurn Blanston]

As we have become well aware, Haydn wrote a lot more than symphonies and quartets. I have been working on 'the rest' of his output for 1771, and have put together what I consider to be some very interesting facts for your consideration. Please feel free to drop by and have a look.

Some interesting 'others'

Thanks for checking it out, hope you will start a conversation.

[Sergeant Rock]

1771 was a difficult year to write about.

Know me by my symphony

Thanks for reading,

Another good read, Gurn, and inspiration for this Sunday afternoon listening. 42 and 52 are among my favorites (I try to keep the list to a Top 30 but with Papa that's damned hard to do  ) so I really didn't need an excuse to listen to these (they get spun often anyway) but it's always ear-opening to listen to anything after reading about the works on your blog. I don't understand the professional criticism of 52 either. How could this not be loved and appreciated as a significant symphony?

You wrote: "The entire movement has an interesting orchestral sound which is both full and yet transparent.This is yet another argument in favor of period instrument ensembles using a reasonable approximation of the proper number of players for which it was composed." Well, yes, but Fey's hybrid band (18 strong including harpsichordist, everything but the keyboard and horns modern) gives us some of the most transparent textures in Haydn I've ever heard, and not only in these two symphonies. It's one reason he's so often my preferred version. (I compared Fey to Hogwood, Weil, Pinnock, Brüggen and Goodman, my PI versions.)

You recommend Goodman in 42. While I enjoy that performance, and find it thrilling, your readers should know he ignores the Moderato e maestoso marking of the first movement, treating it as if it were a Presto. He (and Weil and Hogwood too among the PI bands I compared) doesn't give us the moderately paced and "majestic" tone this movement requires. Fey delivers here too.

So ends today's Hobbit promotion 

Sarge

[Gurn Blanston]

Another good read, Gurn, and inspiration for this Sunday afternoon listening. 42 and 52 are among my favorites (I try to keep the list to a Top 30 but with Papa that's damned hard to do  ) so I really didn't need an excuse to listen to these (they get spun often anyway) but it's always ear-opening to listen to anything after reading about the works on your blog. I don't understand the professional criticism of 52 either. How could this not be loved and appreciated as a significant symphony?

You wrote: "The entire movement has an interesting orchestral sound which is both full and yet transparent.This is yet another argument in favor of period instrument ensembles using a reasonable approximation of the proper number of players for which it was composed." Well, yes, but Fey's hybrid band (18 strong including harpsichordist, everything but the keyboard and horns modern) gives us some of the most transparent textures in Haydn I've ever heard, and not only in these two symphonies. It's one reason he's so often my preferred version. (I compared Fey to Hogwood, Weil, Pinnock, Brüggen and Goodman, my PI versions.)

You recommend Goodman in 42. While I enjoy that performance, and find it thrilling, your readers should know he ignores the Moderato e maestoso marking of the first movement, treating it as if it were a Presto. He (and Weil and Hogwood too among the PI bands I compared) doesn't give us the moderately paced and "majestic" tone this movement requires. Fey delivers here too.

So ends today's Hobbit promotion 

Sarge

Howdy, Sarge. Thanks for reading, I appreciate it.

Until I got to reading both Robbins-Landon and Peter Brown, two of the most esteemed Haydnistos, I thought #52 was generally loved. Somewhere earlier I ranted a bit about musicologists who make value judgements, I'm not entirely sure it's their job to make comparative pronouncements on the musical quality of a piece, instead they should just be telling us what is in there. The problem when it comes from Landon especially, is that the entire generation who followed him were prejudiced against the symphonies between S&D and 'Paris'. But as the research of the last 20 years has shown, he just didn't understand them, and was partially reacting to his disappointment over Haydn moving on from S&D. As I hope to show down the road, some of the most interesting things were going on with these works. 

Aw, dagnabbit, I didn't mean to slight The Hobbit, I just didn't realize he was standing there, Hogwood is so tall....    That's a good catch on the tempo indications. On the ones you didn't mention, Brüggen is pretty good with it, holding the boys back until the proper time. Pinnock is a hybrid, a bit faster than Moderato, but still trying to get the Maestoso accenting in. I would like to see the score to see when it should properly pick up speed, or if it M e M throughout. Brüggen is pretty consistently Moderato.

I have a few Fey disks, when next I arrive at a symphony I have, I'll be sure to include him. He needs to stand in the front though... 

[Sergeant Rock]

That's a good catch on the tempo indications. On the ones you didn't mention, Brüggen is pretty good with it, holding the boys back until the proper time. Pinnock is a hybrid, a bit faster than Moderato, but still trying to get the Maestoso accenting in. I would like to see the score to see when it should properly pick up speed, or if it M e M throughout. Brüggen is pretty consistently Moderato.

Yeah, I sampled Brüggen and Pinnock too and agree they observe the M&M. I took a look at the score of 42 (downloaded it from IMSLP). There isn't any indication that the speed should change in the first movement.

I have a few Fey disks, when next I arrive at a symphony I have, I'll be sure to include him. He needs to stand in the front though... 

Sarge

[Gurn Blanston]

Yeah, I sampled Brüggen and Pinnock too and agree they observe the M&M. I took a look at the score of 42 (downloaded it from IMSLP). There isn't any indication that the speed should change in the first movement.




Sarge

Of the two I have not yet mentioned here, it is again a split: Apollo Ensemble / Hsu, one of my favorite groups, are transgressors here, if not Presto, at least Allegro molto!  L'Estro Armonico/Solomons are not only correct on tempo, but as they are so often, seemingly the best of the bunch overall too. I try to avoid using just one band for my blog examples, but if I had to use just one, then wherever they occur Solomons et al seem to sweep the table. The unavailability of their set commercially is a stunning piece of poor judgment by CBS/Sony. Yet another...

Damn, I always forget IMSLP. I have some excellent scores from them but I seem to have a brain fart every time I say to myself 'I wish I had a score...'

[Sergeant Rock]

Of the two I have not yet mentioned here, it is again a split: Apollo Ensemble / Hsu, one of my favorite groups, are transgressors here, if not Presto, at least Allegro molto!  L'Estro Armonico/Solomons are not only correct on tempo, but as they are so often, seemingly the best of the bunch overall too. I try to avoid using just one band for my blog examples, but if I had to use just one, then wherever they occur Solomons et al seem to sweep the table. The unavailability of their set commercially is a stunning piece of poor judgment by CBS/Sony. Yet another...

I have neither, but I like the one Apollo disc I do have (12, 44, 64) and my two Solomons,of course. Well, at least the Apollo 42 is available. Even though it's on the fast side, the clips sound wonderful. A must purchase, I fear 

Sarge

[Gurn Blanston]

I have neither, but I like the one Apollo disc I do have (12, 44, 64) and my two Solomons,of course. Well, at least the Apollo 42 is available. Even though it's on the fast side, the clips sound wonderful. A must purchase, I fear 

Sarge

Yes, I discovered them serendipitously with a $3 disk called "The Hidden Haydn", which I believe is the one you reference, since it has #12 on it. I was taken immediately, but have amassed only a couple of others, including the one with 35, 23 & 42 and the Times of Day, all of which are very fine. I think there is one more, haven't bagged it yet; matter of time.

I have all of the Solomons on MP3, but I never rec a disk I don't have. I have rounded up licensed remastering's of all of the remaining 9 disks from Haydn House and will drop a C-note+ on them very shortly. The hell with CBS!