Haydn's Haus

[Florestan]

he was an oppressor of the masses and a perpetuator of Class dichotomy....

Lenin fits in the bill a thousand times more. 

[Gurn Blanston]

Lenin fits in the bill a thousand times more. 

True! In the 19th century, a good part of the reason Haydn was reviled culturally is because he served Esterházy. I won't say more since it all sounds like a cliché, but it is nonetheless true. 

[kishnevi]

Will a painting do?

[Brian]

Haydn Symphonies 1, 39, and 49
Gluck Don Juan (pantomime)

Under the musical direction of Giovanni Antonini, the music project "Haydn2032" was created to realize a vision: to record and perform – in a unique cycle featuring concerts across Europe – all of Joseph Haydn's 107 symphonies by 2032, the 300th anniversary of the composer's birth.
www.haydn2032.com

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Judging from my listening, this cycle is getting off to a hell of a great start!!

[Gurn Blanston]

Haydn Symphonies 1, 39, and 49
Gluck Don Juan (pantomime)

Under the musical direction of Giovanni Antonini, the music project "Haydn2032" was created to realize a vision: to record and perform – in a unique cycle featuring concerts across Europe – all of Joseph Haydn's 107 symphonies by 2032, the 300th anniversary of the composer's birth.
www.haydn2032.com

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Judging from my listening, this cycle is getting off to a hell of a great start!!

I'm quite looking forward to this; I don't see me waiting for the cycle to complete and then waiting for the box to be released... 

[Bogey]

Made it on to two threads.

[Madiel]

Continuing on through the Paris Symphonies, and today I've encountered No.86 for the first time.

The switch from slow introduction to the beginning of the Allegro is extraordinarily cunning. It took a couple of seconds for my brain to register... hang on, we've changed speed!

I can't recall hearing an effect like that in a classical piece any time recently.

[Bogey]

I wonder what the masses reaction was to this.  Gurn?

[calyptorhynchus]

Re Haydn 2030, ok, I have to ask, 107 symphonies?

[Jo498]

104 regular ones + 105 (Sinfonia concertante) + the two pieces often called "A" and "B", or sometimes 107 and 108. Both of the latter are early pieces, one of them had ended up without the horn parts in op.1 or op.2.
106 is an ouverture or single movement or so.

[Gurn Blanston]

Some years are better suited than others to show just how broad the range of Haydn's symphonic writing could be. This year, we have a pasticcio of operatic overture and dramatic entr'acte juxtaposed against double invertible counterpoint! See what I mean:

My Fair Roxy

Thanks,

[kishnevi]

Suggests a nickname for 75:  The Banshee.

[TheGSMoeller]

Some years are better suited than others to show just how broad the range of Haydn's symphonic writing could be. This year, we have a pasticcio of operatic overture and dramatic entr'acte juxtaposed against double invertible counterpoint! See what I mean:

My Fair Roxy

Thanks,

Gurn strikes again! Nice write up of three great symphonies.

"Among the symphonies of the last half of the decade, this is easily the best in terms of showing skill in the true art of composition!" you said of No. 70, and I agree, it's one of Haydn's great symphonies.

[Gurn Blanston]

Gurn strikes again! Nice write up of three great symphonies.

"Among the symphonies of the last half of the decade, this is easily the best in terms of showing skill in the true art of composition!" you said of No. 70, and I agree, it's one of Haydn's great symphonies.

Thanks, Greg. I'm glad you liked that turn of phrase; I worked at it for a while. When you are looking at so many superb works it becomes difficult to say anything without repeating yourself! 

[Sergeant Rock]

Suggests a nickname for 75:  The Banshee.

I'm listening to 75 right now but I'm going to skip the Andante...don't want to tempt fate today.

Sarge

[Gurn Blanston]

I'm listening to 75 right now but I'm going to skip the Andante...don't want to tempt fate today.

Sarge

[but it would still leave you a good month, Sarge!]

[Sergeant Rock]

[but it would still leave you a good month, Sarge!]

75 is so good I had to listen to it twice, including the Andante the second time. Worth it, even if it shortens my life  Damn, this is a great symphony.

Sarge

[Gurn Blanston]

75 is so good I had to listen to it twice, including the Andante the second time. Worth it, even if it shortens my life  Damn, this is a great symphony.

Sarge

I agree. I listened to it 3 times yesterday while writing about it and didn't strain a bit. I like that Grave intro, it does indeed put one in mind of the London symphonies.

[Jo498]

I like 75 and also the lighter 63, but 70 has been one of my great favorites since I heard the Rattle recording almost 20 years ago (I bought this disc at Seattle's downtown Tower records in 95 or 96 when I was a visiting student at the U of Washington). It is an extremely concentrated and "systematic" piece. Both the andante and the finale are demonstrations of counterpoint and in addition oscillate between the major and the minor mode. While the andante may be one of the first examples of Haydn's "double variations", the finale is rather unique. Although there are some echos in later pieces with both fugal and "minore" sections, e.g. the finales of #95 and 101, none of them is as severe and rather humorless and no other symphonic finale of a Haydn symphony in a major key starts (and remains for the main part) in the minor.

[Gurn Blanston]

I like 75 and also the lighter 63, but 70 has been one of my great favorites since I heard the Rattle recording almost 20 years ago (I bought this disc at Seattle's downtown Tower records in 95 or 96 when I was a visiting student at the U of Washington). It is an extremely concentrated and "systematic" piece. Both the andante and the finale are demonstrations of counterpoint and in addition oscillate between the major and the minor mode. While the andante may be one of the first examples of Haydn's "double variations", the finale is rather unique. Although there are some echos in later pieces with both fugal and "minore" sections, e.g. the finales of #95 and 101, none of them is as severe and rather humorless and no other symphonic finale of a Haydn symphony in a major key starts (and remains for the main part) in the minor.

Indeed so, #70 (and all three of these works) present some unique aspects of Haydn's skill. I like the variations in the Andante because they not only vary mode, they vary style too. The phrases in the major mode are almost galant while those in the minor are somberly stile antico. It is the ability to seamlessly blend these styles which demonstrates the height of art, which is to say, the art is hidden while just the results are left to enjoy.