Classical Music

Classical Music

This programme focuses on fantasy and pleasure, with three symphonies punctuated by lightness and wit. In addition to ten photos by Magnum photographer Cristina Garcia Rodero, a literary text that appears exclusively on the vinyl edition of the series provides a continuation of the musical experience. Philippe Claudel, President of the Academie Goncourt, here focuses on the pleasure and sensuality of a fleeting youthful encounter: "The third movement of the symphony accompanies us towards the taut velvet of the great lime trees. We are no longer walking through life. We tread upon a dream. And music gives this dream the profundity of legend. [...] I experience my own mythology in this May evening. We lie on the lawn. Our eyes search for each other in the darkness. Our pupils are stars cast into the lofty skies of May. I am not fifteen. I am no longer fifteen. This does not mean anything. Time does not exist."

An eminently stylish performance, filled with joy from the first ray of light to the final thanks to the Lord, ranking with the best of period-instrument Creations.

Is there any other work that so consistently inspires its performers as Haydn’s The Creation? One hears performances by amateurs that sparkle with truth, and every professional one seems glorious. This recording is studded with little-known performer names, but that is no handicap. This is a happy, cosy Creation, a conception that might raise some eyebrows; it triumphs because it is spectacularly well performed. Thomas Hengelbrock, music director of the Vienna Volksoper, created the Balthasar-Neumann Choir in 1991 and the Ensemble in 1995, choosing performers with whom he had already enjoyed working. Their repertoire stretches from Monteverdi to the 21st century, but they sound as if they were created just to play and sing Haydn’s masterpiece. The chorus is 8/7/7/6, strings are 6/5/4/4/2 (double basses). This strikes me as just the right size, enabling a balance of power with clarity. The deep, gutsy opening chord of “Chaos” leaves no doubt that the ensemble has enough punch; attacks are Toscanini-crisp, winds are brightly colored, climaxes thunder with clamorous trumpets and hard-struck drums. The chorus is superb.

Soprano Simone Kermes is quite wonderful, her soft, warm tones making Haydn’s high coloratura sound easy and natural, while never stepping out of character or resorting to exaggeration. Her pitch is secure and reliable, her phrasing delightful, her embellishments a joy. She immediately joins my short list of favorite sopranos. In my recall, only Barbara Bonney has sung such a superb Gabriel. Bass Johannes Mannov is in the same league, his ringing voice immensely appealing, his singing impeccable; a single shaky entrance keeps him from perfection. Tenor Steve Davislim is merely excellent. This trio of happy, relaxed seraphim is angelic indeed. Adam and Eve are also fine, if not quite so heavenly. A beautiful, subtly played fortepiano supports the recitatives.

In short, this is an eminently stylish performance, filled with joy from the first ray of light to the final thanks to the Lord. Tempos are never rushed, and the 99-minute total assures that nothing ever drags. The recording is exceptionally natural, sweet and focused during quiet moments and opening up nicely for the climaxes. This ranks with the best of period-instrument Creations.

-- James H. North, FANFARE [3/2004]

EVGENY KISSIN- A MUSICAL PORTR

HAYDN: KAISER QUARTET, LARK QU

The renowned French painter Jean Ingres proclaimed Haydn's music to be the alpha and omega: 'Whoever studies music, let his daily bread be Haydn. The first, who created everything, discovered everything, taught everything to the rest!' Hailed as the father of both the symphony and the string quartet, Haydn was both pioneering and prolific. This box is an update of Brilliant Classics' acclaimed Haydn Edition, with an additional 10 CDs of content including classic performances of the Trumpet and Horn concertos (Philharmonia Orchestra) and the Cello Concertos (Jan Vogler). The set of Haydn's Masses is now complete, with renditions of the 'Nelson', 'Creation' and 'Little Organ' Masses and the Heilig- and Theresienmessen by New York's Trinity Church Choir and Rebel Baroque Orchestra. Also new in this edition is Haydn's final opera, L'anima del filosofo, performed by the Bavarian Radio Choir and Munich Radio Orchestra, along with world-famous sopranos Arleen Auger and Emma Kirkby in Haydn's Songs and Cantatas. The Buchberger String Quartet add to their already monumental catalogue of 'Papa' Haydn's quartets with readings of Op.50/4-6, Op.54 and Op.76/4-6, while Federico Guglielmo, Ginevra Petrucci et al. #contribute new recordings of the duos for violin/viola and 2 flutes. Finally, all 8 of Haydn's ingenious Nocturnes grace this updated box, as performed by the Wiener Concert-Verein. As before, the complete keyboard works (including all sonatas) feature here in vibrant performances on fortepianos, the keyboard instrument of Haydn's day. Reissue of the successful Haydn Edition, the only substantial Edition in the market. Extended version, now 160 CD's, with the addition and completion of the Masses, the String Quartets, the Notturni, and the opera L'Anima del Filosofo. Includes Award winning performances by Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra/Adam Fischer, Buchberger Quartet, Emma Kirkby, Frieder Bernius, Bart van Oort, Haydn Trio Vienna, and many more. The greatest celebration of one of the greatest and not yet fully appreciated composers of all time: craftman and genius, creator of a musical world of wonder, surprise, wit and sentiment, forever to be explored and marveled at.

- The trumpet concertos by Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) and Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837) are two of the most celebrated works in the trumpet repertoire, showcasing the instrument's evolving capabilities in the Classical period. Haydn's Trumpet Concerto in E-flat Major was composed in 1796 for Anton Weidinger, a Viennese trumpeter who developed a keyed trumpet capable of playing chromatic notes. This innovation allowed Haydn to explore a wider range of expressive possibilities, incorporating lyrical melodies and rapid passages previously unattainable on the natural trumpet. - Similarly, Hummel's Trumpet Concerto in E-flat Major, composed in 1803, was also written for Weidinger and the keyed trumpet. Hummel, a prominent composer and pianist of the time, crafted a work that emphasizes virtuoso technique and lyrical expression. The concerto opens with a grand, dramatic Allegro, followed by a lyrical Andante, and concludes with a lively Rondo, which tests the soloist's agility and technical prowess. Hummel's concerto reflects the transition from the Classical style of Haydn to the more elaborate, early Romantic idiom. - Played by the young, gifted Italian trumpet player Marianne LI Gregni, accompanied by the Orchestra da camera Domenico Mazzocchi del Civita Festival, conducted by Martin Sieghart.

HAYDN: Wind Divertimentos

There is never a shortage of surprises with Joseph Haydn. The Leipzig String Quartet's latest instalment, Opus 2, of their benchmark complete recording of all Haydn's string quartets offers unexpected, unusual and always entertaining moments, presented with virtuosity and mastery by a quartet that combines curiosity and experience to create a delightful whole.

OFRA HARNOY COLLECTION VOL 6 -

This mixed Haydn concert opens with a highly sophisticated performance of the urbane Sinfonia concertante written in London (which Hoboken's catalogue wrongly identified as Symphony No. 105). Solo and orchestral playing is consistently polished, interplay between the four protagonists deft and alert. The opening movement is spirited yet properly spacious, with plenty of room for the players to savour details like the wonderful chromatic counterpoint of the development, and the sallies for oboe and bassoon in the finale (Gordon Hunt's creamy tone a constant pleasure) are deliciously managed... In the D major Cello Concerto, whose popularity continues to defy regular critical broadsides, Ralph Kirshbaum is a strong, eloquent soloist, and negotiates with agility and aplomb Haydn's taxing and sometimes ungrateful figuration. I specially enjoyed his grace and concentration of line in the Adagio, where he brings a beautiful hushed intensity to the main theme's reprise (4'03"). Other readings, including those by Truls Mork and Yo-Yo Ma — both more conveniently coupled with the C major Concerto — have displayed a more subtle range of colour and a more delicate, fanciful touch in the finale; but Kirshbaum stands up pretty well against some hot competition.

-- Gramophone [1/1996]

"...The thrumming heartbeat of the dying Christ is omnipresent through these meditative intervals in the Passion reading, and the great strength of the Guarneri's performance lies in their instinctive understanding of its function... Their introduction is much slower, more deeply etched than that of Kremer and his band on Philips: there is a true sense of moment here, with a real Largo for the 'Pater, dimitte illis' which, in turn, breathes more naturally with the implicit underlay of the movement's silent words. Having taken the pulse, they then maintain it exactly for the following movement, under the sweet cantabile of the violin... The Guarneri's is, not surprisingly perhaps, an altogether warmer, more homogenous and less febrile reading... This, then, is a deeply thoughtful, powerfully paced reading..." -- Hilary Finch, Gramophone [4/1988]

"This is the third installment in Leonard Slatkin’s series of Haydn’s “London” Symphonies (the first was reviewed in 2/95), again bringing fresh, refined readings at speeds on the fast side that never sound breathless. That includes minuets in the modern manner treated as fast landler movements, more than half-way to becoming scherzos.

Symphony No. 93 was made at Abbey Road over four years ago, followed by the other two – No. 100 also at Abbey Road and No. 99 at Blackheath Concert Halls – in the succeeding 12 months. Those later recordings, while maintaining clean textures – lighter than usual from a full modern orchestra – have more presence and body. I particularly enjoyed the genuine, tripping Allegretto that Slatkin adopts for the second movement of the Military, giving even more swagger than usual to the military incursions from which the symphony gets its nickname."

-- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone [7/1997]

Haydn's violin concertos - all early works composed before 1765 — have suddenly become very popular. These two are for string orchestra only, to which Pinchas Zukerman (soloist and conductor) has added a harpsichord continuo — also in the Symphony No. 22. Nowadays the presence or absence of a harpsichord continuo in Haydn's concertos and symphonies can be a cause for divorce: a huge quantity of ink has been spilt of late over this vexed question. It seems likely, after all, that most of the time Haydn conducted his early symphonies from the violin and that there was no harpsichord continuo. Having said that, Zukerman's continuo is most discreet and musical (the improvisations in the slow movement of the C major Concerto are delightful), and will offend only pedants. Even the cadenzas, by Marc Neikrug in the C major and Philipp Scharwenka in the G major, are inoffensive. The performances of the two concertos are stylish and warmhearted. I found the very slow tempo for the opening Adagio of the Philosopher Symphony unsatisfactory, pleasing though the performance is: it makes the music sluggish and robs it of a certain element of mystery. But if you are going to use a harpsichord in an early Haydn symphony, this is how to do it — no fancy faked amplification and great discretion, almost self-effacing. The sound is elegant.

-- HC Robbins Landon, BBC Music Magazine