Classical Music

The three sonatas for flute and piano featured on this CD were skillfully transcribed and adapted from a chosen three of Joseph Haydn’s late string quartets by the reputedly fine flautist and then Kantor of the famed Thomaskirche, August Eberhard Müller (1767-1817). Shorn of their minuet movements, they were then published as original Haydn works, with no mention of Müller. The works thus retain the masterful sonata structure of Haydn’s opening movements and his characteristic good-humored finales.

Joseph Haydn's The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross is one of the most unusual and remarkable compositions of the classical period. Performed here by the brilliant Callino Quartet, the piece exists in four different versions and the edition for string quartet, which has a particular purity and intimacy, is the form in which the music is most often heard today. Suffused with profound sorrow and grief but also with strength and hope. The Seven Last Words is a work so deeply moving and contemplative that it has impassioned listeners in all its forms for over 200 years and was considered by the composer himself to be one of his greatest masterpieces. The Callino Quartet was formed at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival in 1999 and has been delighting audiences ever since with its fresh, enthusiastic interpretations and engaging programmes. The versatility of the quartet has enabled it to cultivate a diverse and challenging repertoire with a thoughtful and historically informed approach to the classical quartet literature as well as develop close collaborations. The quartet has worked with numerous contemporary composers and has received many awards including prizes at the Borciani and Tromp international string quartet competitions. The group has performed in many of the world's best concert halls including Wigmore Hall and Carnegie Hall.

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REVIEWS:

I have listened to this over and over, each time finding it more evocative of how the music sounds in my head. If you want to replace whatever quartet version you already own, this is the time to do it.

– Fanfare

If the quartet version of the Seven Last Words convinces you, this recording certainly offers a perspective worth hearing.

– Gramophone

In April 2012, the Schwetzingen Festival celebrates its 60th birthday. On this occasion, a very special oratorio recording from the festival's early years has been selected - a vintage performance of Haydn's "The Seasons", featuring the immortal Fritz Wunderlich!

Haydn wrote his oratorio "The Seasons" between the years 1799 and 1800. The work is based on the poem "The Seasons" by James Thomson in the German translation of the Baron van Swieten. The contemporary descriptions of nature and genre scenes are a work of perfection, insuring the composition's enduring popularity.

This early festival recording is a true time-capsule, recorded on May 24th, 1959 featuring in addition to Wunderlich, the vocal artistry of Agnes Giebel, and Kieth Engen, who together bring Haydn's secular oratorio to vivid life.

Impressed by the Handel works that he heard in London, Haydn felt the need to compose oratorios. First came Die Schöpfung (‘The Creation’), which met with resounding success; then Baron Gottfried van Swieten proposed to Haydn an arrangement of James Thomson’s poem ‘The Seasons’. Initially, Haydn was little attracted by the text, which deviates from the classic oratorio based on a religious text, but subsequently let himself be convinced. The result, for three soloists, chorus and orchestra, is a vast pictorial fresco of Nature that describes landscapes and the feelings that they arouse. For the first time, Philippe Herreweghe gives us his own vision of an oratorium by Haydn. This recording is also the first in a Haydn cycle with Philippe Herreweghe for Phi.

The first edition of The Creation by Joseph Haydn from 1803 is not composed with the German version of the world premiere in 1797, but the English version of the text which served Baron Gottfried van Swieten as a master copy. The release features a concert by Musica Saeculorum under the direction of Philipp von Steinaecker in the Cathedral of Brixen who used this English version of The Creation.

HAYDN The Creation • Martin Pearlman, cond; Amanda Forsythe (sop); Keith Jameson (ten); Kevin Deas (bs-bar); Boston Baroque • LINN CKD 401 (2 SACDs: 96:09 Text and Translation)

I was disappointed in Boston Baroque’s recording of Cherubini’s C-Minor Requiem (Fanfare 30:5), but this Creation has, from its orchestral introduction, an essential rightness—of mood, sonority, drama, and tempo. As with Dinu Lipatti’s Schumann Concerto (the first time I experienced such a feeling), this is the way it should go. Martin Pearlman realizes the work’s character of being very serious yet radiantly joyful. His period orchestra (strings 6/5/4/4/2) has a full measure of both power and tenderness, without having to strain for either. The chorus (7/6/6/6) is magnificent; the opening of “Stimmt an die Saiten” (disc 1, track 11) is so electric that one wants to stand up and cheer. Pearlman’s vocal soloists are each superb, in voice and in delivery; their clean, never ostentatious ornamentations fit this particular work (the florid style of René Jacobs’s soloists is better suited to the more Baroque The Seasons), and they match beautifully in ensemble. The fortepiano continuo is always just right. Above all, the lofty spirit of the whole is thrilling.

The icing on the cake is Linn’s recorded sound, from Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts, during October 2011. It is so realistic, so natural, that one might be sitting beside Beethoven at the premiere. Balances are ideal; the chorus is clearly spread from sopranos on the left to basses on the right, and every contrapuntal line comes through. This is Boston Baroque’s first recording for Linn, and it helps explain the vast improvement over its Cherubini. No doubt it is aided by listening on a system of all-Linn electronics (with KEF 104/2 speakers and/or Sennheiser HD 600 head phones). I blamed the Worcester Hall’s acoustics for the Cherubini’s problematic sound; either I was mistaken or Linn’s team, led by Thomas C. Moore of Five/Four Productions, Ltd., has worked miracles. SACD smoothes the sound, lessening the orchestra’s impact, but clarifies the choral lines even more; one has the sensation of almost hearing each individual voice, which is just as it should be. Surround sound restores any lost impact and throws the listener into the performance, a wondrous if slightly unreal effect.

Must there be something wrong? Okay, the side-by-side German/English libretto is in small white print on black pages, making one squint.

I haven’t been counting, but I’ll bet there have been 100 recordings of The Creation. This one stands comfortably at the pinnacle; among its close competitors, Thomas Hengelbrock on Deutsche Harmonia Mundi is sweeter but less dramatic, Neville Marriner’s incomparable EMI soloists steal the show in a modern-instrument performance. In more than six decades of listening, I have found that almost every new recording of any masterpiece brings more doubts, because every performance has characteristics that others lack. About once a decade have I found the recording, one that has everything: Willem Mengelberg’s (Telefunken) Franck D Minor, Otto Klemperer’s 1954 mono “Eroica,” David Willcocks’s “Lord Nelson” Mass, Klaus Tennstedt’s (pirate) live BSO Schubert Ninth, George Szell’s Schumann Second, Riccardo Chailly’s Gurrelieder, James Levine’s Prokofiev Fifth. Martin Pearlman’s Creation joins that list.

FANFARE: James H. North

Inspired by Haydn's trips to England, where he first heard Handel's oratorios, The Creation is widely considered Haydn's crowning masterpiece. Set for three vocal soloists, four-part chorus, and a large Classical orchestra, there seems little doubt that Haydn wanted a big sound (by the standard of his day) for this work. Based on both the biblical Book of Genesis and Milton's Paradise Lost, the oratorio was premiered in the US by the Handel and Haydn Society in 1819. Harry Christophers says: "Haydn's music is always a joy to perform but with The Creation he excels himself, allowing soloists, chorus and period orchestra to revel in vivid word painting, both vocal and instrumental. Can there be a more consistently happy work than The Creation? Feel free to smile at his genius." Handel and Haydn Society is America's oldest continuously operating arts organization.

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REVIEW:

An exceptional account of the oratorio from all points of view. What is wholly exceptional is the diction of both soloists and choir; you can hear every word without referring to the text printed in the booklet.

­– BBC Music Magazine

Classical Music

Includes symphony(-ies) by Franz Joseph Haydn. Ensemble: Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra. Conductor: Adám Fischer.

The first of two Haydn recordings from Robin Ticciati and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra presents one of the famous ‘London Symphonies’, No. 101, ‘The Clock,’ which has its focus firmly on the future. Robin Ticciati is in his fifth season as Principal Conductor of the SCO. Gramophone named Robin one of the top ten young ‘conductors on the verge of greatness’ and one of 'Tomorrow's Icons'. “[an] exhilaratingly free performance of The Clock…the tick-tock Andante had a fragile grandeur that was disarming and poignant.” (The Guardian)

Classical Music

Includes work(s) by Franz Joseph Haydn. Ensemble: Toronto Chamber Orchestra. Conductor: Kevin Mallon.

Patrick Gallois' contributions to Naxos' Haydn series have been some of the best, and this latest release is no exception. Symphonies 9-12 are a nicely varied lot, and rare enough on disc to make this release very useful to collectors looking to plug a gap in their Haydn discographies. The first and last have three movements (No. 9 ending with a minuet); No. 10 has the traditional four movements, and so does No. 11, but it begins with an Adagio (so-called "church-sonata form"). No. 12 features a very impressive, dramatic, minor-key Adagio that lasts some eight minutes, and has more than enough musical substance to justify its length, and the repeats.

The performances are stylish, lively, and perfectly played by the Sinfonia Finlandia, and my only criticism (once again) concerns the excessively obtrusive continuo part. Haydn didn't ask for it, the music doesn't need it, and the problem with modern performances, even purportedly "authentic" ones, is that the harpsichord player is always tempted to do too much, to fill out the part like a genuine Baroque figured bass, whereas we pretty much know that by this time any keyboard participation was likely limited to occasional bits of harmonic filler or stiffening of rhythm for ensemble purposes. This is very much a matter of individual taste, and certainly the problem, if it be such, isn't serious enough to undermine enjoyment of these well-recorded performances.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

In all likelihood Haydn's 18th symphony actually was his Third, but he was 27 when he wrote it, and these early pieces are by no means immature if that means lacking in polish, contrast, or quality. Indeed, all four works offer something distinctive. For example, none has exactly the same form. No. 18 has three movements: slow, fast, minuet (with a minor-key "Hungarian" trio section). No. 19 also has three movements, but in the traditional style of an Italian sinfonia: fast, slow, fast. No. 20, which includes trumpets and timpani, adopts the standard four-movement pattern with the minuet third, while the particularly lovely No. 21 opens with a beautiful adagio featuring characterful solos for oboes and horns.

There isn't a dull bar anywhere, and this is just as true of the performances by Kevin Mallon and the Toronto Chamber Orchestra. Tempos are lively, the string section phrases with excellent rhythm, and the wind players are top-notch, so much so in fact that I wish they were a bit more forwardly placed in the balance. One quibble: Mallon uses a harpsichord continuo, not terrible in itself, but he permits far too much doodling in the opening Adagio of Symphony No. 21, to the point of creating a spurious, independent part. It's a surprising lapse of taste in what are in all other respects exemplary performances that I can otherwise recommend to Haydn aficionados without hesitation. These symphonies are seldom recorded, and the good here far outweighs any minor reservations.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com