This ninth volume of the Haydn2032 series focuses on the composer’s psychological subtlety in its focus on a central work: his Symphony no.45, known as the ‘Abschieds-Symphonie’ (‘Farewell’ Symphony), composed in 1772. It is said to have got its nickname from a symbolic message Haydn conveyed to Prince Esterházy when he and his orchestra were required to stay longer than planned in the Prince’s summer residence. On the occasion of the symphony’s first performance, Haydn had arranged for the musicians to leave their places one by one during the final Adagio. The day after the concert, all the musicians were able to return to their families and bid farewell to the Prince, who had obviously taken the point of this poetic request for ‘liberation’ expressed in music. The programme is completed by Symphonies nos. 15 and 35 and a cantata sung by Sandrine Piau, the heart-rending ‘Berenice, che fai?’ on a text by Metastasio that was a real ‘hit’ of the eighteenth century, set by some forty composers.

The Joseph Haydn Foundation of Basel is already looking ahead to the 300th anniversary of Haydn’s birth which will take place in 2032. They have joined forces with the Alpha Classics label for the magnanimous project of recording all of Haydn’s 107 symphonies. Under the artistic direction of Giovanni Antonini, this is the third volume in the project. The two previous installments received numerous awards and critical acclaim, including winning the Echo Klassik Prize for “Best Recording of the Year,” in 2015. Giovanni Antonini views the music of Haydn as “a kalaeidoscope of human emotions.” He has chosen to approach these works thematically rather than chronologically.

After long, thoroughly satisfying years of service at the Esterhazy court, Joseph Haydn was given a well-deserved retirement in 1790 - with an unusually handsome pension. The composer, who was in great demand throughout the world, used his new freedom to travel, especially to London, and to compose string quartets again. With the first of these "Apponyi" quartets, the Leipzig String Quartet continues its Haydn series and presents another remarkable milestone in the quartet repertoire. The quartets were virtually snatched out of Haydn's hands; Count Apponyi eventually secured exclusive rights for one year at a price of 100 gulden. Although popular with dilettantes, the Op. 74 quartets go beyond the limits of what can be performed by amateurs. The first violin in particular repeatedly attracts attention with virtuoso passages, but the other voices - just listen to the finale of the C major quartet - are also demanded to do a great deal. And Haydn remains true to himself: time and again he surprises players and listeners alike with irregular periods, inserted bars, sudden pauses... And there are echoes of folk music, such as drone surfaces or - in the B-flat major quartet - major/minor changes, which evoke associations with Haydn's years-long stay in Hungary and are a pleasure to listen to. The G minor quartet is the only one of this group to bear a nickname: "Reiterquartett" Rider's refers to the lively finale, which the Leipzig musicians present with verve and delight in playing truly "con brio". But many a slow movement in this quartet trias also spoils the discerning listener: great, timeless music of which there can never be enough.

The Gabrieli Consort continue their series of award-winning collaborations with the National Forum of Music, Wroclaw, Poland with a new version of Haydn’s great oratorio The Seasons. Using a new performing edition by Paul McCreesh, this recording is the first to feature the large orchestral forces that Haydn called for, including a string section of 60, 8 horns and a choir of 70. As well as the combined forces of the Gabrieli Consort & Players, Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra and National Forum of Music Choir, the recording features solo performances from British singers Carolyn Sampson, Jeremy Ovenden and Andrew Foster-Williams. All physical and digital booklet texts are provided in both English and Polish translations.

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REVIEW:

In the cataclysmic thunderstorm, rasping, minatory brass to the fore, the terrified populace evokes Verdi's 'Dies Irae', while the autumn hunt, raucously fuelled by anarchic natural horns, has never sounded more uninhibitedly exuberant. In the wine harvest, with its final tipsy fugue, McCreesh conjures a Burgenland bacchanalia to rival Jacobs -high praise indeed. McCreesh and his massed Anglo-Polish forces have given us a Seasons that thrillingly catches both the work's bucolic exhilaration and its invocations of the sublime. And for sheer sonic splendour it's in a class of its own.

– Gramophone

These two symphonies were composed for Haydn's second visit to London, during the winter months of 1794-95. He knew the musicians for whom he was writing, and they were a virtuoso ensemble. Therefore these are among the largest scaled, most technically demanding among all his symphonies.

Kuijken's performances are very direct and fresh. His ensemble sounds on the small side for the music, which means that there are fewer strings than there might be. How this would affect a live performance would of course depend upon the size of the chosen venue. In a recording, one can only judge on the end result, and while the sound has good perspective and balance, the strings in both symphonies do sound somewhat 'under nourished'. This may be the recording, may be the playing, may be the lack of sufficient numbers to make an ample sound in tuttis. On the other hand, it may well be intended.

Kuijken's band is full of splendid musicians, and they play on original instruments. The strings use gut rather than wire, and there is little bloom and less vibrato in their sound. Too little of each for my taste, in fact, and in these symphonies this seems less appropriate than it did in the companion performances of the earlier Paris symphonies, composed during the previous decade.

Kuijken's tempi and phrasing are eminently sane and deliver some exciting rhythmic purpose to proceedings. The fast sections develop tellingly out of the slow introductions, and the overall balancing of the movements is highly effective. In fact the music sounds best in the two finales, which reveal the composer's uniquely bubbling wit.

Although the slow movements are expertly paced, in No. 102 especially the lack of bloom in the string sound denies the music some of its intensity and line. For this Adagio movement can stand a slower, more eloquent expression than this. At face value what Kuijken chooses is perfectly fine, but try alternatives such as Sir Colin Davis and the Concertgebouw (Philips) or Eugen Jochum and the London Philharmonic, and the extra richness pays dividends.

These performances have undoubted merits, and are recommended particularly to enthusiasts devoted to the 'original instrument' sound. For the more indulgent listener, it is probably best to try elsewhere. In an ideal world, these do make excellent alternatives to the larger collection, opening up fresh vistas on two great symphonies.

-- Terry Barfoot, MusicWeb International Reviewing DHM 77859

Following the exceptional success of its debut album the Maxwell Quartet returns with its second recording of Haydn. The intriguing juxtaposition of Haydn string quartets with traditional Scottish folk music once again forms the basis of the programme. MusicWeb Inernational named Haydn: String Quartets Op. 71 as one of its Recordings of the Year stating: ‘… letting this superb playing simply wash over you has been one of the year’s great pleasures.’ The prize-winning quartet is performing Haydn’s Op. 74 and their selection of folk music will include traditional tunes from the Highlands and Shetland plus music by Niel Gow, Jean Finlayson of Lewis and Isaac Cooper of Banff. Following the Maxwell’s performance of Haydn’s String Quartet in F, Op. 74 No. 2 at the 2020 Edinburgh International Festival The Scotsman wrote: ‘Such distinctive personality informed Tuesday’s opening performance… its finely tailored Classicism enlivened with light-hearted repartee and risky spontaneity.’

Additional CD Content:

• Nathaniel Gow, Niel Gow, Maxwell Quartet: Coilsfield House – Drunk at Night, Dry in the Morning
• Sìne NicFhionnlaigh, Anonymous, Maxwell Quartet: Fear a’ Bhàta / Da Full Rigged Ship / Da New Rigged Ship
• Anonymous, William Marshall, Maxwell Quartet: The Burning of the Piper’s Hut / The Marquis of Huntly / Miss Gordon of Gight

REVIEW:

As in their debut disc of Op 71, the Maxwell Quartet respond eagerly to the boldness and brilliance of these predominantly extrovert works. They always seem to be playing to an imaginary audience. As on their Op 71 recording, the Maxwell – Scottish to a man – interleave the three quartets with their own arrangements of Scottish reels, jigs, and pipe marches.

– Gramophone

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.

CONTENTS:

• CD1-33 Symphonies
• CD34-40 Concertos
• CD41-52 Masses, Oratorios
  
• CD53-64 Operas
  
• CD65-85 Vocals (non-opera)
  
• CD86-107 String Quartets
  
• CD108 Die Sieben letzten Worte (instrumental)
  
• CD109-145 Duos, Trios, Divertimenti
  
• CD146-158 Keyboard Sonatas, Divertimenti, Menuets
  
• CD159-160 Misc.
  

An album of Joseph Haydn’s (1732–1809) eight delightful early keyboard sonatas by Tuija Hakkila performed on two fortepianos. The current consensus is that there are about 60 surviving authentic Piano Sonatas by Haydn, while contemporary sources point to as many as 80. The earliest of these probably date from Haydn’s youth in the 1750s; the last one was completed in summer 1795. Some of the lost Sonatas are works that Haydn simply gave away as a young man, and they have never been heard of since. In mid-18th-century Vienna music was mainly distributed in the form of manuscript copies made by copyists. Haydn did not publish his first collection of six Sonatas until 1774. Of the Sonatas selected for this project, Haydn wrote all of these over a period of about 15 years before his 40th birthday.

Hakkila has selected an Italian-style instrument for two Sonatas (E major and G minor), a copy of a Gottfried Silbermann fortepiano. J. S. Bach probably owned a Silbermann fortepiano. The hammer mechanism in the instrument resembles that of the early instruments of Italian instrument builders Bartolomeo Cristofori and Giovanni Ferrini. In six Sonatas (G major, A major, A flat major, D major, E minor and C minor) Hakkila uses her own original 1790s instrument, a five-octave Viennese fortepiano similar to the ones built by Anton Walter. The maker of this instrument is unknown, but it is known that it was sold to Finland in the early 19th century by the Bureau de Musique in Leipzig, a company owned by composer Franz Anton Hoffmeister, who was an acquaintance of Haydn’s.

REVIEW:

Hakkila is a gifted player, alert to the nuance and quicksilver changes of Haydn’s mercurial style. Nothing is forced but no eccentricity is left behind, either. Her playing is technically accomplished and interpretatively alert, and one hears the steady progress of Haydn’s inventiveness and spirit of adventure throughout the set.

– Gramophone

Giovanni Antonini has been recording the complete symphonies of Joseph Haydn with the Alpha label for more than five years. Now the series is enriched by another monument by the Austrian composer: Die Schöpfung (The Creation), recorded in 2019 with the Bavarian Radio Chorus and his own orchestra, Il Giardino Armonico. This great oratorio was inspired by those of Handel, which Haydn heard performed by very large forces during his visits to England. The Creation, composed between September 1796 and April 1798, demanded such a colossal effort of him that he even fell ill just after its first performance; but the work enjoyed immense success. The marriage between the Bavarian chorus, so familiar with this masterpiece, and the period-instrument musicians of Il Giardino Armonico works perfectly, with a vocal trio composed of leading soloists: Anna Lucia Richter, Maximilian Schmitt and Florian Boesch.

Cornelia Horak traces Joseph Haydn’s years of travel in England in search of the dawn of Classical-era song. Together with Richard Fuller on fortepiano, an acknowledged expert in this era, the internationally renowned Austrian soprano applies her talents to the “original canzonettas” that the composer wrote in the mid-1790s, most of them on texts by his British friend Anne Hunter. They represent an elaborate further development of the German-language songs Haydn had written up to that point and form one of the starting points for the immediately proceeding flights of fancy in this genre.

Reviews of some of the original recordings that make up this set"

"let’s not kid ourselves: there was no finer 20th century Haydn conductor than Leonard Bernstein. He has the same affinity for the composer that he did for Mahler: the music’s energy, humor, and sheer emotional range played to the conductor’s strengths, and no amount of foolishness about “period this” or “authentic that” can diminish idiomatic results that penetrate far deeper into the music’s expressive essence than issues of performance practice ever can."

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

"The competition is strong in the “London” symphonies, but Bernstein’s performances of Haydn are always among the most intriguing, the most dynamic and intense. The “Surprise” Symphony’s opening Vivace assai is played slowly, with a unique gravitas, a seemingly odd approach that—through some Bernstein magic—produces a tender, sensitive result. The surprise chord in the Andante doesn’t sneak up on us; it is just plain ff. The repeated ff chords in the rest of the movement thunder with a towering rage, and the Menuet stomps heavily. The Allegro di molto finale boils along at terrific pace, bursting with joy. This is a wildly unconventional performance of this warhorse, yet one that thrills and satisfies.

Max Goberman recorded a superb No. 98, including the violin/cembalo duet in the finale, but his Vienna State Opera Orchestra (like Scherchen’s, third-string leftovers from the Vienna Philharmonic) cannot match the New Yorkers’ power and panache. This “Military” is a lovely performance, with especially enticing wind solos; the Janissary music (triangle, cymbals, bass drum) is not overplayed, as with Scherchen. The triangle rings its own miniature cadenza in the finale’s penultimate measure. The Andante of “The Clock” ticks sweetly and gently, interrupted by thundering fortissimos. Trumpets are prominent throughout the performance, so the wrong-note joke in the (very slow) Menuet’s Trio jars the ear as never before—or since. No.102, perhaps Haydn’s greatest symphony, receives it finest performance, beginning with an almost motionless Largo and ending with a lightning-fast, spectacularly executed Presto. "

-- James H. North, Fanfare

At least one of these performances (No. 104) goes back to the Fifties, and the Paris Symphonies came out about a quarter-of-a-century ago. For some reason they caused a tremendous row in the New York press when they were issued. Part of it was my defending the performances (in a magazine called High Fidelity), saying among other things that Bernstein had gone to great pains to get his trills right, ie in strict tempo and starting on the upper note. In those days, a lot of snobs did not take Bernstein seriously – how wrong they were. Bernstein has a natural affinity for Haydn, though some of his tempi will be judged too slow: first movements of Nos. 82, 93 and 98 (an old legacy from Sir Thomas Beecham, especially in the case of No. 82), the intolerably slow minuets of some works (eg Nos. 93 and 101, also a Beecham legacy but not much better in the Karajan/Berlin Philharmonic recordings), and the slow movement of The Clock (No. 101). But when Bernstein gets it right, it is glorious. The slow movement of the Surprise (No. 94) is nowadays taken far too quickly: it is only andante, not allegretto, and Bernstein’s reading is poetic and masculine, by turns. The first movement of the great C minor Symphony No. 95 is the best reading of it that I know – listen to that hair-raising timpani part at the end: it is extraordinary, as is the ferociously slow Minuet in the same work. And while on the subject of timpani, there are splendid timpani solos in the Minuet of No. 97, the slow movement of which is also a revelation – note the careful adherence to Haydn’s markings of ‘ponticello’, on the bridge of the violins, a nasty, spiky sound which must have stunned London in 1792. If you want one perfect Haydn/Bernstein sampler, try the finale of No. 99 in E flat, the first time Haydn ever used clarinets in a symphony. The tempo and the pace are perfect. And what civilised works these are: witty, profound, dramatic, touching – there is something for everybody in them.

-- H.C. Robbins Landon, BBC Music Magazine

Here Joseph Haydn's music is revealed as the perfect expression of truth. And the Auryn's performance of his string quartets is exactly as it should be: vigorous, beautiful to listen to, and full of feeling. A rediscovery both of sheer beauty and intellectual development.'

Composer: Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809)

Performers:
Matthias Lingenfelder, violin
Jens Oppermann, violin
Stewart Eaton, viola
Andreas Arndt, violoncello


Track Listing:
Disc One:
String quartet op. 20 no. 1, Hob. III:31 in E flat major
1. Allegro moderato
2. Menuet. Un poco allegretto
3. Affettuoso e sostenuto
4. Finale. Presto
String quartet op. 20 no. 2, Hob. III:32 in C major
5. Moderato
6. Capriccio. Adagio
7. Menuet. Allegretto
8. Fuga a quattro soggetti. Allegro
String quartet op. 20 no. 4, Hob. III:34 in D major
9. Allegro di molto
10. Un poco adagio e affettuoso
11. Menuet alla Zingarese. Allegretto
12. Presto e scherzando

Disc Two:
String quartet op. 20 no. 3, Hob. III:33 in G minor
1. Allegro con spirito
2. Menuet. Allegretto
3. Poco adagio
4. Finale. Allegro di molto
String quartet op. 20 no. 6, Hob. III:36 in A major
5. Allegro di molto e scherzando
6. Adagio
7. Menuet
8. Fuga con tre soggetti. Allegro
String quartet op. 20 no. 5, Hob. III:35 in F minor
9. Moderato
10. Menuet
11. Adagio
12. Finale. Fuga a due soggetti

Timing: 153:49

OXFORD

The Places
Our tour takes us to Oxford, site of the oldest university in England, with scenes of the city and some of the colleges.

The Music
The music chosen to accompany our tour is by Joseph Haydn, whose Oxford Symphony was performed there to celebrate the award of a doctorate by the university. His Surprise Symphony was written for performance in London in 1791.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo 2.0
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 52 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

Joseph Haydn must have been curious: Away from the extensive obligations for music at the court of Prince Esterhazy, he found in the string quartet the ideal field for experiments. The quartets from op. 9 contain ideas that would only find expression in symphonies and sonatas much later. The Leipzig String Quartet are starting with Quartets 1 to 3, that sound as fresh and new as if they had just come from the pen. After all, ten years of compositional experience lie between Haydn's first attempts in the genre and the six quartets op. 9. The pieces repeatedly demand ludicrously virtuosic passages from the first violin, and some movements with their bravura cadenzas are even reminiscent of a violin concerto. However, the far advanced balance of the voices is surprising. Far from being simply accompaniment, there are also many demanding details in the lower voices. The slow movements, which always come third in the op. 9 quartets, are grandiose and at the same time touching. Wide melodic arches give the primarius opulent opportunity to indulge and to "speak" in conversation, in order to finally create space for a final movement that is as lively as it is capricious. This is not least due to Italian influence, but Carl Philip Emanuel Bach also leaves his mark alongside Sammartini; the themes seem to be thrown down, gain immense lightness, and the works become increasingly individual. It is not known what Haydn's employer thought of the innovations; with the historically informed Leipzig String Quartet, he must certainly have taken a particular liking to them.

Haydn worked during a period that witnessed a great deal of stylistic change, including the evolution of keyboard instruments from the harpsichord to the pianoforte with its hammer action and greater dynamic flexibility. These rarely heard but influential early Piano Trios include music originally conceived for piano solo or baryton trio. The Trio in F minor is unusual for its elaborate ornamentation and darker key,and is highly at-tractive in its youthful freshness. The acclaimed Aquinas Piano Trio brings these un-justly neglected works vividly to life.