This is all early Haydn (with the exception of the two marches), but it is not immature. He was in his mid- to late-20s when he composed most of these pieces, and they are beautifully written for a wild assortment of ensembles. There are works for winds alone, serenades for wind and strings (including a couple featuring pairs of English horns), some early pieces with clarinets, a divertimento for harpsichord, a cassation with four horns, music with flute, and an insanely virtuosic trio for horn, violin, and cello. Manfred Huss includes the famous "St. Anthony Chorale" even though it's not by Haydn, and Simon Standage turns in a really lovely performance of the First violin concerto, with a slow movement so winsome you'd never know he's playing a period violin.

Indeed, Huss and his team manage to have the best of both worlds, offering a clearly "authentic" sound without any of the timbral unpleasantness that so often comes with it. There's only one exception: the natural horn playing, particularly in the trio mentioned above. Here I have to be dogmatic: get a modern horn, gentlemen. The alternative on offer here oscillates between crudeness and sheer desperation, however brave the effort.

Still, such is the value of the music and vibrancy of the performances that this set, attractively priced at five discs for the cost of three, is an essential item for any self-respecting Haydn collection. Much of the material was released previously on Koch in a series of single discs, but for all intents and purposes this set should be seen as brand new, for that is how it sounds whether you're listening for the first time or the tenth.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

The present release is the second volume of Roman Rabinovich’s complete cycle of Haydn Piano Sonatas. Rabinovich has performed throughout Europe and the United States in venues such as London’s Wigmore Hall, Leipzig’s Gewandhaus, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and the Millennium Stage of Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Lauded as ‘a master of tone-color’ (International Piano, 2018), Rabinovich made his Israel Philharmonic début under the baton of Zubin Mehta at age ten. He was a top prize winner at the 12th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in 2008.

Only two authentic cello concertos by Joseph Haydn have survived: the first in C major, composed in the convoluted manner of the early 1760s, and the second in D major in the classical style of the 1780s. This live concert recording featuring Natalie Clein and the recreation - Gro�es Orchester Graz under the direction of Michael Hofstetter immerses the listener in the soundscape of the Haydn period. Playing on a 1777 Guadagnini, Natalie Clein decided to reflect the spirit of Haydn's sound world by playing on gut strings rather than steel. She also chose to use a lighter bow than usual. She improvised the cadenzas, which is entirely in keeping with the performance practice of Haydn's time. In doing so, this recording melds both historical and living performance practices. Born in the United Kingdom, Natalie Clein came to widespread attention at the age of sixteen when she won both the BBC Young Musician of the Year and the Eurovision Competition for Young Musicians in Warsaw. Described by The Times as 'mesmerising' and 'soaringly passionate', she has built a distinguished career, regularly performing at major venues and with orchestras worldwide. The recreation - Gro�es Orchester Graz brings together musicians from many European nations and unites many guest musicians across borders.

The oratorio Der Kampf der Buße ind Bekehrung (The Struggle for Penance and Conversion) is among Michael Haydn's lesser-known works. The Purcell Choir together with the Orfeo Orchestra, under the direction of György Vashegyi, now present a recording of the second and only surviving part of this three-part oratorio. It is impressive, especially for its unusual scoring: All of the the five solo roles are allotted to sopranos. The artistic mixture of majestic passages, surprising turns, Baroque rhetorical figures, and virtuoso arias makes clear why later composers such as Mozart, Schubert, and Bruckner repeatedly took Michael Haydn's music as their model.

The majority of Haydn's concertos for keyboard and orchestra are thought to have been composed for the organ. The three that were not have been included on this disc, together with the 'Concerto in D major, Hob.XVIII/2' which was most probably intended for the organ, but is often performed on other keyboard instruments since the solo part makes no use of the pedals. They are all composed before 1l784, around the time that Mozart wrote his first masterpieces in the genre, and it is tempting to think that, having heard Mozart's concertos, Haydn decided that he could not possibly compete in this area. After all, as one of the great pianists of the era, Mozart's concertos became the occasion for a breathtaking display of invention and virtuosity. Haydn on the other hand did not as a rule perform his concertos, leaving room in the limelight to other musicians. The concertos on the present disc thus , in a manner of speaking, show us an alternative route for the piano concerto as a genre. Here they are interpreted by Ronald Brautigam, who with his 11-volume series of Haydn's complete works for solo keyboard has proven himself one of todays most gengenial interpreters of the composer's music. He is ably backed by one of the most interesting period-instrument bands at the moment, Concerto Copenhagen, directed by Lars Ulrik Mortensen.

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

HAYDN Symphonies Nos. 82–87 , “Paris” • Bruno Weil, cond; Tafelmusik Baroque O • TAFELMUSIK TMK1013CD2 (2 CDs: 144:09)


This set, recorded in 1994, is a reissue of two Sony CDs reviewed by John Wiser in Fanfare 19:2. For these “Paris” Symphonies, the period-instrument group Tafelmusik has a suitably large string section: 8/7/5/4/2. Bruno Weil chooses generally rapid tempos, the playing is crisp and clean, the sounds sweet—this Toronto-based ensemble plays at a relatively high pitch for period-practice performers. In the notes to this set, H. C. Robbins Landon describes the first movement, Vivace assai, of Symphony No. 82 as “an enormously powerful affair, with thundering fanfares” and says that “The finale (Vivace) returns to the power of the first movement; the development section, in particular, generates an enormous forward drive, and its coda is a brilliant conclusion to this highly masculine symphony.” Weil generates as much power as this medium-sized ensemble can muster, but nowhere near that of Leonard Bernstein’s New York Philharmonic, which uses only a few more strings ( Fanfare 33:2) and was once praised by Landon himself as one of “the great Haydn recordings of all time.” In the finale, some details of the fugal section are obscured by Weil’s hectic tempo. His is a fine performance nevertheless, on a par with that of Sigiswald Kuijken’s Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, whose string complement is only two less than Weil’s, and whose recordings of the “Paris” Symphonies have long been accepted as the standard period-practice set. Kuijken’s slower tempos (8:26 in that Vivace assai, to Weil’s 7: 20, both with full repeats) allow Haydn’s full power to emerge, but the playing is not as crisp as that by either Weil or Bernstein’s forces. Kuijken’s tempos are too slow for my taste; neither he nor Weill takes the Minuet da capo repeat, and only Weill takes the finale’s second repeat.


This being a reissue, there’s no space for detailed examination of all six performances, but the comparisons made above generally apply to the following five symphonies as well, except that Weil’s tempos are no longer exceptionally fast, and he doesn’t always take finale second repeats. If those performances seem less distinctive, it may be only that the other five symphonies, as fine as they are, are less dramatic and exciting than “The Bear.” Sony’s recorded sound is bright and clean, with fine detail, richer and clearer than that given Kuijken. There is much to like in both period-instrument sets, and Bernstein has been joined by another superb modern-instrument set, Kristjan Järvi leading the Lower Austria Tonkünstler Orchestra on Preiser ( Fanfare 33:4), brilliantly recorded in Vienna’s golden Musikverein. So Haydn’s “Paris” Symphonies are very well covered for all tastes.


FANFARE: James H. North

Classical Music

Classical Music

Haydn: Op. 33

The Leipzig String Quartet continues its Haydn edition with three more works from his op. 50, and once again the members magnificently succeed in combining classical perfection with surprisingly fresh esprit.

For more than twenty years the Leipzig String Quartet has been playing in the Champions League of chamber music. Showered with prizes and awards, this world-class ensemble again and again has azzled listening audiences with their sensational recordings and concerts.

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

Classical Music

STRING QUARTETS OP. 50

Much of Franz Joseph Haydn’s long career was in service as a court musician to the wealthy Esterházy family. It was early in Haydn’s time at the Esterháza palace that Prince Nicolaus took a liking to the hypnotic sound of the baryton – a bowed instrument with an extra set of strings that vibrate sympathetically or are plucked for tonal contrast. The baryton was considered the pinnacle of 18th-century aristocratic instruments, and the outstanding beauty of Haydn’s trios represent its final renaissance, placing this remarkable antique firmly into the poised and tasteful Classical style of the day. The Valencia Baryton Project comprises musicians from the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía opera house in Valencia and the Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier, who came together with the vision of performing the almost 160 works by Joseph Haydn written for the baryton, a cross between a viola da gamba and a lirone. At the heart of the ensemble is the traditional baryton trio – baryton, viola and cello – for which Haydn wrote 123 works of outstanding beauty during his time as court composer for Prince Esterhazy of Austria. Members of the Valencia Baryton Project have performed in chamber ensembles including Quarteto Radamés Gnattali, the Elan Quintet, Gogmagogs and Trio Vanguardia and with orchestras including the RTVE Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, and the BBC Philharmonic. The Valencia Baryton Project is the first ensemble to record the baryton for Naxos.

Composed in the summer and autumn of 1781, Haydn’s Op. 33 Quartets were dedicated to the Grand Duke Paul of Russia and premiered on Christmas Day that year in the apartment of the Duke’s wife, the Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna. Nicknamed ‘the Russian quartets’, Op. 33 were some of Mozart’s favourites among Haydn’s works, and inspired Mozart to write his own set of six quartets, of 1785, dedicated to Haydn. Generally light in nature, the Op. 33 are extremely tuneful works, all set in major keys (apart from No. 1, in B minor), and all written in four movements. Founded in 1998, and exclusive Chandos recording artists since 2010, the Doric String Quartet has established itself as one of the leading quartets of its generation, receiving enthusiastic responses from audiences and critics alike. Previous releases in this series of Quartets by Haydn have been acclaimed by critics around the world.

If Joseph Haydn played a major role in the development of the symphony and string quartet, he was also and no less the virtual creator of the classical keyboard sonata. In wealth of musical invention and diversity of forms his sonatas surpass those of even Mozart and Beethoven. Although mostly less demanding technically, they are by no means easier to interpret. Their relatively modest demands in the way of virtuosity are more than made up for by the greater creative contribution they require from the player. Especially in the sonatas of his early and middle periods Haydn allowed considerable leeway to the interpreter in matters ranging from choice of ornaments to virtual invitations to interpolate free cadenzas. An intriguing challenge, but many pianists nowadays do not know how to cope with it. Schooled in later traditions, they cling to the printed text, never daring to make the contribution the composer took it for granted he could expect from the performer. Still, if Haydn placed considerable reliance on the player’s personal creative talent this never meant a blanket permission to alter the musical sense by changes foreign to the style of the time. In this release, legendary Viennese pianist Paul Badura-Skoda has recorded five piano masterworks by Joseph Haydn, on the occasion of the bicentenary of his death. His fortepiano from his own collection, which has been used for this recording and was built around 1790, is the most appropriate instrument available today for interpreting Haydn’s music.

Haydn, J.: Symphony No. 45 / Mozart, W.A.: Serenade No. 9 /

REVIEW:

Armida brings out the best in Cecilia Bartoli as a performer. Her tone is ravishingly beautiful when it needs to be - you need go no further than her first aria, a gorgeous prayer for Rinaldo, to find evidence of that - but when she is required to turn on the vocal fireworks, as for Armida’s great aria of fury in Act 2, she does so with thrilling precision and passion. She is at her finest in the final act when Armida’s power is on the wane, heartbreaking in the great aria Ah, non ferir, then spitting fury as she goes off to exact her revenge.

Patricia Petibon gives Bartoli a real run for her money as the second lady. The voice is of a very different quality to Bartoli’s - sweeter and more innocent, less knowing - but it is every bit as delicious, from the gently winsome quality of her first aria to the intentionally strident and very impressive hysterics of her aria at the beginning of Act 2. She also makes a most beguiling nymph in the third act.

When Bartoli and Prégardien come together, however, things improve enormously, and their Act 1 duet, when he tries to convince her of his faithfulness, is a real treat, both beautiful in its opening section and then exhilarating in its coloratura. Markus Schäfer gives a very attractive turn as Clotarco and Scot Weir’s Ubaldo is fine. Oliver Widmer’s Idreno is not pleasant, though, sounding disagreeably unfocused in his opening aria with little improvement later.

I’m not normally a fan of Harnoncourt in music of this period - I find his Mozart infuriating - and generally I find Concentus Musicus Wien to be so abrasive as to be devoid of pleasure in much of their playing. However, I actually found their style to be pretty effective here. It is a martial opera, after all, and the harsh edge on the brass, as well as in some of the other orchestral tuttis, helps to evoke the atmosphere of war. The string playing doesn’t always sound thin and pinched, either, and they are the finest thing about the scene in Act 2 where Rinaldo’s indecision is invested with the intensity of a mad scene.

Harnoncourt does occasionally pull the tempo around a bit, as though he can’t quite help himself, but he still shapes the work with conviction, and it’s worth remembering that this was a rather neglected opera when this performance took place, so he probably felt the need to inject a certain something into his interpretation so as to make contemporary audiences sit up and take notice that little bit more. I can turn a blind eye to most of it if it means being reacquainted with Haydn’s music in such a successful way. The corking Trio that ends the second act is completely thrilling, bringing out the finest dramatic instincts of the singers, orchestra and conductor.

Both CDs are ingeniously packaged in a single case and the booklet contains an interesting essay by David Wyn Jones. At a price like this there is no need to hesitate.

– MusicWeb International (Simon Thompson)

In addition to some 47 keyboard sonatas, Haydn wrote a variety of other pieces including arrangements of earlier orchestral or chamber works, and dances intended for occasional use. The 10 kleine Klavierstucke (10 Little Piano Pieces) contain five symphonic movements- including the second movement from one of his most popular, No. 53 in D major, known as L’Imperiale- a single movement from a string quartet and three extracts from his witty Eszterhaza opera La vera constanza. The dance movements were popular in Vienna’s many ballrooms. This is the penultimate release in Jeno Jando’s project of recording the complete solo piano music by Joseph Haydn. Of the complete piano sonatas release, Audiophile Audition commented: “Jando is every inch the professional, his years of experience and his muscular playing full these [works] with vivacious life.”

Joseph Haydn is regarded as the "father of the symphony" and the "father of the string quartet" for his more than 100 symphonies and almost 70 string quartets. Haydn also produced numerous operas, masses, concertos, piano sonatas and other compositions. His oratorios The Creation and The Seasons, both composed in the last decade of Haydn’s active compositional life, are his most widely known and admired choral compositions today, just as they were in his lifetime. Recordings from some of Haydn’s most formidable interpreters are showcased on this extensive release, including the Bach Collegium Stuttgart, Kammerchor Stuttgart, Helmuth Rilling, and more.

REVIEW:

For this set Hänssler have grouped together three major choral works of Haydn from their back catalogue of the many recordings made by the noted German choral conductor Helmuth Rilling. Rilling was the founder of The Oregon Bach Festival, and such musical ensembles as the Gächinger Kantorei and the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, both of whom appear on these recordings. As filler, some works recorded by the lesser-known Frieder Bernius have also been included.

The first two discs contain Rilling’s 1993 Die Schöpfung. With Rilling this great work proceeds naturally with no hint of forcing the music to wring more drama out of it. He provides tempi that are very solicitous towards his singers. His approach presents the work with a more smiling aspect than one usually encounters. In this aspect Rilling comes closer than anyone else to Leonard Bernstein’s earlier recording of the work with the New York Philharmonic. Rilling’s soloists are a fine team topped by Christiane Schäfer’s exquisitely shapely tones. She makes a lively Gabriel, molding the lines of her recitatives with grace. She provides a heavenly account of “Nun beut die flur” and manages to avoid sounding tweety in the process. Michael Schade is a sunny-sounding Uriel, as he was in the John Eliot Gardiner recording two years later. He is especially good at enunciating his text and producing his sound to evolve from the words, a rare achievement these days. His coloratura is perfectly executed, which makes me place him among the most successful portrayals of Uriel in the catalogue. Andreas Schmidt is a fine Rapaehel. His voice sounds warm and pleasing, yet he suffuses his music with sufficient gravitas for an ideal balance. He manages the awkward intervals of “Rollend in schäumenden” with ease. The choir and orchestra play splendidly and there is a decent sense of ambience to the recording.

The fifth disc brings the oratorio version of The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross. Maestro Rilling is definitely back on best form here and he leads a really good team of soloists. The disc is rounded off by two shorter items as filler, which proved to be among the real highlights of the set. Both the Responsoria de Venerabili and the Ave Regina Coelorum are bright and fresh-sounding, led by the sure hand of the accomplished Frieder Bernius. The Württemberg ensemble is wonderfully responsive to his lead with a standout solo by Inga Nielsen in the Ave Regina. Nielsen was still in the coloratura phase of her career when this was recorded and her voice exhibits a glow that would lessen as she started heading into more dramatic roles a few years later. This is a superb example of her voice at its zenith. Hearing it makes me want to search out a copy of the Nelson Mass which accompanied these two works on its original release.

--MusicWeb International

I’m not sure you could do better than this.

Naxos has collated its Haydn Masses series into a single box [8.508009] so if you fancy having the full works in a single handy collection these performances, conducted by J. Owen Burdick and Jane Glover, may fit your bill, and price bracket. Single discs are still available, and this one is no exception; a 2003 recording of the once-neglected 1767 Stabat Mater.

The forces are familiar ones, given their prominence in the Naxos series. The direction and execution are able, the singing generally good, phrasing attractive. An affirmative spirit courses through the performance and it mitigates the sometimes funereal performances that we used to hear. The orchestral forces, the Rebel Baroque Orchestra, employ period instruments and practice, which gives a not unwelcome astringency to some - but by no means all - of the playing. The balance between solo voices, orchestral solos and the choir is a just one.

There is, in fact, little with which to cross swords in a performance as attractive as this. Comparing older, conventional performances with one such as this is not comparing like-with-like, but if one were to do so, one should point out that the famous old Laszlo Heltay recording, with a stellar vocal line up of Augér, Hodgson, Rolfe-Johnson and Howell, is invariably a minute slower in all the more extensive movements, which adds considerably to the total timing, and also the sense of incipient gravity and contemplation generated by such tempos.

Here we find articulation is bright and tight. Stephen Sands has a quite light tenor, but it’s mobile and relatively flexible. He starts the work, soloistically, with the Stabat mater dolorosa and when he follows bass Richard Lippold in the Virgo virginum praeclara - and before the other two voices enter - he blends well with his colleagues. Luthien Brackett has an attractive, well focused alto, and Ann Hoyt sports a bright, youthful soprano. She makes a fine showing in Quis non posset contristari where spruce winds and a well balanced organ are strongly to the fore. Understandably perhaps she snatches at breaths a touch in the Sancta Mater, istud agas. Lippold is a pleasantly sonorous bass, doing well by Pro peccatis suae gentis. The chorus, which is the Trinity Choir, come into its own in the concluding Paradisi Gloria where the bases don’t over-part the tenors - and indeed all sections sing well.

The acoustic works in favour of the performance, though there is some ambient noise floating about, audible at higher levels. I didn’t find it especially distracting. So if you fancy an original instrument performance with good soloists, band and choir and a brisk, attractive tempo, and all at a bargain price bracket, I’m not sure you could do better than this.

-- Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International

The Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin returns to PENTATONE with Joseph Haydn’s opera L’isola disabitata (The Desert Island), together with an excellent quartet of vocalists.

Officially called an azione teatrale, L’isola is a serious opera about love, loss and misunderstanding with a happy ending, set on an exotic deserted island. Special about this opera is that Haydn chose orchestral accompaniment for the entire work, with colourful and dramatic accompagnato recitatives. In Haydn’s printed score, many of the elaborate instrumental sections were deliberately cut, because he feared that they demanded too much from the players, and that some audiences may not have been cultured enough to fully appreciate them. Special about this recording is that these parts have all been reinstated, using a recent edition by Thomas Busse.

The seasoned players of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, led by Bernhard Forck, play this lavish score with fervour and swing, while Anett Fritsch (Costanza), Sunhae Im (Silvia), Krystian Adam (Gernando) and André Morsch (Enrico) offer an equally virtuosic vocal delivery.

The Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin is generally seen as one of the best period-instruments ensembles of today, and has a substantial PENTATONE discography.

REVIEW:

Haydn's opera L'isola disabitata ("The Uninhabited Island") was premiered in 1779. In one act, it was termed an azione per musica, suggesting a more compact work than an opera seria, and it has just four voice parts. The quartet of singers is fine, led with pleasant lightness by mezzo-soprano Sunhae Im in the lead role of the abandoned Costanza. The main attraction, though, is the work of the venerable Akademie für alte Musik, which has kept itself vibrant and relevant since its days behind the Iron Curtain. With Bernhard Forck leading the group from the first violinist's chair, they completely avoid the mechanical quality that often infests Baroque groups that move into Classical repertory; they grasp the essential forward-moving trajectory of the music and don't linger too much on the serviceable but ordinary arias. A totally satisfying Haydn opera release.

-- AllMusic.com (James Manheim)

Michael Haydn wrote his Italian “Serenata” to a libretto by Metastasio on the theme of the lover’s grief felt by the goddess Diana, who took vows of chastity without thinking that she might be hit by Amor’s arrows. This opera in two acts from 1778 celebrated its premiere during Michael Haydn’s lifetime but then was forgotten for more than two centuries; it was first performed again in full in Salzburg in 2018 and now is finally available on cpo. The performance was a cooperative venture of the Institute for Mozart Interpretation, Salzburger Hofmusik, and Johann Michael Haydn Society. The term “serenata” should not be mistakenly equated with “serenade.” It refers to musical tributes for instruments and voices performed mostly in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries for occasions such as coronations, weddings, and birthdays and ranging in genre from the secular cantata to the full-scale opera. After the successful performance drehpunktkultur. at wrote: “Johann Michael Haydn, the great Joseph’s ‘little brother,’ the ‘Salzburg Haydn,’ is always good for surprises. Wolfgang Brunner introduced the composition with humorous wit and supplied finely felt and energetic accents at the harpsichord, also in the arias. His approach to the performance of the work was perfect and in original sound. The Hofmusik – and, in its sole short appearance, the Mozart University Vocal Ensemble – performed with animo and sympathetic feeling. The audience was extremely pleased.”

Also available on Blu-ray

Haydn’s oratorio ‘The Creation’ is one of the greatest masterpieces in the repertoire. Its libretto was constructed by Gottfried von Swieten who took texts from the Book of Genesis, the Psalms, and who employed his own original poetry. In this radical and compelling staging by the ground-breaking Catalan theatre collective, La Fura dels Baus, and internationally acclaimed stage director Carlus Padrissa, the oratorio is seen through the prism of a stream of refugees expelled from Paradise. Stunning light projections encapsulate the stage space and incorporated philosophical and scientific perspectives make this truly an oratorio for our time.

-----

REVIEW:

Many productions these days use video as part of the design but this is the first I can recall which is so wonderfully—often breathtakingly—effective.

– Lark Reviews

Includes work(s) by Franz Joseph Haydn. Ensemble: Munich Piano Trio. Soloist: James Taylor (tenor).

This unique performance of Haydn’s biblical oratorio Il ritorno di Tobia, which is so rarely heard, is thanks to an unusual gift: the orchestra La Scintila, which was founded as an “original sound” ensemble comprising musicians from the Zurich opera orchestra, had awarded Nikolaus Harnoncourt honorary membership. The honor included the opportunity for Harnoncourt to choose a piece of music which he could then perform with the orchestra in an ideal atmosphere. Harnoncourt surprised everyone by choosing Haydn’s virtually unknown oratorio based on the apocryphal Bible story of Tobias, who goes on an adventurous journey with the angel Raphael in order to heal his blind father with the angel’s help. In keeping with the spirit of the subject matter, the proceeds of the concert were given to a charity supporting war victims of Sarajevo. The work was performed under Harnoncourt’s direction with an ideal lineup of soloists and the magnificent Arnold Schoenberg Choir at a 2013 Salzburg Festival concert in the Felsenreitschule. The release by Orfeo International of the live recording, which is almost devoid of background noise, is only the third-ever recording to have been made of this very seldom performed Haydn oratorio in the history of phonography. Yet again one is moved to ask why so many of Haydn’s operas and oratorios are so rarely played. Viewed objectively, Il ritorno di Tobia is in no way inferior to Haydn’s hit oratorios The Creation and The Seasons.

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.

Joseph Haydn’s string quartets, often rated as the basis for playing quartets, represented far more than an obligation to the Amadeus Quartet. During their entire career, which spans four decades, they thoroughly and continually dedicated themselves to these works, especially those of Haydn’s middle and late periods. Most of their concert programs featured a quartet by Haydn and in their sonic legacy, Haydn’s string quartets make up more than a fifth of the total. The musicians held these works in such high esteem due, on the one hand, to their relative technical ease and, on the other, their high musical demands.

REVIEW::

This batch is devoted entirely to Haydn, and includes works that the Amadeus never recorded commercially: Opp 9/3, 20/5, and 33/2 (The Joke). For the last, the Amadeus cut a forceful profile in the scherzo and make an affectionate beeline for the gentle ‘joke’ at the close of the finale. Their playing of the F minor Quartet (Op 20/5) suggests implied parallels with Mozart’s G minor Quintet in the scherzo, while the lilting Adagio is given the loveliest reading imaginable. The C major Quartet Op 54 No 2 features a brief Adagio that can only be described as cantorial: the solo violin wails expressively over supportive chords, the effect not unlike the ‘beklemmt’ passage in Beethoven’s Cavatina (the Quartet Op 130). We’re given a complete recording of the Quartet from 1969 and that movement alone as recorded in 1950, both extraordinarily moving. Fifteen works are included overall (the majority originating in Haydn’s later period), including The Seven Last Words which is additionally available as a downloadable ‘extended version’ with German texts. An unmissable collection.

— Gramophone

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.