Haydn: Symphony No. 6, “Le matin”;
Symphony No. 82, “L’ours”; Violin Concerto No. 4. Aisslin Nosky, violin;
Handel and Haydn Society conducted by Harry Christophers. CORO. $18.99.
Haydn: Symphony No. 7, “Le midi”;
Symphony No. 83, “La poule”; Violin Concerto No. 1. Aisslin Nosky, violin;
Handel and Haydn Society conducted by Harry Christophers. CORO. $18.99.
Haydn: Symphony No. 8, “Le soir”;
Symphony No. 84; Violin Concerto No. 3. Aisslin Nosky, violin; Handel and
Haydn Society conducted by Harry Christophers. CORO. $18.99.
A daring and delicious
presentation of Haydn, these three live-recording CDs from the Handel and Haydn
Society under Harry Christophers offer something quite different from the
normal approach to recordings of this music and are unalloyed successes in
their handling of it. The Society was founded in 1815 to perform music that was
then old (Handel) and then new (Haydn), and while it is in many ways quite
different today – no, there are no 200-plus-year-old musicians – its commitment
to the music of its original time is strong and sure two centuries later. But
this is not just another original-instrument, historic-performance-practice
group. It is one that thinks about music in context: the context of the time in
which it was originally written, the context of today’s audiences, and the
context of certain specific pieces within the overall musical output of a
particular composer.
It is this last context that
is especially apparent and enlightening on three CORO discs that offers
performances from 2013, 2015 and 2016. The works here are the three early
symphonies that Haydn certainly conceived as a trilogy, but spread over three
CDs instead of offered on a single one; the three surviving violin concertos
that are certainly (well, almost certainly) by Haydn; and the first three of
the six “Paris” symphonies. This is a rather aberrant way to present this
music, but by taking chances and offering it like this, Christophers and the
orchestra make an unusually trenchant case for the similarities and differences
among various Haydn works, and give listeners an unusual opportunity for a
clear comparison of what stayed the same during Haydn’s career and what
changed, sometimes a great deal.
This is scarcely a perfect
approach, if any such exists. For example, the 30-or-so-piece orchestra is just
the right size for the early symphonies and concertos, but not for the “Paris”
symphonies, which were written for an orchestra much closer in size to a full-scale
modern one, with 40 violins and 10 (!) double basses. But what the Handel and
Haydn Society lacks in sheer heft, it more than makes up for in clarity,
responsiveness, and the sheer verve and joy that permeate all these
performances. This is unusually apparent in the concertos, which are not among
Haydn’s most-significant works. For years, nine violin concertos were
attributed to him; eventually it was determined that only four of the nine were
authentic; one of those four was lost; so there are now three remaining, oddly
numbered Nos. 1, 3 and 4. Of them, No. 4 remains somewhat doubtful in
authorship, although it has enough Haydn flavor so that it is most likely the
earliest surviving concerto rather than one created by someone else. What is
delightful here is that Aisslin Nosky refuses to treat any of the concertos as
throwaways or minor works, insisting that their poise, balance, elegance, and
sense of fun make them worthy Haydn offerings despite their uncontested
“throwback” nature as to structure. The concertos, placed between the
symphonies on all these discs, thus provide some aural breathing space for
listeners as well as being finely wrought pleasantries in their own right.
Symphonies Nos. 6, 7 and 8
are among the most virtuosic that Haydn ever wrote, containing a wealth of solo
passages for violin, cello, double bass, bassoon, flute and horn. They were
intended to impress Haydn’s then-new employer, Prince Paul Anton Esterházy, and likely also to engage the
appreciation of the orchestra members, with many of whom Haydn was on friendly
terms. There is a sense of camaraderie in these symphonies that stands out time
and time again and that seems particularly well-suited to the approach of the
Handel and Haydn Society players. The symphonies have a bit of tone painting –
a sunrise here, some birdsong there, a storm elsewhere – but they are not
really any sort of program music in the way that, say, Beethoven’s Symphony No.
6 would later be. Instead, they show Haydn shaping the form of the symphony
itself, determining what to carry over from earlier times and what to introduce
that is new, how to balance groups of instruments against each other, when to
allow solo passages to stand out, and so forth. The Handel and Haydn Society
treats them as essentially expanded, virtuosic chamber music, a stance that
fits the music very well indeed.
More than 20 years later,
Haydn had fully solidified symphonic structure in essentially the form in which
composers still use it today. The first three “Paris” symphonies show this
quite clearly: there is a sureness to the themes and their development, a
careful arrangement of keys, strikingly clear modulation from one to another,
and orchestral balance that seems so right and natural that it is hard to
believe it scarcely existed a few decades earlier. The subtitles of Symphonies
Nos. 82 and 83 are not by Haydn – he did assign those of Nos. 6, 7 and 8 – but
it is musically clear why those subtitles were thought up in the 19th
century. It is also clear that Haydn was not consciously imitating a bear, a
hen or anything else in these expanded, beautifully formed and often wryly,
wittily amusing works of pure music. Christophers and his players present the symphonies
with strength, clarity, rhythmic certainty, and exemplary sectional balance, so
the music flows with a sense of inevitability that makes Haydn’s occasional,
characteristic veering in unexpected directions that much more attractive. All
the performances on these CDs are ones of great style, wonderfully informed
historic authenticity, and enjoyment of the music, a totality of approach that
renders these works, even the best-known among them, fresh, new, and thoroughly
engaging.
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