Haydn | Richibi's Weblog

April 2, 2018

Cello Concerto no 1 in C major – Joseph Haydn

________

it isn’t easy for me to leave Bach behind
whenever I start listening to him, I could
ride his musical train forever

but the middle of the 18th Century did, put
him aside, for about a hundred years, until
Mendelssohn rediscovered him

Bach’s Cello Suites were themselves only
reinstated in the 1930s by Pablo Casals,
the Classical 18th Century had considered
Bach too fussy, his pieces, they thought,
were technical exercises rather than
actual entertainments, form was
overtaking, for them, function

there’s a wonderful book about all this,
“The Cello Suites“, written by Eric Siblin,
a Canadian journalist, which is not only
amazingly informed and probing, but also
beautifully written, it holds a place of
honour on my bookshelf, along with other
inspired, and inspiring, texts

not only was Bach set asunder, dismissed,
during the Classical Era, but all of the
formative music also he had written, for
cello, violin, keyboard, in other words,
the entire curriculum

which, since Bach’s reinstatement, has
become, paradoxically, the very
foundation for learning these instruments

imagine playing a tune with the right
hand, then a few notes later, picking
it up in the left hand while the right
hand keeps on going, imagine what
that does to your fingers, never mind
to your mind, that’s what his Two-Part
Inventions are all about, fifteen of
them, eight in major keys, seven in
minor, consider the technical
difficulties, intricacies, imposed
both compositionally and upon
the harried performer

then Bach follows through with his
Three-Part Inventions to top it all
off, for the keyboard at least, and
only for the moment – there’ll still
be his transcendental “Goldberg
Variations” among other
incandescent masterpieces –
wherein one juggles three tunes at
a time, and all of them in the same
assortment of fifteen contrasting,
foundational, keys, the “Inventions“
– if you can do that, you’re on your
way, one would think, to knowing
entirely what you’re doing

but time marches on, the Classical
Era hits, Haydn takes over, not
unimpressively

the same thing happened in my
generation to Frank Sinatra via
the Beatles, not to mention, a little
later, to either, with Pink Floyd

listen to Haydn’s First Cello Concerto,
note the bravura inherent in the
composition, this is not Bach’s
meditative music, the very Romantic
Period is, through Classical reserve,
expressing already its imminence,
individual prowess is taking over
from community, which is to say
religious, affiliation, the same way
the Renaissance artists, Duccio,
Giotto, Fra Angelico, Filippo Lippi,
Uccello had stood out, incidentally,
from their brethren in the standard
communal art schools dedicated to
decorating the ever burgeoning
churches sprouting out in the still
fervent European environment

musical, though unaristocratic,
talents, this time, were beginning,
within a German context, to flex
their decidedly not unimpressive
muscles, and gaining some
significant purchase

and who wouldn’t when a Cello
Concerto would’ve sounded like
this, listen

R ! chard

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March 17, 2018

English Suite No 3 in G Minor – Bach

“Suite Fibonacci“ (2003)

Charles Bezie

________

before I say much more about his Cello
Suites, let me point out that Bach has
some French Suites, some English
Suites, on top of similarly structured
Partitas and Toccatas, the French have
their tout de suites, and hotels have,
nowadays, their so named luxury
apartments

musical suites are sets of dance pieces,
by the early 18th Century much stylized,
with an introductory prélude, an allemande,
followed by a courante, which is to say, folk
dances, the first German, the next French,
then a sarabande, Spanish, followed by a
couple of galanteries, court dances,
minuets, gavottes, bourrées, then a final
English gigue

all of the markings are in French, which
leads me to believe that all of these
dances must’ve originated at the court
of Louis XlVth, the Sun King, 1638 to
1715

but the suggestion is that Europe was
becoming an integrated community
all of these dances were eclipsed by
the Classical Period, of Haydn and
Mozart, apart from the minuet, which
more or less defined, nevertheless,
that new era

the minuet will die out by the time of
Beethoven, you’ll note, to be replaced
by the waltz, which had been
considered much too racy until
transformed by Chopin into a work
of ethereal art

the Strausses, father and son, gave it,
only a little later, celebratory potency,
but that’s another story

here’s Bach’s English Suite, the 3rd,
for context, the French ones are a
little too salty, as it were, they do not
quite conform to prescribed suite
notions, however might their
propositions have been, ahem,
sweet

meanwhile, enjoy this one

R ! chard

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March 14, 2018

what’s up in Pyeongchang / Bach

“The Cello Player“ (1896)

Thomas Eakins

________

though I’d considered presenting all six
of Bach’s Cello Suites – your one stop
shopping for these extraordinary
compositions – even one only of these
masterpieces floored me each time I
individually listened

why the Suites, cause I couldn’t follow
up on Beethoven’s Opus 5, for cello
and piano accompaniment, without
saying more about the cello, by then
an instrument of some significance,
and who could argue, it’s resonance
thrills you in your bones, in your very
being

Frederick ll, King of Prussia, played it,
earning for him tailored compositions,
however controversial, from both
Mozart and Haydn, but even earlier,
Bach had composed definitive pieces
for it, much as he’d done for the
harpsichord, precursor to the piano,
students of either still go to Bach for
their basics, their intricate, exquisite,
technical proficiency

the cello can play one note only at a
time, which means that, like a voice,
you’re working without harmony,
you need to make your own,
otherwise your performance is
boring, no one else, as far as I know,
has ever written anything else for
unaccompanied cello, not even
Beethoven

I find most performers lend Bach a
more Romantic air, torrid emotion,
excesses of volume, pauses to the
pace, ritardandos, rallentandos,
which aren’t appropriate to the
more genteel Baroque period,
something I usually find
unwelcome

but in this performance, I’m sure
not even Bach would object

I’m offering up first the Sixth Cello
Suite, D major, played by Jian Wang,
someone I’d never heard of, in a
dazzling performance in Pyeongchang,
a place I’d neither ever heard of, until
only very recently

it appears both of these new kids on
the block ought to be on the map

R ! chard

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March 8, 2018

what’s up in Düsseldorf / Beethoven

the “Altstadt“, Düsseldorf, Germany

______

from Düsseldorf, a city I’ve called
Düsseldon’t, Düsseldreary,
Düsselneverbother, comes a
performance there to change, utterly,
my mind about it, though I’d always
known that every European city has
its extraordinary wonders, count ’em

watch this, for instance, one of those

Beethoven didn’t write string quartets
until he was ready, following in the
footsteps of Haydn wouldn’t’ve been
easy, but Beethoven wasn’t wasting
his time in the meanwhile, or,
alternately, his while in the meantime
– while you consider that, listen

in his Opus 5, no 1, the first to leave
me with much of an impression, as
I began to explore Beethoven
chronologically, the first four
opuses – a word I deplore, but its
equivalent plural, opera, seems
to me so pretentious – seemed,
indeed again, to me long, tedious
and academic, a student delivering
exercises

then the Opus 5, no 1 hit, and blew
me right out of the water, he verily,
Beethoven, thrust the metre right
out of the ballpark, propelled the
music – who ‘ld ‘a’ ever thunk it –
right off the page

marvel, I urge

there was also a restaurant in
Düsselwhatever I really loved,
it served an improbable
assortment of schnitzels, the
Altstadt

we embraced, the staff and I,
when I had to eventually, and
finally, leave, to go back home,
to Canada, I’ll always remember,
never ever forget, their grace

R ! chard

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March 6, 2018

String Quartet in F major, opus 77, no 2 – Joseph Haydn

“Masked Harlequin Violinists“ (1944)

Ossip Zadkine

________

the Opus 77, no 2, of Haydn is the last
full string quartet of his, his very last
remaining unfinished, the Opus 103,
written in 1803

Haydn died in 1809, the Opus 77, no 2
was composed in 1799, he would’ve
been 67

but by then, he had established the
form that music would take for the
next over two hundred years

call, response, and recapitulation is
the house that Haydn built, and verily
cemented, you can hear it in our own
period’s “Love Me Tender“, for
instance, if you’ll also permit me here
its irresistible elaboration, to today’s
top hits, like my own most recent
favourite such contemporary iteration,
released in 2014, “Photograph“

we could be listening otherwise to
Bach right now, counterpoint,
fugues, intricate, linear music,
however powerfully transcendental,
instead of recurring music, call,
response, as I said, and
recapitulation, something like how
a clock works

but already Haydn is testing the
waters, in the Opus 77, no 2, the
andante, a step up from an adagio,
is in third place, something we
haven’t heard before, and not, to
my mind, especially effective, like
his mixture of tempos in the Opus
54, no 2, which was disconcerting,
however masterfully resolved we
find those to be in this very Opus
77, no 2, notably in the second
movement’s “Minuet, Presto – Trio”,
where the tempo change is nearly
imperceptible

art works on contravention, but
the affronts are to established
conventions, which are very
hard to overturn

watch Haydn here continue to
do just that, for better or for
worse

R ! chard

psst: listen to Bach here, incidentally,
  put his largo, or slow movement,
right where he wants to, at the
  very top of the bill, does it work,
  you tell me, a trivial pursuit,
  you’ll ask, I say not, you are
  defining your own aesthetic
  sensibility, something
  profoundly, I think, important,
who it is, with perspective, you
want to be

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March 4, 2018

String Quartet, opus 77, no 1 – Joseph Haydn

“The Red Cape (Madame Monet)“ (c.1870)

Claude Monet

_______

for my mom

that’s a lot of Haydn, I said to my mom,
when I saw the list of my transmittals in
her hotmail, hm, I wondered, maybe it’s
too much

then I said, but it’s like when we’ve
toured, for instance, our European
art galleries, me propounding on
the paintings, as I am wont, however
incorrigibly, to do, but now, note, you
can tell the difference between your
Monets and your Klimts, however
similar their perspectives

or like your tour guide taking you
recently through Argentina,
highlighting spots, in the space of
a month only, the same amount of
time I’ve spent for the music of
Haydn

pronounced, incidentally, I specified,
like “hidin'” in English, not “maiden”,
just sayin’

I gathered that she’d ‘ve sensed by
now, if she’d been listening, which she
said she had, mornings over her
coffee, what a string quartet is, four
movements, different tempos, fast
at first, a joyful introduction,
followed by a lament, then a spirited
third movement, for countereffect,
then a big fourth movement finish

also, the internal structure of each
movement would’ve been internalized,
a theme, a counter theme, a
recapitulation of both, or either, all of
it, probably unconsciously, which is
how art fundamentally works till you
meticulously deconstruct it

the string quartet is the work of Haydn,
the house that Haydn built, from
peripheral aristocratic entertainment,
like modern day artists sporting their
wares in noisy restaurants, to the
glamour of taking on, in concert halls,
Europe, Brunelleschi did a similar,
sleight-of-hand thing with his dome
in Florence for its oracular Cathedral

remember that the string quartet lives
on as a form, where no longer does
the minuet, for instance, nor the
polonaise, nor even the waltz, not to
mention that concertos, and
symphonies have become now
significantly subservient to movies,
secondary players

watch the instrumentalists here live
out, in Haydn’s Opus 77, no 1, their
appropriately Romantic ardour,
something not at all promoted in
Haydn’s earlier Esterházy phase, to
raise their bow in triumph, as they
do at the end of most movements
is already an indication, not at all
appropriate for the earlier princely
salons, that times have changed

Haydn was a prophet, but also an
elder, with an instrument to connect
the oncoming, and turbulent, century
to the impregnable bond of his
period’s systems, the legitimacy of
the autocratic, clockwork, world,
Classicism, the Age of Reason, the
Enlightenment, for better or for
worse

we are left with its, however ever
ebullient, consequences

enjoy

R ! chard

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March 2, 2018

String Quartet in C major, opus 76, no 3, “Emperor” – Joseph Haydn

“Francis II as Holy Roman Emperor“ (1874)

Ludwig Streitenfeld

_____________

Haydn’s String Quartet, opus 76, no 3,
is nicknamed the “Emperor“ cause the
second movement, the poco adagio;
cantabile, is a recapitulation of an
anthem Haydn had earlier written for
Francis ll, the Holy Roman Emperor
– not, incidentally, for Napoleon, the
Emperor of the moment, who was to
defeat Francis ll, eventually, at the
Battle of Austerlitz, December 2, 1805,
thereby dissolving that Holy Roman
Empire, which had been established
by Leo, the very Pope, lll when, on
December 25th, 800, which is to say
preceding Austerlitz by a thousand
years, he crowned Charlemagne its
Emperor

Haydn must’ve been a monarchist

you’ll recognize that second movement
as the present day anthem of Germany

but listen to how Haydn makes it glisten,
explicitly, with articulations and filigree
that render it utterly irresistible

the adagio is usually the moment that
remains immutable, if the composer
is doing hir stuff, it’s the one you walk
home singing, the faster movements,
however histrionic, are nearly a dime
a dozen, though ever nevertheless
often dazzling

this adagio is utterly Romantic, though
I’m sure Haydn didn’t know what he
was doing, cause despite their push
against the democratic surge, even
monarchists, princes, dukes, dutiful
composers, were finding, and voicing,
their personal, and individual, which
is to say, their democratic, opinions,
however aristocratic their pedigree

artists had done a similar thing when
their personalities began to single
themselves out as especially gifted
when the Renaissance was
happening, it was now music’s hour,
individual voices were staking their
claim, Haydn’s manifestly superior
based on talent and, after widespread
economic affluence, audience appeal,
Haydn’s commercial boots were made
for walking, and he filled them both
magnificently and incontrovertibly

the poco adagio; cantabile is not
courtly music, it reaches for not
merely elegance, but the heart,
we’ve entered another
transformational generation,
something like the revolution
that triggered change in the
cultural upheaval of the1960s

our first step then was the Beatles,
theirs was Haydn, or rather Elvis
Presley shoring up the Beatles,
Beethoven was more aptly John,
Paul, George and Ringo

but watch the rapture on the players’
faces, Francis ll would’ve been
appalled, much like parents in my
generation facing the pill, drugs,
unorthodox sexual couplings, and,
of course, raucous and unruly rock
music

today, under the spell of the
Romantic Period, and encouraged
by that very Sexual Revolution, the
Calidore String Quartet’s Elysium,
their evident bliss, emotionally
manifest, and utterly arresting, sells
tickets, for better or, hopefully not,
for worse

but you call the shots, to decorum or
not to decorum, that is the question

watch, wonder, listen

R ! chard

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February 28, 2018

String Quartet opus 74, no 1, in C major – Joseph Haydn

“Minuet in Villa“ (c.1791)

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo

_____________

for my father

the Opus 74, along with the Opus 71, were
written as a unit, to deliver to the English
public for presentation, if the opus numbers
differ, it’s probably to do with publication
dates, the 74‘s being later than the earlier,
but they fit the bill together, batches of six
string quartets for Haydn’s opuses up until
now being the standard, each opus here
comprising only half the normal number,
just three

Haydn’s sponsor, Prince Nicholas Esterházy,
had died, leaving his son, Anton, to preside,
but being tone deaf, the descendant fired
the orchestra, however until then illustrious
the fact that these works were no longer,
therefore, court pieces but intended for
larger, paying, audiences, changed the
dynamics, Haydn is not only peripheral
music at an aristocratic court any longer,
he’s the host, and you can hear it

fermatas, where the note, or the pause,
are accentuated, deliver drama, so does
volume, and sudden tempo changes

therefore the Romantic Period

but, interestingly, the Classical
foundation remains, the established
structure – a musical statement, an
elaboration, a second musical,
related, statement, in usually a
complementary key, it’s own
elaboration, then a recapitulation
of either, or both

the minuet, incidentally, stalwart
still, holding on to the very end of
the 18th Century, still applies, a
sure enough, though residual
sign of the earlier Classical
supremacy, even as that era was
inexorably disintegrating

music is an entertainment, it
inspires, however so incidentally,
though it ever, perhaps even
intentionally, makes you often,
indeed, cry, it’s needed, even in
the direst circumstances, for
courage, however ironically,
however contrapuntally, in any
particular moment, it might even
seem cynical so to arouse spirit,
inspiration, I mean the French had
just turned the world upside down,
and here was sparkling creativity

Haydn was doing his stuff, keeping
us musically integrated, speaking
music instead of politics, turning a
bad situation into pearls, keeping
the world going, the very stuff of
oracles

listen

R ! chard

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February 26, 2018

String Quartet opus 71, no 2, in D major – Joseph Haydn

“Old London Bridge“

J.M.W. Turner

________

in the spirit of juxtaposing two items of the
same genus but growing from different
trees, let me put together for comparison
two versions of Haydn’s delightful Opus 71,
no 2, in D major, one by a quartet of ladies
from “South Korea”, the other a same
number of males from the “UK”, as
indicated in either case on their videos

their Trondheim Chamber Music Festival
Competition was held last year, 2017,
it’s irrelevant who won on this particular
challenge, both are brilliant, so I’ll leave
it up to you, the girls, the Esmé Quartet,
the boys, the Maxwell – I think it might
even come down to your sexual
inclination, though both, as the host of
the musical “Cabaret” would say, “are
beautiful, life is beautiful, even the
orchestra is beautiful“, indeed

the Apponyi Quartets, requested and paid
for by Count Anton Georg Apponyi, after
Haydn’s sponsor, Prince Nicholas Esterházy,
had died and left his son, Prince Anton, with
Haydn on his hands, whose orchestra he
forthwith disbanded, being no aficionado of
music, Haydn was left to peddle his wares
in London, England, where he became an
undisputed success, not surprisingly, I
would think, after their having to handle the
dour and, if you’ll forgive me, unimaginative,
and uninspired Handel

the Esmé, I found, was sharp, acerbic,
succinct in their first movement, but
the Maxwell took over in their melting,
verily discombobulating adagio, a
sensuality that seemed to evade the
women’s more electric, crackling
performance

the girls caught up, however, in the
final “allegretto”, where they killed it

like I said, it’s a toss-up, you choose

R ! chard

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February 24, 2018

Mozart / Haydn in 1790

“Prussian Homage“ (1796)

Marcello Bacciarelli

____________

it’s 1790, a year after the French Revolution,
and both Mozart and Haydn are peddling
their wares, Mozart to the King of Prussia,
Friedrich Wilhelm ll, who’d commissioned
some string quartets, as well as piano
works for his daughter, but wasn’t paying
Mozart off for them, where Haydn with the
help of Johann Tost, was hustling his stuff
in very, of all places, Paris

Haydn’s, incidentally, own Prussian Quartets,
dedicated to the same King of Prussia, were
sold to two different publishers, one in
Vienna, the other in England, commercial
transactions left essentially, for all it might
matter to us, for lawyers, and potentates, I
expect, eventually to have resolved

it is my habit to juxtapose two things always
to be able to see each more critically,
determining my favourite sharpens my
aesthetic pencil, one looks more closely at
what distinguishes one work from the other

therefore Mozart’s String Quartet no 22 in
B flat major, KV 589, up against Haydn’s
no 53 in D major, opus 64, no 5, “The Lark”,
both written in the same year

it’s like comparing apples with oranges,
different fruit from the same nevertheless
genus, my favourite being lichee, so go
figure

it’ll be up to you to find your especially
preferred nutrient

I‘ll just point out a few differences that
immediately set apart these, however
similar, masterpieces for me, Mozart
remains utterly Classical, relying on
the established, by now, conditions of
the string quartet, an entertainment for
nobility, nothing at all controversial,
where Haydn with his soaring notes
for the first violin, followed by
arabesques that define a personal
agony, introduces drama into the
equation, a music that speaks of
sentiment, is pointing already towards
the future, though I suspect he could
never have imagined where, in the
very next generation, Beethoven
would take it

to look back, to look forward, that is
the question, it’s not always an easy
one

but this is where art speaks to us,
reminding us of our tendencies,
defining, truly, eventually, who we
veritably are, according to our
individual choices, preferences,
for better or for worse, rendering
the world an ever effulgent garden
rather than a dour mausoleum

R ! chard

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Richibi’s Weblog

Category: Haydn

April 2, 2018

Cello Concerto no 1 in C major – Joseph Haydn

March 17, 2018

English Suite No 3 in G Minor – Bach

March 14, 2018

what’s up in Pyeongchang / Bach

March 8, 2018

what’s up in Düsseldorf / Beethoven

March 6, 2018

String Quartet in F major, opus 77, no 2 – Joseph Haydn

March 4, 2018

String Quartet, opus 77, no 1 – Joseph Haydn

March 2, 2018

String Quartet in C major, opus 76, no 3, “Emperor” – Joseph Haydn

February 28, 2018

String Quartet opus 74, no 1, in C major – Joseph Haydn

February 26, 2018

String Quartet opus 71, no 2, in D major – Joseph Haydn

February 24, 2018

Mozart / Haydn in 1790