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In Reply to: RE: Old Listener posted by jult52 on April 03, 2010 at 06:43:53
Some exceptional Haydn:
Mackerras / orchestra of St. Luke's - My favorite 31. 100,101, 103, 104 are very good too. These Telarc recordings are often available cheap at Berkshire Record Outlet online.
Derek Solomons / L'Estro Armonico a small period instrument group
Best Symphony No. 48 I've heard. period instruments, high horns, manic mood. Maybe the best haydn of all.
Symphony 39, 45, 59. Also my favorites.
This group recorded 11 volumes of Haydn. Maybe 40% made it to CDs. I have all of their Haydn and find it all very worthwhile.
Single CDs with 45 and 48 and 39,45 and 59 are sometimes available cheap at Berkshire Record Outlet.
David Blum / Esterhazy Orchestra - Their 81 is the best I've, heard. 39 is different from the Solomons performance but just as good. 73 and 75 are very good too. Modern instruments with lots of energy.
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra - 80 and 81 are as good as any. Their very solid lower string sound fits these symphonies and 77-79. The only dud among their Haydn recordings is 102. 22 has English horns and the Orpheus recording is a good way to get this unusual Haydn symphony.
Fischer / Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra - best 76-78 I've heard. The Brilliant Box is a fine way to acquire a complete set of Haydn symphonies so that you can explore the less recorded ones. 1-81 are generally competitive with alternatives. 82-104 are bland and not competitive. The over reverberant Nimbus sound didn't help.
Jane Glover / London Mozart Players - 80,87,89, 83,84, 88 - Glover seemed to have just the right sensibility for Haydn at this time. The recorded sound is not ideal but the performances are well worthwhile.
Bernstein / NYPO - best 82. 83-87 are quite competitive too.
Brueggen / Orchestra of the 18th Century - best 86 for style and the humor of the last movement. This is the performance on a single CD with 88 (sometimes available cheap as Berkshire Record Outlet.) The 86 in the set is good but not as witty. As a set of the Paris Symphonies, Brueggen is as good as any. The London Symphonies are mostly quite good. The Sturm n' Drang symphonies are worthwhile but rarely my top favorites. Just buy the big Box with lots of Brueggen's Haydn recordings.
Hans-Peter Frank / Heilsingsborg Symphony Orchestra - best 88-90 I've heard. I searched for this Big Ben CD for 10+ years.
Rattle / BPO - 90 is as good as Frank. 88-92 in this set are all very good. Every now and then you hear an exaggeration but the effort is not as annoying as Harnoncourt sometimes is.
Szell Sym 92, 93-98, 99 - Ideal Haydn to me. Szell had the sense of style to make 92,93 and 94 sound elegant, witty and even raucously humorous as the music required. The latest remastering of 93-99 (post essential Classics) seems to make the performances more enjoyable, especially 95 and 98 that were not my favorites previously. The 2 CD set of 97-99 had a different performance of 97 and my favorite 99.
Jochum / LPO - 93/1 dances as no other recorded performance I've heard does. Odd sound. The rest of the London Symphonies set is worthwhile too.
Jochum - Staatskapelle Dresden - best 98 I've heard. very meaty and dark in mood where it should be.
Reiner / Chicago - best 95. it seems lighter and more graceful in mood than most 95s.
Abbado / Chamber Orchestra 0f Europe - best 96 I've heard (along with Szell) and the best Sinfonia Concertante by far.
Klemperer - Philharmonica - Best 100 and 102. The 2nd movement of 100 sounds so much like an English slow march that I can see the soldiers in dress uniforms marching as I listen. Good 95 too. The 2 CD EMI set should be near the top of your list.
Markevich - a very energetic, meaty performance of 103. The opening growls better than most. Dry recording works well for this performance.
Kuijken / la Petite Bande - surprisingly, the best 104 and a good 103. All the other Haydn by this group I've heard is sadly undernourished. i don't regret many CD purchases but with the exception of 103 and 104, they were a waste of time and money.
Goodman / Hanover Band - the Windsor castle Overture is a fine 4 minutes of late Haydn. 101 and 102 on the same CD are very competitive with other recordings too.
Some symphonies like 101 seem blessed by lots of very fine performances. Mackerras, Monteux, Goodman and Abbado are all very good.
The morning, noon and night symphonies (6-8) have plenty of fine performances. Chmurra / National Arts Center Orchestra (Canada) is my favorite but Adam Fischer, Mullejans, Ristenpart and Ward are also quite enjoyable.
Some symphonies like 99 seem to elude the conductor and orchestra. I can enjoy lots recordings but always feel that none capture some part of the ideal that is in my head.
I realize that I didn't give you a compact shopping list. Sorry. You asked about exceptional performances and that is often a messy question to answer. If you like, I could boil things down and suggest a short list to start on.
Thanks for asking for my opinion. I'm happy to talk about Haydn recordings. Among the 104 symphonies in the regular numbering sequence, about 55 are now in the set of music I regularly listen to. I add a couple of Haydn symphonies to that set every year now.
Bill
Follow Ups:
Agreed. Love that tiny orchestra, L'estro Armonico.
Here's what I have, all on LP.
Vol. 1 & 2 on Saga - 1, 37, 18, 2, 15, 4, 10, 2, 32, 5, 11, 33, 27, "A", 3
The Sony Digital LP volumes:
No volume# - 35, 38, 39, 49, 58, 59
Vol. 8 thru 11 - 26, 41, 43, 44, 48, 52, 42, 45, 46, 47, 51, 65, 50, 54, 55, 56, 57, 64, 60, 63, 66, 67, 68, 69
What am I missing? Were there more than this? I've never seen any others.
Thanks for your post and your help.
"If people don't want to come, nothing will stop them" - Sol Hurok
My memory about the number of volumes I have was wrong. I have everything on computer files so I had to go dig out the physical CDs to check the volumes.
I have the 2 Saga sets and Vol. 7-11. (Vol. 7 is the same as your unnumbered set.
Sorry to create false hopes.
> Love that tiny orchestra, L'estro Armonico.
Yes. Their period instrument sound fits the Sturm und Drang symphonies. They capture the strong feelings and nervous energy in that music better than most.
I regret that they didn't record more and last longer.
Bill
My hopes have been dashed, again.
I must just enjoy what I have, which would go for life in general.
"If people don't want to come, nothing will stop them" - Sol Hurok
This is a very useful list and I will store it away. Among my favorites are Klemperer's performance of 98, Bruggen doing 103 (sensational slow movement) and I'll name one conductor you haven't listed, Hartmut Haenchen, doing 49 (La Passione) on a Berlin Classics disc that also contains an attractive overture to an opera named the "Abandoned Island." Like you, I also admire Szell - I have him doing 92, 94 & 96 all very well.
I am much more positive about Kuijken. I think he brings a sensuousness and interest in color to the scores and am particularly fond of his rendition of 86. On the other hand I am much more negative about the Orpheus Ensemble - I simply gave away their disc of 53/73/79 - an ensemble which always reminds me just how important a role the conductor plays.
Thanks for the other tips and expert commentary.
Thanks for the information. I found a 5 CD set by Haenchen of Haydn 'name' symphonies on Amazon and listened to almost all the samples. Good sound, good recording with a perspective a bit more distant than I prefer, good orchestra balance. I didn't hear much "Passione" in 49 though. I think your tastes in Haydn might be rather different than mine.
> I am much more positive about Kuijken.
> On the other hand I am much more negative about the Orpheus Ensemble
Nothing wrong with a difference in taste and performance values.
I kept the Kuijken CDs with less recorded Haydn symphonies but sold the Paris Symphonies CDs. I kept all the Orpheus CDs. Sounds as if we could swap CDs we don't want. (g)
FYI, Berkshire Record Outlet has this CD for $ 4.99
---
Haydn, Symphonies 39, 45 ['Farewell'] & 59 ['Fire']. (L'Estro Armonico/ Derek Solomons.)
---
I recommend it if you like vivid period instrument performances. The strong feelings and nervous energy of these symphonies are brought out very well.
Good hunting on finding more Haydn.
Bill
as you recommended. I will report back after I've listened to it.
About the Haenchen 49, I think it is an expressive, well-recorded performance. The Sturm und Drang works don't have to be played with violent emotion for me.
We haven't listed dog recordings - prob the worst Haydn symphony recording I own is of Bruno Weil & Tafelmusic 88-90. Good technically, but reduces Haydn to fast-paced background music.
> We haven't listed dog recording
I try not to spend too much time on such thoughts. It isn't fun to re-listen to dogs to be sure your memories are correct.
> I will report back after I've listened to it.
> ...
> The Sturm und Drang works don't have to be played with violent emotion
> for me.
Given the clear differences in taste, I'll be interested in hearing your reaction.
> prob the worst Haydn symphony recording I own is of Bruno Weil &
> Tafelmusic 88-90.
So what's your favorite for each of 88, 89, 90?
> (Weil) Good technically, but reduces Haydn to fast-paced background
> music.
You aren't the first person to say that about the Weil / Tafelmusic Haydn recordings.
I rather like Weil / Tafelmusic for Sym. 41-43 where the pickings are even slimmer.
---
A conversation like this encourages me to do some comparative listening. When you asked about extraordinary Haydn, I listened to several recordings including the Markevich 103. After you named Brueggen 103 as a favorite, I listened to that recording and the Mackerras 103. Then I listened to Kuijken 90. I kept checking my watch - a bad sign.
Now I'm listening to Weil / 90 in response to your mention as a dog. I quite like the sound and performance in the trio section of 90/3. Lots of C major energy and drive in 90/4 but not much joy or humor. Not a favorite but not the worst I've heard.
Bill
no recommendations as I don't know many versions. I will say that #88, oddly enough, is one of my least favorite Haydn works.
I just acquired an absolutely outstanding Mozart concerto rec, by the way. A young Andras Schiff doing #17 & #18 on MHS with Sandor Vegh conducting his Salzburg orchestra. Sparkling, exremely musical, Vegh really brings out the contrapuntal interplay that I think is so important to Mozart. Sonics are iffy (boomy bass, astringent string treble) but this is a recording you'll want to hear regardless if you haven't already.
> A young Andras Schiff doing #17 & #18 on MHS with Sandor Vegh
I agree with your recommendation. I've had that recording for years. I just got their recording of # 22 & 23 as a used CD. Vegh was a gold standard Mozart conductor.
There are lots of fine performances of 17. I recently listened to Bilson / Gardiner and continue to value that performance highly. Peter Serkin / Schneider is another long term favorite. So many other great ones too.
> I will say that #88, oddly enough, is one of my least favorite Haydn works.
Well, there are lots of recordings of 88. You often get a performance of 88 when you acquire a less often recorded piece of music. I wound up with 15 performances that I kept. The only complete dud (long sold) was a Furtwangler on DG coupled with a Schubert 9 which was also a dud.
I'm listening to Jochum / BPO right now and loving it. I also like Brueggen, Frank, Glover, Rattle / BPO, Reiner, Scherchen, Szell and Walter.
Bill
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