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1 CD -
2292-46331-2 - (p) 1990
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| Franz Joseph
Haydn (1732-1809) |
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| Symphonie Nr. 98 B-dur, Hob.
I/98 "4. Londoner" |
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28' 12" |
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| - Adagio - Allegro |
8' 11" |
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1
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- Adagio
cantabile
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6' 55" |
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2
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- Menuetto - Trio
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4' 33" |
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3
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| - Finale: Presto |
8' 33" |
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4
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| Symphonie
Nr. 99 Es-dur, Hob. I/99 "10. Londoner"
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27' 43" |
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- Adagio - Vivace assai
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8' 49" |
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5
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| - Adagio |
9' 59" |
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6
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| - Menuet: Allegretto - Trio |
4' 34" |
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7
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- Finale : Vivace
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4' 21" |
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8
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| ROYAL CONCERTGEBOUW
ORCHESTRA AMSTERDAM |
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| Nikolaus
Harnoncourt, Dirigent |
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Luogo
e data di registrazione
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| Concertgebouw,
Amsterdam (Olanda) - febbraio 1990 |
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Registrazione
live / studio
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| studio |
Producer
/ Engineer
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Wolfgang
Mohr / Helmut A. Mühle / Michael Brammann
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Prima Edizione CD
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| Teldec
- 2292-46331-2 - (1 cd) - 56' 12" - (p)
1990 - DDD |
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Prima
Edizione LP
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Notes
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Haydn’s symphony no.
98 is the last but
one of the series of six that he wrote
during his first stay in London
for the concerts put on by Johann
Peter Salomon in the Hanover Square
Rooms. (Symphonies nos. 93-98 no. 97
was composed and performed shortly
after no. 98.) The first performance,
directed from the
fortepiano by Haydn himself, was given
on 2nd March 1792,
and, like almost all the composer's
appearances during both his visits to
London, was a great success. On this
occasion, Haydn noted in his diary
that the first and fourth movements
had to be encored. The orchestra
engaged for the Salomon concerts was a
big one (as we know from an anonymous
account in The “Berlinische
rnusikalische Zeitung” in 1794),
albeit nowhere near as large as the ad
hoc orchestras that Haydn used to
introduce his London symphonies in Vienna.
"The best orchestra in London
is the one put together
by the
entrepreneur Salomon and thus known as
the Salomon Orchestra. It
consists of 12 to 16 violins, 4
violas, 5 violoncelli, 4
double-bass, flutes, oboes, bassoons,
horns, trumpets and Timpani - some forty
musicians in all... In
each concert, two or sometimes even
three Haydn symphonies are played.
Madame Mara sings two arias, Signor
Bruni likewise... and Viotti or
Salomon plays a violin concerto. In
addition, a concerto on the
hautbois, the
flute, the harp or the
violoncello, a concerto grosso or a
quartet is usually played as well. The
whole concert is divided into two
parts, beginning at 8 in the
evening and lasting until 11 or 11.30."
As is evident from this account, the
audience was offered a fair evening's
entertainment for its money, but the
works of Haydn - symphonies and string
quartets - always formed the main
attraction, and these concerts made
him conclusively the greatest and most
celebrated composer of
the age.
The SYMPHONY IN B FLAT opens (like all
the London symphonies
apart from no. 95) with a slow
introduction which acts as a prelude
to the work's basic key, and leads up
here thematically as
well to the allegro
that follows; a solemn, serious motif
like a signal in character. Instead
of a second subject, we are offered a
variant of the theme in F major; not
until the very end of the exposition
does a chromatic oboe motif provide a
thematic contrast. As a consequence of
this exposition, the development
section is entirely dominated by the
elements of the main subject and by
contrapuntal techniques,
and the reprise
starts to go its own way, close to the
development again, after only twenty
bars: in the process, the oboe motif
from the end of the exposition is
expanded in greater detail.
The ambivalent mood of the first
movement, which wavers between
contrapuntal gravity and orchestral
baisterousness, is taken up and
reinforced in the F major adagio The
theme, which is oddly reminiscent of
“God save the King” at the beginning,
undergoes an almost complete change of
character when it returns, as a result
of darker chromaticisms and
counter-parts. The ambivalent mood is
then maintained in the minuet,
too, in surprising harmonic turns of
phrase and contrapuntal, chromatic
counter-parts which modify the
dance-like mood that is really quite
close to falk music at
the outset. We have to wait till the
finale for the tension to be resolved
by the dance-like 5/8
time and the dance and signal motifs
that are played out quite drastically
at the beginning; the soloistic,
concertante treatment of the woodwind
also plays a role. Haydn leaves us
with two little jokes: the development
section begins in the unexpected key
of A tial major with a parodistic,
leisurely violin solo (for Salomon),
while a little fortepiano solo is
built into the coda, and
this was played at the first
performance - to the astonishment and
doubtless the delight of the audience
- by Haydn himself.
The SYMPHONY IN E FLAT is the first at
the set of six written by Haydn for
his second visit to England, and the
only one not to be composed in London,
but in Vienna or Eisenstadt prior to
Haydn's departure. (Beethoven, who was
Haydn's pupil at the time,
copied out a contrapuntal passage from
the finale for himself.) Symphony no.
99 was given its first performance in
the opening concert of the 1794 season
- on 10th February, once again in the
Hanover Square Rooms. In
addition to the Haydn symphony, the
programme also featured a symphony by
Rosetti, a new piano concerto by Jan
Ladislav Dussek and a new violin
concerto by Viotti. The newspaper “The
Sun” called Haydn's work "a
Composition of the
most exauisite kind, rich, fanciful,
bold and impressive". In
comparison with no. 98, the Symphony
no. 99 seems simpler and more friendly
in disposition; the traditionally
brilliant, festive
character of the key of E tlat is most
in evidence in the opening movement. Here,
the slow introduction does not lead up
thematically to the allegro,
but is a rnotivically
independent opening, full of
tonal and harmonic tension. This
tension is then resolved in a playful
main subject which is soon enriched by
march sounds likewise typical of E
flat major. Right at the end of
the exposition, a second subject is
brought in, which is not a motif as in
no 98, but a fully-developed thematic
period that contrasts with the main
subject. Both the development and the
reprise are evolved from these two
subjects and their contrasts, in dense
and almost constant thematic work.
Considerably more serious than this
vivace is the G major adagio, whose
woodwind writing in particular makes
it one of the great examples of
the late Haydn's talent for
orchestration. The minuet returns to
the basic key and thus to the lighter
mood and the simple form
ot the first movement; only in the
trio does Haydn toy with surprisingly
assymmetrical periodics. The finale
is a sonata rondo, rather than a
sonata movement as such, as in no. 98.
Here the exuberance of the first
movement is intensified into
turbulence typical of the finale in
general; this, at the same
time, is modified by little “jokes” of
instrumentation which bring in the
tonal magic of the
slow movement, and by counterpoint
nothing short of
breathtaking. This latter element has
quite a different function from in the
symphony no. 98.: here, it does not
signal earnest gravity, but extreme
high spirits,; and, once again a
complete contrast to no. 98, such
counterpoint only occurs here in the
finale, and nowhere else in the whole
symphony.
Ludwig
Finscher
Translation: Clive R. Williams
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Nikolaus
Harnoncourt (1929-2016)
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