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1 CD -
2292-46458-2 - (p) 1992
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Franz Joseph
Haydn (1732-1809) |
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Die sieben letzten Worte
unseres Erlösers am Kreuze, Hob. XX/2 |
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62' 41" |
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Vocal
version |
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Introduzione |
5' 29" |
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1
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- No. 1 "Vater,
vergib ihnen" |
7' 38" |
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2
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- No. 2 "Fürwahr,
ich sag' es dir" |
7' 00"
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3
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- No. 3 "Frau,
jier siehe deinen Sohn" |
8' 07" |
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4
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- No. 4 "Mein
Gott, mein Gott" |
6' 28" |
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5
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Introduzione |
4' 04" |
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6
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- No. 5 "Jesus
rufet" |
7' 54" |
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7
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- No. 6 "Es
ist vollbracht" |
7' 08" |
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8
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- No. 7 "Vater,
in deine Hände" |
6' 36" |
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9
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- Terremoto |
1' 50" |
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10
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Inga Nielsen,
Soprano I |
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Renate Burtscher,
Soprano II
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Margareta
Hintermeier, Alto
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Anthony
Rolfe-Johnson, Tenor |
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Robert Holl,
Bass |
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Arnold Schoenberg
Chor / Erwin Ortner, Leitung |
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CONCENTUS MUSICUS
WIEN (mit
Originalinstrumenten)
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Erich Höbarth, Violine |
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Dorothea Guschlbauer, Violoncello |
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Alice Harnoncourt, Violine |
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Eduard Hruza, Violone |
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Anita Mitterer, Violine |
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Andrew Ackerman, Violone |
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Andrea Bischof, Violine |
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Robert Wolf, Flauto traverso |
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Peter Schoberwalter, Violine |
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Silvie Sumereder, Flauto
traverso |
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Helmut Mitter, Violine |
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Omar Zoboli, Oboe |
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Karl Höffinger, Violine |
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Marie Wolf, Oboe |
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Maighread McCrann, Violine |
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Hans R. Stalder, Klarinett |
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Gerold Klaus, Violine |
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Pierre A. Taillard, Klarinett |
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Peter Katt, Violine |
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Milan Turković, Fagott |
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Maria Kubizek, Violine |
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Trudy van der Wilp, Fagott |
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Barbara Klebel, Violine |
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Henk de Witt, Kontrafagott |
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Thomas Fheodoroff, Violine |
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Hector McDonald, Naturhorn |
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Peter Schoberwalter junior, Violine |
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Alois Schlor, Naturhorn |
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Christian Schneck, Violine |
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Ernst Hoffmann, Posaune |
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Kurt Theiner, Viola |
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Josef Ritt, Posaune |
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Johannes Flieder, Viola |
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William Nulty, Naturtrompet |
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Lynn Pascher, Viola |
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Edward Cervenka, Naturtrompet |
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Lila Brown, Viola |
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Michael Vladar, Pauken |
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Herwig Tachezi, Violoncello |
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Nikolaus
Harnoncourt, Leitung |
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Luogo
e data di registrazione
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Casino
Zögernitz, Vienna (Austria) - ottobre 1990 |
Registrazione
live / studio
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studio |
Producer
/ Engineer
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Renate
Kupfer / Wolfgang Mohr / Helmut Mühle /
Michael Brammann / Eberhard
Sengpiel
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Prima Edizione CD
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Teldec
"Das Alte Werk" - 2292-46458-2 - (1 cd)
- 62' 41" - (p) 1992 - DDD |
Prima
Edizione LP
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Notes
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In 1785
Joseph Haydn received a commission
from Cádiz in
Andalusia to write
for Holy Week a form of sacred
orchestral music relating to the
"Seven Last Words of the Saviour”. The
composer agreed and vvrote “Seven
sonatas with an
introduction and a concluding
earthquake" for a large orchestra,
which vvas probably first
performed on Good Friday in 1786
in the subterranean church of Santa
Cueva. Haydn later described hovv the
performance went:
“It was customary at
that time to perform an Oratorio in
the principal church in Cádiz
during Lent, the effect of which must
have been heightened by the following
preparations: the walls, windows and
columns of the church
were covered in black cloth and only a
single lamp in the middle of the
church illumined the holy darkness. At
midday all the doors were closed; the
music then began After a suitable
Introduction, the Bishop ascended the
pulpit, pronounced one of
the Seven Words and delivered a homity
on it. When this was finished he
descended from the pulpit and fell on
his knees before the altar. The
interval was filled
by music The Bishop entered and left
the pulpit for the second and
third and susequent
times and each time the orchestra came
in at the conclusion of his address. My
composition had to fit
in with these arrangements.
The task of
writing seven Adagios, one after the
other, each lasting about ten minutes,
without wearying the listeners, vvas
by no means easy, and I
soon found that I could
not restrict myself to
the required timing.”
A year later Haydn published a version
of the sonatas for string quartet, in
which the words of Jesus were printed
in Latin before each number: “Pater
dimitte illis, quia
nesciunt, quid
faciunt.” - “Hodie mecum eris in
Paradiso’ - "Mulier
ecce filius tuus.” -
“Deus meus, utquid
dereliquisti me?" -
“Sitio." - “Consummatum est!”
- “In manus tuas,
Dornine, commendo spiritum meum.”
This version, which was
first performed "On St.
Cecilias day 1787 at
the Schloßkirche in
Vienna”, was
described in the following way by
Haydn in a letter to his London
publisher:
“A completely new work, consisting
entirely of instrumental music,
divided into 7 Sonatas, preceded by an
Introduction, and
followed by a Terremato or Earthquake.
The Sonatas are designed to
be appropriate for the words which
Christ our Saviour uttered on the
Cross. Each Sonata or
piece of text is only printed with
music of a type which arouses the
deepest impression on the soul of even
the most naive person; the whole work
lasts a little over one hour, but there
is somewhat of a pause after each
Sonata so that one may consider in
advance the text which
follows.”
The accompanying explanatory Latin
text not only indicated the
mood of the number concerned, but
obviously suggested the
melodic line of the particular sonata;
indeed it was, as it were, "set to
music” by Haydn. In this the
composer adopted a device which was
also favoured by Beethoven, when
writing instrumental music the
composer had in mind a text, a
dialogue, or indeed a whole drama, and
“speaking” music was composed to fit
in with this; such music was a
“talking” art and accordingly had
quite concrete contents.
In the light of this,
Joseph Friebert, Canon and Musical
Director of Passau
Cathedral, wrote a suitable text to
the orchestral version of
the "Seven Words” and secured its
performance. Haydn heard this version
on his second journey
to England (probably on the
outward journey, but
certainly on his return) and was
thoroughly satisfied
with it (incidentally it has long been
believed, as a result of a report by
the Haydn biographer Giuseppe Carpani,
that Friebert agreed his text with
Michael Haydn, but this cannot be
regarded as certain). Having arrived
in Vienna, Haydn used this text for
his own orchestral version of 1795/96
of the “Seven Words”;
only a few details were altered by
him, or by Baron van Swieten, who
helped with the work. “The text... was
prepared by a very experienced
Precentor from Passau, and it was
improved by our great Baron van
Swieten.”
In its rhyme scheme
and choice of words the text owes
something to Christian Fürchtegott
Gellertßs sacred odes and songs, but
also assumes in part the “verbal
character of a hymn” (Hubert
Unverricht). Van
Swieten was also influenced by Karl
Wilhelm Ramler’s "Death
at Jesus”, verses 261-269
of which he even
inserted unchanged into the final
chorus. Thus the libretto
of Haydn’s “Oratorio”
comes to us today as a collective
work, which expressed in words the
emotions and substance of the music in
accordance with the then prevailing
aesthetic even in its instrumental
form music “spoke” and possessed an
extra-musical, sometimes indeed a
programmatic content - one only had to
know the vocabulary.
The "Maestoso
ed Adagio” introduction, an emotional
Overture in the “Requiem key” of D
minor, immediately
introduces the basically tragic
atmosphere of the
events; there are double-dotted notes
and wide intervals resembling screams,
but “quivering” tremoli
and bold modulations also depict the
agitation of the
onlooker No. 1 is
dominated by cries of “Father” and
deep sighs, with chromatic progression
adding further symbols of pain: the
content of No. 2
develops mainly from the
opening cry, variations on which take
many forms, but also undergo internal
intensification as a result of
the dialogue between the soloists and
the Chorus.
Breathless cries, punctuated by rests,
tierce syncopation, dissonant
chromaticism and melodic symbols for
the Cross give No. 3 its unmistakeably
tragic character, which is bathed in
pale E major (a key with which Haydn
always conveys negative emotions); No.
4 then follows
in the even more tragic F minor, which
is appropriate to the despainng
question “Why
hast thou forsaken
me?"
No. 5 begins with an “Introduzione”,
the elaborate polyphony and
chromaticism of which provide o
deliberate contrast to the dramatic
main part, in which Jesus’s cry “I
thirst’ leads to furious outbursts on
the part of the Chorus,
commenting on the events with intense
harmonies. No, 6, ‘It
is finished”, with its agonizing,
rising melodic passages which work out
the tritone, thus indicating “Devil” and
`Sin”, begins in the old "Death key”
of G minor, before the consoling
certainty that Jesus’s
death will bring us salvation triumphs
and bathes the scene in a bright G
major, without entirely abandoning the
symbolisrn of pain.
A consoling E flat
major, the old "Key of Love”, is
assigned to No. 7 with
its pious confidence,
and then an almost
realistically portrayed “Earthquake”
depicts the hour of the Lord’s death,
once again unfolding it before our
eyes by means of expressive and
painful chromaticism
and savage orchestral chords. The work
ends boldly with strong accents.
Hartmut Krones
Translation:
Gery Bramall
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Nikolaus
Harnoncourt (1929-2016)
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