1 CD - 2292-46458-2 - (p) 1992

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)






Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze, Hob. XX/2
62' 41"
Vocal version






- Introduzione 5' 29"
1
- No. 1 "Vater, vergib ihnen" 7' 38"
2
- No. 2 "Fürwahr, ich sag' es dir" 7' 00"

3
- No. 3 "Frau, jier siehe deinen Sohn" 8' 07"
4
- No. 4 "Mein Gott, mein Gott" 6' 28"
5
- Introduzione 4' 04"
6
- No. 5 "Jesus rufet" 7' 54"
7
- No. 6 "Es ist vollbracht" 7' 08"
8
- No. 7 "Vater, in deine Hände" 6' 36"
9
- Terremoto 1' 50"
10




 
Inga Nielsen, Soprano I
Renate Burtscher, Soprano II

Margareta Hintermeier, Alto

Anthony Rolfe-Johnson, Tenor
Robert Holl, Bass


Arnold Schoenberg Chor / Erwin Ortner, Leitung


CONCENTUS MUSICUS WIEN (mit Originalinstrumenten)

- Erich Höbarth, Violine - Dorothea Guschlbauer, Violoncello
- Alice Harnoncourt, Violine - Eduard Hruza, Violone
- Anita Mitterer, Violine - Andrew Ackerman, Violone
- Andrea Bischof, Violine - Robert Wolf, Flauto traverso
- Peter Schoberwalter, Violine - Silvie Sumereder, Flauto traverso
- Helmut Mitter, Violine - Omar Zoboli, Oboe
- Karl Höffinger, Violine - Marie Wolf, Oboe
- Maighread McCrann, Violine - Hans R. Stalder, Klarinett
- Gerold Klaus, Violine - Pierre A. Taillard, Klarinett
- Peter Katt, Violine - Milan Turković, Fagott
- Maria Kubizek, Violine - Trudy van der Wilp, Fagott
- Barbara Klebel, Violine - Henk de Witt, Kontrafagott
- Thomas Fheodoroff, Violine - Hector McDonald, Naturhorn
- Peter Schoberwalter junior, Violine - Alois Schlor, Naturhorn
- Christian Schneck, Violine - Ernst Hoffmann, Posaune
- Kurt Theiner, Viola - Josef Ritt, Posaune
- Johannes Flieder, Viola - William Nulty, Naturtrompet
- Lynn Pascher, Viola - Edward Cervenka, Naturtrompet
- Lila Brown, Viola - Michael Vladar, Pauken
- Herwig Tachezi, Violoncello



Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Leitung
 
Luogo e data di registrazione
Casino Zögernitz, Vienna (Austria) - ottobre 1990
Registrazione live / studio
studio
Producer / Engineer
Renate Kupfer / Wolfgang Mohr / Helmut Mühle / Michael Brammann / Eberhard Sengpiel
Prima Edizione CD
Teldec "Das Alte Werk" - 2292-46458-2 - (1 cd) - 62' 41" - (p) 1992 - DDD
Prima Edizione LP
-

Notes
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

Nikolaus Harnoncourt (1929-2016)
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