1 CD - 9031-76460-2 - (p) 1992

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)





Symphony No. 30 in C major, Hob. I/30 "Alleluja"
14' 55"
- Allegro 5' 02"
1
- Andante
 5' 24"
2
- Finale: Tempo di Menuet, più tosto Allegretto
 4' 29"
3
Symphony No. 53 in D major, Hob. I/53 "L'Impériale"
25' 46"
- Largo maestoso - Vivace
 11' 11"
4
- Andante 6' 23"
5
- Menuetto - Trio 3' 42"
6
- Finale. Capriccio Moderato (Version A) 4' 27"
7
Symphony No. 69 in C major, Hob. I/69 "Laudon"
25' 29"
- Allegro vivace
 6' 18"
8
- Un poco Adagio, più tosto Andante
 11' 28"
9
- Minuetto - Trio 3' 53"
10
- Finale. Presto
 3' 45"
11



 
Concentus Musicus Wien
Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Dirigent
 
Luogo e data di registrazione
Casino Zögernitz, Vienna (Austria) - 12-14 giugno 1990
Registrazione live / studio
studio
Producer / Engineer
Wolfgang Mohr / Helmut A. Mühle / Michael Brammann
Prima Edizione CD
Teldec "Das Alte Werk" - 9031-76460-2 - (1 cd) - 66' 37" - (p) 1992 - DDD
Prima Edizione LP
-

Notes
In a letter written in 1810 Goethe asked the composer Zelter: ”Please inform me as soon as possible what songs are most frequently sung in your group, so that I may acquaint myself with the taste of your guests and what sort of poetry they most enjoy. If one knows that one can provide all sorts of entertainment for one’s friends.”
Right up to the early 19th century there was no irreconcilable conflict between an artist’s striving for popularity and his creative self-fulfilment. Thus many of the symphonies which Haydn wrote during thirty years in the service of Prince Nicolaus Esterházy in the Hungarian countryside provided what his princely patron expected to hear. They were also unlikely to have disturbed the customary conversation and card games at concerts.
Symphony No. 30, however, clearly indicates that Haydn, in spite of the pleasing nature of his music, was also concerned to compose something more than mere background music. It may have been intended for performance on Easter Sunday 1765, since the first movement is based on nn Alleluia that formed part of the Mass for Easter Week. Attentive listeners who had not missed the service would certainly have recognized it. Incidentally, this Alleluia was very popular as a basis for compositions: Mozart later wrote a canon on it and Prince Esterházy may well have been fond of it, because Haydn used it again in a trio for his employer’s favourite instrument, the barytone. In Haydn's symphony it is initially hidden away in one of the accompanying parts, but then it appears again - in a varied form - in the main parts. Finally it is played, loudly and unmistakably, even by any card players, in the wind instruments. The delicate solo passage for flute and oboes in the following movements will certainly not have escaped the now wideawake audience.
In an autobiographical sketch dating from 1776 Haydn drew up a balance sheet of his activities ”with His Highness the Prince... with whom I wish to live and die". He named as his most successful works three operas, an oratorio and the Stabat mater. There are brief references to his chamber music, but not a word about his symphonies.
Prince Esterházy's declining interest in symphonies in the middle of the 1770's was probably due to the excessive demands which they made. Haydn's immediately preceding so-called “Sturm und Drang” phase must have been too complicated for him. Certainly the symphonies were thereafter significantly simpler. They are once again in the major, instead of being in unconventional minor keys; complex thematic work, which assumes a certain amount of concentration, is replaced by cheerful, simpler themes. Particular effects are mainly harmonic and therefore easily observable.
This did not, incidentally, detract in any way from the popularity of Symphony No. 53. On the contrary, it was one of his most successful compositions and copies of it were available all over Europe. Harmonic effects, characteristic of Haydn’s symphonic style at that time, are to be found in the first movement, with its exciting return to the main theme, and the Minuet. Here a repeat of the theme is marked by a dissonance instead of the expected final chord, leading to a charming chromatic passage, and only then is the ”correct” conclusion arrived at. The theme of the Andante, a set of variations, was one of Haydn's best-loved melodies. It was immortalized as early as 1793 on the Haydn memorial which his admirers had erected in his birthplace Rohrau.
There are several final movements of Symphony No. 53. Because at that time the demand at Esterháza was above all for operas, Haydn used in one version an opera overture composed in 1777. In France there appeared a final movement which was certainly not by Haydn. The finale recorded here may not have been by Haydn himself, but is undoubtedly a product of his circle; according to the Haydn scholar Robbins Landon it may have been written by a pupil under the master’s supervision. In the 18th century attributions of this kind were regarded as a compliment to the great name and are further evidence of his popularity.
Exceptionally the nickname of Symphony No. 69, "Laudon”, was coined by Haydn himself and refers to its dedication to the Austrian Field Marshal, Baron von Laudon or Loudon. Having defeated Frederick II of Prussia at the battle of Kunersdorf and captured Belgrade in one of the Turkish Wars, he was extremely popular. Thus Haydn justified an incomplete arrangement of the symphony in a letter to his publisher Artaria with the words: ”Meanwhile I am sending your Honour the symphony, which is so full of mislakes that the hand of the fellow who wrote it ought to be chopped off; the last or fourth part of this symphony cannot he played on the piano, and I don’t consider it necessary to include it; the word Laudon will contribute more to promoting sales than ten finales.”
Considered from a musical point of view (and in its orchestral version) the finale is both possible to play and essential. The earlier movements have found no particular favour with Haydn scholars; they are thought to be emotionally low-key and rather conventional. This is the very reason for suspecting that they may have reflected rather too closely General Laudon’s taste. But the finale, with its sudden dynamic alternations, its vvild passage in the minor and the entirely unexpectedly soft violin solo leading up to the return of the main theme, forms a triumphal conclusion to the Symphony.
Marie-Agnes Dittrich
Translation: Gery Bramall

Nikolaus Harnoncourt (1929-2016)
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