CPE & JC Bach and Haydn：R3 in Concert Thursday 22 September

[doversoul1]

7.30 pm
Live from Wigmore Hall the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, one of the world's leading period instrument groups, is joined by one of the finest fortepiano players of our times, Kristian Bezuidenhout in an attractive programme of classical and pre-classical symphonies and concertos from Haydn, Mozart and two Bach brothers, Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christian.

Ian Skelly presents.

Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 47 in G major HI: 47
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: Keyboard Concerto in D minor Wq. 17
Johann Christian Bach: Symphony in G minor Op. 6 No. 6
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 14 in E flat major K.449

Freiburg Baroque Orchestra
Kristian Bezuidenhout, fortepiano & director.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07vwrzg

[Thropplenoggin]

Looks like an interesting concert. I'll be tuning in. Thanks for posting, DS.

[jayne lee wilson]

Ties in well with the recent, lovely album of concertos 11-13 from Bezuidenhout/Freiburg on HM. Good to see Haydn's serene 47th getting more attention, it features on Volume 2 (2015) of Antonini's Haydn 2032 series, and very nicely too....

Not to mention the tragic/consolatory CPE Bach D minor concerto, a marvellous piece I got to know off of the stunning Barokkanerne "Empfindsamkeit!" anthology on LAWO when I got the CPE bug in 2014...

I might have programmed this concert myself!
Thursday looks grimly busy but we'll see...

[MickyD]

...and that wonderful stormy J.C.Bach symphony, my number one favourite of his. Hoping that this concert will still be on catch up when I get back from my travels.

[doversoul1]

Listening to the CPE Bach now. How very good to be able to listen to a work like this on Radio 3 and not just on youtube!

And what an extraordinary work this is!

[gurnemanz]

The first time I came across CPE Bach was hearing his music being most effectively used as background to a very good Radio 3 version of Danton's Death by Büchner, which I was studying at the time as part of my German BA. Fouind it in the archive. 1969! Josh Ackland played the title role and I note that Glenda Jackson is in there. It doesn't state which music was played. I would be quite curious to find out all these years later.

[David-G]

I was in the hall. A marvellous concert. I particularly liked the JC Bach, which I had not heard before. The Mozart is an old friend, but I had not heard it in quite a long time. Delightful and substantial encore - the slow movement of Mozart's sonata K330, in which the piano really shone. The central section had a veiled quality to the tone. Not sure if this was the moderator or una corda. Probably the former.

[Nick Armstrong]

I was in the hall. A marvellous concert. I particularly liked the JC Bach, which I had not heard before. The Mozart is an old friend, but I had not heard it in quite a long time. Delightful and substantial encore - the slow movement of Mozart's sonata K330, in which the piano really shone. The central section had a veiled quality to the tone. Not sure if this was the moderator or una corda. Probably the former.

Listening to the JC Bach as I write - terrific stuff, great playing. Not a piece I know, I understand MickyD's enthusiasm. Heard the end of the Mozart PC14 live (and the encore) but shall be listening again. It does sound an exceptional night at the Wigmore Hall

[jayne lee wilson]

This is an exceptional orchestra. You notice how they vary their style and approach with each piece - softer, more laid-back for the Haydn 47 (supposedly Stürm und Drang period, but in fact a very sunny piece; less highly-strung than Antonini tonight, closer to the lyrical, sagacious Bruggen); then more up-and-at-you rhythmical, leading-edge attack and jack-in-the-box dynamics for CPE and JC (but with marvellously contrasted slow movements); finally, spirited, danceable and serene for the Mozart 449, with that paradisical andantino. All so effortlessly done, and no surprise to collectors of their many wonderful recordings. Do check out - no, come on, just BUY it - their new Mozart album of concertos 11-13.
Oh and, the HDs sound from the Wigmore was immaculate. Clean, transparent neutrality.

As for that CPE Bach "Harpsichord" Concerto.... Bezuidenhout put it across very beautifully on his Walter copy (recalling Wolfram Christ's enliveningly individual set of the WQ 182 Hamburger Sinfonien with the Stuttgart CO on Hanssler). As I said often in 2014 (usually to a deafening silence) seek out the LAWO CD/download of the harpsichord version on that peachy, to-die-for Barokkanerne album. The Oboe concerto on it - E Flat, WQ 165 - is even better, a true once heard never forgotten wonder, which became the soundtrack of my summer in 2014, in my head wherever I went. Never mind youtube, just don't miss this, buy it & live with it - please! (You get two of the best symphonies too).

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/LAWO/LWC1038

http://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/mozart-piano-concertos-k413-414-415-kristian-bezuidenhout-freiburger-barockorchester/3149020221822

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/H%25C3%25A4nssler/HAEN98637

[Nick Armstrong]

It was a great night for classical HIPPsters - opening TTN a few hours later was a terrific concert by Concerto Köln under Michael Güttler, with Andreas Staier playing an attractive piano concerto by Dussek/Dusík - and then a performance of Beethoven 4 which is I think the best 'original instruments' reading I've ever heard.

Don't miss it! http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07vwnyn

[edashtav]

Freiburg Baroque Orchestra Kristian Bezuidehout (fp/ conductor)

Haydn Symphony no 47 in G (The Palindrome)

My word, what a celebration of cerebration – whatever Bach can do, I can equal. A marvellous work full to the gunnels with structural devices from invertible counterpoint in the slow movement with variations, to a brilliant palindromic minuet and trio made all the more extraordinary and memorable by shifting accents to inhibit the boredom induced by predictability. It’s Haydn, apparently an unassuming serf, showing that he has the brain of a independently-minded master and one that has been thoroughly “Fuxed Up”. A work of real genius.

Jayne calls it “serene”, well that’s fair to my ears, so what it isn’t is Sturm und Drang and that was the publicity department’s catchy title for the concert! The Freiburg players are very gifted and their performance was very fine, aided by the excellent acoustics, if not the cramped conditions in the Wigmore Hall. I’ve just bought the Hogwood (incomplete) Haydn Symphony set which I marginally prefer – I think I’m in love with the fizzing electricity that his violins exude. However, I’ve also referenced the interpretation by Giovanni Antonini & Il Giardino Armonico and that’s my ultimate preference, because of its control, wonderful characterisation and the beautiful projection, of the work’s intellectual elements.

I did wonder why Kristian conducted from the fortepiano? Surely, modern research suggests that Haydn didn’t use a fortepiano continuo at this period of his career? However, Kristian’s keyboard contributions were spare, modest and heavily veiled. He added little and abstracted nothing.

I’ve not had time to listen to the rest of the concert but it got off to a great start.

[Thropplenoggin]

Freiburg Baroque Orchestra Kristian Bezuidehout (fp/ conductor)

Haydn Symphony no 47 in G (The Palindrome)

My word, what a celebration of cerebration – whatever Bach can do, I can equal. A marvellous work full to the gunnels with structural devices from invertible counterpoint in the slow movement with variations, to a brilliant palindromic minuet and trio made all the more extraordinary and memorable by shifting accents to inhibit the boredom induced by predictability. It’s Haydn, apparently an unassuming serf, showing that he has the brain of a independently-minded master and one that has been thoroughly “Fuxed Up”. A work of real genius.

Jayne calls it “serene”, well that’s fair to my ears, so what it isn’t is Sturm und Drang and that was the publicity department’s catchy title for the concert! The Freiburg players are very gifted and their performance was excellent, aided by the excellent acoustics, if not the cramped conditions in the Wigmore Hall. I’ve just bought the Hogwood (incomplete) Haydn Symphony set which I marginally prefer – I think I’m in love with the fizzing electricity that his violins exude. However, I’ve also referenced the interpretation by Giovanni Antonini & Il Giardino Armonico and that’s my ultimate preference, because of its control, wonderful characterisation and the beautiful projection, of the work’s intellectual elements.

I did wonder why Kristian conducted from the fortepiano? Surely, modern research suggests that Haydn didn’t use a fortepiano continuo at this period of his career. However, Kristian’s keyboard contributions were spare, modest and heavily veiled. He added little and abstracted nothing.

I’ve not had time to listen to the rest of the concert but it got off to a great start.

Great to read your quarter-time concert report alongside Jayne's full-match critique. I agree that it was an odd choice for the Haydn. I can think of a few stormier symphonies they could have gone for - why not La Passione? This also receives a lovely reading under Antonini's baton on disc. A lovely cycle emerging - I do hope it continues!

Do report back when you've heard the JC Bach, which I thought a particular highlight of a concert that was never less than stimulating.

p.s. "Fuxed up".

[edashtav]

J.C. Bach Symphony in G minor op 6/6

MickDy D lives in high expectation:”...and that wonderful stormy J.C.Bach symphony, my number one favourite of his. Hoping that this concert will still be on catch up when I get back from my travels.”

Caliban commented : “Listening to the JC Bach as I write - terrific stuff, great playing. Not a piece I know, I understand MickyD's enthusiasm.”

Jayne noted that Freiburg were “more up-and-at-you rhythmical, leading-edge attack and jack-in-the-box dynamics for CPE and JC (but with marvellously contrasted slow movements)”

A musicologist friend, let’s call him James, who attended the concert, emailed me:

“So were my expectations met? The simple answer is yes as far as the
playing was concerned. With regard to the music, the Mozart and Haydn
were outstanding pieces. The 2 Bach works were interesting but not on
the same level.
[…]
The JC was a mature work of 1770. Well crafted but rather routine. The
scale of the piece was more that of an Italian sinfonia than a full
symphony. Ironically, it was the only work in the evening which had had
much Sturm und Drang from a composer least associated with the s&d
movement.”
[…]
The sound of the Freiberg band was magnificent throughout, in fact
very big for a group of 18 players but then such is the acoustic of
the Wigmore Hall.

When I responded that the interpretations seemed a tad light on “Sturm und Drang” . James replied with a quotation on the conductor’s response to a question about his reaction to SuD:

“Bezuidenhout limited his repertoire to conscious music from baroque to romanticism In response to criticism that he Mozart "too romantic" would play, he stated that he learned to ignore differences in musical style and periods, but to speak the expression for themselves. The Sturm und Drang in Mozart's time is essentially the same kind of feeling as reflected in the Romanticism”.
Back on For3: Thropplenoggin responded to my positive comments on the Haydn symphony:

“Do report back when you've heard the JC Bach, which I thought a particular highlight of a concert that was never less than stimulating.”

So what is my reaction to thropplenoggin’s challenge?

Let’s be open about my preconception: prejudice confirmed by performance.
In my youth , I experienced some musical appreciation lessons on the music in London’s Vauxhall Gardens where J.C. Bach became Mr. Big and the “English Bach” (Was his death not recorded at St Pancras Old Church as that of “John Bark”?) Well, to a young male in a boys’ school, words such as these that I found in the Ladies Polite Songster a.k.a. Harmony for the Fair Sex, were a turn-off:
Vauxhall Trio with Chorus “set to mufic by Mr Bach”
CHORUS: Ye Nymphs and Ye Swains who love pleasure. / And jolly and gay,/ Would laugh down the day,/ And sport to Mirth’s frolicsome measure? / Oh hasten and come, I ask you wither, / We beckon you to come hither.
(c.f. “Nymphs and Shepherds” by Purcell, you may think – but I’d seen the Purcell Society’s scores of some of Purcell’s ribald drinking songs & they revealed another side to that genius.).

I blamed Vauxhall Gardens for JC’s “gallant” style and thought that England had dumbed down JC to its “land without music” level.

Ten years later, I spent a term with a rural Choral Society “learning” a Magnificat by JC. That term was terminal: JCB was the pits.

I’ve heard very little JCB until this Freiburg concert. I did enjoy the opening Allegro although I felt that it could have been improved by more drive and energy in the bass and the continuo. It was “harmony for the Fair Sex” when I wanted blood and guts as if the band of the SAS was playing SaD . The pre-echoes of Mozart Symphonies in G minor were fascinating. The slow movement although framed in some SuD moments drifted around and my attention wandered over much its eight minutes that were too polite for my liking. It was engaged by the finale, but again, I felt that the conductor under-stressed the stress, and oh dear, JCB cut off the music in peremptory manner, as if a JCB had entered the Wigmore Hall and carried all before it. More edge, please, and less romantic warmth. Tops marks, though, for the quality of the Freiburg strings.

So : my verdict: work in progress, I need to hear other performances; ones that emphasise Sturm und Drang. I’ve heard half this concert now, and must report that it was Sturm Und Drang Strangled.

[Daniel]

I've very much enjoyed what I've heard of this concert so far. Apart from anything else it's a glorious patchwork of sound with a natural expressiveness that might make any anti-HIPPster question their stance.

The seminal connection with Mozart in the Bachs really struck me. If somebody had told me that the JC Bach Symphony was an early work by Mozart I'd have quite easily believed them, the ambiguity of darkness and comedy in the atmospheric opening of the slow movt for example (sounding for three notes like it's going to be the opening of K.491!), but the music seems replete with other examples. It did end rather suddenly. The CPE Bach concerto mixes the forthright and tender in a way that also seems Mozartian to me.

The playing was very engaging throughout, I'm looking forward to the Mozart and Haydn.

[doversoul1]

The seminal connection with Mozart in the Bachs really struck me. If somebody had told me that the JC Bach Symphony was an early work by Mozart I'd have quite easily believed them, the ambiguity of darkness and comedy in the atmospheric opening of the slow movt for example (sounding for three notes like it's going to be the opening of K.491!), but the music seems replete with other examples. It did end rather suddenly. The CPE Bach concerto mixes the forthright and tender in a way that also seems Mozartian to me.

Through the Night played Mozart’s (I think it was) first opera sometime ago. It could easily have been by JC Bach.

This is somewhat different face (voice?) of JCB but if anyone is interested in finding out what else he composed, these opera arias* might be of interest. In one aria, the forte-piano pops up.

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Virgin/6945640

[ed.] Warning: this is a Marmite voice

Incidentally, the conductor was one of the Proms début artists (this was recorded in 2009).

*I find the orchestra part often more interesting than the actual arias.