Our Summer BAL 9: Haydn Symphony in G No 92

[verismissimo]

Love Haydn. Always ready to try different approaches.

What are YOUR preferences?

[aeolium]

D--n you, verismissimo, I wanted to start a BaL on Haydn's Sturm und Drang symphonies.

But I love no 92 too. I have the recording by Davis and the Concertgebouw, which is very good. I would like to hear the Kuijken/Petite Bande version as I very much enjoyed his performances of the Paris symphonies with the OAE.

[tony yyy]

I asked for recommendations for no 89 on the old R3 boards and, as a result, I bought both the Kuijken set and the Boehm/Vienna CD on ebay, both of which include the marvellous No 92. The latter recording is the one I listen to most often. It comes from the 1970s, a time when that orchestra made some exceptional recordings. I'm less keen on the Kuijken but it's undoubtedly musical and well played and has many admirers.

[vinteuil]

René Jacobs / Freiburg Barockorchester

Frans Brüggen / Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century

Sigiswald Kuijken / la Petite Bande

[barber olly]

I asked for recommendations for no 89 on the old R3 boards and, as a result, I bought both the Kuijken set and the Boehm/Vienna CD on ebay, both of which include the marvellous No 92. The latter recording is the one I listen to most often. It comes from the 1970s, a time when that orchestra made some exceptional recordings. I'm less keen on the Kuijken but it's undoubtedly musical and well played and has many admirers.

,

Looks like my shelves favour the heavier end of the spectrum Celibidache, Dorati, Groves, Klemperer, Krips, Malko, Rosbaud, Szell
Thanks for reminder above of the Bohm ordered from an Amazon seller £1.29.

[vinteuil]

,

Looks like my shelves favour the heavier end of the spectrum .

You mean, you wish Haydn was more like Brahms??

[gurnemanz]

,

Looks like my shelves favour the heavier end of the spectrum Celibidache, Dorati, Groves, Klemperer, Krips, Malko, Rosbaud, Szell
Thanks for reminder above of the Bohm ordered from an Amazon seller £1.29.

From this "heavy end" list I only have the Szell which I like very much - well played with customary Szell precision and vivid recording. It's on a Sony Essential Classics CD with 94 and 96, but I note that they've brought out a quite attractive-loooking box :

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Sony/88697687792

[verismissimo]

D--n you, verismissimo, I wanted to start a BaL on Haydn's Sturm und Drang symphonies. But I love no 92 too.

I was going to do No 39, aeolium, but then I remembered that, judging by the lack of response to the Sturm und Drang symphonies on the old boards, I'd better go for one with a broader appeal.

Where was No 92 performed in Oxford in July 1791, celebrating his honorary doctorate?

[aeolium]

I was going to do No 39, aeolium, but then I remembered that, judging by the lack of response to the Sturm und Drang symphonies on the old boards, I'd better go for one with a broader appeal.

Where was No 92 performed in Oxford in July 1791, celebrating his honorary doctorate?

Fair enough, verismissimo

No 92 was first performed at the Sheldonian on July 7, 1791 with Haydn conducting.

[verismissimo]

No 92 was first performed at the Sheldonian on July 7, 1791 with Haydn conducting.

I wonder if people who were there told their grand-children. (Of course, the response might well have been, "Oh, that old stuff," just as it would likely be in similar circumstances today.

I appear to have Dorati with his Hungarians, Szell with his Clevelanders and Bernstein with the VPO. Thought I had Kuijken/Petite Bande, but apparently not. May invest in that.

[aeolium]

There are in fact reasonable grounds for playing this work, and the London symphonies, with a larger ensemble than would be expected for Haydn's earlier symphonies which were composed for his Esterhazy orchestra. The Oxford symphony had originally been written for performance in Paris, and the other Paris symphonies had been composed for the large orchestra of the Concert de la Loge Olympique, an orchestra which had 40 violins and 10 double-basses. Salomon's orchestra in London was not as large, being 41-strong, but still much bigger than the Esterhazy orchestra. So there is certainly no 'one size fits all' approach for the performance of Haydn's symphonies.

[LeMartinPecheur]

I can field the excellent Bohm, and also the Hanover Band/Goodman on cheapo Helios with 90 & 91, not quite so well-known symphonies but very deserving of attention. Well worth the small sum of money I'd say, though I've no other HIP version to compare.

The H symphony I've most appreciated from this band is #72 in D with 4 horns: absolutely terrific! A great pity that Hyperion dropped this cycle. Fortunately the volumes that did get recorded include a good number of the neglected (non-nickname) symphonies, and so make useful gap-fillers for those like me who haven't yet managed a Haydn-symphonies complete edition.

I might just visit the river-people and snap up a few more...

[rauschwerk]

There are in fact reasonable grounds for playing this work, and the London symphonies, with a larger ensemble than would be expected for Haydn's earlier symphonies which were composed for his Esterhazy orchestra.

Absolutely! I have compared the first movement as recorded by Kuijken and Goodman and much prefer the latter, who moulds the slow intro more sensitively and is more lively in the Allegro spiritoso. Common to both versions, however, is the underpowered string sound. I've only just become aware of the Szell reissue and shall lose no time in acquiring it.

[verismissimo]

...and so make useful gap-fillers for those like me who haven't yet managed a Haydn-symphonies complete edition

Wouldn't ever want to be without the complete Philharmonia Hungarica/Dorati set, LMP. Glad to have retained the booklets from the LP boxes. Full of expert notes from Robbins Landon, not included in the CD set.

[LeMartinPecheur]

verismissimo: I do envy you! I have sizeable chunks of the Dorati cycle (LP boxes of 73-81 and 83-104, plus quite a few Ace of Diamonds single discs) and of the Adam Fischer/ Nimbus (1-20, 55-69), and am now only 17 short of the 106. 21-41 is a particularly bare patch. I too would cherish any Robbins Landon notes, and am very furtunate to have recently got hold of two volumes of his massive biographical study "Haydn - Chronicle and Works", those covering 1752-90, for a song. Haven't settled down to them yet but must!