Your essential ten Haydn symphonies

[salymap]

With the reasons why if possible. This seems a bit more 'meaty' than most of the ESSENTIAL lists and we could all learn something

I shall just read and learn, I hope

[salymap]

With the reasons why if possible. This seems a bit more 'meaty' than most of the ESSENTIAL lists and we could all learn something

I shall just read and learn, I hope

Sorry tried to alter heading and it came up twice. Please ignore this post.

[Auferstehen2]

Oi, you lot! Could someone reply to salymap’s excellent question please? Ignoramuses like me who only know a few of his symphonies are desperate for an answer without having to go through the hundred of them before knowing which I prefer.

I await your input with bated breath…

Mario

(from a VERY wet Malta)

[antongould]

Sadly I am no great lover of Haydn's symphonies - but I suppose there is time yet for a youngster like me! If I can refer back to our survey in the spring he was "voted" the 14th most popular symphonist and his top chart hits were 102, 104 and 88 sadly not 90 my dear lady!

[Petrushka]

Well, you have to start with the 'London' symphonies which are all essential listening but as we have 12 there already I'll substituts 97, 98 and 99 with 86 to make my essential ten.

My absolute favourite is 102 which I heard for the first time on R3 at the 1976 Proms with Bernard Haitink and the LPO. Since then it has forever reminded me of that unforgettable summer. The association is so powerful as to instantly bring it all back nearly 40 years on.

I don't know many prior to the 'Paris' symphonies so have some catching up to do!

[vinteuil]

a vote for -
59 in A Fire
26 in d min Lamentatione
49 in f min la Passione
48 in C Maria Theresa
43 in E flat Mercury
44 in e min Trauer
85 in B flat la Reine de France

88 - 104 are pretty good too!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The only ones I don't like are the ones I don't know! Haydn is such a great composer, and his Symphonies, Masses, Piano Trios and String Quartets are amongst the greatest pleasures ever produced by the human imagination. (The same is probably true of the Piano Sonatas, but I don't know them nearly as well!)

Just ten Sals? As an overview of the great man's career:

No1 (an exhilerating and exhuberant start to a Symphony "cycle" - err, if Symphonies "A" and/or "B" didn't get there first!)
No 6 (Le Matin; sheer joy from start to finish)
No 45 (The Farewell) for its astonishing originality and inventiveness throughout)
No 49 (La Passione the dark side of this too-often caricatured genius)
No 88 (because of Fürtwängler)
No 90 (because it's so often overlooked and undervalued: some fascinating parallels with Mozart's K551 in the First Movements)
No 103 (Mit der Paukenwirbel, because it reminds me of the three occasions when I've started the concert)
No 104 (because it's such a wonderful way to end a Symphony cycle: even if this wasn't Haydn's intention, I think he did suspect that this would be his farewell to his London fans: and there's such a wonderful balance between poignancy and celebration in the Finale)
Any two others!

Lovely Thread: it's made me cheerful just thinking of this repertoire!

Best Wishes.

[salymap]

Thanks Fhg. I find his symphonies essential when in pain or depressed. I love Mozart but must admit Haydn really hits the spot with his humour, key changes, often ahead of his time and sheer optimism.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

[Ferretfancy]

Surely they are all essential? What's more you can acquire them all in fine performances at prices that would have seemed absurd a few years ago. The real question is, why are they played so rarely in concerts ?

[EdgeleyRob]

I am only familiar with nos 90 to 104 and sadly don't listen to them much.I must put that right.
Possible bargain alert ?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Haydn-Comple...8175800&sr=1-1

[John Skelton]

So many wonderful ideas, so much wit & pathos & intellectual life - ten of the best, at any rate

no. 22 ('Philosopher') because of the extraordinary sounds it makes & its curious gravity
no. 26 ('Lamentation') sort of ditto
no. 31 ('Hornsignal') funky horns
no. 39 because of its intensity
no. 44 ('Trauer') ditto
no. 46 for wit & ingenuity
no. 64 for pathos & strangeness & wit
no. 80 for the way it juxtaposes opposites rather than resolves them
no. 88 because it's lovely (& for Frans Brüggen )
no. 98 for that wonderful slow movement

You can listen to Haydn's symphonies online http://www.haydn107.com/index.php?id=1&lng=2

[mercia]

what a brilliant site that is JS - thanks !!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

no. 88 because it's lovely (& for Frans Brüggen )

Oh, yes; anything by Brüggen - completely different from WF: both "right"!

[Suffolkcoastal]

F J Haydn's symphonies I have always found entertaining, delightful, thought provoking and analytically fascinating. I couldn't really pick 10 essential ones (sorry I hate the term 'essential' its smells of cheap marketing), However my favourites are:

No 39
No 44 'Trauer'
No 46
No 53 'Imperial'
No 83 'La Poule'
No 85 'La Reine'
No 88 'Letter V'
No 89
No 102
No 103 'Drum Roll'