by Paul Henry Lang
THE HAYDN RENAISSANCE is happily continuing. If someone should question the aptness of this term as applied to the composer of the Oxford Symphony, or the Emperor Quartet, or The Creation, we might ask how many of Haydn's piano sonatas are generally known and performed at concerts. Perhaps half a dozen out of some sixty works.
Now we are enriched by three noteworthy anthologies containing many masterpieces: from Hungaroton, Vol. 1 of a four-volume, chronologically arranged integrale of the sonatas, planned and directed by Laszlo Somfai, one of the ablest Haydn scholars (Vol. 1 is performed by harpsichordists Zsuzsa Pertis and Janos Sebestyen; Vols. 2-4 will feature a number of Hungary's talented young pianists); from London Stereo Treasury, Vol. 1 of a sonata cycle by the English composer/critic/pianist John McCabe, in which each three -disc set will contain works from all periods of Haydn's career; from Nonesuch, a pair of discs by pianist Gilbert Kalish.
For Haydn, as for Beethoven, the piano sonata was throughout his career the proving ground where he could experiment, then apply what he had learned to quartet and symphony. It is remarkable how steadfastly and purposefully this modest man, at the same time an artist of the highest integrity, developed his talents.
The nineteen early sonatas in the Hungaroton set splendidly produced, engineered, performed, and annotated-testify to a heroic effort to proceed be yond the world of the divertimento that dominated Austrian instrumental music. The largely self-taught young composer wanted discursive musical logic that is, development-not mere entertainment.
The task of Haydn's researchers calls for scarcely less heroic efforts, because his experiments were greatly complicated by having been composed during the twilight era of the transition from harpsichord to pianoforte. In Hungaroton's elegant and highly informative booklet, Somfai establishes that all of Haydn's keyboard music up to 1766, and hence these sonatas too, was intended for the harpsichord, and the music is so performed here. We should also realize that the harpsichord was ever-present in all musical genres and that two or three of these sonatas are really "piano conductors," the keyboard parts of divertimentos for several instruments, the rest having been lost.
--------- The youthful Haydn in an oil by Alessandro Longhi John McCabe,
Gilbert Kalish, and a team of Hungarians help illuminate one of the least-understood
areas of Haydn's output.
Some of these early sonatas are flimsy and old fashioned, without a trace of personality (some must be spurious); others are "potpourri sonatas," copyists' compilations of movements from several different sonatas. But there are half a dozen works among the nineteen--Nos. 9, 11, 13, 15, 16, and 19 that are without doubt Haydn "on his way." Even at this early stage of his creative career, the asymmetric themes, the "irregular" sentence structure, the variety of formal design, and the palpable effort at thematic consistency were beyond the powers of most of his colleagues.
Chronology and authenticity have been pursued and established to the best of the ability of a number of competent scholars, but we can never reach unanimity on these matters; the ascriptions and dates of many of the youthful Haydn's works will always re main conjectural. Of the several available scholarly editions of the sonatas, Somfai happily selected Christa Landon's Wiener Urtext edition (1964-66, subsequently revised), "because of its musical merits." Harpsichordists Pert is and Sebestyen are equally superior musicians. Their registration is tasteful and avoids extremes (Haydn had a small one -manual harpsichord), but they are not afraid to add a little of the color made available by their fine two -manual instrument with several stops, though always with regard to the requirements of the music. The fast movements are crisp and clear, the slow ones tender and expressive, and there is no pussyfooting with the minuets, which are earthy and robust.
The harpsichord used is magnificent, with remark ably sonorous bass and surprising holding power in the middle region. Still, those who want to play these sonatas on modern pianos need not blush; they sound fine, as John McCabe shows in his performances of Nos. 6, 10, and 18.
With the McCabe and Kalish records, we enter the period of Haydn's wide-ranging experimentation, and the variety, especially in formal design, is considerable, even fantastic. No. 32 in G minor, for instance, has only two movements and is, like the quartets and symphonies of the Sturm und Drang period, full of excitement, showing a decided turning away from the plant; it has highly expressive melodic -harmonic turns, dramatic pauses, rhetorical proclamations, but also contrapuntal strettos.
The romantic effusiveness of the sonatas of this period shows the influence of Emanuel Bach, but the agitated tone and the dark hues of the music are nevertheless disciplined by a compelling logic of thematic work; Beethoven learned much from these works.
No. 31 in A flat begins with the customary sonata allegro, but the Adagio that follows is also in sonata form, and even the finale flirts with it.
No two of these interesting movements are alike.
The desire for variation, the refusal to repeat verbatim are the strongest among Haydn's instincts, and the inventiveness in his period construction is perhaps the most original of the great Viennese classical trinity of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.
In the middle-period sonatas there is a marked in crease in pianistic virtuosity. Unlike Mozart and Beethoven, Haydn was not himself a keyboard virtuoso, but his writing of this period shows the in fluence of his able artistic friends Franziska and Marianne von Auenbrugger. whose playing and genuine insight, he said, "equal that of the greatest masters." Surviving the Sturm und Drang crisis in symphony, string quartet, and sonata alike, Haydn now settled down to the serene classic vein and tone that was largely of his own creation.
As in those other major instrumental genres, he soon mastered the characteristic types that made up the cyclic sonata--the opening allegro, the minuet, and the largo/adagio-but like many other composers, especially the nineteenth-century symphonists, he had a "finale problem," that is, how to compose a last movement that would be both a foil to the opening allegro and the capstone of the entire work. In the Op. 20 quartets, he experimented with fugal finales, but they seemed a foreign body in the cycle, so beginning with the Sonata No. 30 and the Op. 33 quartets, he hit upon the ideal solution, the sonata -rondo, which became one of the hallmarks of Haydnesque exuberance and wit.
Ofg-or.E.Orgi
----------------------
The Haydn Sixty -Two With this review, HF adopts the numbering proposed by Christa Landon in her Wiener Ur-text edition of the Haydn sonatas. By excluding several sonatas that are either not sonatas or not by Haydn and adding others not included by Pasler (whose numbering was adopted in the Hoboken catalogue), Ms. Landon numbers sixty-two sonatas. Eight of these (Nos. 21-28), however, are "lost sonatas." known from Haydn's own catalogue, though a fragment of No. 28 has surfaced and is included in the Landon edition.
That edition has now been employed in three integral recordings: the two whose first installments are reviewed here and one for Telefunken by Rudolf Buchbinder, which was among the nominees for last year's HIGH FIDELITY/Montreux awards. Fine as the Hungaroton and Stereo Treasury series are, my own choice would be Buchbinder (who, like John McCabe, uses a modern piano through out). There are no plans for domestic release of his three six -disc sets; serious Haydn collectors may find them worth searching out. K.F.
------------- "Papa" Haydn in 1792, an engraving by T. Hardy
From the Auenbrugger sonatas onward we are dealing with an expressive personal tone, advanced harmony, fluent and integrated counterpoint, and original formal devices. Soon we begin to feel the subtle influence of Mozart displacing that of Emanuel Bach. So strong is the urge for thematic elabora tion that even the cadences are seized upon for new departures. Haydn's highly original procedures are not "justified" by any of the rules and standards de creed in our theory books, and literal analysts have a hard time forcing his imaginative "irregularities" ("loose style," the north German contemporaries called it) into any set pattern.
The last three sonatas (Nos. 60-62), composed in London during his second visit there in 1794-95, are, like the late quartets and symphonies, the epitome of the classic style. There is a strong inclination toward monothematic sonata construction; Haydn now uses the entire range of the keyboard, and we observe an absence of the popular, public -pleasing tone -we are in the world of the young Beethoven.
The F minor Variations of 1793, one of the gems of the piano literature, starts like many of Haydn's fine sets of variations except that the beautiful theme is a complex one offering many natural opportunities for thematic play. But slowly there grows a suppressed excitement, and just when we get the impression that the final variation is being presented there is a totally unexpected change as Haydn suddenly explodes into a highly dramatic scene, which is then with some difficulty subdued, and the original mood re turns.
Both Kalish and McCabe are excellent, well-educated, and stylistically knowledgeable musicians.
Neither tries to make the sonatas larger than life, staying neatly within the boundaries of the eighteenth -century style yet playing the piano as God, Steinway, and Baldwin have made it, without apologies for using the modern instrument.
HAYDN: Piano Works, Vol. 1. Zsuzsa Perlis (in Sonatas Nos. 1-11) and Janos Sebestyen (in Sonatas Nos. 12-19 and Variations), harpsichord. [Janos Matyas, prod.] HUNGAROTON SLPX 11614/7, $27.92 (four discs, manual sequence).
Sonatas: No. 1, in G; No. 2, in C; No. 3, in F; No. 4, in G; No. 5, in G; No. 6, in C; No. 7, in D; No. 8, in A; No. 9, in D; No. 10, in C; No. 11, in B flat; No. 12, in A; No. 13. in G; No. 14. in C; No. 15, in E; No. 16, in D; No. 17, in E flat; No. 18, in E flat; No. 19. in E minor. Variations: in A, H. XVIt:2; in D, H. XVII:7.
HAYDN: Piano Works, Vol. 1. John McCabe, piano. [James Walker, prod.] LONDON STEREO TREASURY STS 15343/5, $11.94 (three discs). Sonatas: No. 6, in C; No. 10. in C; No. 18. in E flat; No. 33, in C minor; No. 38. in F; No. 39, in D; No. 47, in B minor; No. 50, in D; No. 52, in G; No. 60, in C. Fantasy in C. Variations in F minor. H. XVII:6.
Both pianists know that no archaic pussyfooting is called for in these compositions, which are alive, ageless, and speak to us moderns on equal terms.
McCabe expresses this admirably in a booklet note: "That the instruments of Haydn's day have certain coloristic and technical features not to be found on modern instruments is not in doubt. But I firmly believe that the full color and subtlety of the music can be better realized on a modern piano of suitable character, and I also believe that Haydn's writing, even in his early days, is essentially pianistic in conception." Indeed, this music is beautifully congenial to the modern piano; the sustained singing quality often demanded cannot even be approximated on the early pianoforte. So both of these artists use modern instruments but avoid banging as well as tinkling, scaling down the power of the concert grand without hurting the quality of the sound.
Kalish articulates nicely but is occasionally a bit careless with the pedaling, which washes over when it should not; this is where the modern instrument can betray our trust. The Largo of the great Sonata No. 50 suffers from this, though otherwise it is well played. McCabe shrewdly uses the pedals as little as possible, making his fast non-legatos clear and pearly.
While Kalish's technique is very good, McCabe's is a little crisper, though he tends to sharpen his rhythm by over-dotting a bit. Kalish is careful with the ornaments, but McCabe does some slurring; Kalish's tempo changes are discreet, while McCabe is addicted to allargandos at the ends of movements, though within the movements there are few agogic tricks. His left hand is better than Kalish's, and he has a better grip on the small musical entities. But Kalish is never ambiguous, whereas on a few occasions, as in the development section of the Allegro in Sonata No. 60, McCabe gets himself into some messy spots.
Curiously enough, both performers somewhat misjudge the F minor Variations, the first part of which they play too daintily--this is not rococo music--missing the subtly growing excitement that leads to the dramatic outburst. On the whole, how ever, these are all minor flaws in what are fine performances, accomplished and tasteful pianism aided by first-class sound engineering. Both releases have intelligent notes.
HAYDN: Piano Works. Gilbert Kalish, piano. [Marc J. Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz, prod.] NONESUCH H 71318' and H 71328', $3.96 each. Sonatas: No. 30, in 0'; No. 31, in A flat'; No. 32. in G minor'; No. 47, in B minor'; No. 50. in D'; No. 53, in E minor; No. 61, in D. Variations in F minor, H. XVII:6.
-------------
(High Fidelity, Jan. 1977)
Also see:
The Parallel Careers of Edison and Bell; James A. Drake; Geniuses in sometime contact--and conflict
Hi-Fi Pathfinders--DAVID HAFLER