This is – without a doubt – my recording of the month. As much for proving that Haydn is every bit as fun and charming as his younger countryman as for the brilliant playing (in every sense) of all concerned.
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This second instalment in Alpha’s projected complete symphonies recording in time for the 300th anniversary of the composer’s birthday features three striking works from the master and another by Bach’s oldest son.
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For long regarded simply as a precursor of the great comic operas of Mozart’s maturity, La finta giardiniera has more recently shown increasing signs of being accepted into the repertoire. Last year’s first-ever staging at Glyndebourne was mirrored across the Channel by this co-production mounted in Lille and Dijon.
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There are five works on this CD; three are from the composer’s op. 17 set “à Deux Violons, Taille et Basse” and played with harpsichord continuo, and two quartets without opus number (though given numbers 4 in D and 6 in F), played as string quartets.
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Not infrequently in these pages one reads how Bach’s music will pretty much work in any medium, and – while few modern musicians have (to my knowledge) gone down that route with the music of his sons,
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Of the five works that make up this fine collection, only one is categorically named “Quintetto” by the composer (Perger 110); of the others, two are divertimenti (106 with six movements, and 112 with seven!)
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As someone who has long enjoyed listening to Kraus’s music, it has come as something of a disappointment that he seems to have been a rather unlikeable person. Most of the letters that comprise the first part of this volume are full of requests for money from his parents, and complaints about his lot in life;
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Chiaroscuro is a period instrument quartet that is not frightened of its pianissimos. So many ensembles pay little attention to the full range of dynamics that are available on their instruments.
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Sandwiched between two lively symphonies, each equally deserving of a place in the repertoire of most orchestras looking to explore the music of Beethoven’s contem-poraries, are the overtures to Hoffmann’s Undine and Aurora, considered by many as the first Romantic operas in German.
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A colleague once said that the best Haydn symphony was the one that he had heard last. This has worked for me over the years, with very few exceptions, and certainly I found this dictum true again in Nicholas McGegan’s selection of these three symphonies.
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