SHARED CORNER: A MINI SALON on haydn
Below, our directors discuss this amazing performance of Franz Josef Haydn’s very first symphony by Il Giardino Armonico under the direction of Giovanni Anotonini.
ROTHMAN: Following my recent post discussing interpretive approaches to Haydn, I wanted to share a remarkable work for pure enjoyment. My reference to his jaw-dropping output of 104 symphonies (just think, no major composer has written more than 10 ever since!), got me curious about number 1, so here’s an 11-minute jewel to marvel at.
The first movement is inventive and engaging from start to finish—happily effervescent! Its spontaneity brings to mind the free-thinking CPE Bach, whom Riverside Symphony has explored at Zankel Hall and will continue to do so. FYI, the rising, increasingly loud repeated notes are called the “Mannheim Crescendo.”
From later symphonies by Haydn and his successors, one might expect to hear more somber or poetic second movements, but Haydn keeps the tone light with this charming, somewhat coquettish slow dance. The humorously energetic third movement presents an interesting six-measure phrase (traditional phrases issue from units of four) which sets (and keeps) you a bit off-kilter. Famous for his wit, Haydn must have enjoyed this musical prank, a tendency he enlarged upon in later symphonies and string quartets.
I invite you to join in Haydn’s fun and go for the ride. I listened three times and enjoyed more each time!
KORF: George shared this YouTube clip with me last week and I was totally blown away. There’s a tendency in music (and other art forms) to believe a composers’s most recent work must be their best, or that the earlier works don’t bear the “mature stamp” of the finished product. The downside to making such assumptions, of course, is that doing so can lead to a form of triage where unnecessary choices are made between the “latest and greatest” and an equally beautiful work from the composer’s early output.
Did I mention that I too, have fallen sway to this same tendency? Yet Haydn, only 27 years of age when he penned this glorious prototype, is already unmistakably himself in this amazingly concise, note-perfect work. For sure, bringing music like this to light is why we do what we do!
I’d also like to add a word about the equally note-perfect performance: intelligent, incisive and above all, beautiful. George’s interesting post last week brought to mind an analogy between good acting and good music-making that bears out the acuity and good taste of this particular rendition. Sloppy approaches—in either interpretive art form—tend to project a generic, even sentimentalized emotive gimmickry that feels pre-packaged, often presented using a vocabulary of expressive symbols that don’t quite fit the moment. Perhaps harder to detect in music, an overly prettified note or phrase is no different than overacting; both are informed by vague stock emotion, neither drawn from the syntax at hand. They wear out their welcome very quickly!
On the other hand, the “greats” of stage, film—and music, of course—set a more neutral emotional compass so they can maneuver with ease, nuance and economy. Of course, this doesn’t mean that pulling out all the stops is not exactly the right thing to do at the right moment, but it’s easier and more convincing to plumb the depths of emotion and character when you are not already in high gear or speaking in the wrong expressive tongue. In short, this amazing group and their equally musical conductor truly “get it.”