Franz Josef Haydn
"London" Symphonies

*  Symphony #93 in D
*  Symphony #94 in G "Surprise"
*  Symphony #92 in G "Oxford"

Philharmonia Virtuosi/Richard Kapp
Essay CD1084 Total Time: 70.03

Summary for the Busy Executive: Fun.

I suppose I shouldn't say this in public, but, with only four exceptions,
I prefer Haydn's symphonies to Mozart's.  To me, it comes down to a
difference between a steak and a bowl of gumbo.  Mozart's symphonies
strike me as solid, even slightly heavy - great works, many of them, to
be sure, but also in many ways predictable and not a whole lot of fun.
On the other hand, Haydn's bubble with wit, surprise, caprice, and
sometimes downright loopiness.  If Haydn doesn't soar as high as Mozart,
he also doesn't bore me as much as Mozart.

The "London" symphonies, as they've come to be called, were all performed
during Haydn's highly successful visits to England.  Not all of them
were written for that trip.  Indeed, Symphony #92 had been written at
least a couple of years before Haydn even knew he was going.  England,
known from the death of Purcell to the appearance of Elgar as "the land
without music," was actually, then as now, mad for music.  London attracted
the finest virtuosos, maintained orchestras of a size and level unknown
even in Vienna.  The impresario Johann Peter Salomon, a native German
resident in London, who arranged for Haydn's concerts, had advised the
composer to aim for effect rather than for refinement, pointing out the
differences between the aristocratic audience in Vienna and the bourgeois
public in England.  Haydn's idiom has become so much a part of us that
we tend to take it for granted.  It's difficult for modern, post-Stravinskian
ears to hear the audacity of these symphonies.  We hear Haydn today and
usually think of powdered wigs.  Haydn's first audiences often considered
him a "sauvage."

For me, one of the great glories of Haydn is the latitude he gives to
interpreters.  I don't have one favorite Haydn conductor, but several
favorites.  I like Dorati's earthiness as much as Szell's refinement.
Szell, among other things, gives me the surprise (and the lightness) of
Haydn's orchestrations, mostly as lagniappe to superb playing from the
Cleveland Orchestra, and shows me Haydn as a figure of his time.  Kapp
gives me Haydn as herald of things to come, emphasizing his links to his
star pupils, Mozart and Beethoven.  Kapp's orchestra plays rougher than
Szell, but also with higher spirits.  The opening to the slow movement
of #93, for string quartet, emphasizes Haydn's daring, this time on the
side of delicacy.  Kapp's quartet sets the tone for a huggable intimacy
to the entire movement.  On the other edge during the same movement,
Kapp allows the bassoon to punctuate a "melting" cadence with a belch.

The "Surprise," #94, probably the best-known of the entire set of "London"
symphonies, receives a fine, friendly performance.  In the main allegro
of the first movement, Kapp lets us hear intimations of the Beethovenian
scherzo.  In the second movement, Kapp throws what sounds like a literal
kitchen sink into the famous surprise.  This may put some listeners off,
but I root for vulgarity.  Kapp's rendering strikes me as thoroughly in
keeping with Haydn's rough whimsy.  The end of the movement is pure
magic.

The "Oxford," #92, has been overshadowed by the "Surpise" - a shame,
since to me it seems more characteristic of Haydn's personality, with a
finer first movement.  That movement, like late Beethoven, flirts with
falling-apart.  The music teeters on the edge of a constant stopping and
starting, with ideas that shouldn't go together but, miraculously, do.
The slow movement seems a cross between the Mozart and the Beethoven
adagio, with some tasty, near-instantaneous modulations to Novo Sibersk
and back again.  Despite the clever touches - quite a few of them - a
Romantic yearning shines through the wit.  With the minuet, we glimpse
the daffy Haydn, who leads us on a surreal dance. We don't land on the
wrong foot, but now and then we glance down just to make sure.  It's a
movement of quick, unsettling cuts.  Proportions seem off, as if the
band has either added or omitted a measure here and there.  Odd disjunctions
break the flow of musical thought.  The finale, a fleet rondo, bounces
between extremes of lightness and heroic heft.  Kapp gives his best
performance of the disc.

The recording comes from a live concert, and one hears occasionally
raggedness or smooshy attack, mainly from the strings, usually in faster
rhythms.  You can also hear pages turning, but the audience is remarkably
silent.  If not for the final applause, you wouldn't know anybody was
there.  Kapp and his Philharmonia do least well with Haydn's "show-off"
contrapuntal passages - a bit heavy, for my taste (I kept longing for
Szell) - but there aren't all that many in Haydn anyway.  In all, this
is Haydn you can have a beer with.

Steve Schwartz

             ***********************************************
The CLASSICAL mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R)
list management software together with L-Soft's HDMail High Deliverability
Mailer for reliable, lightning fast mail delivery.  For more information,
go to:  http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html