Piano Sonatas, Vol. 1 Nos. 29, 32, 36, 47, 52 Divertimento in E flat major Roman Rabinovich Franz (1732-1809)

CD1

Piano Sonata No. 36 in C major, Hob.XVI:21 [20:04]

1 I. Allegro [8:43]

2 II. Adagio [8:12]

3 III. Finale: Presto [3:01]

Piano Sonata No. 32 in G minor, Hob.XVI:44 [13:51]

4 I. Moderato [9:36]

5 II. Allegretto [4:15]

Piano Sonata No. 29 in E flat major, Hob.XVI:45 [24:18]

6 I. Moderato [9:55]

7 II. Andante [8:36]

8 III. Finale: Allegro di molto [5:36] Total Timing: [58:11]

CD2

Divertimento in E flat major, Hob.XVI:16 [9:39]

1 I. Andante [5:02]

2 II. Menuet [2:59]

3 III. Presto [1:32]

Piano Sonata No. 52 in G major, Hob.XVI:39 [17:12]

4 I. Allegro con brio [4:45]

5 II. Adagio [7:46]

6 III. Prestissimo [4:34]

Piano Sonata No. 47 in B minor, Hob.XVI:32 [15:34]

7 I. Allegro moderato [7:35]

8 II. Menuet [3:16]

9 III. Finale: Presto [4:29] Total Timing: [42:23] ̶ 2 ̶ ̶ Joseph HAYDN: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 1

Joseph Haydn came from Rohrau, a town in Lower Austria the experience of studying and singing some of the best music near the Hungarian border. He was born in 1732, a generation at the cathedral and court in Vienna. before Mozart (1756-1791), and died in 1809, some eighteen years after Mozart’s death and at a time when Beethoven was Haydn’s voice must have been of unusual quality as Reutter already thirty-nine. Both his parents were musical and their had suggested to his father that he become a castrato, but three sons all became professional musicians. At the age of fortunately for the boy, the father would not agree to this. five the first traits of Haydn’s natural musical talent were However, his voice did not break until the age of around shown in his singing voice, and a year later he could play the seventeen and from then his fortunes took a downward turn. violin and harpsichord. At this time when the boy was around After leaving the choir school Haydn had to support himself six years of age, his parents decided to allow him go to the by giving music lessons. As he said himself, ‘When my voice nearby town of Hainburg where he would receive specialist finally broke, for eight whole years I was forced to eke out a tuition from Johann Mathias Franck who was a school principal wretched existence by teaching young people. Many geniuses there as well as the director of the church choir. Within the are ruined by this miserable need to earn their daily bread, next few years Haydn was recruited into the choir school at the because they lack time to study. This could well have happened Stephansdom in Vienna by Georg Reutter where he stayed for to me; I would never have achieved what little I have done, the next ten years. St Stephen’s was one of the main musical had I not carried on with my zeal for composition during the centres of Europe and here Haydn sang soprano in the choir night.’ This was during the late 1740s and early 1750s, and and at court while also receiving tuition in the violin and Haydn was fortunate in receiving lessons in composition from harpsichord. However, although his vocal training was provided Nicola Porpora (1686-1768), who was in Vienna at the time. by the tenor Ignaz Finsterbusch and Adam Gegenbauer, at this He was also helped by the kindness of a few benefactors; time he received no formal training in theory or composition. one, Johann Wilhelm Buchholz, lent him close to a year’s Therefore, Haydn later sought to educate himself further by salary. This obviously meant a great deal to the struggling studying Der Vollkommene Capellmeister by Mattheson and young composer as late in his life he made provision in his Fux’s Gradus ad Parnassum. The latter work, published in 1725, will for Buchholz’s granddaughter. Through his students, served later as his tool for teaching composition as it did for and life among the wealthy upper classes, Haydn came into Mozart. What Haydn did receive during these most important contact with many important musicians including Gluck and formative years between the ages of seven and seventeen was Dittersdorf and learned about the Italian singing style and ̶ 3 ̶ composition from Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782). Due to the being responsible for the court orchestra, performances at influence of Porpora and Metastasio, Haydn’s compositional the court theatre, performing chamber music, and composing ability increased rapidly. Not surprisingly, much of the music he music for many occasions. During the 1760s Haydn composed composed at this time was of a sacred choral variety – motets many more symphonies, keyboard works and concertos, but and masses – and often of Italianate style. his marriage to wigmaker’s daughter Maria Keller in 1760 was not successful and bore no children. By the mid-1750s as his fame and reputation spread, Haydn took on many more freelance jobs including those as violinist- On the death of Esterházy’s old Kapellmeister, Gregor Joseph leader of the convent orchestra of the Barmherzige Brüder, at Werner, Haydn succeeded him, a post he held for the next dances and balls and chamber music gatherings, and as a singer twenty-four years. From this time he composed more large- in church. In this role, he performed in such masterpieces as scale vocal works both for the church and the court opera Palestrina’s Stabat Mater and Allegri’s Miserere. He was all stage and spent less time on instrumental composition. the while composing, but much of this music was written specifically for his pupils including piano trios and keyboard It was not until 1779 that any of Haydn’s works were published sonatas on a small scale. As his reputation as a teacher grew, in Vienna and this was due to the fact that his contract with Haydn was engaged to teach the children of Baron Fürnberg Esterházy forbade the selling of his music or the commissioning who not only commissioned his first string quartets, but also of it by anyone else (although unauthorised editions of his recommended Haydn to Count Karl Joseph Franz Morzin music appeared in London and Paris). However, in 1779 (1717-1783) from whom he gained his first regular post, as he signed a new contract with the Esterházy family which director of music at the end of the 1750s when he was around permitted the publication of his works. He became famous the age of twenty-six. For the first time in his life, Haydn was in England and France and demand for new works from the free from the constraints of having to teach private students public and his publishers was high. By the 1780s he was writing to earn his living. During his short time with , for a specific public and often marketed his works thus, so we Haydn composed fifteen symphonies, some keyboard sonatas find him writing thirteen piano trios in the 1780s and twenty- and chamber music. However, financial constraints prevented four songs, a by now popular genre he had hitherto neglected. Morzin from continuing his musical interests in this way and Also in the 1780s Haydn was commissioned to write his six at the beginning of the 1760s Haydn was employed by the Paris Symphonies and The Seven Last Words of Christ on the famously rich and influential Esterházy family. From the age Cross which, being very successful, he later arranged for string of twenty-nine Haydn was vice-Kapellmeister to the family, quartet and solo keyboard. During this period Haydn met ̶ 4 ̶ and became friendly with Mozart and it is believed that they Rondo. The piano sonatas composed at this time were those played chamber music together. The young Mozart’s work had numbered 50-52. His great success in London both critical and been greatly influenced by Haydn who had practically invented financial led Haydn to consider taking up residence in the British the string quartet (as a development of his string trios) and capital, but upon the death of Prince Anton Esterházy in 1794, between 1782 and 1785 Mozart wrote six string quartets his successor, Prince Nikolaus II, offered Haydn his old post of which he dedicated to the older composer. The dedication was Kapellmeister. He returned to Vienna and turned his hand to unusual as most compositions would have been dedicated to the form of music of his youth – sacred works for chorus and wealthy patrons at that time. orchestra. His oratorios and were composed at this time, as were six masses for the Esterházy The death of Nikolaus Esterházy in 1790 resulted in his unmusical family and his final series of string quartets. Haydn died in his son and heir dissolving the musical establishment of the court birth town of Rohrau in 1809 at the age of 77. although Haydn was retained at a reduced salary. Fortunately, Johann Salomon, a German living in London, heard of this, and went to Vienna to take Haydn back to London with him. Haydn knew of the success of his compositions in London but could not go there while working full time for the Esterházys, so, with More than 80 piano sonatas have been attributed to Haydn a year’s leave granted by Prince Anton Esterházy, he set sail for yet only twelve survive as autographed manuscripts. Haydn Dover from Calais on New Year’s Day 1791. He was approaching wrote his 62 piano sonatas between the mid-1750s and the sixty years of age, at the height of his fame as a composer, and mid-1790s. The first nineteen sonatas are thought to have in great demand by the press and high society in London. As been written before 1766, the last in 1795 on his second visit he wrote at this time, ‘Except for the nobility, I admit no callers to London. In the few extant autographs of the early works until 2 o’clock.’ Haydn’s symphonies were a great success and Haydn used the title Partita and also Divertimento. Not until his talent was compared in the press to that of Shakespeare. the work in C minor of 1771 (No. 33, Hob.XVI:20), did he use He returned to Vienna in 1792 at Esterházy’s request and took the term Sonata. on a new pupil, Ludwig van Beethoven. In 1794, Haydn was back in London and writing more symphonies, completing Those first sonatas were written as teaching pieces for his the twelfth of his that year: the Drumroll, students, but the twelve that followed (Hob.XVI:21-32) were Military, Surprise and London symphonies were all immensely the first to be published by Haydn, in two sets of six. An English successful as was his G major Piano Trio nicknamed Gypsy critic in 1784 thought they parodied the style of Carl Philip ̶ 6 ̶

Emmanuel Bach, but a German critic four years earlier found autograph manuscripts and the thematic catalogue in Haydn’s ‘a highly pleasing mood and entertaining wit’. It is the wit hand substantiate most of the others. Chronological ordering and humour, often overlooked by pianists, that sets Haydn’s of the early works cannot be accurate, but we have dates for sonatas apart and gives them an added dimension of personal many of the later ones, either of composition or publication. In engagement. The sonatas from around 1779-1784 (Hob.XVI:35- 1957 Anthony von Hoboken used Päsler’s numbering system 39 and 20) are some of the most popular. By now Haydn was for his catalogue of 52 sonatas, but an Urtext edition, prepared a famous composer keen to see that his works were properly by Christa Landon in the 1960s consisted of 62 works albeit represented in print. In a letter of 25 February 1780 to his some only as fragments. Landon’s numbering system is still in publisher Artaria he wrote, ‘I send you herewith the corrected use today and is the one used for this project. proofs of all six Sonatas, and ask you to study them as carefully as possible: those numbers marked in red are the most urgent According to Christa Landon the authenticity of the of all. The approval of the Demoiselles von Auenbrugger is Divertimento in E flat major Hob.XVI:16 is ‘extremely doubtful’ most important to me, for their way of playing and genuine and John McCabe describes it as ‘an oddly uneven work… of insight into music equal those of the great masters.’ anonymous authorship (though certainly not by Haydn)…’ However, according to Robert Levin, in recent times an early The final sonatas written in the ten years after 1784 show copy was discovered in a Franciscan monastery in Bolzano Haydn’s full maturity of style and musicality and it was on 20 revealing close connections with a few of the early Partitas. December 1799 that he signed a forward for Breitkopf & Härtel’s The first movement has a virtuoso flair but lack of musical ‘complete’ edition of his keyboard works. After studying a invention. The Minuet and Trio and Presto finale have charm thematic catalogue of his compositions (from around 1765 to but are inconsequential. 1780), Haydn removed some of the very early ones – ‘those of my early youth, which are not worth preserving’ – and those When we turn to the E flat major Sonata No. 29, Hob.XVI:45 it that were spurious. The resulting 34 sonatas were published is reassuring to find that an autograph manuscript exists and to which five further works were added by Hugo Reimann even has the date of 1766. The first movement has a certain in his edition for Augener of 1895. Breitkopf’s 1918 edition, seriousness to its character while the second section begins edited by Karl Päsler, contained 52 piano sonatas. However, in the dominant minor (B flat minor). The second subject Päsler noted that there were a further eight lost sonatas, the incorporates the Alberti bass but it sounds more melodic first bars of each being written in Haydn’s thematic catalogue. even though providing harmonic support. The Andante, again Authenticity of a few of the (mostly early) sonatas is in doubt, but primarily two part writing, has a vocal quality to the melodic ̶ 8 ̶ line relying on appoggiaturas for emotional effect while the and wit of a Scarlatti sonata and a similar style of writing. Allegro di molto finale is rhythmic and, in places, percussive, employing techniques that appear in Scarlatti’s sonatas. Sonata No. 47, Hob.XVI:32 is in the unusual key of B minor. Neither Mozart nor Beethoven wrote a piano sonata in this As with Sonata No. 29, Sonata No. 32, Hob.XVI:44 has a first key although Mozart used it for his Adagio in B minor where movement marked Moderato and is of an intimate nature pathos and emotional intensity were required. The first with the second subject in the major displaying more wit and movement Allegro moderato has a bold, forthright character humour. Appoggiaturas and suspensions deliver pathos as at the outset, but this is contrasted with other elements in the does the key of G minor. Another interesting feature is the movement – dotted rhythms, a more pleading phrase based second section beginning in the subdominant and a written out on appoggiaturas, scale passages in triplets and a descending cadenza over a held diminished chord. It is these sonatas from chromatic figure in contrary motion, each bar punctuated by a No. 30 onwards that show the influence of C.P.E. Bach as full chord. Some commentators see this as a movement with Haydn develops new ideas. The G minor Sonata has only two a vehement character, but Haydn has too much contrasting movements and the concluding Allegretto is really a minuet material for this and saves his purported vehemence for the with a trio in the major employing the same rhythmic opening. last movement. The delightfulMenuet in B major (an even more The delightful coda briefly returns us to the trio material, rarely used key at the time) has great charm and warmth while ending on a polite and courteous phrase following a flourish the Trio in the minor is like a passing cloud that is forgotten on the dominant seventh. when the Menuet returns. The Finale is a relentless, driving movement commencing with one of Haydn’s repeated note Sonata No. 36, Hob.XVI:21 was the initial sonata of the first set figures that he was so fond of in fast movements. of six published by Haydn in 1774 and written the previous year. The first movement is based on a dotted rhythmic figure, the With the first movement of theSonata No. 52 in G major, Hob. second subject developing directly from it (in the dominant). XVI:39 Haydn reuses material from the second movement, The contrasting rhythmic feature is of triplets. The Adagio in the Scherzando, of his Sonata in C sharp minor, Hob.XVI:36. In F major sees Haydn discarding his two part writing in favour the G major work he uses the theme as a basis for variations of a highly ornamented melody over chordal accompaniment. as the first movement. In the C sharp minor Sonata it is ‘light It is reminiscent of early Beethoven in its use of diminished relief’ in A major after the weight of the first movement in the chords at crucial points and varying use of octaves and thirds in home key. Some commentators have stated that Haydn did descending scale passages. The Presto finale has all the sparkle not realise his duplication of ideas until the work had gone ̶ 10 ̶ to print and requested a disclaimer to be appended – ‘Among Roman Rabinovich – Pianist these six sonatas are two single movements in which the same Praised by The New York Times for his ‘uncommon sensitivity subject occurs through several bars: the author has done this and feeling’, Roman Rabinovich has performed throughout intentionally, to show different methods of treatment.’ Itis Europe and the United States in venues such as London’s difficult to think that Haydn was unaware of this duplication of Wigmore Hall, Leipzig’s Gewandhaus, the Great Hall of the an opening statement before his attention being drawn to it. Moscow Conservatory, the Cité de la Musique in Paris, and the He continues in his letter to his publisher Artaria, ‘For of course Millennium Stage of Kennedy Center in Washington DC. I could have chosen a hundred other ideas instead of this one; but so that whole opus will not be exposed to blame on account Lauded as ‘a master of tone-colour’ (International Piano, 2018), of this one intentional detail (which the critics and especially my Rabinovich made his Israel Philharmonic début under the baton enemies might interpret wrongly), I think that this avertissement of Zubin Mehta at age ten. He was a top prizewinner at the 12th or something like it must be appended, otherwise the sale Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in might be hindered thereby.’ The Allegro con brio of Sonata No. 2008, while in 2015, he was selected by Sir András Schiff as 52 is a theme and variations, the first in the minor, and there one of three pianists for the inaugural Building Bridges series, is an interlude in E minor using dotted rhythms throughout. created to highlight young pianists of unusual promise. The Adagio, one of Haydn’s beautiful slow movements, has a grandeur in its opening statement while the second subject Rabinovich has earned critical praise for his explorations of in the dominant soars above an Alberti bass, the movement the piano music of Haydn, which include a 42 sonata cycle ending with a written out improvisation. The Prestissimo, a at the Bath International Festival, and partial cycles at the gossamer confection foreshadowing Mendelssohn, is Haydn’s Lammermuir Festival and ChamberFest Cleveland. The New development of the ideas and style of Scarlatti. York Times has hailed Rabinovich’s Haydn performances as ‘admirable interpretations, performed with a rich, full-blooded © 2018 Jonathan Summers sound, singing lines and witty dexterity’.

Born in Tashkent, Rabinovich took his first piano lessons from his parents, before immigrating to Israel with his family in 1994, where he continued his piano studies with Arie Vardi. He went on to graduate from the Curtis Institute of Music as a student of Seymour Lipkin, and earned ̶ 12 ̶ his Master’s Degree at The Juilliard School where he studied Scan the QR code below for a video animation of Haydn's with Robert McDonald. Divertimento in E flat major, Hob.XVI:16: I. Andante Roman Rabinovich, piano and drawings Dubbed ‘a true polymath, in the Renaissance sense of the Adam McRae, animation word’ (Seen & Heard International, 2016), Rabinovich is also a composer and visual artist. He often includes his own compositions in his recital programmes. His first recording, of transcriptions of ballet music by Ravel, Prokofiev and Stravinsky for Orchid Classics (ORC100028), including his own transcriptions and artwork, received critical acclaim. www.romanrabinovich.net

Recorded at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York City, USA, 24-30 October 2016 24bit, 88.2kHz hi-resolution recording and mastering Produced by Michael Brown and Adam Golka Engineered by Leszek Wójcik assisted by Noriko Okabe and Shao-Ting Sun Edited by Leszek Wójcik Mastering and artwork by David Murphy (FHR) Album drawings by Roman Rabinovich Photo on page 11 taken by Balázs Böröcz – Pilvax Studio, and on page 14 by Sergei Narinsky Piano: Steinway Model D, ‘Chantal’, serial #594337, tuned and voiced by Tali Mahanor

Roman Rabinovich thanks Susan Rose for her contribution to making this recording possible FHR thanks Peter Bromley, Nicolas Papageorgiou, Roman Rabinovich and Jonathan Summers ̶ 13 ̶