CORO THE MOZArt TRILOGY CORO Mozart: Mass in C minor Harry Christophers & Handel and Haydn Society cor16084 Gillian Keith, Tove Dahlberg, Thomas Cooley, Nathan Berg “…a commanding and compelling reading of an important if often overlooked monument in Mozart’s musical development.” gramophone recommended HAYDN Mozart: Requiem Harry Christophers & Handel and Haydn Society Symphony No. 6 Le matin cor16093 Elizabeth Watts, Phyllis Pancella, Andrew Kennedy, Eric Owens “A Requiem full of life … Mozart’s final masterpiece has never sounded so exciting.” classic fm magazine Symphony No. 82 L’ours Violin Concerto in G major Mozart: Coronation Mass Haydn: Symphony No. 85 La Reine cor16104 Harry Christophers & Handel and Haydn Society Teresa Wakim, Paula Murrihy, Thomas Cooley, Sumner Thompson “This disc captures the vitality and theatricality Christophers has made a hallmark of his work with the H&H chorus.” the boston globe Harry Christophers Handel and Haydn Society To find out more about CORO and to buy CDs visit Aisslinn Nosky violin www.thesixteen.com cor16113 ne of the many delights of being Artistic Director of America’s oldest continuously and sadly are still seldom performed. We are here to redress that and we start with his Operforming arts organisation, the Handel and Haydn Society, is that I am given G major. Aisslinn’s stylistic awareness and her inventiveness is a constant delight and the opportunity to present most of our concert season at Boston’s glorious Symphony inspiration to us all and her rendition certainly brings Haydn’s intentions to life. Hall. Built in 1900, it is principally the home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, but it has been our primary performance home since 1900 as well, and it is considered by I feel very privileged to take this august Society towards its Bicentennial; yes, the many, with some justification I would add, to be one of the finest concert halls in the Handel and Haydn Society was founded in 1815. Handel was the old, Haydn the new world. It is that classic ‘shoebox style’ reminiscent of the Musikverein in Vienna; the (he had just died in 1809), and what we can do is continue to perform the music of the acoustics are quite superb and, despite its size – c.2500 capacity, perfect for playing on past but strip away the cobwebs and reveal it anew. This recording of music by Haydn period instruments. was made possible by individuals who are inspired by the work of the Handel and Haydn Society. Our sincere thanks go to all of them. On this live recording, we present a programme devoted to that Master of the Symphony, Franz Joseph Haydn, where you can witness first hand the development from his early symphony Le matin to his much later Paris symphony L’o u r s . The first concert I ever gave with H&H was at the Esterházy Palace in Eisenstadt in September 2006. We performed Le matin in the Haydnsaal on the very stage Haydn first performed it for his new employer, Prince Paul Anton Ersterhazy, under the ceiling paintings of Le “… Handel and Haydn pulled all this off with vivid color, a crisp attention to detail, and matin, Le midi and Le soir – a very clever way for Haydn to impress his new employer. a palpable joie de vivre – which is everything in Haydn….” These are very much concertante symphonies with the flute, bassoon and violin taking Thomas Garvey / the hub review centre stage. Thirty years later and Haydn’s fame had spread across Europe. Although he was still employed at court, Parisians in particular had taken Haydn’s music to “This was a wonderful performance. Nosky was marvelous, exhibiting stimulating their hearts. Symphony No. 82 shows just how much his symphonies had transformed rapport with the audience, and excellent communication with the orchestra.” from those early years, not only in orchestral size but also in individuality. It’s been Michael E. Ruhling, President, Haydn Society of North America nicknamed ‘The Bear’, and if you listen to the opening of the finale there is an animal- like vigour and excitement in that heavy drone-like bass line; this is a very European “Christophers offered a reading of dramatic contrasts, from the thunder-and-lightning symphony full of French grace and German rusticity. timpani and waltzing strings of the first movement to the hopping sparrows of the allegretto second to the sly false endings of the finale. The bear that danced to this Over the next few years, our inspirational concert master, Aisslinn Nosky, will be performance would have to be very light on its feet.” recording all of Haydn’s violin concertos. They were not published until the 20th century Jeffrey Gantz / the boston globe 2 3 Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) Symphony No. 6 in D major, Hob.I/6 Le matin Violin Concerto in G major, Hob.VIIa/4 Symphony No. 6 in D major, Hob.I/6 Le matin 1 Adagio – Allegro 5.55 Symphony No. 82 in C major, Hob.I/82 L’ o u r s 2 Adagio – Andante – Adagio 7.10 3 Menuet & Trio 5.06 hen Haydn joined the service of One can readily imagine the easy- 4 Allegro 4.34 WPrince Paul Anton Esterházy in going composer enjoying a pleasantly 1761, his post as Vice-Kapellmeister relaxed working relationship with the carried very clearly defined duties, one musicians under his command, even Violin Concerto in G major, Hob.VIIa/4 of which was ‘to compose such pieces of if we did not know that in 1765 the Aisslinn Nosky violin & leader music as his Serene Princely Highness jealous, increasingly marginalised 5 Allegro moderato 8.57 may command’ for performance at his Werner wrote to the Prince to complain 6 Adagio 5.49 palatial residences in Vienna and at about ‘the lazy idleness of the whole 7 Allegro 3.51 Eisenstadt, some 25 miles outside the band, the principal responsibility for city. In effect, this meant that while the which must be laid at the door of the Symphony No. 82 in C major, Hob.I/82 L’our s ageing Kapellmeister, Gregor Joseph present director, who lets them get 8 Vivace assai 8.04 Werner, looked after the church music, away with everything, so as to receive 9 Allegretto 7.13 Haydn’s job was to write for and direct a the name of a good Heyden’. bl Menuetto & Trio 4.50 small orchestra recently recruited from bm Finale: Vivace 7.43 among the ranks of Vienna’s freelance Happier evidence, though, is provided players. Haydn himself had formerly by the fact that ‘Heyden’ was raised Total running time 69.19 made a living in this way, and many to the Kapellmeister’s job on Werner’s members of the band were his friends. death in 1766, and also by the music he 4 5 had already written for the ensemble, matin. No one familiar with Haydn’s an A-B-A structure in which two as Kapellmeister came up for renewal which includes concertos for the oratorios The Creation and The adagio sections frame a longer central in 1779 a small change was made that violinist Luigi Tomasini, the cellist Seasons could fail to recognise the andante. The adagios, in 4/4, display was to have a profound effect on his Joseph Weigl, the double-bass player slow introduction as descriptive of a an elegant skill in overlapping, slow- fortunes. Previously, anything Haydn Johann Georg Schwenda, the flautist sunrise, to note the brief, cockerel-like moving counterpoint reminiscent composed became the exclusive Franz Sigl, and the horn players Johann second theme on violins or smile at the of Corelli’s concerti grossi, while the property of the Prince, but from now Knoblauch and Thaddeus Steinmüller. subsequent birdish chirpings from the 3/4 andante is dominated by solos for on this would no longer be the case. In addition, several of the symphonies woodwind. Perhaps these were enough violin and cello in a more dainty and The concession not only bestowed of the early 1760s made a point of in themselves to give Haydn the idea up-to-date galant manner. Was this official recognition on Haydn’s providing these talented musicians for the trilogy of titles, but certainly he a deliberate juxtaposition of old and growing international reputation, it with solo passages, many of which did not normally need to rely on such new styles to bring a smile to the lips also enabled him to profit from it have something of the air of private stimuli; solid and engaging musical of the Prince, a lover of earlier Italian for the first time by selling his works jokes. These symphonies include the argument was quite enough for him composers such as Vivaldi, Albinoni abroad, where they were already popular trilogy Le matin (Morning), Le to work with. The main body of the and Tartini? Wind colourings then known and admired via unauthorised midi (Midday) and Le soir (Evening), first movement gains much colour return for the Menuet, whose central publications and performances from believed to have been first performed and energy by its instrumentation, too, Trio with solos for bassoon and which he had received little or no at the Prince’s palace in Vienna in May from the setting out of the first theme double-bass has something of the dark income. Ultimately it would lead to the or June 1761 and thus among the very shared between solo flute and oboe, to but jaunty grotesquery of a Rameau triumphs of the London visits of the first works Haydn composed for him.