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Haydn in Love - Haydn, Mozart: Gary Cooper (fortepiano), Madeleine Easton (1st violin), Albrecht Kuhner (2nd violin) Jane Rogers (viola), Catherine Rimer (cello) of The Hanover Band, Old Market, Hove, 17.5.2009 (RA)

Haydn: Piano Trio in G Hob XXV Gypsy Rondo
Mozart: Piano Concerto No 12 in A K414
Haydn: Piano Trio in A Hob XVIII
Mozart: Piano Concerto No 13 in C K415.

Forget the title — it will not have mattered to anyone who were drawn to this compelling programme for the power of its popular content or for a combination of composers rarely-heard outside Vienna drawing rooms of the late 18th century. It was romantic enough to hear characteristic Haydn chamber masterworks alongside Mozart’s own instrumental reductions of two of his flowering mid-period concerti from at least 10 years earlier. Particularly attractive was the cherished Haydn ‘Gypsy Rondo’ trio in G.

To hear these pieces live on fortepiano with period strings from the principals of The Hanover Band was a pleasure in this mouth-watering concert. It formed an adjunct to the Old Market’s own 10th Coffee Concert chamber music series that ran through the winter months. Its position as an independent presentation in the middle of the Brighton Festival, plus cool and showery weather, coupled  with the effects of the recession and the need for audience selectivity probably conspired to dampen the footfall through the door.

Those who did attend were either true aficionados or the hungrily curious. Awaiting them in the middle of the floor was Dr Stephen Cole’s Rosenberger fortepiano. Modelled on a 1795 example, spectacularly cased in cherry wood, the size of a large harpsichord, with five and a half octaves in reversed black and white keys. It, in turn, awaited soloist Gary Cooper.

Cooper seems a horse bred for heavy workloads.  The combination of his recording fixtures, solo work and directing engagements across Europe, North America and Asia, which loom among his college teaching commitments in Wales, Birmingham, York and London’s Royal College of Music make for an onerous annual itinerary.

As a Bach and Mozart specialist, playing not one but two of Mozart’s catalogue in the same two hours as two Haydn trios — which, by the composer’s own admission, are piano works with string duo accompaniment — Cooper sets himself a very full and demanding morning at the keyboard. The authentic balance of the instruments was the most striking overall impression; forget the modern domination of a concert grand. Cooper considerately recommended the audience in-the-round behind the raised piano lid to find vacant seats in front of or to the side. Just as well, because even in the best-placed seats, the audience had to concentrate to pick out the piano from the strings.

The performances were completely absorbing. The music was never truly loud, although the swell of Mozart’s opening tutti to his vigorous Concerto No 13 in C, with pianoforte bass continuo, aspired startlingly to the orchestral scale of the fully-scored version. This and the melodic Concerto No 12 in A K414 were written consecutively in 1782. In this domesticated version of No 12, Mozart goes without his pairs of oboes and horns. In No 13, it is these instruments, plus braces of bassoons, trumpets and drums that are omitted.

Cooper explained the limitations of the fortepiano’s dynamic range with his physical emphasis lying with the fingerwork. This laid down a tougher challenge that demanded character from his playing. His decorations were sufficiently interesting and stimulating, and his cadenzas in the C Major K 415 had their rewards. One wondered if his imagination suffered from the sheer amount of notes he had to get through in this special concert.

Cooper was never out of the spotlight and he compounded that by choosing to be a host and to read from Haydn’s contemporary letters.

But just what was it with that title, “Haydn In Love”? I don’t remember being given an explanation. When Cooper announced that Haydn’s first fascinating impressions of London in 1791 were written to his patron Frau Marianna von Gesinger, I think he neglected to tell us that she was a close friend of Haydn, who himself was a genuine friend of her family. Not a love interest, though. Haydn hit London at the age of 59, but there he came to regret not being legally liberated to marry a widow in her 40s called Rebecca Schroeter.

Woolly links, if any, with the music. But if it needs only to be a tenuous connection, then Haydn and Mozart were in a kind of love. When Haydn left for London, Mozart bade him farewell and wept, knowing he would never meet again the first truly great composer to assess fully and treasure his (Mozart’s own) talent. And, sure enough, Mozart was soon dead.

The mutual admiration led naturally to a two-way influence.

The trios we heard contained Haydn’s beloved employment of the unusual and surprising. Mozart’s C major concerto, concluding the concert, ends most unexpectedly. Quiet, calm, yet logical; no playing to the gallery. Had Mozart been writing it with Haydn in mind, there would have been no need. It felt like a knowing, probably conspiratorial wink between the two.

Richard Amey

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