|
|
alternatively
CD: AmazonUK
AmazonUS
Download: Classicsonline
|
Franz Joseph
HAYDN (1732-1809)
The Complete Masses and Stabat Mater
Ann
Hoyt, Julie Liston, Sharla Nafziger, Nacole Palmer, Nina Faia, (sopranos);
Luthien Brakett, Kirsten Sollek, Hai-Ting Chinn (altos); Stephen Sands,
Matthew Hughes, Daniel Mutlu, Nathan Davis, Daniel Neer, Matthew Hensrud,
(tenors); Richard Lippold, Bert K Johnson, Andrew Nolen, (basses);
Trinity Choir; Dongsok Shin (organ);
Rebel Baroque Orchestra/J Owen Burdick, Jane Glover
rec. May 2001-September 2008, Trinity Church, New York
NAXOS 8.508009 [8 CDs: 489:21] |
|
The many CDs and sets issued in this anniversary year have provided
an opportunity to rethink our reactions to Haydn’s output
and to explore lesser known parts of it. The sheer quantity
that he wrote as well as its quality means that demands on our
purses and our time are already considerable, but I do urge
you very strongly to make room for this issue. It contains some
of Haydn’s very greatest and most life-affirming music
in performances that match those qualities to a quite extraordinary
degree. Whatever mood I have been in or however I have felt
before listening to these discs I have always finished feeling
markedly better. What a composer and what performances!
The last six of Haydn’s Masses, from the Missa in tempore
belli (Hob.XXII.9) to the Harmoniemesse (Hob.XXII.14),
are clearly amongst his greatest works but getting their character
right in performance is much more difficult than one might suppose.
I have listened to many performances live and on disc that simply
missed the point by being too heavy, technically inadequate,
badly balanced or just plain dull. The great virtue of the performances
here is their constant alertness to the changing character of
the music, and to its essential underlying rhythms. The words
“dancing”, “bouncy” and “characterful”
appear repeatedly in my notes. The performances are not perfect
but the music’s underlying humanity is never in doubt.
This applies possibly even more to the earlier and less frequently
performed works. The Nikolaimesse for instance has a
delightful rural charm, whereas the Cäcilienmesse is
presented without apology as the amazing and virtuoso collection
of styles that it comprises. I still find the Stabat Mater
one of the composer’s less interesting works, but
even this work seemed much more enjoyable than usual in this
fresh, unstuffy and very clear performance.
What makes all of this surprising is that none of the performers,
apart from Jane Glover who took over for the last three recordings,
is well known, at least on this side of the Atlantic, and yet
my comparisons give them the edge over starrier versions by
Hickox, Guest and Bernstein - to mention a few I have listened
to recently. The choir is that of Trinity Church, Wall Street,
New York, and all the soloists are drawn from it. Bearing in
mind Haydn’s virtuoso writing especially for the sopranos
this might seem like a recipe for disaster but in fact the uniformly
high quality of the soloists is one of the great glories of
the set. Ann Hoyt, in particular, who sings soprano solos on
most of the earlier recordings, is fully the equal of most of
the much better known soloists on earlier sets. Her somewhat
boy-like purity of tone and her sensitivity to the text and
musical line are worth returning to over and over again. Maybe
she is helped a little by the recording - it is difficult to
judge the size of her voice as recorded - but the effect as
it is presented here is stunning. Her main successor in the
later recordings under Jane Glover - Nicole Palmer - is more
conventional in tone but still well in command of the music.
The many other soloists are also good, and above all work as
a team, an essential quality in these works.
Unsurprisingly the rest of the choir are of a similar high standard,
singing with accuracy, musicality and fervour which it would
be hard to beat. The orchestra, sometimes listed as the REBEL
Baroque Orchestra and at others as the Rebel Baroque Orchestra,
are a period instrument group who play with real character.
One surprise is the organ, which makes a delightfully burbling
sound in its solo moments, but is apparently a digital instrument,
the church’s pipe organ having been severely damaged on
9/11. [see footnote]
The real hero of the set is however the main conductor, J Owen
Burdick, who was director of music at Trinity Church from 1990
to 2008 when he left under difficult circumstances. The bouncing
rhythms, clear textures, varied articulation and sheer exuberance
are surely the result of his work, and the great success of
this set is largely the result of these factors. He does have
some idiosyncrasies, certainly, in particular his liking for
heavy slowing down at the end of sections of the Mass. After
a while I came to expect this, if never to enjoy it, but it
is a small price to pay for the quality of the rest of the performances.
The three performances conducted by Jane Glover are clearly
different in style, to my ears more conventional in their underlying
rhythmic attack, but they are by no means an unworthy conclusion
to the series.
Although the title of the box is “The Complete Haydn Masses”
it does not include the two early Masses “Missa Sunt
bona mixta malis” (Hob.XXII.2) and “Missa
Rorate coeli desuper” (Hob.XXII.3). A note explains
that this is because they are both fragmentary and of uncertain
provenance, but given the relatively short length of some of
the discs there would have been ample space for them, and perhaps
also for some of the shorter sacred works such as the Te
Deum. The Stabat Mater is included, getting a whole
disc to itself, raising the issue as to why the choral version
of The Seven Last Words might not also have been included.
All of this is however unimportant. What matters is that this
is set gives amazing satisfaction in music of supreme quality.
For me this has been the highlight of my anniversary year listening.
John Sheppard
Footnote - message received:
Though the church's organ is a digital organ, for all the Haydn
recordings, a small Klop pipe organ was brought in. I know,
since I was the performer on most of the recordings, and the
tuner for all of them.
Kindest regards,
Dongsok Shin
(Keyboard player for REBEL Baroque Orchestra)
Summary of disc contents:
CD1 Stabat Mater Hob.XXbis (1767) [57:21]
CD2 Missa Cellensis in honorem BVM, “Cäcilienmesse”,
in C major Hob.XXII:5 (1766-c1776) [65:16]
CD3 Missa Sancti Nicholai, “Nikolaimesse”, in
G major Hob.XXII:6 (1772) [25:46]
Missa in angustiie, “Nelsonmesse”, in D minor
Hob.XXII;11 (1798) [38:46]
CD4 Missa Cellensis, “Mariazellermesse”, in C
major Hob.XXII:8 (1782) [34:03]
Missa in tempore belli, “Paukenmesse”, in C
major Hob.XXII:9 (1796) [37:34]
CD5 Missa in honorem BVM, “Grosse Orgelsolomesse”,
in Eb major Hob.XXII:4 (1768-9) [33:49]
Missa Sancti Bernardi von Offida, “Heligmesse”,
in Bb major Hob.XXII:10 [34:25]
CD6 Missa Brevis in F major Hob.XXII:1 (1749) [11:41]
Missa, “Harmoniemesse” in Bb major Hob.XXII:14
(1802) [40:30]
CD7 Missa Brevis in F major (1805 revision) Hob.XXII:1 (1749-1805)
[11:56]
Missa, “Schöpfungmesse”, in Bb major Hob.XXII:13
(1801) [41:01]
CD8 Missa Brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo, “Kleine Orgelsolomesse”,
in Bb major Hob.XXII:7 (1774) [15:59]
Missa, “Theresienmesse” in Bb major HOB.XXII:12
(1799) [39:52]
|
|
|