MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
CD: AmazonUK AmazonUS
Download: Classicsonline

 

Franz Joseph HAYDN (1732–1809)

Horn Concerto No.1 in D, Hob VIId:3 (1762) [15:52]

Harpsichord Concerto in D, Hob XVIII:2 (1750s? perhaps 1767) [24:49]

Double Concerto in F, for violin and fortepiano, Hob XVIII:6 (1756) [18:03]

Trumpet Concerto in Eb, Hob VIIe:1 (1796) [14:10]

Dmitri Babanov (horn); Harald Hoeren (harpsichord, fortepiano); Ariadne Daskalakis (violin); Jürgen Schuster (trumpet)

Cologne Chamber Orchestra/Helmut Müller–Brühl

rec. 23–27 February 2007, Deutschlandfunk Kammermusiksaal, Köln, Germany. DDD
NAXOS 8.570482 [72:52] 

 

Experience Classicsonline


Perhaps it’s a terrible admission to make, but much as I love Haydn, I have never really warmed to his concertos. Here, I thought, was the father of the Symphony as we know it today, the String Quartet as we know it today, and the foundation of opera. OK, I know that Mozart had an hand in the development of all these forms but it was Haydn who got things going. Sure enough, there’s drama and poetry aplenty in the pieces mentioned but concertos? Where’s the dramatic interplay between soloist and orchestra? Where’s the element of man standing alone against the crowd?
 

Then along comes this disk and I suddenly have to re–think my position. It had never dawned on me that the concept of protagonist and lynch mob hadn’t been invented at the time Haydn was writing his concerted works. So now I can see them in a different light for what they are – wonderful entertainment music with prominent parts for solo instruments. 

I’m glad that I’ve been able to change my views and can now enjoy these works for they are delightful. The Horn Concerto which opens the disk is full of good things, the writing for horn is certainly virtuosic – the range which Haydn demands of his performer is phenomenal – and here Babanov is quite happy whether he plays in the highest or lowest registers. Haydn goes to both extremes and exploits the full range of the instrument. The work also includes two quite taxing cadenzas. It is thought that the work was written for Joseph Leutgeb, the recipient of Mozart’s four Horn Concertos - he must have been some player! And what a lucky man to have five such magnificent works created for him! 

The Harpsichord Concerto is full of great jokes. I especially love the jumping frog impression which the keyboard undertakes at 1:37 in the first movement. There’s lots of interplay between soloist and orchestra, more than in the wind concertos, but this is probably because Haydn knew that his soloist wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the accompaniment as easily as in the other works. The slow movement contains many little jokes with grace notes cheekily sticking their noses into the serious business of tunefulness. The finale is simply a fast romp. 

The Double Concerto is thought to have started life as a work for organ. It is considered to have been performed for the solemn profession of Therese Keller, Haydn’ future sister–in–law, as a nun in 1756 – the proof being that the range used by the fortepiano is restricted to the range of the contemporary Viennese organ. Certainly, this is a more serious work, more stately, than the others contained herein. The two soloists never engage in overt display and more often than not they connect in harmonious duet. Rather lovely it is, too. The finale is fast and joyful, but there’s still a serious undertone to the music. 

Thanks to the solo trumpet repertoire being quite small, until contemporary composers started writing for it, Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto has become very well known. It’s a true virtuoso work with a gorgeous slow movement and a racy finale. 

The performances here are first class, with lots of life and a real period feel. There’s nothing prissy or restrained about them - they’re really very alive. Thoroughly enjoyable. 

I must make two points. First of all, in almost every movement, for reasons best known to himself, Müller–Brühl insists on making huge rallentandi at the ends of movements. This  ruins the flow of what has gone before. It is a blemish on the performances. 

My second point is rather more important. The sound is in Naxos’s best manner – bright and clear. In the Trumpet Concerto the balance between soloist and orchestra is perfect. The whole sound is well focused and there is a good relationship between listener and performer. However, in the other three works the recording is very close which slightly distorts the sound-picture as everything comes across as being overblown. The obviously small string orchestra ends up sounding like a small orchestra which has been over–amplified. This is most noticeable in the slow movements where a more intimate atmosphere is required than in the faster pieces. If you turn the volume down in the hope of taming the sound you lose some of the presence of the performances. This is a shame for these are spritely performances which are real winners and will do much to make these works better known to the public. 

This is well worth having, despite my reservations about the sound. If you can tame it ever so slightly – it doesn’t need much – you’ll have a really good time listening to very pleasurable music.

Bob Briggs 





 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.