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             


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

REVIEW


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

 

 

Buy through MusicWeb
for £12 postage paid World-wide.

Musicweb Purchase button

Joseph HAYDN (1732-1809) Te Deum for chorus, orchestra and organ in C major, Hob. XXIIIc:2 (c. 1798/1800) [9:08]
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827) Cantata on the Death of the Emperor Joseph II, for soloists, chorus, and orchestra, WoO87 (1790) [37:46]
Cantata on the Accession of Emperor Leopold II, WoO 88 (1790) [25:09]
Eva Müllerová (soprano); Edita Adlerová (mezzo); Aleš Vorácek (tenor); Matej Chadima (bass); Alexandra Pridalová (flute); Jirí Šlechta (cello); Jan Steyer (harpsichord/organ); The Prague Mixed Choir/Jan Steyer, Jirí Petrdlík
Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra of South Bohemia/Jirí Petrdlík
rec. live, 13-14 June 2012, Otakar Jeremias Concert Hall, Ceské Budejovice, Czech Republic
No sung texts provided
ARCO DIVA, UP 0148-2 131 [72:16]

Experience Classicsonline



 
This release from Czech label Arco Diva is a live recording of two concerts held in June 2012.. The programme is of three rarely heard works separated by only ten years. Arco Diva has titled this release Cantatas ad honorem Austriae domus which has been translated for me as Cantatas in honour of the Austrian Court.
 
The Haydn work is a traditional hymn of joy and thanksgiving and is thought to have been performed for the Empress Marie Therese during the visit of Lord Horatio Nelson with Lady Hamilton to the Esterházy palace at Eisenstadt in 1800. Richly scored and splendidly concise the Te deum is a product of the final decade of Haydn’s life demonstrating his firm command of contrapuntal forms. It seems that this cheerful work, overflowing with pious conviction, fell into neglect for many decades before undergoing a revival around the time of the 150th anniversary of Haydn’s death in 1959. Haydn did compose another Te deum Hob.XXIIIc:1 which is also in the key of C major. It originated from the composer’s early years at the Esterházy court, first performed it seems in 1763 at Eisenstadt.
 
I have a highly recommendable account of the Te deum, Hob. XXIIIc:2 splendidly performed with compelling sacred devotion conducted by Ferenc Fricsay and the RIAS Chamber Choir, North German Radio Choir and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. Fricsay recorded the score live at Sender Freies Berlin in 1961 and this is now one of ‘The Originals’ series on Deutsche Grammophon 289 463 612-2 (c/w Mozart: Great Mass in C minor, K427). Another account of Hob. XXIIIc:2 that I admire using period instruments was recorded by the Arnold Schoenberg Choir and the Concentus musicus Wien directed by Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Recorded in 1996 at Casino Zögernitz, Vienna the performance is part of an impressive 6-disc box set of Haydn sacred music featuring four late Masses on Warner Classics 2564 69939-8.
 
Beethoven was aged only nineteen in 1790 when he composed these two pieces. For the pair of cantatas Beethoven used a text by Anton Severin Averdonk that was chosen by the Reading Society of Bonn who commissioned the works. It is known that both cantatas were never performed during Beethoven’s lifetime. Only very rarely are these scores performed and I should think that even their very existence is unknown to many Beethoven admirers. Beethoven had experienced the death of his own mother and whilst writing the lengthy Joseph Cantata would in all probability have been able to empathise with the feeling of intense grief that prevailed after the untimely death of Emperor Joseph II.
 
The aria Da kam Joseph (Then came Joseph) is sung with a dark threatening tone by the impressive Prague bass Matej Chadima. A real highlight was the aria for soprano with chorus ‘Da stiegen die Menschen an’s Licht’ (Then mankind climb toward the light). Incidentally in the booklet it incorrectly states ‘bass’ not ‘soprano’. Soprano Eva Müllerová was initially a touch unsteady before settling down satisfactorily. The Czech soprano does rather grab at the top notes and sounds slightly shrill but overall this remains an attractive and enthusiastic performance. At point 3:05 (track 5) the moment when the soprano is joined quietly by the choir is quite magical and another highlight of the release. Some excellent woodwind playing is a pleasing feature of this aria and the disc overall.
 
The Leopold Cantata is a jubilant work written to celebrate the accession of Emperor Leopold II to the imperial throne. I especially enjoyed the soprano aria ‘Fliesse, Wonnezähre, fliesse!’ (Flow, tears of joy, flow!) with its prominent flute and cello parts. Required to sing with operatic coloratura Eva Müllerová imparts drama to Beethoven’s demanding writing. The slight shrillness and note-grabbing is still evident but the overall effect is satisfying. Once again the obbligato parts for cello and flute add extra colour. Another rather operatic touch is the inclusion of the trio for soprano, tenor and bass ‘Ihr, die Joseph ihren Vater nannten, weint nicht mehr!’ (You, who called Joseph your father, cry no more!). In a fine performance the voices of soloists Eva Müllerová, Aleš Vorácek and Matej Chadima blend exceedingly well.
Probably the best known recording that includes both the Joseph Cantata and the Leopold Cantata is from Matthew Best conducting a fine group of soloists and the Corydon Singers and Orchestra. Best made this admirable recording in 1997 at the Blackheath Concert Halls, London. It can be found on Hyperion CDA 66880.
 
These performances are full of vitality and intensity. I was pleased with Petrdlík’s committed approach and well judged tempi, however, when compared to my recommended accounts the contributions of the soloists sounded a touch uneven with the Prague choir and South Bohemia orchestra not quite able to match the level of expression and unison.
 
Even though this Arco Diva release is aimed at the English-speaking world as well as the Czech home market disappointingly there are no texts included. The listener is left frustrated at not being able to understand what is being sung. I know some of the meaning of the Latin Te Deum laudamus (O God, we praise Thee) but certainly not the whole text. It’s high time that this practice of leaving out texts (and translation where necessary) from the booklet ceased. No texts have been made available on the Arco Diva website either. Recorded at the Otakar Jeremias Concert Hall in Ceské Budejovice the sound quality is agreeable. This is a live recording and some audience noise is slightly detectable but nothing too problematic. The engineers have left in the applause after the final score only.
 
In short this is a fascinating and well performed release that Beethoven and Haydn enthusiasts will want to consider owning.
 
Michael Cookson
 

 

 

 

 


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






Error processing SSI file