All Haydn Symphonies To Be Recorded

Press, Volume C, Issue 29508, 9 May 1961, Page 9

All Haydn Symphonies To Be Recorded

IBy the Music Critic of "The Times"]

One of the most ambitious musical projects of recent years has been launched in Vienna: to print in critcal editions the scores of all 104 Haydn symphonies and to record them all as the new editions appear.

The sponsor of this staggering project is the enterprising Universal Edition, which has taken over the legacy of the now defunct Haydn Society, under whose auspices three volumes of the symphonies (Nos, 50-57, 82-92) had been issued.

The Universal Edition has continued to project with a number of early, middle and late works, of which the most important are undoubtedly the critical editions of Symphonies Nos. 96 and 98. works which Haydn wrote in London but the authentic texts of which have not been available since the composer’s day. The rest of the Salomon Symphonies are to follow in the course of the next year. The editors are the late Dr. Helmut Schultz of Leipzig, the late Dr. Alfred Einstein and H. C. Robbins Landon.

Musicology is a science which hardly appeals to the layman. The intricate question of primary and secondary sources, missing staccato dots and dubious phrasing slurs seem—quite rightly—matters of minor importance to the average music lover. In Haydn’s case, however, the new editions show that, except for a stray performance in the Third Pro-

gramme or in concerts with Harry Newstone or Harry Blech, we hardly know even the famous scores as they were written.

The trumpet and timpani parts were simplified in the nineteenth century, and these bowdlerised versions are the ones included in all previous printed editions of the parts. Occasionally solo violin parts for Haydn’s leader, J. P. Salomon, were omitted, as in Symphony No. 97 in C; and in No. 98 a whole solo harpsichord part, which Haydn himself played (according to a contemporary report) ’’with the utmost accuracy and precision” was never printed at all, even in the eighteenth century. Varnish Removed Whole series of dynamic marks have been changed in the course of the years; daring harmonies were watered down by hacks in Breitkopf and Hartel’s Leipzig offices. The new editions show Haydn's music in colours far fresher and more vivid—much as if layers of varnish had been scraped from a masterpiece, revealing once again the long-forgotten richness of the original conception.

The recordings are under the musical supervision of Mr Max Goberman, the American conductor, who is simultaneously engaged in no less a feat than the complete recording of all Vivaldi’s instrumental works. When Mr Goberman arrived in Vienna last autumn to begin the

series, his name was all but unknown to the musicians of the State Opera Orchestra, with whom all 104 Haydn symphonies are to be recorded. After the initial recording sessions, however, it became clear that these will be records of exceptional quality. One can hardly call to mind a similar case of a littleknown conductor taking Vienna musically by storm. Not only were they impressed with his knowledge of the scores —he knew them all by heart—but it was at once obvious that Mr Goberman has an extraordinary knowledge of Haydn’s style. We cannot remember any other conductor except Sir Thomas Beecham who understood so well the springy, nervous intensity of Haydn’s early symphonies and the opulent, forceful style of the later works.

Generally, conductors grasp the basic musical feeling of Haydn’s quick movements and fail in the more poetic atmosphere of the adagios: many of our young Haydn specialists are prone to this cool treatment. It is perhaps Mr Goberman’s ability to switch rapidly from one mood to another which makes his Haydn interpretations so distinguished. The initial group included Symphonies Nos. 6 7,8, 12, 13, 21, 22, 23, 24, 40, 41, 51, 56, 60, 96, and 98. They are to be issued on subscription in America by the Library of Recorded Masterpieces (who are also the sponsors of the Vivaldi complete works); so far no arrangements have been made for the records to be available in Europe. One of the original ideas of Mr Goberman’s side of the

project is that each album is to contain the miniature score of the works.

Mr Goberman intends to broaden his Haydn series to include all the operas, which Haydn scholars now consider to be almost as important as his symphonies, Masses or string quartets.