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Site review by Polly Nomial January 25, 2006
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Performance: Sonics (S/MC): / |
This disc brings a previously "unknown" work to my attention: La fedelta premiata, a dazzling overture complete with off-stage french horns. I say "unknown", as the overture was also used as the finale to Haydn's 73rd symphony "La Chasse". Unusually for the time, the overture ends very delicately - spirited playing throughout with a real "bite" to the instruments.
The 92nd or "Oxford" symphony has a quiet beginning to the Adagio introduction and seems to almost grow out of the silence - very pleasing. As the dynamic and finally the tempo increases, the soundstage has a most enjoyable environment. The playing is very accomplished at no time does the conducting interfere with my enjoyment of Haydn's music. The adagio is then played at a nicely measured but flowing tempo with beautiful phrasing, in particular, from the oboe player who just floats over the strings. That is, until the dramatic central section which is given due weight. The Menuet is a believable dance (the most important change thanks to HIP?) with accents giving the changes to emphasis across the bar the appropriate feeling of awkwardness. The finale is played with plenty of fire, and as in the rest of the symphony, the use of historical instruments allows accents to register very vividly (particularly from the timpani).
The final work on this (rather short measure at 51'12) disc is the "Surprise" or 94th symphony. Much of the same properties as in the "Oxford" apply here, and I shall only detail the (important) differences. Here the Andante is conducted at a faster but not significantly faster tempo, metronomically speaking, as the 92nd's Adagio but the difference in material means that this doesn't concern me in this respect. More important to me is the quite superb sotto voce playing, that has one straining to hear, which the Osterreichisch-Ungarische Haydn-Philharmonie under Adam Fischer pull off just before the surprise. My wife, who didn't know the work, almost literally jumped out of her seat!
All in all a very fine disc, with superb HIP playing on historical instruments with just that last drop of inspiration missing from Fischer to get "full marks". I loved every note that I could hear. Sadly I couldn't hear every note that Haydn wrote down in the score as the accoustic that it was recorded in is very reverberant and blurs some details (especially when the dynamic drops suddenly). This apart I can recommend the disc wholeheartedly.
As a note, the 2+2+2 recording means that if you have the capability & time (I do not at present), one can configure the loudspeakers so as to have 2 front left & right speakers one above each other to give "three dimensional sound reproduction". The way this is acheived is that the upper left and right speakers are needed to be wired up to the centre channel and subwoofer outputs. This makes this recording effectively 4.0 for most, unless you count the accoustic signature from the centre channel in which case it might be considered 5.0
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Copyright © 2006 John Broggio and SA-CD.net
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Review by ramesh April 26, 2005 (7 of 7 found this review helpful)
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Performance: Sonics: |
A splendid disc with the glaring exception of a solitary movement.
This is the same 'Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra' under the same Fischer who recorded the integral cycle for Nimbus on modern instruments; the liner notes call them the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Philharmonic, as well as the Haydn Philharmonic.( Shades of the Collateral Campaign in Robert Musil's great novel)They have a website at www.haydnphil.com which confirms their identity; the site language is Austrian but not Hungarian, tsk, tsk. The notes say this was recorded in concert, though I can hear no audience noises. Both the notes and website declare the general orchestra has 45 members. They sound rather more than this here, though the rich and resonant recording is flattering. However, the recording isn't overresonant or tubby like the earlier examples of the Nimbus series. I have heard this orchestra and conductor in the concert hall perform both Haydn and Mahler 4 (definitely more than 45 here ), and this recording is very faithful to what I heard, including the tangy Viennese(I think) oboes and the timpani, probably played with hard sticks, for there is an utterly whacking great thump which Telarc would be proud of, for the surprise in the 'Surprise'. There is absolutely no info on the recording type, but there is minimal high frequency glare, so it presumably is either native DSD or high sample PCM.
The performances are brimming with zest and life, utilising the brisk speeds and pared down strings from the period movement to emphasize the woodwind parts. String phrasing, as in the Nimbus series, tends to be more highly articulated and over shorter phrase lengths than traditional performances. Vibrato is sparing, but the rich recording prevents any threadbareness to the sound.Comparative timings for the'Oxford'; Fischer 6:51, 6:22, 5:15, 5:19; Böhm with the VPO 1974 8:50, 7:57, 6:06, 5:53; Previn VPO 1992 7:37, 7:21, 5:51, 5:44. For the 'Surprise', Fischer 8:18, 5:49, 4:17, 3:51; Colin Davis/Concertgebouw 1981 8:28, 6:14, 4:51, 4:07.
The slow movements come second, and it is immediately obvious how sprightly Fischer's performances are. The Haydn biographer Robbins-Landon considers the 'Oxford' the summa of Haydn's symphonic output prior to the London symphonies. In part, this is due to the emotional depths of the slow movement, which is quite different to the heart-on-sleeve anguish in the 'Sturm und Drang' period. The slow movement in the 'Oxford' is marked adagio, that of the 'Surprise' is marked andante, with the additional qualification of 'semplice'. I looked at the tempo indications for many of the slow movements of these later Haydn symphonies; andante was the most common, followed by adagio and then largo. Additionally, most of the slow introductions to the first movements are adagios. When a composer marks these distinctions between adagio and andante, I cannot understand why the new authenticity of the period movement often blurs the pacing into a generic semislowness. The biggest difference in the traditional performances of the Oxford and this newcomer is in the adagio. A variance of 90 seconds in a 7 minute work is a great deal, and sounds it! Sprightly is fine for a slow movement, swift isn't. Any aunt Edna or uncle Arthur can get on stage and wave a wand to conduct a slow movement swiftly, but surely it isn't much to ask a professional musician to delineate the distinction between adagio, andante and largo regardless whatever their general feelings about tempi are. Beecham did this eloquently in late Haydn. For those who know the Haydn symphonies well, I am sure it would be interesting to go and play a sequence of symphonic andantes and then adagios, and see who does distinguish between them, and who has been caught napping. Fischer can and does conduct with due gravitas, because his slow introductions have majesty to them, though the transition to the main body allegro does sound like horses out of the starting gates. There is no doubt that Böhm has the most eloquent of 'Oxford' adagios; the central outbursts in this movement with Fischer sounding dramatic and tormented, but not tragic. Nonetheless, an enjoyable disc. There really isn't much else to take issue with. I only heard this in stereo, so I can't comment on MDG's surround.
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