Haydn’s London Symphonies: Part 1
Part 1! How enticing. If a CD revival eventually eclipses the current vinyl vogue, can we look forward to a 300th birthday /Brisbane Olympics “boxed set” of all 12 by 2032?
Violinist and impresario Peter Salomon was the guardian angel (slash shrewd businessman) who put Haydn on a boat to London after a younger “less enlightened” (ok, philistine) Esterházy sacked all his musicians and kept the composer on for domestic duties. English audiences went wild, symphonies poured out and sterling poured in but these “tours” represented a genuine sea-change in music history: the fans were middle to upper-middle class music lovers, not diversion-seeking aristocrats. And in the absence of a foyer CD (let alone vinyl) stall, they were all ravenous to listen again at home. So… you guessed it, Salomon added a lucrative by-line in downsized arrangements for amateur parlour use.
As AHE listeners will know, these versions, often for string sextet and flute, are a long way from pale imitations: newly imagined for the medium, they are actually a refreshing listen when compared to the brass and drum heavy “warhorse” school of orchestral playing.
Alright, pedants put up your quills: we know No. 92 The Oxford is not officially a Londoner. It premiered in Paris, but such was Salomon’s haste to get Haydn his doctorate, he didn’t have time to write any new ones and so white-lied in his exam by recycling his most recent, sweetened by some palindromic canons for the egg-headed panellists. Had he stopped at 92, it would be a summation of his art. The Rossini-like finale is especially fabulous: the hero, a scurrying staccato melody, is subjected to all manner of comic indignities; buffeted by giddying chromatic winds and turned every which way but loose.
No. 95 is the only one that threatened to disappoint the aficionados (What? Minor key? No slow intro?) but, statistically, major thirds crowd out the tragic E flats and the sun-drenched final movement is as gloriously contrapuntal as the one that closes Mozart’s Jupiter.
No. 103 in E flat needs no introduction (but of course has one; “audience we value your feedback”). It’s simply one of the greatest symphonies of the era. The splendid finale is an epic tapestry tightly woven from a simple short horn call motif. How will they pull off the drumroll though? Wait and see.
An exciting, dramatic and thoroughly satisfying season’s end.
3 down and 7 to go, roll on Parts 2, 3 and 4.
ARTISTS
Skye McIntosh, violin
Matthew Greco, violin
Karina Schmitz, viola
Rafael Font, viola
Daniel Yeadon, cello
Pippa Macmillan, double bass
Mikaela Oberg, flute
PROGRAM
HAYDN
Symphony No. 92 in G major Oxford arr. Salomon
HAYDN
Symphony No. 95 in C minor arr. Salomon
HAYDN
Symphony No. 103 in E flat major Drumroll arr. Salomon
CONCERT DATES
Friday 30 October, 7pm, Berry Uniting Church Hall, Berry
Saturday 31 October, 4pm, Bowral Memorial Hall, Bowral
Monday 2 November, 7pm, The Neilson, ACO On The Pier, Dawes Point
Wednesday 4 November, 7pm, Melbourne Recital Centre
Thursday 5 November, 7pm Gandel Hall, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Saturday 7 November, 2pm, Rathmines Theatre, Lake Macquarie
Sunday 8 November, 4pm, The Neilson, ACO On The Pier, Dawes Point
