Joseph Haydn Discovered

For some 74½ years, Joseph Haydn and I have been merely on cool nodding terms. Bach and Handel, for me. Then Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. I knew of Haydn, and had a (very) few of his works. Never played a note of his music on my violin. I knew he wrote 104 symphonies and around 90 string quartets. In my youth, I had a recording of his “Oxford” symphony (on the second side on an LP that I bought because of the Mozart symphony on the first side).

A few weeks ago, having listened by chance to a couple of Haydn's string quartets during my string quartet phase, all that changed. Into my post box thunder recordings of Haydn's symphonies and string quartets; a biographical tome of Haydn is in the post somewhere. Haydn and I are in business. As with the music of Handel, I now welcome Haydn's lack of emotional complications, exquisite craftsmanship, admirable powers of invention using limited resources. I took to the string quartets recorded by the Takacs Quartet; discovering in my archives a recording of three Haydn quartets played by the Quatuor Mosaïques, I found myself really liking the lightness and transparency of the playing – doubly surprising, since it is an “original instrument” quartet, a concept that usually sees me fleeing the room as violins play long notes without any vibrato in sight (in the mistaken belief that this sounds “better”; which it does not). Anyway, the playing of the Quatuor Mosaïques appears to suit Haydn's quartets admirably, and a 10 CD box of Haydn quartets from the Mosaïques is on its way to me via the postal service. I love string quartet playing where I can hear each of the four instruments, as opposed to a general sound mush.

Again in my archives, I discovered a box of eight Haydn symphonies, recorded in the early 1960s by Otto Klemperer and the Philharmonia. Not to be outdone, I then ordered two boxes each of six Haydn symphonies recorded by Thomas Beecham and the RPO in the very late 1950s. The two sets of recordings complement each other perfectly: Beecham stylish and light of touch, Klemperer with the better orchestra and recording, with typical forward woodwind band and transparency of sound and structure. It's a good time for those collecting recordings, since all these older recordings are now available for less than the cost of a bottle of wine. Critics will wince at Klemperer and Beecham in Haydn – it's all a question of editions of musical scores that are too old, and orchestral sounds that are not old enough, it appears. But critics seem rarely to listen to music simply to enjoy it. I'll spend many happy months to come with Otto, Thomas, Takacs and Mosaïques. And Joseph Haydn. Maybe after another 74½ years I'll be extolling the virtues of Arnold Schönberg and Luigi Dallapiccola? Probably best not to take bets on it.