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laid out as inter-related developments of (who called him “Papa”) and tutor to
one or more themes. These themes were Beethoven. Most of Haydn’s music is
expressed in a single melodic line sup- upbeat in feeling — the counts didn’t
ported by harmony, that is, chords. At the want the music they paid for to depress
same time, music became more widely them — and indeed threaded through
accessible. Where only churches and and through with wit and humour. His
palaces had been performance venues, Surprise Symphony No. 94, still popular
now much of the nobility and even the today, includes a single fortissimo chord
simply rich became patrons of art music. at the end of the piano opening theme of
We already have NOT Mozart JUST and the HARDWARE second movement, but no REVIEWS!
other such
Beethoven on the Classical-era team. chords before or after.
Mozart died young and Beethoven was Yes, You we get might asked, not constantly, listen to Haydn after
already at the turning point of the what next we breaking will be reviewing up with in someone our next (and issue. then
era, the Romantic. To find a ClassicalAnd
again, we know perhaps reviews you are might). essential. Although he
style composer who enjoyed a But long equipment and did clearly reviews write are nothing some pieces if not to plentiful. express
prolific career and can truly represent Readers an have deep long feeling, told us in that general what his makes music UHFis
entire era, we can very reasonably particularly turn more valuable structured, to them are bright the other and worldly, articles.
to Joseph Haydn. Articles about ideas, the about melody the and nuts harmonies and bolts meticulously of the technology,
and worked also about out, rather music than and evoking film, strong
emotion. which are (For the that very kind reasons of thing we’ll
for our have lovingly-created to wait for systems Beethoven.) to exist. What
Born into a musical but not a noble
family, he was apprenticed as a musician
when he was six years old and struggled
from rags to riches, finally employed for
the greater part of his working life by
the Esterhazy counts of Hungary. He
was able to produce 106 symphonies, 70
quartets, 45 trios, 62 piano sonatas and
upwards of 70 other solo piano works,
about 36 concertos, four oratorios, fifteen
masses and fifteen operas between
about 1750 and 1802.
While with the Esterhazys, composing
and managing an orchestra, he
was relatively isolated and dreamed of
Vienna, the seat of the music-loving
Hapsburg emperors and centre of the
musical world. Vienna is where he
ended his life, universally admired,
beloved friend of the late genius Mozart
64 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine
notable Classical names include Johann
Sebastian’s eldest son, the surprising and
original Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach,
even though the earlier Baroque period
claims him too. There is Luigi Boccherini;
and Johann and his son Carl Stamitz
who invented the multi-movement
symphony. Among others we could add
Gluck, who had great influence on opera,
Salieri (made infamous — or some would
say slandered — by Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus)
and Antonio Soler for the keyboard.
And now we move to Bach, or rather
to his time.
That wasn’t really so long before
the opening of the Classical era.
Johann Sebastian Bach was still writing
when Haydn was a teenager, though
even then he was regarded by many as
old-fashioned, a provincial pastor. Albert
Schweitzer, the great humanitarian
Not that we will Haydn ever stop did for publishing music was hardware experiment reviews.
doctor and Bach scholar, called Bach “an
with form, discovering new possibili- end,” a finality to whose work we always
ties in the quartet, the sonata and the return. Douglas Adams, author of The
symphony — like that surprise chord, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, said of
which everyone agreed was delightful. the Big Three, “Beethoven tells you what
Just as significantly for our musical it’s like to be Beethoven and Mozart tells
heritage, at the end of his life he pro- you what it’s like to be human. Bach tells
duced two great oratorios. One factor you what it’s like to be the universe.”
in their greatness was the time Haydn
took to write them: over a year for the
first, The Creation. Earlier in his life,
like almost all composers, he had had to
turn out music rapidly for his employer
(who for all his wealth, couldn’t hear
new music at anything like the rate we
can today). Haydn knew The Creation
and The Four Seasons were to be his last
works and he wanted them as close to
sublime as he could make them. It was a
revelation at the time.
If the editor were to let me occupy a
mere rind of the Software Reviews’ territory
in this magazine, I would suggest
a single recording as an introduction to
the best in the composers’ repertoires.
That’s a tall order, and my choice for
Haydn is a cheat because it’s multiple
discs: the Beaux Arts Trio’s Complete
Haydn Trios on Philips.
Revered today, too much of a stand-
So now your Classical-period playlout to be a mere representative of the
ist includes Haydn and Mozart. As if Baroque, Bach was largely forgotten
their work needed great company, you in the years after his death. Beethoven
will still be able to send Beethoven and attracted attention in his youth by per-
Schubert to join them (even though these formances of fugues by Bach in Vienna,
two are both sometimes placed with the and Mozart had to be led to him, perhaps
coming Romantic wave). Other very by the Viennese music patron Gottfried