CDs: Still Haydn’s Haven

Conductors have been mouthing off for at least the past two decades about Joseph Haydn, the great undiscovered or unappreciated composer, the implication being that they would unfold before us Haydn’s Classical wonders, and do it as a tonic for musicians and listeners grown slothful on a diet of late-Romantic excess.

But it’s usually just talk. Even our own Esa-Pekka Salonen, one of the most sympathetic Haydn conductors in the business, has promised L.A. lots and delivered very little. When it comes down to it, the big orchestras usually serve up big-orchestra 19th- or early-20th-Century music, on the presumption that that’s what audiences (and orchestras) really want.

So, the compact disc remains Haydn’s haven, with releases continuing to pour forth now that his compatriot Mozart has been wildly over-recorded. And there must be folks out there buying it. Recording companies are not, after all, charitable institutions.

But don’t think that “understanding” Haydn is a recent phenomenon. Some of the old-time conductors, those of the objective persuasion, were adept at projecting the sharp curves, taut rhythms and unexpected harmonies that differentiate Haydn, the wittily intellectual instrumental composer, from Mozart, the sensualist whose curvaceous melodies, whatever instrument is playing them, take their form from the operatic aria.

Take George Szell and his Cleveland Orchestra, paragons of tough musical love during the ‘60s and ‘70s. Their Haydn, although most likely uninformed by anything Szell picked up from a textbook on Classical performance, is as stylish as anything today’s period people propose. The proof is in a stunning CD in Sony’s ludicrously inexpensive “Essential Classics” series (67175) that offers lean, astringent, immensely satisfying performances of three of the less familiar “London” Symphonies, Nos. 93, 95 and 97, originally released circa 1970.

Szell is profoundly into the edginess and sly wit of this music, much of which--such as the extraordinary modulations of the No. 93 slow movement--remains delectably shocking a couple of centuries after its creation.

The name of the Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Chamber Orchestra of Berlin, conducted by Hartmut Haenchen, may evoke images of gut strings, single-key flutes and valveless brass, but theirs are modern instruments played with period sensibilities.

Haenchen and his superb band have recently given us half-a-dozen top-flight Haydn symphony recordings on the Berlin Classics label, of which at least one (BC 1028) is indispensable. It includes the early chamber-like No. 31, “Hornsignal” (after its braying quartet of horns), which is filled with delectable flute, violin, cello and, most strikingly, double-bass solos that the players handle with tremendous verve and skill; the dashing “Hunt” (No. 73), and the most familiar of the lot, No. 82, the “Bear.”

Beside Haenchen’s “Hornsignal,” that of Jesus Lopez-Cobos and the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra (along with a couple of additional early works, on Denon 78967) sounds routine and under-energized--the difference between generalized note-spinning and seeking out the specific sound and style of a work of art.

By contrast, Bruno Weil, who like Lopez-Cobos is working his way through a complete Haydn symphonic cycle, is all bristling energy and crisp rhythms in a valuable program consisting of three splendid works--Nos. 88, 89, 90 (Sony 66253)--from among those that fall between the series created for Paris and London. The playing of Tafelmusik, the crack Toronto-based period ensemble, must be a conductor’s dream.

However, despite the excellence of Tafelmusik, Weil seems unwilling to give himself up to the vast images of Haydn’s grandiose oratorio “The Creation” (Sony 57965, two CDs), reducing its awesome musical representation of the book of Genesis to chamber-music proportions. Contributing to the undernourished aspect of the project is the hooty singing of the Tolz Boychoir (the composer hardly intended such a churchly sound for his magnum opus ) and the small-voiced, if deft, soloists.

For a better idea of what “The Creation” is about, try a performance by another old-time conductor, Igor Markevitch. His magnificent 1958 recording makes its CD debut as a Deutsche Grammophon bargain “Double” reissue (437 380, two CDs). The Berlin Philharmonic and St. Hedwig’s Cathedral Choir are superbly forceful, and the trio of soloists--Irmgard Seefried, Richard Holm, Kim Borg--represents a post-World War II vocal Golden Age.