Spring Symphonies No 64 - Michael Haydn: Symphony No 30 in D major
Pity poor Michael Haydn - why goes our view of
history conspire to make someone invisible who deserved to be better
known. There are few recordings of his
works, his name is probably most familiar by association because of his brother Joseph’s dominance at
the time. He was not even a minor
composer - but two others are the memorable names from his period (1737 -
1806).
Michael Haydn was the younger brother of Josef, his
junior by 4 and a half years. The Haydn
brothers shared a career path in the choir at St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna
(40 some km from their home in the village of Rohrau in Lower Austria).
Michael went on to be a Kapellemeister, first in Oradea and in
1762 he took the same post in Salzburg where he stay until his death in 1806. A great career path by the standards of the day. Kapellemeisters were
required to write pretty much everything their employers wanted. Michael Haydn it seems could turn his hand to
any genre, he wrote a great deal else besides orchestral music including
instrumental and chamber music and a huge body of liturgical music, including
masses of masses, and secular songs but no opera. He wrote 41 numbered
symphonies and a handful without numbers.
One of his symphonies was attributed to Mozart (which is
why Mozart no longer has a 37th symphony in the catalogue). the story being that Mozart had written
a slow introduction to Michael Haydn’s 25th Symphony so it had been assumed the rest of
the work was by Mozart too. Not so - but a measure of Haydn’s prowess that his
work could be mistaken for the great master.
Michael was, it seems, also better regarded than
his brother in most aspects of music at the time and given their geographical separation
one could see how Michael could function as the top dog in Salzburg for four
decades. Michael knew Mozart and we know
Mozart admired his work, again no small thing.
His reputation in his lifetime was not then, we might imagine, in the
shade of the great Joseph Haydn or the prodigious Wolfgang Mozart. And it is clear from his music that he had no
need to be. I haven’t sampled all his
symphonies but what I’ve heard all have an immediacy which is familiar from his
brother’s generous and varied musical style and a concision which he is brother
didn’t always share.
But it’s Michael’s fate to be largely forgotten subsumed beneath the reputations of the two greatest composers of the classical age. And such is fate in these things - cruel and somewhat ironic when the music is so good. Michael taught Weber and Diabelli - again fate didn’t serve these two well as Beethoven loomed in the European consciousness from music of their period. The best is the enemy of the good they say - that’s only part of this story. The real truth is that the rock star life and death of Mozart and the self-promotion both Mozart and Haydn snr. achieved across Europe probably helped them secure fame in their lifetimes and to this day. In both cases a better story than a man who served his master, Archbishop Sigismund Schrattenbach, in Salzburg for four decades producing wonderful music.
But it’s Michael’s fate to be largely forgotten subsumed beneath the reputations of the two greatest composers of the classical age. And such is fate in these things - cruel and somewhat ironic when the music is so good. Michael taught Weber and Diabelli - again fate didn’t serve these two well as Beethoven loomed in the European consciousness from music of their period. The best is the enemy of the good they say - that’s only part of this story. The real truth is that the rock star life and death of Mozart and the self-promotion both Mozart and Haydn snr. achieved across Europe probably helped them secure fame in their lifetimes and to this day. In both cases a better story than a man who served his master, Archbishop Sigismund Schrattenbach, in Salzburg for four decades producing wonderful music.
Michael Haydn's symphony No 30 was written in one of Mozart’s
purple patches - 1785 -was the year of
Mozart's (Joseph) Haydn Quartets, his 20th and 21st Piano Concerti and the Masonic Funeral
Music. And for Joseph Haydn he was in the midsts of his Paris Symphonies with
no.s 83 and 85 written that year. We could
see all of these works as more sophisticated than Michael Haydn’s invention -
but I think he can hold his own. However, Proms history tells us a lot about the personality versus musical content debate. Two of Michael Haydn's symphonies have been played at the Proms one in 1899 the other in 1925 both conducted by Henry Wood. His Requiem was played more recently 2006 the only performance this century.
Michael Haydn he stopped writing symphonies entirely in 1789. This mature work bears some of the hall marks of the
symphonies of the time - familiar to us from Haydn senior -but also from the foremost early Austrian symphonist, Georg Christoph Wagenseil. It is almost a standard model: a slow introduction, energetic allegro, slow movement and a lively finale. Michael Haydn's work is a mere 15 minutes long but seems not a note too few or too many.
The gently rhetorical Adagio introduction is
sweet and gentle - deeper ambition of his older brother’s late works is nowhere in sight. It's an amiable courtly dance tune, repeated several times with increasing orchestration the last of which ends
midway. A fire cracker of an Allegro interrupts the adagio and despite the reduced orchestra there's much fun and interplay here. It's bustling movement of colour and character aren't too far away from Mozart's Linz symphony and one wonders how this symphony isn't on concert programmes nowadays (though it's a long time since I heard the Linz symphony on a concert programme either. The themes, development and
recapitulation rush past with such variety that it’s hard to believe that the
whole movement is only five minutes long and the effects are achieved with
eager orchestral resources. Beyond strings
the composers asks for only pairs of oboes, bassoon and horns - but achieves some wonderful rich textures with these forces.
The slow movement, Andante Sostenuto, has an amiable serenade like quality demanding of the oboists and demands careful orchestral balance. But it sings so sweetly - one cannot imagine any chamber orchestra baulking at this nowadays and I expect people would appreciate the direct appeal. the finale Vivace Moto is a fast paced theme and variations and it's delightful how with such scant material Haydn jnr. pulls so many tricks out the bag. There some delicious drama with a pulling up short and then diving into a second section of pure sunshine, flavoured with horns. The coda is not a theatrical flourish but a straightforward summation. But if only Mahler could have written with such concision!
The slow movement, Andante Sostenuto, has an amiable serenade like quality demanding of the oboists and demands careful orchestral balance. But it sings so sweetly - one cannot imagine any chamber orchestra baulking at this nowadays and I expect people would appreciate the direct appeal. the finale Vivace Moto is a fast paced theme and variations and it's delightful how with such scant material Haydn jnr. pulls so many tricks out the bag. There some delicious drama with a pulling up short and then diving into a second section of pure sunshine, flavoured with horns. The coda is not a theatrical flourish but a straightforward summation. But if only Mahler could have written with such concision!
Sometimes exploring new symphonies an be a bit of a chore but this composer - new to me except by name - is a enchanting - not child genius but like his brother a master of his craft. I hope I have opportunity to return to his canon.
Here’s a fine performance on YouTube:
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