Joseph Haydn Die Schöpfung Nikolaus Harnoncourt

Haydn’s late masterpiece, The Creation/Die Schöpfung has always existed in two versions, one in English and one in German. Loosely based on Milton’s Paradise Lost version of the creation story, the libretto had actually been offered to Handel, who never got around to setting it. Johann Salomon, the impresario, passed it to Haydn in 1794. Haydn was interested but apparently did not feel confident enough in his English to set the work in its original format.

Of the two oratorios Haydn wrote in his old age The Creation is the more dramatic and immediate while The Seasons is more idyllic. It’s also a good deal longer, which to some extent explains why The Creation is regularly performed while its country cousin is a comparatively rare visitor to the concert hall. There is no denying that the later work contains a lot of good music and has a more folksy character; Austrian folk music is never far away. It is also has a more leisurely pace with long stretches of admittedly beautiful but slow and restrained music. There are moments of drama also, for example the end of part II, Summer (CD1 tracks 16 – 18), where in the recitative the soloists build up the tension.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt präsentierte 2009 einen der spannendsten Beiträge zum Haydn-Jubiläumsjahr. Seine Neueinspielung der berühmten Jahreszeiten von Haydn mit dem Originalklangorchester Concentus Musicus Wien bietet einen liebevoll im Detail ausgemalten, kontraststarken und spannungsreichen Bilderbogen - mit wild brausenden Winterstürmen, brütender Sommerhitze, heftigem Gewitter und einem ausschweifenden Winzerfest. Das Solistenterzett mit Genia Kühmeiers mädchenhaften Sopran, dem kultivierten Tenor von Werner Güra und dem ausdruckstarken, lyrischen Bariton von Christian Gerhaher lässt keine Wünsche offen. 2010 erhielt Nikolaus Harnoncourt für diese Einspielung den Echo Klassik für die beste Chorwerk-Einspielung des Jahres.

This was, at one time, the most popular piece of music that Haydn composed. It was originally written as a series of eight slow movements (an introduction, then the seven "words") and a final "earthquake" designed to be performed in a Spanish church during Holy Week. So famous did the music become that some hack made a vocal version of the work, which Haydn felt he could do much better himself. So he created this oratorio, as well as making (or approving) arrangements for string quartet and solo piano! For the vocal version, he divided the work into two parts and added a stunning introduction to the second part for wind band alone.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt The Complete Sony Recordings brings together for the first time Harnoncourt s complete recordings from 2002-2015 with his Concentus Musicus Wien, the Wiener Philharmonike, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Symphonieorchester des Bayrischen Rundfunks. The Sony Classical edition features his famous symphony recordings of Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Bruckner, alongside his celebrated performances of great choral works such as the Verdi, Brahms and Mozart Requiems and Haydn's Die Schöpfung, as well as Mozart's opera Zaide, Haydn's Orlando paladino and Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. Also included are previously authorized but unreleased recordings of J. S. Bach s Cantatas Nos. 26 & 36, Beethoven's Christus am Ölberge and Dvorák's Stabat Mater.

Haydn's Paukenmesse, Hob.XXII:9 from 1796, was the first work he composed to honour the name day (8th September) of the Princess Maria Hermenegild. The name of Paukenmesse’ (Kettledrum Mass) stems from the employment of timpani in the Agnus Dei; evocative of hearing the advance of the enemy. At the time of composition the French armies had occupied the state of Styria in southeast Austria.

After his years in London and the discovery of Handel’s Messiah, which had profoundly moved him, Joseph Haydn embarked on writing a large-scale religious work. For this very devout composer, this veritable act of faith would torment him for two years and from it would come an oratorio of penetrating intensity. After enjoying immediate success in Vienna, Die Schöpfung (The Creation) conquered the whole of Europe in less than a year.

Impressed by the Handel works that he heard in London, Haydn felt the need to compose oratorios. First came Die Schöpfung (‘The Creation’), which met with resounding success; then Baron Gottfried van Swieten proposed to Haydn an arrangement of James Thomson’s poem ‘The Seasons’. Initially, Haydn was little attracted by the text, which deviates from the classic oratorio based on a religious text, but subsequently let himself be convinced. The result, for three soloists, chorus and orchestra, is a vast pictorial fresco of Nature that describes landscapes and the feelings that they arouse. For the first time, Philippe Herreweghe gives us his own vision of an oratorium by Haydn.

Hoewel van de 105 symfonieën van Joseph Haydn meestal de Londense uitgevoerd worden, geven zijn eerste werken ook al blijk van natuurtalent. De symfonieën 6 (Le Matin), 7 (Le Midi) en 8 (Le Soir), die samen "Die Tageszeiten" vormen, stralen de vrolijkheid, de frisheid en de muzikale oprechtheid van de jonge Haydn uit. Hoewel Haydn als musicus in dienst van het hof van de graaf Paul Anton Esterházy in Eisenstadt beperkt was in zijn vrijheid, kunnen de "Tageszeiten Symfonieën" zelfs als experimentele muziek bestempeld worden. Informatie van deze strekking is te vinden in het viertalige booklet van de onlangs uitgekomen cd "Die Tageszeiten" van Haydn (1732-1809), uitgevoerd door het Belgische kamerorkest "Prima La Musica" onder leiding van Dirk Vermeulen.

The string quartet version is an arrangement by Haydn of his orchestral version; "the version recorded here is yet another reworking … Aware that all the reworkings had not disturbed the length and tenor of the original version, [the Juilliard Quartet] gathered four … vocal soloists … and worked out among themselves a version for string quartet and vocal quartet that incorporates the string quartet version in toto, plus as much of the oratorio version as would include its text and emotional impact".