Haydn - The Complete Piano Sonatas / Jando
Label: NAXOS Catalog: 8501042 Format: CD Jeno Jando: pianoFranz Josef Haydn (1732-1809): Complete Piano Sonatas Born in 1732 in the village of Rohrau, near the modem border between Austria and Slovakia, Joseph Haydn was the son of a wheelwright, He had his musical training as a chorister at St Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna and thereafter earned a living as best he could from teaching and playing the violin or keyboard. During these earlier years he was able to learn from the old composer Porpora, whose assistant he became. Haydn's first regular employment came in 1759 as Kapellmeister to a Bohenrian nobleman, Count von Morzin. This was followed in 1761 by appointment as Vice- Kapellmeister to one of the richest men in the Empire, Prince Paul Anton Estethazy, succeeded on his death in 1762 by his brother Prince Nikolaus. On the death in 1766 of the elderly and somewhat obstructive Kapellmeister, Gregor Werner, Haydn succeeded to his position, remaining in the same employment, nominally at least, until his death in 1809. Much of Haydn's service of the Esterhazys was at the new palace of Esterhaza on the Hungarian plains, a complex of buildings ID rival Versailles in magnificence Here he was responsible for the musical establishment and its activities, including regular instrumental concerts and music for the theatre, opera and church. For his patron he provided a variety of chamber music, in particular for the Prince's favourite instrument, the baryton, a bowed string instrument with sympathetic strings that could also be plucked. On the death of Prince Nikolaus in 1790 Haydn was able to accept an invitation from the violinist-impresario Salomon to visit London, where he already enjoyed a considerable reputation. He was in London for a second time in 1794 and 1795, after which he returned to duty with the Esterhazy family, now chiefly at the family residence in Eisenstadt, where he had started his career. Much of the year, however, was spent in Vienna, where he passed his final years, dying as the city fell once more into the power of Napoleon's army. Haydn's keyboard music was at first written for the harpsichord, with later works clearly intended for the pianoforte, as dynamic markings show. His career coincided with changes in the standard keyboard instrument. as the fortepiano and then the pianoforte, with their hammer action and dynamic possibilities gradually replaced the harpsichord and clavichord. At the same time there was a parallel change in instrumental forms, as the structure that has come to be known, among other titles, as sonata-allegro form, developed. Of the 47 keyboard sonatas listed by Georg Feder in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians of 1980, the first thirty were intended for the harpsichord. In addition ID this, fourteen early harpsichord sonatas that have been attributed ID Haydn are listed. Nine of the ten sonatas here included belong to this last group. The early twentieth century edition of the sonatas by Karl pasler includes 52 surviving sonatas, in addition to this there remain eight sonatas apparently lost. Of these Christa Landon, in her Wiener Urtext edition on which numbering the present series of recordings is based, discounts three. Price: $109.98 |