# SS 13.02.21 - Haydn #22 "The Philosopher"



## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

A continuation of the Saturday Symphonies Tradition:

Welcome to another weekend of symphonic listening!
_*
*For your listening pleasure this weekend:*

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809)*

Symphony No. 22 in E-flat major, "The Philosopher", H. I/22

1. Adagio
2. Presto
3. Menuet e Trio
4. Finale. Presto

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Post what recording you are going to listen to giving details of Orchestra / Conductor / Chorus / Soloists etc - Enjoy!_


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## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

Another weekend is upon us and another symphony is up for your listening enjoyment. This week it's the return of Papa Haydn and his 22nd Symphony. I always enjoy a Haydn symphony so I look forward to spinning this one again. I hope everyone else can join in and give this one a listen. There are plenty of recordings out there for this one so I don't feel the need to post a YouTube clip.

I usually listen to Dorati but I think I'll give this one a spin:







Adam Fischer/Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

I shall try a version I have never heard before


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)




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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

I adore this symphony and my go-to recording is Giovanni Antonini directing Il Giardino Armonico.

Superb! Superb! Superb!


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## Mika (Jul 24, 2009)

HenryPenfold said:


>


One I have one I will listen to


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## D Smith (Sep 13, 2014)

I'll lisen to the Haydn 2032 disc as well.


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## cougarjuno (Jul 1, 2012)

I'll go with Cantilena and Adrian Shepherd for this one. I like their recordings of early Haydn.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

This is a really cool symphony...it's quite unique- the orchestration calls for 2 English horns!!quite unprecedented!!
The first movement Adagio is kind of dreary and pedantic sounding to me - perhaps deliberately so, was Haydn poking fun at the endless and tiresome philosophic debates over the tiniest points of reality?? Musical mocking of philosophical "pilpul"...(??)
The fast movements are great fun, tho, with the English horns and French horns chasing each other all over the score in a wonderful game of musical tag....


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Dorati for me


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

Hogwood with the AAM played this morning. 
A bit like Heck I find the opening Adagio can become a bit of a trudge but the rest is Haydn in jovial mood. It kind of works, when you know what follows the Adagio builds an expectation and what comes along is always a pleasure to hear.


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## Joe B (Aug 10, 2017)

I just put this into the transport:


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Joe B said:


> I just put this into the transport:


I'll go with this one for a change, too.


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## Kiki (Aug 15, 2018)

I have one recording of this symphony that I'd never listened to until now, Nicholas Kraemer conducting the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Isn't the first movement interesting with the perpetual bass line and the two horns vs the two cors anglais? The rest is Haydnesque and delightful.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

The English horn is not met all that often in classical music, but finding two of them together is even rarer. Aside from this symphony, the only other example I can easily find is an earlier work by Haydn: His Divertimento in F for two violins, two English horns, two horns & two bassoons Hob. II:6, dated 1760, four years before the symphony.

So how did Haydn come to write these works? Did the Esterhazy orchestra have two English hornists in the early 1760s? That seems unlikely since this was a small orchestra and even having a single English horn player would be pushing the odds. Alternatively, a noble visitor to the Esterhazy estates might have been involved, perhaps one who enjoyed playing the instrument and who was honored occasionally by the Prince asking Haydn to write some appropriate music. If anybody knows, I hope they’ll chime in.

All that said, this symphony is too well known and popular to need my comments. The first movement, especially, is one of Haydn’s most striking. I know of no other music that captures its grave and thoughtful mood.


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

HenryPenfold said:


> I adore this symphony and my go-to recording is Giovanni Antonini directing Il Giardino Armonico.
> 
> Superb! Superb! Superb!


Who is nikitadventures and why is he being such a tosser?


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

The players were most likely the oboe players. Or there could have been some extras from a military wind band. The mytery is why only in that symphony. Haydn did have an extra pair of French horns for a few symphonies, most famously 31 and 39 but this apparently also was only for a short time.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Kreisler jr said:


> The players were most likely the oboe players. Or there could have been some extras from a military wind band. The mytery is why only in that symphony. Haydn did have an extra pair of French horns for a few symphonies, most famously 31 and 39 but this apparently also was only for a short time.


The English horn parts are played by the oboists...Haydn wrote some great horn parts - 31, 51 ottomh...I know there are plenty more


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## Haydn70 (Jan 8, 2017)

In my Top Ten of favorite Haydn symphonies.

Some have mentioned the first movement can be a drudge. I consider it the best movement of the symphony and one of the best movements from any Haydn symphony. Haydn set himself an interesting compositional challenge with that movement and met the challenge in first-rate fashion.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

It's not one of my favorites... it's interesting and rather unique although far less beyond the first movement. The preceding symphony in a similar form is rather underrated compared to 22, I think.
But my favorite Haydn symphony with slow first mvmt is 49 by some margin.


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

The Dorati/Haydn box of Symphonies 20 to 35 also contains a few other favorites of mine aside from #22 ("The "Philosopher"):

Nos. 20,21,23,24,27 and especially 31 ("Hornsignal")


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

This is a favourite of mine as well, and I am glad to see how many here are echoing thise positive vibes! It's one of the first Haydn Symphonies I got to know as well

Dorati is about as good as it gets, but there are two others I'd like to mention as ones that hit all the right notes in this one: on Naxos, Nicholas Ward and the Northern Chamber Orchestra are excellent ( I think their contribution to the Naxos frankencycle is superb), and I have always liked the first I heard, Neville Marriner and the ASMF. I hope that one day they'll get his recordings out on CD again, or affordable download.....


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

I like the Orpheus disc shown further above, it is one of the best in their Haydn series. The Hogwood suffers IMO from doing all repeats with rather unimaginative interpretation. Fischer is also disappointing; it is one of their earliest recordings, the sound a bit muddy and altogether not impressive. Their much later recorded 21 is very different.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Kreisler jr said:


> It's not one of my favorites... it's interesting and rather unique although far less beyond the first movement. The preceding symphony in a similar form is rather underrated compared to 22, I think.
> But my favorite Haydn symphony with slow first mvmt is 49 by some margin.


+1. I prefer both 21 and 23 to 22. The 23rd was my favorite among the 20s when I listened to all 104 of them last year (because of the dramatic modal contrasts in the first two movements, the canonic minuet, and the explosive finale).


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