# Well, waddya know...



## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

...Haydn wrote a guitar concerto! :lol:






Just goes to show that while many instruments borrow repertoire from others, the guitar follows other instruments up dark alleys, clobbers them over the head and goes through their pockets for repertoire...


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

I'm not surprised that Haydn also wrote a Guitar concerto 

At one music school recital, two percussion majors performed a Haydn keyboard sonata on a Marimba, duo.

The music, on that instrument, and a very fine performance elicited a few laughs and basically charmed the pants off of all of us


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

Will definitely listen to this! Of course, Haydn's concerto repertoire is unfortunately far from stellar. Setting the classics aside - the D major violin and harpsichord and trumpet - few are truly worth more than the occassional listen.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Cheyenne said:


> Will definitely listen to this! Of course, Haydn's concerto repertoire is unfortunately far from stellar. Setting the classics aside - the D major violin and harpsichord and trumpet - few are truly worth more than the occassional listen.


Uh...no fewer than *two* cello concertos high in that branch of the repertoire?


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

brianvds said:


> ...Haydn wrote a guitar concerto! :lol:


Nice pieces. But I much prefer Mendelssohn's flute concerto in E minor:


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

KenOC said:


> Uh...no fewer than *two* cello concertos high in that branch of the repertoire?


Well, waddya know..? Forgot about them.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Funny about Haydn's concertos -- aside from always being compared with Mozart, he didn't do badly at all. He certainly has Schubert beat all hollow! :lol:


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I'm afraid I gave up on the video after one minute and the musicians were still trickling in two by two like they (and we) have all night. What IS it with these classical people?


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Weston said:


> I'm afraid I gave up on the video after one minute and the musicians were still trickling in two by two like they (and we) have all night. What IS it with these classical people?


I know what you mean - I also hate it when they insist on recording all the non-musical bits.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Mainly bad videography and no notion whatsoever about good editing  Could be worse, like one of those student or young professional short films where the credits and thank yous before and after the film are greater in length than the film itself.


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

KenOC said:


> Funny about Haydn's concertos -- aside from always being compared with Mozart, he didn't do badly at all. He certainly has Schubert beat all hollow! :lol:


He wrote most of them quickly for commissions, and they are far from his best works, which is why biographers, from Geiringer to Jones, generally dismiss them without too much thought, and also why few of them are available on record. Those of CPE bach, to name one near-contemporary, are to me far more impressive.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Cheyenne said:


> He wrote most of them quickly for commissions, and they are far from his best works, which is why biographers, from Geiringer to Jones, generally dismiss them without too much thought, and also why few of them are available on record. Those of CPE bach, to name one near-contemporary, are to me far more impressive.


Yes, "few" are available on recordings, but those few are available on a *lot* of recordings! Check the Amazon listings for the trumpet concerto and the two cello concertos...  CPE can only be envious!


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

KenOC said:


> Yes, "few" are available on recordings, but those few are available on a *lot* of recordings! Check the Amazon listings for the trumpet concerto and the two cello concertos...  CPE can only be envious!


My contention was merely that his entire output of concertos was 'far from stellar', so I suppose we agree then. :lol:


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Cheyenne said:


> My contention was merely that his entire output of concertos was 'far from stellar', so I suppose we agree then. :lol:


Of course we agree! Otherwise, what would we have to argue about? :tiphat:


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## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

Cheyenne said:


> My contention was merely that his entire output of concertos was 'far from stellar', so I suppose we agree then. :lol:


What's wrong with Haydn's concertos? I've heard his trumpet concerto recently in concert and it was excellent, the crowd reaction was also fitting.


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## sharik (Jan 23, 2013)

brianvds said:


> Haydn wrote a guitar concerto!


thankfully, not an electric guitar one.


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## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

that would be awesome, actually. I'd want to hear a version for electric guitar.


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## sharik (Jan 23, 2013)

HaydnBearstheClock said:


> a version for electric guitar


it would be rather pointless because electric guitar in itself was invented to serve as an emulator of classical music instruments such as the piano (when clean sound) and the trumpet (when overdriven) and the Rossini/Mozart drive style strings (when muffled).


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

HaydnBearstheClock said:


> What's wrong with Haydn's concertos? I've heard his trumpet concerto recently in concert and it was excellent, the crowd reaction was also fitting.





Cheyenne said:


> Will definitely listen to this! Of course, Haydn's concerto repertoire is unfortunately far from stellar. *Setting the classics aside* - the D major violin and harpsichord and trumpet [and two cello concertos] - few are truly worth more than the occassional listen.


When's the last time you heard the G major Harpsichord concerto, or the fourth concerto for Lire Organizatte? Geiringer commented on it and offered an explanation:

"_A review of Haydn's whole output in the field of the concerto forces one to admit that he showed no particular interest in this form of composition. The few masterworks among the concertos hardly make up for the number of routine compositions written for a single performance and never meant for wider circulation. This will not surprise anyone familair with Haydn's personality. Unlike Mozart, he was no virtuoso. Neither on the piano nor on the violin was his technique particularly brilliant. Above all, his natural disposition was alien to that of a virtuoso. The rather dramatic gifts of the professional performer, which great virtuosos like Liszt, Paginini, and even Mozart possessed in abundance, were completely lacking in Haydn. His reserve made it impossible for him to become a success as a solist, and while he progressed as a composer, his interest in the concerto from gradually faded. Most of Haydn's concertos were written during the 1750s and 1760s, the smallest number of them (though these include the fines works) during the eighties and nineties._"


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Cheyenne said:


> When's the last time you heard the G major Harpsichord concerto, or the fourth concerto for Lire Organizatte? Geiringer commented on it and offered an explanation:
> 
> "_A review of Haydn's whole output in the field of the concerto forces one to admit that he showed no particular interest in this form of composition. The few masterworks among the concertos hardly make up for the number of routine compositions written for a single performance and never meant for wider circulation. This will not surprise anyone familair with Haydn's personality. Unlike Mozart, he was no virtuoso. Neither on the piano nor on the violin was his technique particularly brilliant. Above all, his natural disposition was alien to that of a virtuoso. The rather dramatic gifts of the professional performer, which great virtuosos like Liszt, Paginini, and even Mozart possessed in abundance, were completely lacking in Haydn. His reserve made it impossible for him to become a success as a solist, and while he progressed as a composer, his interest in the concerto from gradually faded. Most of Haydn's concertos were written during the 1750s and 1760s, the smallest number of them (though these include the fines works) during the eighties and nineties._"


This may well be why Schubert left us no concertos either. Something of a pity - I would have loved to hear a Schubert concerto or two.


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## Kevin Pearson (Aug 14, 2009)

Technically this isn't a guitar concerto is it? I thought it was a transcription for guitar of his violincello concerto. Or am I wrong about this?

Kevin


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## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

Kevin Pearson said:


> Technically this isn't a guitar concerto is it? I thought it was a transcription for guitar of his violincello concerto. Or am I wrong about this?
> 
> Kevin


No, you're not - it's the cello concerto in C Major . I don't think an electric guitar version is pointless since an electric guitar doesn't sound like a violin or a piano - even it it is capable of imitating the sound of the violin with the vibrato, for example.


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## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

Cheyenne said:


> When's the last time you heard the G major Harpsichord concerto, or the fourth concerto for Lire Organizatte? Geiringer commented on it and offered an explanation:
> 
> "_A review of Haydn's whole output in the field of the concerto forces one to admit that he showed no particular interest in this form of composition. The few masterworks among the concertos hardly make up for the number of routine compositions written for a single performance and never meant for wider circulation. This will not surprise anyone familair with Haydn's personality. Unlike Mozart, he was no virtuoso. Neither on the piano nor on the violin was his technique particularly brilliant. Above all, his natural disposition was alien to that of a virtuoso. The rather dramatic gifts of the professional performer, which great virtuosos like Liszt, Paginini, and even Mozart possessed in abundance, were completely lacking in Haydn. His reserve made it impossible for him to become a success as a solist, and while he progressed as a composer, his interest in the concerto from gradually faded. Most of Haydn's concertos were written during the 1750s and 1760s, the smallest number of them (though these include the fines works) during the eighties and nineties._"


I've read that Haydn's D Major Cello concerto was long thought to have been written by Tomasini because of its high demands on the soloist. But it was later proven that Haydn wrote it. I think Haydn could definitely write excellent solo parts but it may be true that it wasn't his prime interest as a composer. Haydn seems to have been more concerned with 'the full picture' when writing a piece and I believe he attempted to balance the roles of the instruments.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Kevin Pearson said:


> Technically this isn't a guitar concerto is it? I thought it was a transcription for guitar of his violincello concerto. Or am I wrong about this?
> Kevin


No, you are right. I was of course just joking in the OP.


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