# New to Michael Haydn



## classicalcpa80 (5 mo ago)

After listening to so much music of the "Big 3" of the Viennese Classical style, I decided that I needed to explore more of the music from this era. I always found it somewhat odd that, in contrast to the Baroque and Romantic eras, there are basically just three composers who dominate the entire era. I long knew there were plenty of other composers during this time, but _relatively_ little is mentioned about them. I enjoyed the music of Boccherini and CPE Bach, but I wanted more.

With the HUGE amount of music just from Joseph Haydn, I never really gave much thought to actually checking out the music of his brother, Michael Haydn, which, it turns out, is a shame. I've listened to all 104 of J. Haydn's symphonies, nearly all the string quartets, concertos, and all piano sonatas, and I'd like to finish listening to all of the piano trios at some point.

I bought the second volume of M. Haydn's symphonies from Naxos, and I'm really pleased with how fresh it sounds to me. Very different from J. Haydn. I've read many people opine that his music is more similar to Mozart than his brother's music, but I actually hear a LOT of similarities in M. Haydn's symphonies (the few I've listened to thus far) to CPE Bach. It has a very similar energy to much of it, and a lot of unexpected (to me, at least) surprises. I noticed that the writing for winds in the symphonies reminds me of CPE Bach too. I definitely do hear some Mozart (especially in minor-key sections), but I find the music more similar to the of CPE than Mozart.

I'm very excited to explore more of this. I enjoyed this particular Naxos recording, though I'm not quite sure how I feel about the continuo being so prominent, though this was done on some of the earlier J. Haydn symphony recordings on Naxos too.

Apparently, Naxos released two volumes of the M. Haydn symphonies around 2016 or 2017, but I don't see any more since then.

On a side note, I also recently purchased some symphonic music of Paul Wrantizky and Chevalier de St. Georges. Both of them are new composers to me. I bought some music of Hummel too, which I knew was good, but never explored in much depth before.


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

The only work I know well from Michael Haydn is his Requiem.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

classicalcpa80 said:


> I enjoyed this particular Naxos recording, though I'm not quite sure how I feel about the continuo being so prominent, though this was done on some of the earlier J. Haydn symphony recordings on Naxos too.


Try these renditions (I tend to avoid the other ones due to their absurdly fast tempos in the slow movements, overly loud basso continuo, or blatantly non-HIP sound, etc)-
symphonies 1~12: Slovak Chamber Orchestra / Bohdan Warchal
symphony 13: Bournemouth Sinfonietta / Harold Farberman
symphony 14: Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss / Johannes Goritzki
symphonies 15, 16: Slovak Chamber Orchestra / Bohdan Warchal
symphony 17: Bournemouth Sinfonietta / Harold Farberman (or Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss / Johannes Goritzki)
symphony 18: Bournemouth Sinfonietta / Harold Farberman
symphony 19: Capella Savaria / Pàl Németh
symphony 20: Bournemouth Sinfonietta / Harold Farberman
symphony 21: Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss / Johannes Goritzki (or Capella Savaria / Pàl Németh)
symphonies 22, 23: Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss / Johannes Goritzki
symphony 24: Bournemouth Sinfonietta / Harold Farberman
symphony 25: Slovak Chamber Orchestra / Bohdan Warchal (or Bournemouth Sinfonietta / Harold Farberman)
symphonies 26~28: Slovak Chamber Orchestra / Bohdan Warchal
symphony 29: Capella Savaria / Pàl Németh
symphonies 30~39: Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss / Johannes Goritzki
symphonies 40~41: Bournemouth Sinfonietta / Harold Farberman


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## classicalcpa80 (5 mo ago)

hammeredklavier said:


> Try these renditions (I tend to avoid the other ones due to their absurdly fast tempos in the slow movements, overly loud basso continuo, or blatantly non-HIP sound, etc)-
> symphonies 1~12: Slovak Chamber Orchestra / Bohdan Warchal
> symphony 13: Bournemouth Sinfonietta / Harold Farberman
> symphony 14: Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss / Johannes Goritzki
> ...


Thanks so much for the recommendations! I did buy the later collection from CPO (Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss) containing symphonies 34-39 and 21, 30-32. I've already listened to the album containing 34-39.

It's all very interesting. They're so short compared to what I'm used to with symphonies (even those of FJ Haydn), and not just because most have only three movements. As I mentioned in my original post, they somewhat remind me of the energy and creativity of CPE Bach's Hamburg Sinfonias. They seem packed full of interesting motifs, but he doesn't seem to stick with anything for very long (relatively little seems to be repeated). It's like I will hear a particular passage and think, "Wow, that was unexpected!" but then often I won't hear it again. It's not that this is necessarily a good or bad thing, just different from what I'm used to hearing with the Classical symphony.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

classicalcpa80 said:


> Thanks so much for the recommendations! I did buy the later collection from CPO (Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss) containing symphonies 34-39 and 21, 30-32. I've already listened to the album containing 34-39.
> It's all very interesting. They're so short compared to what I'm used to with symphonies (even those of FJ Haydn), and not just because most have only three movements. As I mentioned in my original post, they somewhat remind me of the energy and creativity of CPE Bach's Hamburg Sinfonias.


Yeah, the 34th~39th have characteristics like that (more reminiscent of shorter symphonies of the earlier generation, albeit jam-packed with harmonic subtlety). The 34th is the one that reminds me the most of CPE, btw. Try the 18th, 22nd, 27th, 28th, 33rd, etc, where you'll find scales similar to FJ's.


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## janwillemvanaalst (5 mo ago)

I agree with you about the merit of Michael Haydn - he deserves way more recognition. You might find this box set from Brilliant classics interesting. Personally, I enjoy his sacred choral works, which his famous brother Franz Joseph acknowledged were at least as good as his own, for example his Missa Hispanica (1792), the Missa Cancti Aloysii (1796), the Chiemsee-Messe (1793)... and indeed, as mentioned, his Requiem in memory of Archbishop Sigismundo MH155 (1771). Enjoy!


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

janwillemvanaalst said:


> You might find this box set from Brilliant classics interesting.


Personally, I wouldn't recommend that set to anyone. Too many bad selections of renditions, imv.


janwillemvanaalst said:


> his Missa Hispanica (1792), the Missa Cancti Aloysii (1796),


Missa Hispanica (1786)
Missa sancti Aloysii (1777)


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