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Track(s) taken from CDA67554

Divertimento in A flat major, Hob XVI:46

composer
1767/8

Marc-André Hamelin (piano)
Recording details: December 2005
Henry Wood Hall, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Andrew Keener
Engineered by Simon Eadon
Release date: March 2007
Total duration: 20 minutes 26 seconds
 

Other recordings available for download

Peter Donohoe (piano)

Reviews

‘The ever-phenomenal Marc-André Hamelin breaks out into the light with a two-disc set of Haydn sonatas … these are astonishing performances … Hyperion's sound and presentation are, as always, immaculate’ (Gramophone)

‘Hamelin kicks off with the late C major Sonata, Hob XVI:50, nailing his virtuoso credentials firmly to the mast with a mercurial account of its opening movement … Hamelin's playing is dazzling … these are altogether splendid performances … these beautifully recorded performances can't be recommended too highly’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘This French-Canadian pianist is equal to anything … marvels of dexterity coupled with the most refined art … the fast pieces are preturnaturally smooth, the slow ones beautifully expressive’ (The Independent)

‘Hamelin's coruscating virtuosity and colouristic flair can be taken for granted. But his phenomenal technique is never an end in itself. This is playing of elegance, subtlety and a subversive Haydnesque wit. Hamelin delights in the composer's penchant for wrong-footing the listener. The madcap scherzo finale of No 50, with its outrageous pauses and deflections to the most improbable keys, is deliciously timed … elsewhere, Hamelin conjures a wonderful of veiled inwardness in the adagio of No 46, and an almost Chopin-like poetry in the dreamy F minor siciliano in No 23. But Hamelin's exhilarating reading has its own validity, while the finale is dazzling in its brio and comic legerdemain. This is just the sort of Haydn playing—colourful, inventive, impish—that should win these sonatas a wider following’ (The Daily Telegraph)

‘For those interested in Haydn (which should include everyone who cares about music) this is a particularly valuable release … every work on this set is worthy of repeated hearings … Hamelin is a stylish and accomplished pianist. His tone is aptly lean with no untoward use of the sustaining pedal or imposition of an undue rupturing of pulse. His runs are immaculate, even in the most rapidly articulated passages, and textures are always sharply focused … a special virtue of this release is the inclusion of an essay by Richard Wigmore. Providing cogent information that touches a variety of issues impossible to glean from a single source, it stands, in effect, as a model of what insert notes should be and rarely are. Throughout both CDs the sound is ideal’ (International Record Review)

‘Hamelin's gift for making light of complex textures and technically taxing writing is here harnessed to music of Classical clarity and economy. It is without doubt one of his finest achievements—and that's saying something. This cleverly chosen selection of diverse character is played with masterly resourcefulness. Hamelin can do deadpan humour (the finale of No 40) and brilliant note-spinning (No 32) like few others, but also finds a truly affecting wistfulness in some of the slow movements. Superbly recorded, this is a life-enhancing release’ (Classic FM Magazine)

‘Marc-André Hamelin joyfully tackles ten of the later sonatas on his generously presented two-for-one release from Hyperion, and one cannot but be intoxicated by such happy piano playing’ (Pianist)

‘Marc-André Hamelin's virtuosity is in a different league altogether. The pearly evenness of his touch, his immaculate negotiation of even the trickiest of figurations and nonchalant despatch of semiquavers at the highest velocity, indulges the physical exhilaration of Haydn's playful inspiration in a way unmatched by any pianist past or present … even Hamelin has made few discs to equal this and none finer’ (International Piano)

‘Hamelin begins his tour with the Sonata No 50 in C, Hob XVI:50 … the teasing opening and brusque outbursts in the opening movement are fully rendered by Hamelin, who embraces the cheeky syncopations, as well. There's something heartbreaking about Hamelin's playing in the tender Adagio to Sonata No 46 in A flat, Hob XVI:41. The single line, unsupported by any left-hand accompaniment rises and falls like a lullaby, gaining definition when Haydn finally brings in the left hand. There's more where that came from in the Adagio to Sonata No 23 in F, Hob XVI:23, which Hamelin treats as if it were a lost opera aria. Hamelin places the harmonic accents in just the right place, and he does it again and again over two discs’ (Time Out Chicago)

‘These superb performances—brisk, witty, emotionally evocative—reflect glory on him and Haydn alike … Hamelin is equally commanding through all of the composer's moods, skipping nimbly across the keyboard with unerring precision and then turning a slow movement into a hauntingly eloquent dramatic solo. Best of all, he gets the jokes, which he brings forward without underlining them. The result is a series of buoyant renditions’ (San Francisco Chronicle)

‘It is literally true that almost every new disc by Hamelin is an adventure and a revelation-in waiting. Should anyone ask why a pianist as technically daunting and so usually given to difficult and unusual repertoire (Alkan, Ornstein, Wolpe, Busoni) is now essaying two discs of piano sonatas by good old 'Papa' Haydn, all you have to do is listen to the opening C major Piano Sonata No 50 and you know you’re a long way from music intended to be pedagogic and little else. There is extravagance here of the sort Hamelin has always fed on all through this marvelous two disc set and Hamelin’s inclination toward whirlwind, occasionally almost violent prestos, Lisztian slow tempos and Bachian counterpoint brings out the bracing musical mind that so many of the greatest musicians have long insisted on beneath the classical era's Viennese paterfamilias’ (The Buffalo News, USA)

‘Hyperion's recording is as usual excellent with a proper focus given to the piano without making it sound overtly domineering or presumptuous. Richard Wigmore's copiously detailed notes are essential reading for the discerning Haydn scholar and thus I have nothing left to add but a wholehearted recommendation for this rather excellent double CD set which incidentally is tantalizingly offered for the price of one’ (Classical.net)

‘Hamelin finds in this music what so many performers of Haydn miss—the universality of utterance, the almost Shakespearean range of emotions, hiding within the classicism of Haydn's musical language’ (La Folia, USA)
No Haydn sonata is more indebted to Emanuel Bach’s brand of Empfindsamkeit—the language of heightened sensibility that had its literary roots in the works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the German poet Klopstock—than the Sonata in A flat, No 46, composed around 1767–8. Beyond any specific influence, this beautiful work reflects the striking intensification of Haydn’s musical idiom in the years immediately following his elevation to full Kapellmeister at the Esterházy court in 1766. Opening with a typically empfindsamer theme, irregularly phrased and characterized by delicate ornaments and sighing appoggiaturas, the first movement surpasses all its predecessors in scale, expressive richness and variety of rhythm and texture. As so often in Haydn’s earlier sonatas, the central section is more a free fantasia than a true development, though here the exhilarating toccata-like figuration sweeps through an unusually adventurous spectrum of keys.

For the Adagio, Haydn moves to the subdominant, D flat major, an outré key in the eighteenth century and one never used by Mozart. With the extreme tonality goes a peculiar intimacy of expression: from the delicate contrapuntal opening, with the bass descending passacaglia-style, this is one of the most subtle and poetic of all Haydn’s slow movements. The polyphonic and chromatic enrichment of the main theme in the development suggests not so much C P E as J S Bach at his most inward; and Haydn opens up further strange harmonic vistas in the coda. With its catchy, quicksilver main theme, the compact sonata-form finale provides a glorious physical release. Yet for all its exuberance this is no mere frothy romp. The darting semiquaver figuration always has a strong sense of direction, above all in the powerful chromatic sequences just before the recapitulation.

from notes by Richard Wigmore © 2007

Nulle sonate de Haydn ne doit plus l’Empfindsamkeit d’Emanuel Bach—ce langage de la sensibilité exacerbée qui puisait ses racines littéraires dans les œuvres de Jean-Jacques Rousseau et du poète allemand Klopstock—que la Sonate en la bémol no 46, composée vers 1767–8. Par-delà toute influence spécifique, cette pièce splendide reflète l’intensification saisissante de l’idiome haydnien survenue dans les années qui suivirent immédiatement la promotion du compositeur au statut de Kapellmeister à la cour d’Esterházy, en 1766. S’ouvrant sur un thème typiquement empfindsamer au phrasé irrégulier, caractérisé par des ornements délicats et des appogiatures soupirantes, le premier mouvement surpasse tous ceux qui l’ont précédé par son échelle, par sa richesse expressive, mais aussi par sa diversité de rythme et de texture. Comme si souvent dans les premières sonates de Haydn, la section centrale tient plus de la fantaisie libre que du développement authentique, même si, ici, l’exaltante figuration de type toccata balaie un spectre de tonalités inhabituellement audacieux.

Pour l’Adagio, Haydn passe à la sous-dominante, ré bémol majeur, une tonalité outrancière au XVIIIe siècle—jamais Mozart ne l’utilisa. Cette tonalité extrême ne va pas sans une intimité d’expression particulière: dès le délicat début contrapuntique, avec le style de passacaille descendant à la basse, ce mouvement lent s’affirme comme l’un des plus subtils et des plus poétiques jamais écrits par Haydn. L’enrichissement polyphonico-chromatique du thème principal du développement n’évoque pas tant C. P. E. que J. S. Bach en ce qu’il a de plus intime; enfin, la coda ouvre de nouvelles et étranges perspectives harmoniques. Doué d’un thème principal accrocheur, très vif, le finale compact, de forme sonate, offre une glorieuse délivrance physique. Mais, malgré toute son exubérance, il n’a rien de la bagatelle creuse. L’incisive figuration en doubles croches affiche toujours un fort sens de la direction, surtout dans les puissantes séquences chromatiques, juste avant la réexposition.

extrait des notes rédigées par Richard Wigmore © 2007
Français: Hypérion

Keine Haydn-Sonate verdankt Emanuel Bachs Marke von Empfindsamkeit—der Sprache gesteigerter Sensibilität, die ihre literarischen Wurzeln in den Werken von Jean-Jacques Rousseau und dem deutschen Dichter Klopstock hatte—als die Sonate Nr. 46 in As, die um 1767–68 komponiert wurde. Über den spezifischen Einfluss hinaus reflektiert dieses schöne Werk die erstaunliche Intensivierung von Haydns musikalischer Sprache in den Jahren unmittelbar nach seiner Beförderung 1766 zum ersten Kapellmeister am Esterházy-Hof. Sie beginnt mit einem typisch empfindsamen Thema mit unregelmäßiger Phrasierung und durch delikate Verzierungen und Seufzervorhalte charakterisiert. Der erste Satz übertrifft all seine Vorgänger in Ausmaß, expressivem Reichtum und rhythmischer und struktureller Vielfalt. Wie oft in Haydns früheren Sonaten ist der Mittelteil eher frei-phantasierend als eine echte Durchführung, obwohl hier die berauschende toccatenhafte Figuration durch ein ungewöhnlich verwegenes tonales Spektrum schweift.

Für das Adagio geht Haydn in die Subdominante, das im 18. Jahrhundert extravagante Des-Dur, und eine Tonart, die Mozart nie verwendete. Mit dieser extremen Tonalität geht eine sonderbare Intimität des Ausdrucks Hand in Hand: vom delikaten kontrapunktischen Beginn mit seiner passacagliahaften absteigenden Bassline an entwickelt sich der Satz zu einem der feinsinnigsten und poetischsten aller langsamen Sätze Haydns. Die polyphone, chromatische Anreicherung des Hauptthemas in der Verarbeitung deutet weniger auf C.Ph.E. als auf einen äußerst verinnerlichten J.S. Bach, und Haydn bietet mehr fremdartige tonale Perspektiven in der Coda. Das kompakte Finale in Sonatenform löst die nahezu physische Spannung glorreich mit seinem eingängigen, quecksilbrigen Hauptthema. Doch trotz all seines Überschwangs ist es kein oberflächliches Geplänkel, sondern die flitzenden Sechzehntelfiguren bleiben immer zielgerichtet, besonders in den kraftvollen chromatischen Sequenzen kurz vor der Reprise.

aus dem Begleittext von Richard Wigmore © 2007
Deutsch: Renate Wendel

Other albums featuring this work

Haydn: Keyboard Works, Vol. 1
Studio Master: SIGCD7262CDs Download onlyStudio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
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