[bart]

Originally Posted by bart

Joseph Haydn - Twelve Trios for Transverse Flute, Violin and Violoncello
Barthold Kuijken
Sigiswald Kuijken
Wieland Kuijken
via Qobuz




This was playing gently into the practice today.

This double-disc reissue combines two releases by Barthold, Sigiswald, and Wieland Kuijken, respectively from 1978 and 1986. The earlier one, especially, dates from the years when historical-performance philosophies were first applied to music of the Classical era, and both recordings have held up well. Barthold Kuijken's gentle transverse flute blends in with the other two instruments in a way that's difficult to achieve with a modern flute. The works are all incidental pieces by Haydn, written for his princely employer at Esterháza. All are in three movements, although the sequence of the three is hardly duplicated at all. They are pleasant examples of background music, with short movements artfully arranged so as to draw the listener's ear to a single affecting detail, and the Kuijkens deliver ingratiating performances without a hint of the severity that sometimes afflicts Baroque specialists playing Classical music.
There are a few caveats for the buyer. The two discs don't form a sonic whole and haven't even been dynamically equalized. They don't really form an artistic whole, either. The music is not the advertised "Twelve Trios for transverse flute, violin, and violoncello" of Haydn; the works on the first disc are alternate versions of divertimenti for two violins and cello, while the second consists of baryton trios in an arrangement made during Haydn's day with, the performers argue, Haydn's implicit or explicit approval. Haydn realized that the baryton, a bizarre cello-like instrument with a lot of sympathetic strings, was an instrument played by Prince Nikolaus Esterházy and very few others, the reasoning goes, so he composed these works with an eye toward eventual transposition for the forces represented here. The argument is rather detailed, and those with a specific interest in the performance practice of the era will doubtless find it useful. It is a bit exasperating, however, for the general listener who is curious as to what the original versions of these pieces sounded like but who, despite several decades of "authentic" performances, rarely if ever gets to hear them. None of this, however, affects the pleasant, polished, and (as always with Haydn), slightly jocular music heard on these two discs.

© TiVo

This was playing into the clinic today.