Customer Reviews

The 99 Most Essential Haydn Masterpieces

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Joseph Haydn is huge, and I'm glad to have this set. Although I've listened to a lot of Haydn, I have surprisingly few of his works in my collection at this time. This set offers a great introduction to his work, with generally very good performances in good sound quality.

Haydn arguably did more than any other composer to establish the Classical style, the defining music between the Baroque and Romantic periods. An insanely prolific composer, he wrote 106 symphonies alone, and over 750 total catalogued works. So any set can barely scratch the surface of his work.

He wrote most of his works as Kapellmeister/court composer for the Eszterhazy family in Austria-Hungary in 1761-1790. But many of his greatest compositions, including the late "London" symphonies, several masses and two of his great oratorios -- were written between 1790 and 1802. Some of these works were definitely pointing to the Romantic future -- listen to Symphony No. 101, for example. The first and last movements could practically have been written by Beethoven.

Mozart is usually seen as the star of the Classical period, and justifiably so. But Haydn did more to shape it. He was already well established as a composer when Mozart was coming into his own, and he kept on writing long after Mozart's death. He is known (dubiously) as the "father of the symphony" and (pretty accurately) as the "father of the string quartet". He was also one of the first to write piano trios, and was a major developer of the sonata form.

This set includes good examples from different areas of his work, including:

- 10 symphonies (nos. 7, 22, 44, 45, 49, 59, 94, 100, 101 and 104)

- 4 Piano Sonatas (nos. 34, 37, 46 and 52)

- 4 Concertos (nos. 1 and 2 for cello, the concerto for trumpet, and no. 11 for fortepiano)

- 3 String Quartets (nos. 1, 53 and 62)

- 1 trio for flute, cello and piano

- 2 oratorios: the full "The Seven Last Words of Christ" and excepts from "The Creation"

As usual in these sets from the X5 Group, there is a mix of better-known and lesser-known performers. The playing is pretty consistently good, and often excellent. Many of the symphonies and concertos are performed by recognized orchestras, such as the St. Petersburg Radio Symphony Orchestra or the Salzburg Mozarteum. Three are performed by the obscure Babelsberg Symphony Orchestra -- possibly a non-film incarnation of a successful film orchestra in Babelsberg. Their performances, taken from this set on Telos, are well and sensitively played.

Haydn's best-known "gimmicky" symphonies are here -- the "Surprise" (no. 94) is named for the loud chord in the slow movement, designed to wake up the audience of dozing nobility. "The Clock", No. 101, has a second movement that recalls a ticking clock. In the "Farewell" (no. 45), the musicians stop playing one by one in the last movement, standing up and walking offstage. Two violins are left at the end, until they also get up and leave. This was written as a not-so-subtle hint to Haydn's Eszterhazy boss at the time that the musicians wanted to get back to their families in Eisenstadt, Austria after an unexpectedly long stay at the summer residence in Hungary.

Ronald Brautigam, one of Holland's top pianists, turns in great performances on the piano sonatas, performed on the fortepiano -- the early form of the instrument that Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven all wrote for. This is a nice twist that adds a bit of value to the set, as I don't have much fortepiano in my collection. A modern grand piano has a much fuller and richer sound, while the fortepiano has a bit of a harpsichord feel to it, from being a smaller instrument with thinner strings -- a lot like the harpsichord, but with the strings being struck with leather-covered hammers rather than plucked. The sonatas are taken from Brautigam's complete set of Haydn's solo fortepiano works on BIS records.

The string quartets are performed by the Quartetto Pressenda, apparently taken from this set on the Telos label. The performances are engaging. From the first strains of No. 53, "The Lark", for example, you can clearly hear the bird. The Pressendas may not have the richness I found in The Lindsays' outstanding Haydn recordings, but these are satisfying performances, perfectly serviceable. Quartet No. 62 "The Emperor" includes what is now the German national anthem (the one that used to begin, "Deutschland, Deutschland über Alles") as the main theme in the second movement. This tune is actually from a much earlier song called "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser" (God Save Francis the Emperor), about Francis II, the last Holy Roman Emperor.

Two of Haydn's oratorios are represented here, but not all that well. "The Creation" has two strikes against it: 1) it is presented in excerpts rather than the whole work, and 2) the voices are poorly microphoned, muddy and indistinct. (I had listed the English text as a third strike, but it was kindly pointed out to me that The Creation has always had both a German and English text, both genuinely Haydn.) A shame, because instrumentally the recording is satisfying, with a nice tone and good performance. "The Seven Last Words of Christ" is a live performance by the Slovak Philharmonic that picks up some audience noise, but this seems to be under control most of the time. There are microphoning problems, however. The orchestra and chorus are indistinct in the background, while the soloist singers, especially the men, are disproportionately strong in the mix in the first one third of the piece or so. This gives an interesting but not particularly pleasant three dimensional effect. I can strongly recommend this version of the oratorio.

Other than on the oratorios, I have not come across issues with poor sound. Technically, the quality seems good. Bitrates are variable, and on average range from 183 to 253 Kbps. Only a small handful of tracks are under 200 Kbps.

This set is a very good introduction to Haydn, and at the introductory price of $2.49, a tremendous bargain. Highly recommended!

I have been waiting for this 99 Most Essential Masterpieces set for quite some time - Haydn! Let me start by stating it was a set that was worth the wait. Actually, to be fair, I own all of the sets in this series and I am happy with them all - save the Beethoven set.

Here's the great thing about this set - you get the complete symphany, concerto,quartet and sonata in the set. This was the problem with the Beethoven set - just a movement (sliced and diced). In a classical piece, in my opinion, the whole piece must be presented! This is what the composer intended. In this set, that is exactly the way they are presented - in their entirety!

The playing is excellent to very good. Actually, I have listened to the entire 99 pieces and it's marvelous. The price right now for this set is nothing short of amazing! Buy, BUY, BUY! It is a stupendous bargain! Simply beautiful music for less than a fast food sandwich! I also think this is far more "filling" at least in the spiritual sense.

Isn't that why we listen to music? We listen to music because it affects us on many levels. You will be moved by the music presented in this Haydn set! Thank you Amazon for making this music available for all to enjoy at a price that is truly amazing!

This gloriously uplifting classical music will make you stop and whisper, "Thank you, God, for my ears!"

Did Amazon neglect to mention that this is 0.98 Gigabytes?

The more, the better, but you might have wanted to have known ahead of time.