The Virtual Haydn: Complete Works for Solo Keyboard (Blu Ray Audio & Blu Ray DVD)

Tom Beghin (Artist), Haydn (Composer), -- (Conductor) | Format: Blu-ray Audio

Product Details

• Conductor: --
• Composer: Haydn
• Blu-ray Audio (October 27, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 4
• Label: Naxos
• ASIN: B002JP9I1G
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #173,289 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

MacLeans.ca, Paul Wells, October 1, 2009

When Tom Beghin, a Flemish pianist, joined the music faculty at McGill University in 2003, he already had plans to record all of Joseph Haydn's keyboard sonatas. Haydn wrote more than 50 pieces for solo keyboard instruments over nearly 30 years, from 1766 to 1794. "This was to be my `masterwork,' " Beghin says, "not in a romantic or self-glorifying way, but in the 19th-century sense of being accepted to a guild." Beghin's comment reflects both his intellectual ambition and his self-effacing manner. Which may help explain why it is Haydn's music that has become the focus of his life, because that's what Haydn was like. The Austrian composer died 200 years ago this year, so his prolific output has become the focus of new attention. His music's flawless logic is being appreciated anew. His cool, often witty emotional detachment, which led earlier generations to dismiss him as a cold fish, now seems suited to our own skeptical era. But no project during this Haydn bicentennial year is as surprising as Beghin's. He always planned to record Haydn's works, not on a modern piano, but on new replicas of the original instruments. In the late 1700s, keyboard technology was evolving fast, from harpsichords and clavichords to fortepianos and pianofortes, each coaxing sound from strings in a different way. Beghin approached another new McGill prof, the legendary German record producer and recording engineer Martha de Francisco, to capture the nuances of each instrument in the studio. It was yet another McGill colleague who brought the wild card. Wieslaw Woszczyk is another recording engineer with a penchant for new technology. He approached Beghin and de Francisco with a challenge: if this was to be Haydn's music on (something like) Haydn's instruments, why not record it in the rooms where it was first performed? Woszczyk knew hauling all those keyboards across Central Europe would cost a mint. So he had an audacious Plan B: why not digitally capture the acoustic characteristics of each room--echo, delay, reverberation and so on--and recreate the sounds of all those rooms in a single Montreal studio? Beghin, a traditionalist who pores over Haydn's correspondence for clues about his music, was skeptical. "I asked myself, `Oh, what's next, do we need to use candlesticks? Do we have to wear their clothes?' Which is not so stupid, because it kind of restricts you when you move." But Woszczyk and de Francisco are not prone to gimmickry, and Beghin let himself be persuaded. The result is The Virtual Haydn, a recording of the composer's complete keyboard works, performed by Beghin on seven replica instruments in nine "virtual rooms"--digital equivalents of places like Haydn's own study in Eisenstadt, the festsaal in Vienna's Palais Dietrichstein-Lobkowicz and the spiegelsaal in the Esterhazy Palace, where Haydn served as the house composer to nobility. Woszczyk recorded the characteristics of each room, then channelled that information and Beghin's own fresh notes through a dome of loudspeakers deployed around the keyboardist. To Beghin it sounded like he was playing in those far-flung rooms. On disc it sounds like he was recorded on an extended and varied tour. (The Virtual Haydn is being released for sale around the world this month and next on Naxos, appropriately in a new format: 14 hours of audio and a full-length video documentary on four Blu-ray discs.) The sound is crisp in small rooms, opulent in grander settings. And because the keyboard technology changes so radically from one set of sonatas to another, we're reminded that this so-called "classical" period didn't feel like a genteel twilight period to the people who lived through it. It felt like one long upheaval. Most important, the technology allows Beghin to show how much care Haydn took to write music for specific settings. Beghin calls him an "orator," in the sense that a gifted speech maker selects his material and manner to suit each audience. That's far from the romantic ideal of the protagonist who's helpless in the grip of his own fevered genius, and for the longest time Haydn's poise actually played against his reputation. No fair, says Beghin. "There is no shame in being aware of your technique, being aware of what you do. When I play Haydn, when I listen to Haydn, I never had a sense of incompleteness. He's a full human being, with a full range of emotions."

Product Description

HAYDN:VIRTUAL HAYDN COMPLETE WORKS FO - Blu-Ray Mo

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb production, July 3, 2010

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John G. Hill (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Virtual Haydn: Complete Works for Solo Keyboard (Blu Ray Audio & Blu Ray DVD) (Blu-ray Audio)

Tom Beghin and his colleagues from McGill University have created a meticulously produced panorama of the keyboard works of Haydn. Obsessive attention to detail, voluminous notes and video documentaries, and superb recording quality of the seven replica historic instruments and nine historically informed, digitally recreated acoustic environments allow the listener to immersively enter into Haydn's rapidly evolving world. But none of this would matter without Beghin's sensitive, intelligent, and highly musical performances. His point is not merely to present the quaint and esoteric sounds of his highly specific period instruments, but to explore the musical implications of those sounds for the composer and his listeners. The idiosyncrasies of each of the instruments (clavichord, two harpsichords, and four pianos) become inextricable from Haydn's musical text and Beghin's interpretation.

The decision to release the 17 hours of material on Blu-ray makes for a much more compact package and allows the use of 5.1 surround audio, and video features and documentaries. But it also limits the ability to enjoy the music beyond the confines of a home entertainment center. The Blu-ray load time gets old fast if one wants to listen to one or two cuts. Many of us would like to be able to live with the music in the car or the iPod as well. And a great many people who would savor this work simply do not possess the technology.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Piano Lover's Delight, May 17, 2011

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D. Roberts - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Virtual Haydn: Complete Works for Solo Keyboard (Blu Ray Audio & Blu Ray DVD) (Blu-ray Audio)

The is a beautiful set of recordings in full surround sound. For those with a home theatre system up to the task of playing full surround music you will literally "feel like you are there." The instruments used are authentic for the period and the rooms are "virtual" recreations of actual rooms from the period. So, you will hear the music exactly as it was intended to be heard by the composer. If your surround speakers are not up to the task but you have good stereo main speakers, use the two-channel LPCM mixes though just your stereo speakers for the best possible stereo sound.

The previous reviewer mentions that there are times that he would like to be able to listen without waiting for the Blu-Ray to load the menus. While he is correct you will have to wait for the menu, there are no copyright notices etc. like with movies so the wait isn't too bad. And that's a small price to pay for full HD surround sound. And the advantage of the menu is you can call it up while the music is playing to see exactly what is playing; or to easily navigate to another piece.

The previous reviewer also mentions he would like two-channel versions for playing with an iPod etc. As mentioned above, the disc does include two-channel LPCM mixes of all pieces on the disc so one could easily use "audio capture" software (not "ripping") on their computer to capture the two-channel mix to play on their iPod.

4 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A questionable recording effort, June 3, 2011

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Warden Manford - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Virtual Haydn: Complete Works for Solo Keyboard (Blu Ray Audio & Blu Ray DVD) (Blu-ray Audio)

When one buys a blu-ray recording, he expects to have a recording containing quality sound. On my playback system (with a range of 14Hz to 20 kHerz), all of the four discs' lower registers sounded muddy and distracting.. The reason for this lack of quality is due to the harpsichord and clavichord screechy performance range--high and etched with no bass sound. In other words by default this recording's lower audio registers were left blank--having no signal, only noise. A 5.1 recording can benefit from a variety of audio experiences if they're available to record.

Another disappointment came when watching the various recitals. No performer was filmed. It was like three audio disc without any visible action. The fourth disc consisted of a discussion among several people of where to record, one notable example, so that the ambient sound might match the actual solons (rooms) where Haydn performed. All talk and no filmed performance. Just my opinion, but still I cannot recommend this collection.

Haydn's music can be performed on the pianoforte nowadays, a rather remarkable instrument with a reputable range, and not a series of unattractive, historical instruments conjured up from long, long ago.