Franz Joseph Haydn - Sonates Et Variations Pour Le Pianoforte

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Franz Joseph Haydn - Sonates Et Variations Pour Le Pianoforte

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On this 2009 CD, the scholar-pianist Paul Badura-Skoda (b. 1927) offers an inspired performance of Haydn's keyboard music. Badura-Skoda plays his own rare fortepiano dating from around 1790 built by a maker, Johann Schantz, whom Haydn praised highly. The instrument has a lighter, clearer tone than the contemporary piano. It is bell-like and somewhat dry with a detached sound. In these performances, Badura-Skoda plays with a light, quick touch with sparing use of the pedal and less emphasis on legato playing than would be offered in more contemporary readings. He also plays with a great deal of musicality and passion. Badura-Skoda wrote the program notes for this CD, including an insightful discussion of "Some Thoughts on Interpreting Haydn." Badura-Skoda adopts as his own the following comment of Edwin Fischer about the playing of Bach:

"Music has always been a language of the heart, and subjectivity is modern insofar as, today, players speak in their own name, while formerly they were the exponents of their period and, as such, anonymous."

In other words, Badura-Skoda plays in an almost self-effacing way. The goal is to encourage the listener to focus on Haydn's music and its passion rather than upon the technique or subjectivity of the performer. His recital includes two sonatas, the extended set of variations in f minor, and two short sets of variations.

The A-flat major sonata, Hob. XVI:46 is an early masterpiece that Haydn composed between 1768-1770. Badura-Skoda offers a scholarly discussion of this work in his notes together with his passionate performance. This is a grand work with a large, expansive opening movement, played at a rather fast tempo here, a slow, introspective adagio, (with a cadenza by Badura-Skoda) and a short, lively concluding presto.

The second sonata on the CD, in c minor, Hob. XVI :20 was Haydn's first composed expressly for the piano rather than the harpsichord. (The work includes a range of dynamic markings that would not be possible to execute on the earlier instrument.) The sonata is an angular work of tragedy and passion, with classical balance and restraint. The opening movement builds tension in alternating a somber minor key with an alternating major key theme accompanied by triplets. The second movement is contrasting with a lyrical theme while the angry concluding movement remains in the minor key throughout.

The f minor variations date from 1793 and constitute one of Haydn's best known piano works. It consists of a set of double variations in which Haydn presents a minor key followed by a major key theme and then offers variations of increasing complexity and force on each of them. The work builds to a virtuosic, sweeping conclusion. Haydn may well have composed this music to commemorate the death of Marianne von Genzinger. Haydn probably was deeply in love with von Genzinger and wrote her letters remarkable for their candor and feeling.

The CD also includes Haydn's final piano work, the variations on the imperial anthem "Gott erhalte" which Haydn adopted from the slow movement of his "Emperor" string quartet. This piece became one of Haydn's most famous compositions based upon its subsequent use in the German national anthem. The recital concludes with a short adagio in F major which bears a close relationship to earlier piano music of Mozart.

There is no right or wrong way to play or instrument on which to play Haydn's piano music. Much is to be learned and enjoyed by hearing it performed by different artists in different styles. I have been listening to a great deal of Haydn's piano music of late performed on a modern concert grand by Marc-Andre Hamelin and by Jeno Jando, among others. Much as I enjoyed these recordings, my love for and understanding of this music were greatly enhanced by this rendition on a historic fortepiano by Paul Badura-Skoda.

Robin Friedman