CHRISTOPHER HOGWOOD

Christopher was made an Advisory Board member this year of the Haydn Society of North America and was invited to write an article in the Society’s first Newsletter.

The Haydn Society of North America encourages and promotes the performance and research of Joseph Haydn and his music. Membership is open to any individual or organization interested in these objectives. For more information on the society, please visit Haydn Society of North America

Please click on the 'Read More' link below to read Chrisotpher’s article Compliments to Dr. Haydn

Compliments to Dr. Haydn by Christopher Hogwood

The inaugural issue of a new Haydn newsletter seems a perfect opportunity to give notice of a set of musical compliments to Haydn that have lain virtually unnoticed and certainly unplayed for more than 200 years.

Many works were dedicated to Haydn during his lifetime, often by aspiring pupils or colleagues. Mozart’s six string quartets and Beethoven’s op.2 sonatas are the best known, but the list includes works by Pleyel, Gyrowetz, Wölfl, Cramer, both the Rombergs, Eberl, Eybler, Hummel, Ries, and many others. There was even a posthumous compliment from Johan Wikmanson: a dedicatory letter added by his widow to his op.1 string quartets, which were published after his death.

A particularly discrete form of flattery came from Pavel Wranitzky in the form of two printed sets of Trois Divertissemens/pour/Deux Violons, Viole, Violoncelle, Flute/Hautbois, deux Cors & Basse, published in 1800 by Johann André. Although these carried no explicit dedication, the title explained that they are “amplifications” of six of Haydn’s best-known string quartets, opp.71 and 74.

Wranitzky expanded the ensemble to nine players by adding flute, oboe, two horns, and double bass, making it one of the larger divertimento scorings for the period. The results were published in 1800, but have since been overlooked by performers until the stimulus of an anniversary (Wranitzky died September 1808) has recently focused attention on them.

Pavel Wranitzky, like his younger brother Anton, was central to the musical world of Vienna. He held a position at court, composing for the emperor’s wife, Marie Thérèse, and was in charge of operatic music first in the Kärtnerortheater and later in the Burgtheater. Haydn insisted that Pavel Wranitzky take charge as concertmaster of the Viennese performances of The Creation (1799, 1800) and at Beethoven’s request he conducted the premiere of that composer’s First Symphony (2 April 1800). He had also been a member of the same Masonic Lodge as Mozart, ‘Zur gekrönten Hoffnung’, and helped Constanze sort out Mozart’s legacy in dealings with André.

The musical compliment to Haydn therefore came from within the highest levels of Viennese musical society, and cannot have existed and been published without the approval of Haydn himself. In any case, we know from the assistance that Haydn gave to Wranzitzky in proposing his chamber works for publication in London by John Bland that he approved of him as a composer as well as a concert director.

The arrangements are far from slavish: Wraniztky makes enterprising changes, re-allocates music from strings to winds, adds idiomatic parts for the horns, supplements Haydn’s markings with additional and different marks of expression, and creates an added element of concertante interplay to suit the new context and ambience. While these texts will be of interest for their reading to players who perform the original quartet versions, this recasting presents them in almost symphonic concert dress and opens them up for larger-scale public performance.

The elegance and efficiency of Wranitzky’s writing shown in the divertimenti will hopefully draw more listeners this year to explore the remainder of his output (see www.wranitzky.com for more details). François Joseph Fétis wrote in 1868: “The music of Wranitzky was in fashion when it was new because of his natural melodies and brilliant style. He treats the orchestra well, especially in symphonies. I recall that, in my youth, his works held up very well in comparison with those of Haydn. Their premature abandonment of today has been for me a source of astonishment.” I hope this anniversary year will manage to return his music to favour.

The first set of three divertimenti has recently been published in a new edition prepared by the present writer for Edition HH (www.editionhh.co.uk). The arrangement of Haydn’s op.71 no.1 was heard (probably for the first time since the composer’s lifetime, and almost certainly for the first time in America) in a concert given in New York’s Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall at 7pm Saturday, 1 March 2008 by the ensemble known as The Academy – a program of Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute (www.acjw.org).