<\/p>
Th<\/span>ough well-loved today, these two ebullient cello cello concertos by Haydn<\/a> were for long \u2018sleeping beauties\u2019 of the repertoire: the first was only unearthed by a librarian in Prague\u2019s National Museum in 1961, the second was wrongly attributed to its dedicatee, Anton Kraft, until the Viennese autograph score was rediscovered in 1954.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Both are so successfully scored, one can\u2019t help wondering if regular performances wouldn\u2019t have inspired Mozart<\/a><\/strong> and Beethoven<\/a> <\/strong>to compose for cello and orchestra<\/a><\/strong>. The Concerto<\/a> <\/strong>in C was probably written for cellist Joseph Weigl in Haydn\u2019s early years as the Esterh\u00e1zy Court\u2019s Kapellmeister and radiates good cheer. The more spacious, and more virtuosic, D major concerto (1783) has a grandly eloquent opening movement on a symphonic scale, and ends with a gently ornate rondo<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> Chamber Orchestra of Europe\/Roger Norrington (1996)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Sony Masters 88697704462<\/strong> Haydn\u2019s Cello\u00a0 concertos <\/span>seem to bring out the best in musicians, which means few really poor recordings have been made. Whether a soloist adopts an 18th-century set-up of gut strings and Classical bow, or modern steel strings and high bridge, the scores seem to take wing, provided that the orchestra \u2013 just strings, with oboe and horns in the First Concerto, flute and bassoon added in the Second \u2013 is sufficiently small and lithe. Perhaps the solution is a compromise between ancient and modern, which can be found in Steven Isserlis\u2019s (pictured) sparkling 1998 account on gut strings with the non-period instrument Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Roger Norrington. Freshness and humour mark out these performances. Isserlis produces a wonderfully characterful, throaty sound, penetrating and sinewy, bringing to his part an impressive range of textures. Isserlis\u2019s own cadenzas are irresistibly mischievous, delightfully and deftly given: one can\u2019t help feeling Haydn would have approved. The D major Concerto was long known in a brutally edited 19th-century version by Fran\u00e7ois-Auguste Gevaert. When, in the 1960s, original editions appeared, its first movement acquired a reputation for being too long and sluggish. Isserlis dispenses with such doubts, bringing a persuasive sense of direction to every one of its melting cantabile <\/i>phrases. The Sinfonia Concertante in B flat makes up the programme, giving us a rounded picture of musical life at Esterh\u00e1zy.<\/span><\/p>\n Academy of Ancient Music\/Christopher Hogwood (1982)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Decca\/L\u2019Oiseau-Lyre 478 0025 <\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Haydn\u2019s concertante works have benefited hugely from the balance and lightness offered by period instruments and a less sustained approach to phrasing. These concertos need to seethe with vitality and grace, which is just what we get from the Academy of Ancient Music, playing at lower pitch than the others recommended here. The academy\u2019s strings bring a crackling, fire-flecked texture, while Christoph Coin\u2019s performance is informed by his expertise as a gamba player and Baroque cellist: a plangent singing line, glinting with high overtones; sparse use of vibrato; and crisply articulated bowing which has a violin-like delicacy. In each concerto he provides his own magnificently idiomatic and playful cadenzas complemented by two anonymous 18th-century ones in the finales.<\/span><\/p>\n Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie\/Augustin Dumay (2012)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Mirare MIR 220\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Here is a reading of fleet elegance and luminous transparency by this young Russian cellist, supported by the limpid strings of Augustin Dumay\u2019s chamber orchestra. Some may find Tatjana Vassiljeva\u2019s approach lacking in virility, but her vivacious, unshowy performances are undeniably charming, and the slow movements are particularly touching. Her instrument, with a modern set-up, has a radiant upper register but a particularly dark-hued bass resonance adds to her range. She adopts new cadenzas by her colleague, pianist Jean-Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Neuberger, in both concertos, which are witty without drawing unnecessary attention to themselves. The Allegro<\/i> of the First Concerto is one of the fastest on record, and the first movement of the D major is given a tight focus, aided by a supple and intimate sense of ensemble.<\/span><\/p>\n Academy of St Martin in the Fields (1975)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n EMI 678 7232\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The legendary \u2018big beast\u2019 of the cello world is surprisingly light on his feet in these buoyant accounts, with scintillating support from the ASMF. He lends a penetrating muscularity to the line, and real heft to the double-stopping and lower strings, but his heroic style is driven by irrepressible high spirits rather than misplaced Romanticism. Both slow movements have an expressive weight sometimes missing from the more \u2018authentic\u2019 modern performances. Britten\u2019s cadenzas in the Moderato<\/i> of Concerto No. 1 have a weirdly Soviet flavour, while Rostropovich\u2019s own in No. 2 is undistinguished. His octave passages in the finale of the latter are pretty murky, but other technical feats ably accomplished. An undeniably powerful performance.<\/span><\/p>\n By Helen Wallace Published: Wednesday, 16 March 2022 at 12:00 am Though well-loved today, these two ebullient cello cello concertos by Haydn were for long \u2018sleeping beauties\u2019 of the repertoire: the first was only unearthed by a librarian in Prague\u2019s National Museum in 1961, the second was wrongly attributed to its dedicatee, Anton Kraft, until […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":13342,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/03\/the-best-recordings-of-haydns-cello-concertos-1-2-scaled.jpg",2560,1829,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/03\/the-best-recordings-of-haydns-cello-concertos-1-2-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/03\/the-best-recordings-of-haydns-cello-concertos-1-2-300x214.jpg",300,214,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/03\/the-best-recordings-of-haydns-cello-concertos-1-2-768x549.jpg",768,549,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/03\/the-best-recordings-of-haydns-cello-concertos-1-2-1024x731.jpg",800,571,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/03\/the-best-recordings-of-haydns-cello-concertos-1-2-1536x1097.jpg",1536,1097,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/03\/the-best-recordings-of-haydns-cello-concertos-1-2-2048x1463.jpg",2048,1463,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Helen Wallace Published: Wednesday, 16 March 2022 at 12:00 am Though well-loved today, these two ebullient cello cello concertos by Haydn were for long \u2018sleeping beauties\u2019 of the repertoire: the first was only unearthed by a librarian in Prague\u2019s National Museum in 1961, the second was wrongly attributed to its dedicatee, Anton Kraft, until…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/13341"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The best recordings of Haydn Cello Concertos 1 & 2<\/h2>\n
Steven Isserlis (cello)<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
C<\/span>hristoph Coin (cello)<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
Tatjana Vassiljeva (cello)<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
Mstislav Rostropovich (cello)<\/span><\/h3>\n
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