[3/27/2011] Horns, glorious horns -- Hadyn lets 'em loose in his "Horn Signal" Symphony (continued)

The first movement of Haydn's "Horn Signal" Symphony is played by the Connecticut River Valley Orchestra under Max Culpepper in a "Norse Legends" concert at the Claremont Opera House, Oct. 25, 2009.

A QUICK NOTE ON "HORN SIGNAL" NOMENCLATURE

Everywhere you look, I know you'll find "Hornsignal" as related to this Haydn symphony spelled as one word. I don't get how the perfectly normal "horn signal" becomes one word, so while I'll let H.C.R.L. have his "hornsignal," I'm sticking with "horn signal."

BACKING UP A BIT: GIVE A COMPOSER
A PAIR OF HORNS, AND STAND BACK!

Just as an example of what a composer can do with a pair of horns -- usually deployed one "high," one "low" (the same normally holding true when there are multiple pairs, so that with four horns normally I and III would be "high" and II and IV "low") -- let's go back to one of our "horn-happy" movements from Handel's Water Music, the Minuet from the F major Suite. Now this is a perfectly splendid orchestral statement of this heavy-striding (I'm tempted to say "lumbering") minuet's basic theme:
Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Karl Münchinger, cond. Decca, recorded c1981

But in fact this is a re-statement of the theme, which Handel just entrusted, at the outset of the movement, to . . . a pair of horns! (For the record, the orchestral version is twice as long because both sections of the theme are repeated.)
Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Karl Münchinger, cond. (see above)

Now let's hear them now in proper sequence -- also switching from "modern symphony orchestra" to "baroque orchestra" mode (and from modern-day-standard to baroque-era-standard pitch).

Opening statement for two horns:

Restatement for full orchestra:
Linde-Consort, Hans-Martin Linde, dir. EMI, recorded Oct. 12-15, 1983

NO, WE CAN'T LEAVE IT AT THAT, CAN WE?
WE HAVE TO HEAR THE COMPLETE MINUET!

HANDEL: Water Music: Suite No. 1 in F: No. 6, Minuet

Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Karl Münchinger, cond. Decca, recorded c1981
Linde-Consort, Hans-Martin Linde, dir. EMI, recorded Oct. 12-15, 1983

OKAY, BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED
PROGRAMMING: HAYDN'S "HORN SIGNAL"

Beyond noting that Haydn was playing with posthorn signals that would have been familiar to audiences of his time, I'm not going to say anything more about the first movement of the symphony, except to note that personally I can't ever get enough of it. [ANOTHER SPOILER ALERT: We haven't heard the last of the horn signal.]

HAYDN: Symphony No. 31 in D (Horn Signal):
i. Allegro

Philharmonia Hungarica, Antal Dorati, cond. Decca, recorded 1971
Orchestra of St. Luke's, Sir Charles Mackerras, cond. Telarc, recorded Nov. 8-9, 1988

ONE MOVEMENT DOWN, THREE TO GO

Let's just take 'em one at a time, aided by the comments in the "compacted" version of H. C. Robbins Landon's Decca booklet note.

ii. Adagio

H.C.R.L.: The slow movement includes not only virtuoso parts for the horns (two in G, two in D), but also elaborate solo parts for violin and cello.

Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra, Adam Fischer, cond. Nimbus/Brilliant, recorded Apr.-May 2001

iii. Menuet and Trio

H.C.R.L.: The third movement is one of those irresistible minuets of which Haydn's music is full, bursting with energy and as dance-like as any Strauss waltz.

Philharmonia Hungarica, Antal Dorati, cond. Decca, recorded 1971

iv. Finale: Moderato molto

This is a big movement in more than one sense, but to start with the chronological, the timings in the three performances we've been listening to are: Fischer, 9:57; Dorati, 9:47; Mackerras, 11:46. It's the latter recording we're going to hear.

H.C.R.L.: The Finale is a set of slow variations, showing off Haydn's collection of virtuoso players: even the double bass has a solo (var. 7). The end is like the Kehraus ending that used to conclude sets of dances: the tempo speeds up, we are given a popular melody like the "Strasbourg" tune at the end of Mozart's Violin Concerto in D, K. 218. Having been exposed to this contredanse-like theme we are totally unprepared for [FINAL SPOILER ALERT -- no, no, H.C.R.L., don't spoil it!] the last seven bars: a literal quotation of the horn call that began and ended the first movement. No device could have more effectively cemented the loose construction of the Finale to the rest of the work.

(In addition to "indexing" the movement subsections -- see the note below --Telarc provides a breakdown of start times: Variation 1, 1:19; Variation 2, 2:34; Variation 3, 3:53; Variation 4, 5:03; Variation 5, 6:21; Variation 6, 7:25; Variation 7, 8:54; concluding Presto, 11:01.)

Orchestra of St. Luke's, Sir Charles Mackerras, cond. Telarc, recorded Nov. 8-9, 1988

ABOUT OUR "HORN SIGNAL" RECORDINGS

The Dorati and Fischer performances are from their mammoth sets (in both cases 33 CDs' worth!) of the complete Haydn symphonies, respectively for Decca and Nimbus (reissued by Brilliant Classics). The Mackerras performance is from a solidly recommendable Telarc CD where it's coupled with Haydn's much-loved Farewell Symphony (No. 45). (As noted above, on the Telarc CD the individual variations of the Finale are indexed. It's a shame this often-potentially-useful system of "sub"-tracking points -- built into the audio-CD standard -- has never caught on, but there are CD players that offer index playback capability, and Telarc is one of the few companies to take advantage of it.)


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