Sunday Classics snapshots: Swinging Haydn with Vilmos Tatrai playing and conducting

Violinist and conductor Tátrai (1912-1999)

Symphony No. 31 in D (Horn Signal) (1765):
i. Allegro

Symphony No. 73 in D (La chasse) (The Hunt) (1782)
iv. Presto

Hungarian Chamber Orchestra, Vilmos Tátrai, cond. Hungaroton, recorded 1965

by Ken

So I noticed this CD lying atop one of the millions of piles of CDs I've finally been trying to organize, and it didn't instantly ring a bell: a pair of D major sort of hunt-themed Haydn symphonies -- the Horn Signal, No. 31, and La Chasse, No. 73, performed by the Hungarian Chamber Orchestra conducted by Vilmos Tátrai. Above we've heard the movements most responsible for the symphonies' nicknames (though it should be noted that the then-overwhelming contingent of four horns is used throughout the Horn Signal Symphony).


MY FIRST THOUGHT WAS THAT THE CD WAS LYING ABOUT --

as a leftover from a March 2011 post, "Horns, glorious horns -- Haydn lets 'em loose in his Horn Signal Symphony." But on revisiting that post, I see that the Tátrai performance wasn't represented. If I even thought to look for it back then, the CD was probably already MIA.

Suddenly it occurred to me to wonder whether these chamber-orchestra performances share the qualities of the great cycle of the Haydn string quartets Tátrai recorded with his namesake quartet, of which he was leader for some 40 years. And I thought, why not take some musical snapshots?

It's hardly scientific, but I've paired the middle movements of the two symphonies (slow movement and minuet) with the parallel movements of string quartets written at roughly the same time. Actually, I've gone rather earlier in pairing an Op. 2 quartet with the Horn Signal Symphony, since the next quartets, the Op. 9 set, don't come till around 1770. Here I also have to offer the proviso that the quartets of Haydn's Opp. 1 and 2 are, as we've noted previously, somewhat different in form, notably having five movements, with a central one, usually a slow movement, bracketed by a pair of minuets.

One other point to note is that the symphonies were in fact recorded well before the string quartet cycle, when Tátrai wasn't all that experienced a conductor. So what the heck, let's get on with it.


THE HORN SIGNAL SYMPHONY

Symphony No. 31 in D (Horn Signal) (1765):
ii. Adagio

iii. Menuet

Hungarian Chamber Orchestra, Vilmos Tátrai, cond. Hungaroton, recorded 1965

HAYDN: String Quartet in A, Op. 2, No. 2 (1751):
iii. Adagio

iv. Menuetto

Tátrai Quartet (Vilmos Tátrai and István Várkonyi, violins; György Konrád, viola; Ede Banda, cello). Hungaroton, recorded c1989

BEFORE WE PROCEED TO LA CHASSE --

We need to listen to a little song of Haydn's, "Gegenliebe" ("Mutual Love"). I think when we get to the middle movements of La Chasse you'll hear why.


[The song continues with three additional musically identical (i.e., "strophic") stanzas. Ameling and Demus perform only the first and last stanzas.]

HAYDN: "Gegenliebe" ("Mutual Love"), H.XXVI:16

Elly Ameling, soprano; Jörg Demus, piano. Philips, recorded c1980


NOW ON WITH THE HUNT!

Symphony No. 73 in D (La chasse) (The Hunt) (1782):
ii. Andante

iii. Menuetto: Allegretto

Hungarian Chamber Orchestra, Vilmos Tátrai, cond. Hungaroton, recorded 1965

The soloists aren't identified, but I assume the violinist in the swinging Andante is the concertmaster of the Hungarian Chamber Orchestra and not Maestro Tátrai. You can get he would have loved to play those solos, though!

HAYDN: String Quartet in D, Op. 33, No. 6 (1782):
ii. Andante

iii. Scherzo: Allegretto

Tátrai Quartet (Vilmos Tátrai and István Várkonyi, violins; György Konrád, viola; Ede Banda, cello). Hungaroton, recorded c1978

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