Paavo Järvi and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen dedicate themselves to Joseph Haydn's London symphonies

 FAZ

10.May.2023

Anja-Rosa Thöming,  frankfurter allgemeine Zeitung

 

Tipsiness on high heels and other flashes of genius

Tragic flashes of lightning repeatedly punctuate the charming, elegant music of Joseph Haydn’s London symphonies. but no sooner have you adjusted to a change of mood than it's over again: it was probably just a flash of lightning after all. it is these rapid changes of colour that are characteristic of a composer of the greatest versatility, depth of thought and wit. Or, as the conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt summed it up: "without a precise penetration of wit, there is no need to play Haydn's symphonies in the first place." Where wit can mean both mischievousness and mental, playful agility, based on the English "wit".

The approach of making wit audible with precision is also pursued by the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen with its chief conductor Paavo Järvi  in the recording of Haydn's symphonies no. 101 in D major and no. 103, in E-flat major. Further recordings of all twelve symphonies composed in London are planned. since 2019, the much sought-after ensemble has been working intensively on Haydn and can now, after the pandemic has subsided, take off with concerts and recordings. the Kammerphilharmonie recently presented symphonies nos. 93 and 104 at the “Glocke" concert hall in Bremen and at Frankfurt's Alte Oper. 

Haydn, a man in his sixties between 1791 and 1795, was now a "freelance artist" after a long period of court service in Austria-Hungary. He had been recruited by the impresario Johann Peter Salomon, who also wanted to bring Mozart to London in 1790; Mozart was dead a year later. Haydn's aim of entertaining the audience does not contradict his own intellectual aspirations; immense experience goes hand in hand with a love of enigmatic playing. In the adagio introduction to Symphony no. 101, for example, he confronts the listener with a harmonically, metrically and dynamically groping wandering in unknown, somehow uncanny spaces. The tension, built up by the musicians of the Kammerphilharmonie with vibratolo's sustained notes, is only released in the exuberance of the following D major prelude. The theme in six-eighths time is almost too exuberant, just too relieved: a lucky escape! 

Orchestras that play "historically informed", and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie is one of them, despite its modern instruments, find plenty of reason to "laugh together" with Haydn, as Paavo Järvi says in the cd booklet. But it is a cheerfulness against a dark background. Characteristic of this is a sometimes unusual instrumentation that sharpens the senses, for example when high flute notes are combined unconnectedly with low string sounds. or when, in the second movement of the D major symphony, staccato bassoon notes accompany the violin theme with the pizzicato of the low strings with serious comic effect. The staccato figure - which is difficult to hit together in terms of pitch - draws attention to a violin melody that vacillates between complacency and a slight buzz; on high heels, it strides forward with dainty movements, but no longer seems to feel quite secure in the world.

Ever since a music publisher thought he heard a clock ticking in the bizarre andante, the symphony has been called "the clock" in every programme booklet. As if Haydn were a cute gentleman who, on a whim, wanted to set the love of his pocket watch to music. But far from such one-dimensional comfort, cracks and threatening questions lie behind the humour of his music; they not only make a concert enjoyable, but fill it with meaning.

The slow movements are the centrepieces of each work. In the Andante più tosto Allegretto of Symphony no. 103 in E flat major, we encounter a funeral march "light" first in C minor, then turning up to major with military wind fanfares. The theme changes colour unexpectedly to a violin solo accompanied by chamber music - Haydn, the string quartet composer! Towards the coda, the instruments seem to want to disappear into the pianissimo, but then spectacularly change the harmonic direction to an upbeat E flat major in the forte.

The reviewer of the "morning chronicle" noted "continual flashes of inspiration" the day after the premiere in march 1795. the Kammerphilharmonie, with its demand for precision and listening to each other, manages the exciting transitions and atmospheric nuances very well.