Haydn's complete works for solo keyboard are performed by renowned artist Tom Beghin on seven historical
keyboards (some unheard since Haydn's time), in nine virtual rooms precisely mapped and recreated from
settings in which Haydn's music would have been played.
It's rather peculiar that such a protean talent as Joseph Haydn doesn't have the requisite
"greatest hits" roster, at least in the public consciousness at large, that, say, Mozart, Bach
or Beethoven do (the "Surprise Symphony" aside). And yet Haydn is usually seen as one of the most important creative
figures in such prominent forms as the symphony and the string quartet, as well as sonata-
allegro form generally. This relative ignominy is even more ironic when one considers that
Haydn was a friend of Mozart's and a major mentor to Beethoven. Part of the problem, if it
can be termed as such, with Haydn is the almost incredible amount of music this master
churned out during a compositional career that spanned more than 50 years. This incredible
new four Blu-ray set offers Haydn's complete works for solo keyboard, and the fact that this
niche of Haydn's compositional oeuvre takes up over 14 hours of audio (plus another
4 of video) may give some indication of the almost incomprehensible amount of material
there is to wade through in terms of the total output of the Austrian. This is an epochal
undertaking by any standard, and Naxos has raised the bar even more by providing virtuoso
Tom Beghin seven historical keyboards, some unheard since Haydn's own time, on which to
perform the complete sonatas and Klavierstücke.
The rather breathless press releases which accompany this massive new boxed set go into
some detail (some of it frankly a little confusing) about a new mode of recording called
"Virtual Acoustics." What this boils down to is that Beghin performed these works in
recreations, acoustically speaking, of rooms where either Haydn himself or his
contemporaries once performed. Beghin, under the aegis of McGill University's Centre for
Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology (yes, there is such a place,
evidently) was surrounded by a semi-sphere of 24 loudspeakers, giving him instant ambient
feedback on what his live performances were sounding like. According to Naxos' website
devoted to the project, the acoustic properties of each room were acoustically sampled,
electronically mapped, then precisely recreated in the recording studio. Featured rooms
range from the most private to the most public, from Haydn's own study in his Eisenstadt
home to the Holywell Music Room in Oxford, England.
(Franz) Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Beghin, producer Martha de Fancisco and engineer Wieslaw Woszczyk have gone the extra
mile in acoustically mapping several different environments for the ultimate "period listening"
experience. For example, in preparing the environment for Haydn's "Six Prince Esterházy
Sonatas", Eszterháza Castle's Ceremonial Room was sampled. Beghin performs these
particular works on an accurately recreated French double manual harpsichord. On the
other hand, Haydn's sonatas for Princess Marie Esterházy utilized the acoustic sampling of
the rather small Prunkraum of Vienna's Albertina, and Beghin played these selections on a
Kober square piano. What this amounts to is a really pleasing variety of reverb offerings,
with an equally diverse selection of actual keyboards on which Beghin performs.
The first three Blu-rays in this set offer mostly audio (I'll explain in moment), featuring of
course all of Haydn's solo keyboard works. The listener may be astounded, as I was, by the
hugely disparate sounds of these period instruments, from the bright crystalline sound of a
Leydecker harpsichord to the more watery ducilmer tones of a Saxon style clavichord. The
pieces, while obviously in the era's stylistic conventions, still display a breadth of
compositional genius and approaches that can be quite daunting when taken as a whole
over several days of listening, as I did in preparation for this review. Haydn could evince the
quicksilver scalar brilliance of Mozart, for example, but he also explores more languid,
chordal approaches in many of his slower movements. There is throughout the vast array of
pieces on display here a certain fleetness of spirit, a sort of compositional generosity as it
were that perhaps gives us several centuries on a little glimmer of the nurturing paternal
nature of the composer. I stated "mostly audio" in my opening comments of this paragraph
because the nice people at Naxos have also provided still pictures for each piece which give
us period depictions of the room which is being digitally recreated alongside contemporary
photos of the same room, as well as brief information and pictures of the instrument being
played. This is a sumptuous package whose brilliance is simply made more superlative by
this very attention to detail.
The three audio Blu-rays offer these historically discrete programs, each featuring an
assortment of sonatas, cappricios and variations:
Program One: Courting Nobility, c. 1755-1769. Leydecker Harpsichord, Esterháza Room
Program Two: Quality Time, c. 1750-1772. Clavichord in the Saxon Style, Room Five of
Haydn's House
Program Three: The Music Lesson, c. 1755-1767. Leydecker Harpsichord, Spiegelsaal,
Esterházy Palace
Program Four: Haydn's Workshop, c. 1760-1771. Saxon Clavichord, Study of Haydn's
House
Program Five: Your Most Serene Highness (Prince Esterházy Sonatas), 1774. French
Harpsichord, Esterháza Ceremonial Room
Program Six: The Score (Anno 776 Sonatas), 1776. Kober Tafelklavier, Salle de Nates,
Château Ramezay
Program Seven: Equal to the Finest Masters (Auebrugger Sisters Sonatas), 1780.
Walter Fortepiano, Esterháza Music Room
Program Eight: Musical Letters to a Princess (Marie Esterházy Sonatas), 1784. Kober
Tafelklavier, Albertina Prunkraum
Program Nine: Viennese Culture, 1789-1798. Walter Fortepiano, Palais Lobkowitz
Festsaal
Program Ten: The London Scene, 1794-1795. Longman Piano, Holywell Music Room
The astute listener will no doubt notice they are getting a rather intense education on the
evolution of the keyboard as it traversed the late Baroque through Haydn's classical period
on to the modern pianoforte in the many instruments offered here. It's fascinating to
contrast the almost pianistic (if somewhat lighter and boxier sounding) Tafelklavier with the
piano's precursor, the Fortepiano, for example. What this wonderful array of instruments
really highlights is the sometimes quite subtle differences between two siblings, like these
two for example, while simultaneously pointing out the much vaster differences between
them and their cousins in the harpsichord and clavichord families. Throughout it all, Beghin
repeatedly culls an amazing array of colors from the instruments, aided by the obviously
scrupulous recreation of various ambient environments.
The fourth Blu-ray is an equally entertaining, if not quite so exhaustive, array of
video features, including the superb documentary Playing the Room (1:45), an in
depth look at both the artistic and technical achievements brought to bear to make The
Virtual Haydn more than merely virtual. Some viewers may find Martha de Francisco's
cupped-hands-to-ears listening style a bit on the comedic side, but overall this is a
fascinating look at the unbelievable efforts that were required to bring this project to
fruition. Who knew humidity could have such a devastating effect on a clavichord? If you
didn't already, you will by the time this documentary ends.
Additionally, around 46 minutes of live performance footage featuring Beghin on five pieces
is included, on, again, a variety of instruments. While several of these pieces were filmed in
the studio, there's an astoundingly deep and resonant performance of the Allegro from the
Sonata in Eb Major (H XVI:52) recorded on the Longman Piano in Oxford's Hollywell Music
Room. Adding to the embarrassment of riches on this video Blu-ray is the final piece of
wizardry, entitled 7 x 9 Matrix, which allows the listener to experience Haydn's
"Andante for Musical Clock" (H XIX:10) on, as you may have guessed, seven instruments,
each scrollable through nine different ambient environments. While some of the differences
between rooms are quite slight, going from instrument to instrument through this charming
piece of Haydn is like rediscovering it seven times over. Finally, there's an image gallery
showing all of the instruments and all of the rooms.
The Virtual Haydn's fourth disc is the only one to offer video of any reviewable import
(as discussed above, the three audio Blu-rays do offer still pictures and drawings to accompany
the music). Encoded via MPEG-2, this is not a reference quality Blu-ray by any stretch, but it
has a decent cinema verite look as it follows Beghin and his production crew in the
studio as they attempt this rather audacious recording undertaking. The main documentary
looks to me like it was videotaped, and it has the rather shallow texture that that medium
entails. That said, colors are fine, if not eye popping, and detail is certainly well above average
for something of this sort. Closeups of the "injured" clavichord, for instance, reveal individual
brush strokes of lacquer that was applied to the finish, and the many strings of all of these
instruments never fail to resolve properly. Most people are going to come to this project for
the music, let's face it. This image quality is nothing to write home about, but it's certainly
nothing to get up in arms about, either.
Luckily the audio quality is indeed reference material. The DTS-HD MA 5.0 track is full
blooded and beautifully rendered, despite the fact that only one instrument at a time is
playing. I was repeatedly impressed by the separation and discrete tonal areas which
permeated the soundfield. The low ends, especially of the more resonant Tafelklavier,
Fortepiano and Piano, resolutely penetrated from the subwoofer, while the airy plucked sounds
of the harpsichord and clavichord were clear as a bell (though the Saxon Clavichord by its very
nature has a sort of watery sound). This is a remarkable recording also in terms of the many
levels of reverb which become quite evident in the 5.0 mix (less so in the LPCM 2.0 folddown).
While, as mentioned above, some of the smaller rooms don't offer hugely disparate differences
in reverb, there's really a quite astounding difference between these small rooms and the
larger palatial spaces which were digitally recreated. This is one of the most fascinatingly
technical recording enterprises I've had the pleasure of listening to, and while that technology
is in and of itself mind bogglingly interesting, it's the artistry of Beghin that really shines
through in these recordings.
What, four discs of material isn't enough for you? Well, I'm happy to tell you there's a rather
thick insert booklet (almost 70 pages) full of tons of information about Beghin, the instruments
and each of the pieces. It makes for a very compelling program guide as you listen to the first
three audio Blu-rays.
This release may indeed have "niche market" stamped on it in big, bright letters, but that niche
better sit up and pay attention. This is one of the best classical releases of this year and
probably of the decade. Audacious in its ambitions, it never forsakes artistry for technology,
always the sign of great music. I cannot recommend this release highly enough.
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