Haydn 82 (‘The Bear’), the first of the six ‘Paris’ Symphonies – Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jean-Christophe Spinosi; April 8, 2022.
Without me giving anything away, this (individual) performance will divide opinion. Stay with it until the end.
5 Comments
Antony Hodgson
on May 12, 2022 at 10:54 am
It looks like I don’t like Marmite after all. A performance of supreme dreadfulness. A hesitation before the onset of any new theme each of which appears at a changed tempo with the general rule ‘loud=fast quiet=slow; After the wildly fast Minuet it seemed for a while that the Trio (played at a ponderous Largo with occasional sprints) had been forgotten. The five-second pauses before second repeats in the outer movements were ludicrous and as for the final coda it is difficult to find a polite word to describe it but ‘rubbish’ wil do.
Well said. “Rubbish”? More abuse, assault, torn-apart disfigurement. Spinosi is known for his eccentricities, but here he’s on a trip to alien worlds. It’s a performance even more extreme and perplexing than one he did with the Berlin Philharmonic two years ago. Full marks to the Frankfurt Radio Symphony for even trying to keep up and stay together. Whatever logic he’s applying (if he has one), is impossible to work out, the warped turbulence of his pulse (and pauses) an affront. Shock tactics before style at every turning and interruption. As for those closing bars, well they certainly ain’t what Haydn wrote. Haydn and humour, yes. Haydn and cheap laughs, no. A weird encounter.
I have never heard of Spinosi until now and if this performance is typical I hope to never encounter him again. He’s a clown, not at all funny, and here he makes a mockery of Haydn, abusing his music for his own idiotic ends. Sad!
I came across this performance while looking for something else. As a lifelong Haydn enthusiast, I have heard many eccentric interpretations but perhaps this ranks as one of the most manipulative. There is an uncomfortable trend in modern music-making to pull tempi around and alter small details in the scoring in order to say something different about the music or make it more “relevant” to today’s world (whatever that may mean). I can accept the occasional pointing-up of the odd phrase in a live performance but when, as here, each and every turn of phrase is signalled so obviously, the musical experience is cheapened beyond redemption. What a pity, because the performance does have a few good things going for it, not least the energy and attack of the brass and timpani, including splendid natural horns in c-alto, a feature lacking in several recent so-called historically informed performances including Giovanni Antonini’s recent recording in his much-praised Haydn 2032 series, where the texture is muddied by c-basso horns!
It looks like I don’t like Marmite after all. A performance of supreme dreadfulness. A hesitation before the onset of any new theme each of which appears at a changed tempo with the general rule ‘loud=fast quiet=slow; After the wildly fast Minuet it seemed for a while that the Trio (played at a ponderous Largo with occasional sprints) had been forgotten. The five-second pauses before second repeats in the outer movements were ludicrous and as for the final coda it is difficult to find a polite word to describe it but ‘rubbish’ wil do.
Well said. “Rubbish”? More abuse, assault, torn-apart disfigurement. Spinosi is known for his eccentricities, but here he’s on a trip to alien worlds. It’s a performance even more extreme and perplexing than one he did with the Berlin Philharmonic two years ago. Full marks to the Frankfurt Radio Symphony for even trying to keep up and stay together. Whatever logic he’s applying (if he has one), is impossible to work out, the warped turbulence of his pulse (and pauses) an affront. Shock tactics before style at every turning and interruption. As for those closing bars, well they certainly ain’t what Haydn wrote. Haydn and humour, yes. Haydn and cheap laughs, no. A weird encounter.
Some of this performance is interesting, mostly it’s a betrayal of Haydn.
I have never heard of Spinosi until now and if this performance is typical I hope to never encounter him again. He’s a clown, not at all funny, and here he makes a mockery of Haydn, abusing his music for his own idiotic ends. Sad!
I came across this performance while looking for something else. As a lifelong Haydn enthusiast, I have heard many eccentric interpretations but perhaps this ranks as one of the most manipulative. There is an uncomfortable trend in modern music-making to pull tempi around and alter small details in the scoring in order to say something different about the music or make it more “relevant” to today’s world (whatever that may mean). I can accept the occasional pointing-up of the odd phrase in a live performance but when, as here, each and every turn of phrase is signalled so obviously, the musical experience is cheapened beyond redemption. What a pity, because the performance does have a few good things going for it, not least the energy and attack of the brass and timpani, including splendid natural horns in c-alto, a feature lacking in several recent so-called historically informed performances including Giovanni Antonini’s recent recording in his much-praised Haydn 2032 series, where the texture is muddied by c-basso horns!