Search - Franz Joseph Haydn, Glenn Gould :: Haydn: The Six Last Sonatas

Ars Longa, Vita Brevis...

Sébastien Melmoth | Hôtel d'Alsace, PARIS | 03/23/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Ars Longa, Vita Brevis...

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If human life lasted a 1000 years, perhaps one could take the time to study all 104 symphonies, 45 piano trios, 68 string quartets, and 62 piano sonatas of the congenial Joseph Haydn.

But human life is brief.

So one does well to fill one's time with the music (and literature) which is most enriching.

Generally speaking, Haydn is less complex than Mozart; less emotive than Schubert or Chopin; less severe than Bach, Beethoven, or Schönberg; and therefore Haydn offers much appeal to folk who seek simple charms.



Glenn Gould had excellent taste, and whether one agrees with him or not, surely his aesthetic opinions are worthy of the respect due a great creative artist--indeed, a man of genius.

Admittedly often Gould's opinions seem calculated to outrage (though he himself was a very mild-mannered man): betimes he seems purposefully transgressive, profoundly subversive, or willfully puckish with the intent to épater les bourgeois.

Well, he wasn't always right nor was he always wrong: one may say `I like this' or `I don't like that' and be within one's critical rights.

Any music of which Gould was enthusiastic in performance and recording deserves attention.



Of piano Sonatas, Gould considered those of middle-Mozart 'hedonistic'; middle-Beethoven, 'immodest'--(but that didn't stop him from turning in outstanding performances notwithstanding).

Mozart K. 310 Piano Sonatas 3

Mozart K. 331 The Mozart Piano Sonatas, Vol. 4

Beethoven Op. 31 Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, Op. 31 Complet

Beethoven Op. 57 Glenn Gould Plays Beethoven Sonatas Nos.

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But Gould adored the Sonatas of late-Haydn.

Why?

He appreciated Haydn's fine craftsmanship and mild good humour; moreover, Gould admired Haydn's moral rectitude as evinced in his artistic texts.

Haydn's emotional equanimity appealed to Gould's sense of probity.

(`Modesty,' as Somerset Maugham has said, `is a masculine virtue.')



And so we have Gould's sensitive, virile yet modest realizations revealing Haydn's aesthetic virtues with crystal clarity.

These digital recordings were made 1980-81; (he had earlier recorded the 59th Sonata [Eb-major] in 1958).



Available also in other permutations:

Haydn: Piano Sonatas, Hob. XVI, Nos. 42, 48-52

Haydn: Last Piano Sonatas

(the 1958 No. 59) Haydn: Sonata No. 3 in E-Flat Major; Moz

(the 1958 No. 59) Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 24; Piano Sonata K. 330; Fantasia and Fugue, K. 394; Haydn: Piano Sonata No. 49

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late Mozart Mozart Piano Sonatas, 5

late Beethoven Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 30; Sonata No. 31; Sonata No. 32"