Search - Michael Haydn, Werner Ehrhardt :: Michael Haydn: Requiem [Hybrid SACD]

Brothers!

Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 01/07/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What do Dominic Dimaggio, Jeb Bush, and Michael Haydn have in common? They're all overshadowed by iconic brothers: Joltin' Joe one of baseball's greatest performers, George W the most disastrous president in American history, and Franz Joseph Haydn probably the greatest composer of the 18th Century. Younger brother Mike (1737-1806) gets a mere ten lines in the Oxford Dictionary of Music, while Joey's bio fills two pages. Michael has been scandalously neglected in modern times; if his name were Heinz Hilfmirgott Hundlauf, his music would be more often performed. Have you ever noticed that Mozart's Symphony #37 is usually omitted from recordings of his complete works? That's because all of it but a brief opening andante was really written by Michael Haydn. Until the misattribution was discovered in 1907, #37 was a concert program staple, yet since that time it's seldom heard.



Like brother Joseph, Michael Haydn spent most of his adult life in a secure professional berth, as music director and Konzertmeister to the Archbishop of Salzburg from 1862 until his death. For that reason, his most significant works are chiefly sacred music. Joseph is reported to have said that Michael's sacred compositions were superior to his own, and I tend to agree. The three compositions on this CD support us. Michael's Missa Sancti Joannis Nepomuceni is one of the most appealing masses of the 'classical' era, far more original and memorable than any of Joseph's liturgical works. Admittedly, Joseph put his best efforts elsewhere, but Michael was a fresh melodist and a masterful orchestrator. Both the Requiem and the Te Deum on this CD are essentially symphonic, with the chorus serving as one voice among many.



Don't expect Michael Haydn's masses to sound like Palestrina, or his Requiem like Ockeghem's. Michael's sacred music is the sound of imperial Catholicism at its most majestic. Contemporary Christians concerned with their own salvation at the End of Days and cognizant of their sinfulness will hardly recognize Haydn's lusty triumphalism as religious at all. Even his Requiem is exuberant, and his Kyries are downright boisterous.



This is a masterful performance by the Deutsche Kammerakademie, far more convincing than the competing recordings by Helmut Rilling or the King's College Chorus. If the Austrians are your bag -- Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn -- you'll be astonished at how good Joseph's kid brother was."