Word: haydn
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...lyrical cantata is an elegant corrective to the image of Haydn as the creator solely of grand tableaux, whether symphonic or choral. It is a masterpiece in minature (it only lasts, on this recording, 20 minutes and 14 seconds). The characterization found in the arias of Adam and Eve in the "Creation" is present, but is transformed into the unilateral statement of a powerful soliloquy. The music, which is set to a libretto of unknown authorship, accompanies Ariadne's discovery of her abandonment at the hands of Theseus...
...powerfully evocative of the rising of the "rosy dawn". They recall the opening bars of the "Creation" and their evocation of the primeval chaos. Glen Wilson's playing is tightly controlled here, and Carolyn Wilson's entry achieves the innocent tentativeness of a newly awakened victim of infidelity that Haydn's setting of the text seems to prescribe...
...cantata is composed of two sets of recitative and aria, following the progression of Ariadne's discovery of her plight and her subsequent expression of anguish and betrayal. Haydn paints Ariadne's psychological itinerary with bold figurations in the pianoforte accompaniment and extensive lyrical passages. The long recitatives are unusually developed musical and dramatic expressions. Wilson's playing demonstrates a sense for the maximization of the evocative possibilities in these passages without transgressing the bounds of bathos. Combining with Watkinson's unfailing vocal agility and expressive gusto, this wrings every ounce of dramatic potential out of Haydn's already amply...
...these short gems. The Canzonettas are fairly straightforward arrangements of strophic songs by an English poetess, accompanied by a setting of an excerpt from act II, scene 4 of Twelfth Night. Yet even if their tone is more modest than that of the cantata, their dramatic development is comparable. Haydn's delicate melody-lines are lovingly phrased by Watkinson, and Wilson audibly revels in the remarkably independent keyboard writing. The fortepiano passages contain moments of intense, near-pictorial portraiture, such as in the "Sailor's Song" and in "Fidelity," which speaks of "rushing winds" and the "tempests." There are also...
Last weekend, the Handel & Haydn Society, a Boston-based period orchestra, hosted the Modern Jazz Quartet at Symphony Hall. The groups offered three performances of Bach Variations, a concert designed to harmoniously integrate Bach and blues...