★★★★/★★★★
How did Haydn write so much music, hardly ever repeating himself? We’re talking 104 symphonies, 68 string quartets, around 30 string trios, numerous concertos, 127 baryton trios, masses of Masses and 13 complete operas. There are 52 formal piano sonatas and many more occasional pieces. From what we know of his abilities, Haydn was not even a very good pianist so there is no excuse that he was turning out keyboard music for personal advertisement on a quiet day.
True, Haydn had time on his hands as resident director of music on the bucolic Esterhazy estate, where nothing much ever happened. A less dedicated composer might have gone for a wander in the woods, a swim in the lake, a stop at the pub and maybe a rumble in the bushes, but that was not Haydn’s way. He got up, got dressed and, rain or shine, he put quill to stave, always fresh, never morbid.
The English pianist Peter Donohoe has issued volume two of his survey of Haydn’s keyboard works. The Russian Denis Kozhukhin confines himself to the sonatas. Kozhukhin is a past winner of the Queen Elisabeth contest in Brussels; Donohoe topped the Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow. Both are schooled in the heavier manner of modern piano playing, rather than the plinky-period type.
Both, however, find lightness in Haydn. Donohoe takes particular delight in an airy partita or fantasia. Kozhukhin treats the sonatas without undue reverence, tweaking out half-tunes and twirling them around, like an entertainer at a children’s party. He is possibly the more contemplative of the two, while Donohoe brings a wealth of context. Impossible to recommend one above the other. They are, if anything, complementary.
Which is the greatest compliment I can pay to both artists.
