Works of the "little brother"
Symphonies by Michael Haydn are still all too rarely heard. Yet they are ideal for small ensembles and not too difficult, especially for amateur orchestras.
For many decades, the Viennese publishing house Doblinger has been surprising readers with its Diletto Musicale with musical rarities from four centuries. In this case, it is two symphonies by Michael Haydn - the "little brother" of the great classic, which is still played far too rarely in concert life.
With two oboes, two horns and strings in a comparatively small ensemble, these are rewarding works, if only because of the easily manageable key of D major. This applies above all to the Symphony MH 287 with its concluding fugato, which seems like a preview of the far weightier finale in Mozart's Jupiter Symphony. The clean notation of the scores will make rehearsing easier.
Nevertheless, the editions do not prove to be "ready to use", but require an attentive adjustment of the articulation in parallel passages, occasionally even some corrections and additions: in the first movement of MH 287, for example, the staccato (bar 99, cf. bar 1) as well as the necessary "a" (bar 103, cf. bar 6) in the winds. Also, slurs, dots and wedges are not adjusted, so that strange situations arise which may correspond to the main source (a set of parts), but which would have required a clear decision on the part of the editor - see bars 2 and 45 as well as 39f. in the 2nd movement, and bar 217 (cf. bar 75) in the 3rd movement.
It is also striking that there are apparently no general guidelines for the entire series: One edition staples round, the other square. Despite all the joys of discovery, in such cases I wish I had the steady hand of an editor.
Michael Haydn: Sinfonia in D major (MH 24 / Perger deest), edited by Michaela Freemanová, DM 1453 (score € 26.35; set of parts € 63.80), Doblinger, Vienna
id.: Sinfonia in D major (MH 287 / Perger 43), edited by Wolfgang Danzmayr, DM 1454 (score € 30.70; part set
€ 75.90)
