Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T07:36:46.883Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Haydn's (?) Cello Concertos, 1860-1930: Editions, Performances, Reception

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2013

George Kennaway*
Affiliation:
University of Leeds

Abstract

While there exist numerous nineteenth- and early twentieth-century annotated editions of repertoire such as the violin sonatas of Beethoven, the repertoire for the cello was in general edited significantly less frequently. The cello concertos by or attributed to Haydn constitute an exception, both in the number of versions and the degree of editorial intervention. Three cello concertos were associated with Haydn's name: the well-known concerto in D Hob.VIIb:2, another concerto in D Hob.VIIb:4, and a concerto in C Hob.VIIb:5. The first is now known to be a genuine work of Haydn's although this attribution was not universally accepted in the nineteenth century. The second is an unattributable eighteenth-century concerto claimed to be by Haydn and accepted as such at its publication in 1895. The third was compiled by the cellist David Popper who claimed to have based it on Haydn's sketches, providing orchestration and linking material. This article discusses aspects of the five performing editions of Hob.VIIb:2 by Bockmühl, Servais, Becker, Klengel and Whitehouse, the two editions of Hob.VIIb:4 by Grützmacher and Trowell, and Popper's concerto, considering these texts, the reception of the concertos as compositions, and the reception of individual performances. This article surveys the period of the greatest diversity of editions, a period whose later limit is determined by the eventual entry of this work into the cello canon. It will be suggested that this diversity is a consequence of non-canonicity.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

A version of this paper was given at a research seminar at the Department of Drama and Music, University of Hull in 2009. I wish to record my thanks for this opportunity, and for the stimulating discussion that followed. Thanks are also due to Jerome Carrington, Dr. Martin Iddon, and the anonymous reviewers of this paper; and to Lydia Machell for typesetting music examples numbers 11 and 12.

References

1 All these editions are available for study at the CHASE project website: http://chase.leeds.ac.uk.

2 Hob.VIIb:4 has been recorded by Maria Kliegel and Gautier Capuçon: Maria Kliegel, Cologne Chamber Orchestra cond. Helmut Müller-Brühl (Naxos 8.555041, 2000); Gautier Capuçon, Mahler Chamber Orchestra cond. Daniel Harding (Virgin Classics 5455602, 2003). Popper's concerto has never been recorded.

3 Plate number 1046. Steingräber published a new edition of Moscheles's Piano Concerto No. 3 (preface dated 1900), with plate number 960.

4 Plate number 9282. Sinding's Sechs Stücke op. 73 (composed 1905) had Peters plate number 9275; Grieg's Stimmungen op. 74, had Peters plate number 9284 and was dated 1905.

5 Sonja Gerlach and H. Robbins Landon: Sonja Gerlach (ed.), Joseph Haydn Werke, Series 1 vol. 3: Konzerte für Violoncello und Orchester (Munich: Henle Verlag, 1981)Google Scholar

H. C. Robbins Landon (ed.), Joseph Haydn Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra 1783 Hob.VIIb:2 (Cardiff: University College Cardiff Press, 1983)Google Scholar

6 R. Bockmühl (ed.), Beethoven Violine-Compositionen (Leipzig: J. Schuberth & Co., [1865])Google Scholar

7 R. Bockmühl, Etudes classiques (Offenbach: André, [1857])Google Scholar

8 J.J.F. Dotzauer, Violonzellschule (Mainz: Schott fils, [1825]): 38–39Google Scholar

Bernhard Romberg, Violoncellschule (Berlin: Trautwein, [1840]): 8889Google Scholar

9 Bockmühl, R., ‘Ständchen’, Trois sérénades sur des mélodies de F. Schubert op. 6 no. 1 (Offenbach: André, [1859])Google Scholar

10 ‘Violoncell Vorträge de Herrn. Kufferath (D-dur conc. v. Haydn-Gevaërt…)’. Musikalisches Wochenblatt, 23 (1892): 68.

11 ‘Mr. James Richardson on 'Cello Music’, Manchester Guardian (1 May 1911): 9.

12 ‘Musical Gossip’, Athenaeum, 4559 (13 March 1915): 244.

13 Joseph Haydn Konzerte für Violoncell, Revue de musicologie, 69 (1983): 138Google Scholar

14 Alfred Spitzner (arr.), Joseph Haydn Konzert D-dur für Violoncello und Orchester Hob.VIIb:2 (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1988)Google Scholar

15 Jerome Carrington, Francois Servais's Manuscripts of the Joseph Haydn D major Cello Concerto, unpublished manuscript (2003)Google Scholar

16 Ibid., unpaginated preface.

17 Robert Bockmühl, Etudes pour le développement du mécanisme du violoncelle adoptées par l’étude élémentaire du violoncelle au Conservatoire Royal de Musique à Bruxelles et à Munich op. 47, 5 vols. (Offenbach André, [1847])Google Scholar

18 ‘[H]itherto, nineteenth-century techniques (e.g. Springbogen for the sextuplet figure in I, bar 30) have been added to this eighteenth-century concerto […]’. Robbins Landon (ed.), ibid., unpaginated foreword.

19 Becker, Hugo and Rynar, Dago, Mechanik und Aesthetik des Violoncellospiels (Vienna: Universal-Edition, 1929)Google Scholar

20 This edition will be referred to hereafter as the Servais/Gevaert edition.

21 It should be noted that though the solo part is in Servais's hand, the piano part is not. It is therefore still possible that Gevaert made the piano reduction.

22 Stigand, Isobella, The Violoncello and its History (London: Novello, Ewer and Co., 1894)Google Scholar

Edmund van der Straeten, History of the Violoncello (London: William Reeves, 1914): 388389Google Scholar

23 ‘Music. The Week’, Athenaeum, 3097 (5 March 1887): 328.

24 Ibid.

25 Shedlock, J.S., ‘Recent Concerts’, Academy, 774 (5 March 1887): 173Google Scholar

26 Anon., ‘The London Musical Festival’, Times (2 May 1902): 9.

27 ‘Nach der brilliant gespielte Cadenz des ersten Satzes des Haydn'schen Concertes brach ein mit lauten Bravorufen untermischter Beifallssturm aus; um das weiterspielende Orchester kümmerte sich kein Mensch; erst als Hr. Klengel den Bogen wieder ansetzte, wurde es ruhiger.’ Musikalisches Wochenblatt, 27 (1896): 195.

28 Haydn, J.Squire, ed. W. H., ‘Adagio’, in Fourth Violoncello Album (London: Joseph Williams Limited, 1913): 1923Google Scholar

29 Becker, Hugo and Rynar, Dago, ‘Versuch einer vortrags-Analyse des D-dur-Konzertes von Haydn’, in Mechanik und Aesthetik des Violoncellospiels (Vienna: Universal-Edition, 1929): 227232Google Scholar

30 For example, ‘… scored merely for strings, oboes and horns’. Anon, Athenaeum. 3463 (10 March 1894): 321.

31 Blum, David, Casals and the Art of Interpretation (London: Heinemann, 1977)Google Scholar

32 Becker and Dynar, Mechanik und Aesthetik, p. 227Google Scholar

33 ‘Mit Rücksicht auf den erwänten grundcharakter des I. Satzes hätte sich der Spieler also jeglicher Sentimentalität des Ausdruckes zu enthalten!’ Ibid. Becker uses exclamation marks frequently.

34 ‘Unter Vermeidung jeglicher auffälliger Portamenti, schlicht über die Stelle hinweg spielen!’. Ibid., p. 228.

35 ‘[…] sie ist so zu spielen, daβ trotz des Lagenwechsel keine Portamenti zu vernehmen sind’. Ibid., p. 229.

36 Ibid., ‘Das Wesen des Vibrato’, Mechanik und Aesthetik, pp. 199–202.

37 ‘Das letzte Sechzehntel fis wird fehlerhafterweise meistens derart verkürzt, daß es den Eindruck eines Zweiunddreißigstel macht’. Ibid., ‘Versuch einer Vortrags-Analyse’, Mechanik und Aesthetik, p. 227.

38 Robert Philip, ‘Long and short Notes’, Early Recording and Musical Style: Changing Tastes in Instrumental Performance 1900–1950 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992): 7093Google Scholar

Brown, Clive, Classical and Romantic Performing Practice 1750–1900 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999): 621627CrossRefGoogle Scholar

39 Philip, ibid., ‘Tempo Rubato’, pp. 37–69Google Scholar

40 ‘[…] crescendo auf h′; das angebundene d’ piano; kleine Luftpause, nun allmähliches accelerando bis zu dem Motive [music example, third crotchet] wobei ausschließlich das erste a′ zu betononen ist’. Ibid., pp. 227–8. This is a very effective technique – the sudden release of bow pressure for the subito piano d′′ facilitates an immediate up-bow staccato.

41 ‘Frohgemut, freudig bewegthebt das zweite Thema an’. Ibid., p. 228.

42 H. Riemann, Moments musicaux (Brunswick: Litolff, [c. 1890]Google Scholar

43 Ibid., p. 230.

44 ‘Die drei Takte vor H erscheinen wie ein erbittertes Kämpfen unter Einsatz aller verfügbaren Energien, die ihren Höhepunkt im letzten takt erreichen. Die acht sechzehntel des Orchesters bei H leiten aus diesem erregten Kampf zu besonnener Ruhe über. Eine mehr versöhnliche Stimmung greift Platz, die allerdings noch einige Male durch dramatische Zwischenfälle unterbrochen wird, so daß das frühere Wechselspiel seine Fortsetzung bis zum Orchestereinsatz bei I findet’. Ibid., p. 229.

45 ‘Das Werk hat mancherlei Wandlungen durchgemacht und ist in verschiedenen Fassungen veröffentlicht worden. Die vorliegende Form von Gevaert ist eine glückliche zu nennen. Da sie unserer Analyse zugrunde liegt, können die hier vorgeschlagenen Modifikationen nicht als Abweichungen von der Originalfassung des Komponisten im Sinne einer Verletzung des Grundsatzes der Notentreue betrachtet werden’. Ibid., p. 233.

46 ‘Philharmonic Concerts’, Musical World, 34 (1856): 343.

47 ‘The Musical Examiner’, Examiner (31 May 1856): 342.

48 ‘Philharmonic Society’, Musical Gazette, 1 (1856): 219.

49 Whitehouse, William, Recollections of a Violoncellist (London: The Strad Office, 1930)Google Scholar

50 Rigby, Stanley, ‘Memories’, Music & Letters, 35 (1954)Google Scholar

51 Records of the Société des concerts du Conservatoire 1828-1967 online, URL: http://hector.ucdavis.edu/SDC/MainRoll/F.htm [accessed July 7, 2009].

52 Blanchard, Henri, ‘Concerts’, Revue et gazette musicale de Paris, 24 (1857)Google Scholar

53 Société des concerts du Conservatoire 1828–1967: http://hector.ucdavis.edu/SdC/Programs/Pr033.htm [accessed July 7, 2009].

54 ‘C'est la première fois, à notre connaissance, qu'on exécute à Paris une œuvre semblable de Haydn. Un peu vieux de forme, comme on pouvait s'y attendre, ce concerto a néanmoins de l'intérêt; l'andante, notamment, est une belle page. Une grande et difficile cadence, de la composition de M. Gevaert, a été ajoutée au premier allegro; M. servais l'a exécutée avec la plus grande sûreté et beaucoup de brio’. ‘Concerts et auditions musicales’, Revue et gazette musicale de Paris, 46 (1879): 100.

55 ‘Kurze nachrichten’, Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, 2 (1867): 76.

56 Wasielewski, The Violoncello, p. 130Google Scholar

E. van der Straeten, History, p.443Google Scholar

57 Anon., Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 7 (1871)Google Scholar

58 ‘ [...] nur schade, dass er seine gute Technik nicht an gehaltvolleren Compositionen erprobe’. Ibid. Demunck also played an arrangement of Vieuxtemps’ Reverie and Piatti's Tarantella.

59 ‘Music in London’, Manchester Guardian (13 February 1905): 6.

60 ‘The Hallé Concerts. Prospectus for the Jubilee Season’, Manchester Guardian (5 October 1907): 6.

61 Manchester Guardian (29 January 1909): 5.

62 ‘Liverpool’, Musical Times, 62 (1921): 127.

63 Shedlock, J.S., ‘Recent Concerts’, Academy, 774 (5 March 1887): 173Google Scholar

64 ‘London Symphony Concerts’, Musical Times, 28 (1887): 217.

65 ‘… trug er daher zunächste eine interessante Ausgrabung, ein Violoncellconcert mit Orchester von Haydn (vermuthlich ein bearbeitetes Gamba-Concert – schrieb doch Haydn für seinen Fürsten, der dieses heute veraltete fünsaitige instrument spielte, zahlreiche Gamba-Compositionen).’ ‘Tagesgeschichte’, Musikalisches Wochenblatt, 26 (1895): 996. Becker's performance took place in Dresden. The reviewer appears to mean the baryton, but there is some confusion here.

66 ‘London Concerts. Crystal Palace’, Musical News, 158 (10 March 1894): 220.

67 Shedlock, J.S., ‘Recent Concerts’, Academy, 1140 (10 March 1894): 215Google Scholar

68 ‘Crystal Palace Concerts’, Musical Times, 35 (1894): 240; ‘Music in London’, Manchester Guardian (13 February 1905) 6; ‘The London Musical Festival’, Times (2 May 1902): 9.

69 ‘Yorkshire’, Musical Times, 60 (1919): 135.

70 ‘Music in Norwich and District’, Musical Times, 49 (1908): 46.

71 ‘Music. The Week’, Athenaeum, 3097 (5 March 1887): 328; ‘M. Ernest de Munck’, Lute, 123 (March 1893): unpaginated; ‘Rubato’, ‘In the Concert Room’, Monthly Musical Record, 33 (1903): 108; ‘The French Concerts’, Manchester Guardian (27 October 1908): 7.

72 ‘Amateur Orchestras’, Musical Times, 53 (1912): 176.

73 ‘Concertumschau’, Musikalisches Wochenblatt, 27 (1896): 699.

74 ‘Foreign Notes’, Musical Times 55 (1914): 57. Harrison broadcast Hob.VIIb:2 twice, in 1924 and 1925: K.A. Wright, ‘Wireless News’, School Music Review 33 (1924): 154, and 34 (1925): 254; ‘Music in the Provinces’, Musical Times 65 (1924): 112, and 69 (1928): 455.

75 ‘Current Events and Concert Notes’, Violin Times, 11 (June 1904): 83, and ‘Some Events of the Week’, Musical Standard, 21 (21 May 1904): 320; Cremona, 1 (July 1907): 83; Musical Standard (1 July 1905): 4.

76 ‘Jean Marcel, Violoncellist’, Musical Standard (28 January 1911): 7.

77 Campbell, Margaret, ‘Obituaries: Raya Garbousova’, Independent on Sunday (1 February 1997)Google Scholar

78 ‘Weekend Concerts. Dr. Mengelberg at Albert Hall’, Times (20 October 1930): 12.

79 Howard Irving, ‘Haydn and the Consequences of Presumed Effeminacy’, in Ian Biddle and Kirsten Gibson (eds.), Masculinity and Western Musical Practice (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009)Google Scholar

Kevin Dawe, ‘Gender and Sexuality in the New Guitarscape’, The New Guitarscape in Critical Theory, Cultural Practice and Musical Performance (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2010)Google Scholar

80 A. Wenzinger (ed.), Joseph Haydn Concerto für Violoncell und Streichorchester No. 1 (Basel: Editions Reichardt München, 1950)Google Scholar

Sonja Gerlach, Joseph Haydn Konzerte für Violoncell, pp. 129–130Google Scholar

81 J.S. Bach, ed. F. Grützmacher, Six sonates ou suites pour violoncelle seul (Leipzig: C.F. Peters [1865])Google Scholar

82 Brown, Classical and Romantic Performing Practice 1750–1900 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999): 126–127Google Scholar

83 F. Grützmacher (ed.), Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys Sämmtliche Werke. Compositionen für Violoncell und Pianoforte (Leipzig: C. F. Peters, [1878])Google Scholar

84 His cadenza for the first movement of his ‘Boccherini’ concerto in B flat resorts to even more extreme means, ending in A major and then abruptly moving back to the tonic.

85 This last change may have been made by analogy with Becker's and Whitehouse's treatment of the ending of the slow movement of the ‘great’ D major concerto, which also ends pizzicato in the solo part.

86 ‘Liverpool’, Musical Times, 60 (1919): 40.

87 ‘Promenade Concerts. Mr. Arnold Trowell's Playing’, Times (15 August 1923): 8.

88 A.K., ‘The Promenade Concerts’, Musical Times, 64 (1923): 644Google Scholar

89 ‘Promenade Concerts’, Times (15 September 1926): 10.

90 Haydn, ed. W. Altmann, Concerto in D major for violoncello and orchestra op. 101 (London: Ernst Eulenburg, 1935)Google Scholar

91 Deák, Steven, David Popper (Neptune City NJ: Paganiniana, 1980): 219220Google Scholar

92 ‘Amphion’, ‘Musical Echoes’, Bow Bells, 38 (1894): 514. Popper was principal cello in the Vienna Opera Orchestra 1868–1873.

93 ‘Crystal Palace Concerts’, Musical Times, 36 (1895): 23.

94 Musical News, 7 (1894): 480.

95 Shedlock, J.S., ‘Recent Concerts’, Academy (8 December 1894): 478Google Scholar

96 Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (January 1900), as cited in Deák, ibid., p. 220.

97 Grunsky, K., ‘Stuttgart’, Die Musik, 3 (1903-04): 390Google Scholar

98 Deák, ibid., pp. 291-93.

99 Josef Haydn, arr. David Popper, Cello Concerto in C major, Kalmus Miniature Scores no. 1509 (New York: Belwin Mills, n.d.). It has not been possible to discover the copy used for this publication.

100 Anon. [Henry Chorley], Athenaeum, 2123 (4 July 1868): 25. Romberg had died in 1841. The ‘Swiss Concerto’ is his concerto no. 7 op. 44, so called from the effects of yodelling and distant echoes with harmonics in the last movement.

101 The cellist Paul Grümmer's agent advertised his concerto repertoire in 1906 as including Dvořák, d'Albert, Dohnányi (Konzertstück), Volkmann, Haydn, Saint-Saëns, Romberg (no. 9), and Tchaikovsky (Rococo Variations). Die Musik, 6 (1906-07): iv.

102 Werner, Josef, Die Kunst der Bogenführung The Art of Bowing. Supplement No. VII to the Author's Violoncello-method (Heilbronn: C. F. Schmidt, 1894): 47Google Scholar

103 Matthews, J., The Violin Music of Beethoven (London: The Strad Office, 1902): 93Google Scholar

104 In 1897 Max Wünsche played it at the Leipzig Conservatoire's winter examination. Musikalisches Wochenblatt, 28 (1897): 157.

105 Beethoven, ed. F. Grützmacher, Sonaten fürPiano und Violoncell (Leipzig: C. F Peters, [1870, 2/c.1895])Google Scholar

106 Fuchs did so for the Haydn bicentenary concert in Manchester on 28 January 1909 (see note 61). Hollman played Haydn and Boëllmann in Amsterdam with Mengelberg in 1902: Die Musik, 1 (1902): 1499. On 25 May 1911, the afternoon programme for the London Musical Festival at the Queen's Hall included Hob.VIIb:2 (Casals), the Elgar Violin Concerto (Kreisler) and the Brahms Double Concerto (Casals and Kreisler): Musical Times (1 May 1911): 287. Beatrice Harrison played Haydn and Delius in the Reid Subscription Concerts in Edinburgh in 1929: ‘Music in Scotland’, Musical Times 70 (1929): 358. Casals included the Bach C major Suite with Hob.VIIb:2 in London in 1921: ‘Return of Pablo Casals’, Times (21 November 1921): 8. He would also regularly play a Bach solo suite with other concertos such as those by Schumann or Saint-Saëns.

107 Landon, H.C. Robbins, Haydn at Eszterhaza 1766–1790 (London: Thames and Hudson, 1978): 570Google Scholar

108 Fritz Kreisler (ed.), Beethoven Violin-Sonatas (Mainz: B. Schott's Söhne, and London: Augener Ltd., 1911)Google Scholar