HAYDN: Symphony No. 45 in F-sharp Minor “Farewell” – Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra/Orchestre de la Suisse Romande–players/Karl Munchinger
Pristine Audio PASC 148, 25:36 [www.pristineclassical.com] ***:
Issued in 1951 by German Decca as a 10” LP, this fine performance of Haydn’s darkly sturm und drang Symphony No. 45 (1772) features a vigorous Karl Munchinger (1915-1990) and his hand-picked Stuttgart players, assisted by members of the Suisse Romande Orchestra. While not executed on original instruments, the hard-driven lines and thin-toned reeds provide a linear clarity of articulation that differentiates Munchinger’s from more traditionally “romantic” realizations of Haydn. The first movements diviso strings, the second violins syncopated against the upper arpeggios, keep a honed, vivid line rife with sudden thrusts and churning filigree.
The A Major Adagio proceeds in stately, somber tones. Much of the harmonic development presages Schubert. The tension of the chromatic lines becomes quite intense, the processional occasionally assuming the quality of a hymn. The F-sharp Major Menuett and Trio enjoys a limber expressivity, often hinting at figures from an Austrian laendler. Nice French horn work for the trio, a song from the countryside. At the da capo, the cellos add a distinctly rich presence to the woodwind groups. The Finale: Presto–Adagio bestows the eponymous “farewell” to the symphony, its having been meant to hint to Haydn’s patron that the engaged musicians would like to go home. The F-sharp Minor passions surge to a kind of resolution, only to yield to an extended coda in A Major that will require instrumental choirs to break off from the ensemble, until only two muted violins remain to finish the score. As enthusiastic as it is conscientious, Munchinger’s pointed tempos and later, graduated dynamics compel us emotionally and aurally at every turn. Enhanced by the Pristine XR transfer by Andrew Rose, this performance needs only to have been spliced to another Munchinger classic to make a serviceable disc over 25 minutes. Even so, the musical riches in this Haydn bi-centennial year repay repeated hearings.
– -Gary Lemco
