We will hear a lot of music by Haydn this year - Franz Joseph Haydn, that is, not his younger brother, Michael, who has suffered the obscurity of many a younger brother of not-quite-equal genius. Known in his day as one of the great church composers, the younger Haydn was respected by Mozart and revered by Schubert, fell into obscurity in the 19th century, and will disappear again, after a partial revival of interest since World War II, during the bicentennial celebrations of his brother's death, which begin on May 31. (Did anyone notice Michael Haydn's bicentennial in 2006? Not likely. That was Mozart's birthday anniversary year!)
Boston Baroque gives the younger Haydn his due
Before the hullabaloo starts, it was nice for Boston Baroque and Martin Pearlman to remember the younger Haydn with a performance of his 1771 Requiem, in a well-conceived concert of music by Mozart and both Haydns at Jordan Hall on Saturday. It's a not often sung masterpiece - with many interesting resemblances to Mozart's Requiem, which it obviously influenced - and still plenty of original genius, especially in the writing for solo voices.
There seems to be no hard evidence than Mozart heard Haydn's Requiem - apart, that is, from the two scores themselves, which abound in similarities: the opening chanted "Requiem," the declamatory "quam olim Abrahae." Mozart tightened, heightened, concentrated these ideas - bringing out melodic beauty and dramatic point - but he built his Requiem with Haydn's scaffolding.
Boston Baroque's 21-voice chorus is not going to have the impact of even a similarly sized choir singing in a great vaulted cathedral, and there were points - the opening phrase was one -when it was covered by the 37-piece orchestra. (When you're singing about death and eternity, you must be heard.) Still, the chorus sang with care, discipline, and pleasant tone.
The four soloists - Hyunah Yu, Ann McMahon Quintero, Kerem Kurk, and Kevin Deas - sang perfectly, at times exquisitely, and with the right degree of operatic personality to bring out the score's pathos and drama.
Two Mozart concert arias followed. "Basta vincesti. . . Ah non lasciarmi" (K. 295a) is a rarely heard early work showing Mozart's erotic infatuation with sopranos and their voices. Yu sang with deep feeling, a sparkling top register, and slightly swallowed vowels in her middle voice. The better known "Per questa bella mano" (K. 612), a dialogue - at times a duel - for bass and double bass, was sung by Deas, a bass-baritone of elegant phrasing and endless warm tone. Deborah Dunham played the all-but-impossible double-bass part in its original Viennese tuning.
The older Haydn was given the final word: one of the more neglected of his late "London" symphonies, No. 102 in B-major. It began with a patch of poor intonation in strings. By the Finale, however, the orchestra had its usual shine and sparkle and delivered the final witty strokes with polish.
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