For some of the comments posted below, Cello Concertos 1, 2, and 3, (3 is lost), are what is known to have been composed by Haydn. Concertos #4 and #5 are considered spurious. I haven't found any reliable sources that give any indication by whom they may be attributed to. Everyone has their opinion, but to me, this doesn't sound like Haydn. Hence, it's definition as spurious seems appropriate. There are some who claim there are up to 8 cello concertos that Haydn may have written in his lifetime, but I have not been able to find much information / documentation to back any of those claims up. So, we wait fingers crossed, that someday soon in a dusty attic or library somewhere, a gem or two of Haydn or Mozart is just waiting to be discovered. Cheers! (By the way, this work is still enjoyable to listen to, regardless of who composed it).
It s really interesting to see in all our discussions how branding becomes so important. Consider a composer as a brand ! If a composition is by Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart we will hold it in a high esteem automatically. If a concerto of a "no name" 18th century composer is put on a concert programme, we do not expect a great piece, do we? The music of this piece is so beautiful that it made it through the centuries under Haydn 's label, otherwise it would have been lost and forgotten. Branding can make a difference...
Who actually composed this? It does not sound like Costanzi either, too late in style, as Costanzi sounds much more baroque than this piece, based on his other cello works.
It surely doesn't sound like Haydn who is far more mechanical, orderly and not very emotional. This is much more emotional (soaring in places which Haydn is not capable of) , and definitely sounds Italian: very colorful. I would guess Costanzi or Boccherini but definitely NOT Haydn.
Modern musicologists believe Haydn wrote only the first two (of 8) cello concertos attributed to him. To me, this does not sound at all like Haydn: it's far too beautiful (take the playing at 6:05 or at 7:59 or so). That's lovely. I don't think Haydn had that in him and it is too emotional for Haydn whose style was more wooden and mechanical.
Wooden and mechanical? The London symphony? The 2nd movement of the C major concerto? Are these wooden? I understand that there are good reasons to doubt that Haydn wrote this. But I don't think it's fair to say that Haydn didn't have it in him.
This piece certainly doesn't sound like Haydn at his best, it's a bit square and uses sequences and arpeggiation too much. And it doesn't have either emotional depth or a detailed knowledge of the cello. But it definitely has Haydns charm and cheerful joy of life. Haydn need not be ashamed of this work in he slightest. If not his best, in a composing life that spanned almost 50 years, some lights will surely shine less brightly than others. I don't think any of his contemporaries could have written this. Certainly this is better than anything Boccherini wrote, even though Boccherini was himself a great composer and a cellist of high accomplishment.
gleedads actually, I have a story about this concerto. In 1981 as a college freshman, my cello professor told me to go to the store and buy the Haydn D. I did so, and was practicing it and it sure didn't sound like any Haydn D I knew. I called my teacher and he assumed that I had gotten the wrong edition( the Gaveart) of the correct concerto and told me that we would make the appropriate cuts in our lesson. Imagine his surprise at my lesson when I played the opening phrase and he realized that I was playing a concerto that he did not even know existed. We both got quite a laugh. But that Schott edition contained a preface that explained that the autographed manuscript in Haydn's own hand existed, and that the authenticity was without doubt, unlike the more famous D major concerto that had been attributed to Kraft( Who, by the way, could never in a million years have written it)
History has stated very loudly that Haydn’s style was neither wooden nor unemotional. With all due respect, in the words of my beloved father, “That comment says more about you, then it says about Haydn.”
gleedads Exactly. I was actually going to mention the second movement of the C major concerto as one of the loveliest and the deepest things he ever wrote. I’ve been playing and teaching that concerto for 30 years, and I have never tired of it
It´s a quite simple, if not primitive juxtaposition of very common musical patterns and sequences, used by hundreds of mediocre composers ca. 1750. The composer? Probably a gifted cello playing friar in one of the many monasteries of souhern Holy Roman Empire. Even Haydns earliest compositions have more substance and wit than this weak and boring work.
