Michael Haydn, Joseph's younger brother and the Mozarts' Salzburg colleague, is a seriously underrated composer. His talent falls short of his brother's, but by no great distance. The Mozarts thought him lazy, though the length of his list of works in Grove doesn't seem to bear them out; but possibly there was some want of energy in his actual composition processes, an inclination to write decent professional music rather than to excel. Arguably we do not know the best of him: in his own day he was rated highest as a composer of sacred music, the genre chiefly in demand at Salzburg—indeed, he gave up symphonic composition in 1789 (when his brother was on the point of writing his greatest works), presumably because of the changing requirements of his employment.
This CPO set of three CDs inaugurates a complete recording of his symphonies, of which we have some 45 in all. I would welcome them, but without the absolute conviction that the world is ready for Michael Haydn's complete symphonies. It is perhaps a pity that such a series starts at the beginning (convenient though that will doubtless appear to be in the long run) because the early works are by no means the most interesting. Michael is, I would suggest on the evidence of these works and the others I have heard, at least as warm and lyrical a composer as his brother, but less original, less concerned with the working-out of ideas, less varied in his harmony, less focused in his handling of form: as we reach the later works I shall be happy to modify these rather broad initial generalizations. But these pieces can certainly stand comparison with Joseph's symphonies of the same date. In a sense, comparisons with Mozart are more to the point—once past the earliest of the symphonies here, which were written during his employment at Grosswardein (Oradea)—as they were then working under precisely the same circumstances. These earliest are typical Austrian works of their time, the early 1760s, in four movements; there are energetic triple-time opening movements and one with some brilliant fanfarish figures, simple melodic slow movements, sturdy minuets (several of them enlivened by high writing for the trumpets or the horns) and cheerful, busy finales.
On the second CD, where the symphonies are in only three movements, there is an attractive B flat work that begins with a very spirited Allegro and moves on to a warm, graceful E flat movement with prominent bassoon parts and a curious, faster-moving middle section that recurs. The A major Symphony has a bright and quite original opening movement, but the most attractive is the C major, with a very fine first movement argued around a rhythmic motif of a rather Handelian character. On the third CD Symphony No. 8 is specially appealing: a big piece with trumpets, truly symphonic in manner, with solo writing for bassoon and flutes, and prominent bassoon writing in the trio of the minuet too. This, it seems, is the 'symphony' part of one of the 'symphony-cum-concerto'-type serenades, popular for celebrations in Salzburg and familiar, of course, through the Mozart examples. It is, typically, in D major; so too is No. 9, a much shorter and more compact piece. We are still up to only the mid-1760s; comparisons with Mozart, aged nine and only just writing his first symphonies in London, shed some light on both. Lastly, the F major work, another large-scale piece for its time, with a busy first movement and forthright finale extraordinarily well developed.
I await with some eagerness the more mature works. But I hope the Slovak Chamber Orchestra will record them in a less resonant acoustic, for the effect here is often a bit smudgy; though I am not always certain whether this is a matter of the recording or of the style of playing, which is heavier and less sharply articulated than would be ideal. We are, of course, spoiled by hearing such music on period instruments, where it fares better. Bohdan Warchal could, I think, lighten the textures and the rhythms a good deal with profit and characterize the ideas a shade more sharply.
The Nimbus disc contains a recently discovered early symphony of Michael's, one which ought to be on the CPO set (take no notice of the numberings: CPO count the symphonies, and some divertimentos, in a roughly chronological sequence; the '25' for the symphony on Nimbus comes from a different catalogue, one including all his works). Adam Fischer's direction is more alert, but not more stylish, with a large-sounding orchestra and some gratuitous dynamic variation. The two flute concertos are enjoyable, the first especially, for its vivacious opening movement, its expressive Andante and its very jolly finale; the second, very likely the concerto part of a serenade, is more ordinary though its first movement is pleasantly graceful. The solo flute playing is lively and well-pointed. Joseph's symphony is of course one of his very finest of the 1760s, but I don't think this performance, which is sometimes decidedly hurried, does it full justice. The recording here too is markedly resonant.'