Hoboken XVII

Joseph Haydn's keyboard works are traditionally associated with his extensive corpus of sonatas, an authentic musical diary and a privileged space for stylistic and formal experimentation. Alongside these well-known works, however, the Hoboken XVII catalog encompasses an eclectic collection of keyboard compositions, including variations, capriccios and fantasies, some of which are of uncertain authorship. Compared to other parts of the Hoboken catalog, Hob. XVII presents a considerably more complex textual and philological landscape, due to the dispersal of sources, the multiplicity of editions and the presence of works of dubious authenticity – misattributed, editorially altered or corrupted over time. The present reconstruction represents an unprecedented effort in Haydn discography: no single performer has previously undertaken such extensive archival research to trace all works – both authentic and spurious – that might contribute to a virtually complete restoration of Hob. XVII, including the appendices. The latter in particular posed the greatest challenge, as they comprise works transmitted in fragmentary form, manuscripts of uncertain provenance and divergent versions distributed by publishers of the period. The result is an extensive panorama of this section of the Hoboken catalog, in which musical philology is interwoven with historical and critical interpretation, and offers a rich and multifaceted perspective on one of the less examined aspects of Haydn's keyboard repertoire. Joseph Haydn's works, catalogued as Hob. XVII, are primarily keyboard pieces, largely in the form of Theme and Variations, Variation Sonatas and Capriccios-Fantasies. They are divided into three sections. The first part contains twelve compositions: numbers 1–6 are considered authentic and follow the chronological order of composition (1765 to 1793), while numbers 7–12 bear an asterisk because their authenticity is uncertain. The second part contains spurious works, arranged by key and marked with letters (C1–C2, D1–D2, F1–F2–F3, G1–G2, A1–A2–A3). The third part, Anhang, forms an appendix of twelve pieces whose themes are drawn from Haydn's symphonic and chamber music and which contain unnumbered arrangements. For this recording, the pianist conducted thorough research to restore Hoboken XVII to its original form, as musicologist and collector Anthony van Hoboken envisioned it in the previous century. He devoted more than thirty years to compiling Haydn's oeuvre. Also included here are works of questionable attribution – works long unavailable – which were housed in various European libraries. In Haydn's time, publishers often struggled to meet the demand for new compositions by renowned composers, which led to the circulation of pieces that were either incorrectly attributed or substantially altered. The integrity of a work could easily be compromised through multiple copying stages; erroneous attributions arose because copyists did not necessarily know the composer's identity, while separate assistants created text and cover designs for compilations by multiple authors. Notation and spelling errors were not uncommon, and later copies sometimes contained incorrect names, places or dates compared to the originals. Consequently, Haydn's works are often classified according to levels of authenticity – indisputably authentic, probably authentic, plausible, doubtful and false – depending on the degree of editorial intervention, commercial pressure or simple error. Haydn's publishers numbered more than seventy, with Artaria and Traeg in Vienna, Hummel in Berlin, Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig, Sieber in Paris and Forster in London being the most active. Both large and small publishers – from Prague to Brussels, from Amsterdam to Florence, and even to New York – sought to include Haydn's compositions in their catalogs. This wide dispersal contributed to the many variants that departed from the originals, alongside outright forgeries or imitations produced for profit. There exist five catalogs of Haydn's works, either authorized or compiled by the composer himself, each incomplete because they represent only part of his oeuvre: EK (Entwurf-Katalog), LV (London Verzeichnis), HV (Haydn Verzeichnis), HBV (Haydn Bibliothek Verzeichnis) and HNV (Haydn Nachlass Verzeichnis). The earliest, the EK, was compiled by Haydn at the request of Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, who wrote to him in 1765 to complain about the disorder of his commissions. The Prince not only insisted that Haydn compile a catalog of his works, but also required that he submit the first copy of each new score to prevent it from being lost or duplicated without permission. Haydn complied with this requirement for a few years; thereafter the cataloging fell to his friends and colleagues. Some of Haydn's compositions exist in manuscript form, others were produced as printed engravings. Autographs are generally considered more reliable, particularly those executed by copyists at the Esterházy court or by Haydn's trusted Viennese copyists. Only a small number of Haydn's keyboard autographs have been preserved: of the more than fifty keyboard sonatas and compositions in Hob. XVI attributed to him, only twelve survive as autographs, the remainder preserved in copied manuscripts or engravings. Scholars often rely on documentary evidence, such as letters from the composer, to confirm the authenticity of these works. Haydn served the Esterházy court until 1790. At age fifty-eight, he was finally free to publish independently; before that, he could only do so with the Prince's permission. After his independence, Haydn published his music quite irregularly, responding to publishers' requests, tailored to consumer taste, to maximize his income. Over the years, musicologists and historians have formed conflicting opinions about certain works in the Hoboken catalog. Some pieces that Hoboken considered authentic are now regarded as forgeries, while others once deemed spurious are now classified as authentic. A number of the latter pieces – recorded on this disc – have been confirmed as authentic following extensive documentary comparisons and analyses: including the Adagio Hob. XVII:9, the arrangement Hob. XVII:10 for Flötenuhr (from Hob. XIX:27), the Sonata in D major Hob. XVII:D1, the Allegro Molto D2 and the Aria F1. The latter two are fragments: Allegro Molto D2 could be the opening of a sonata, and Aria F1 possibly the minuet of a lost early sonata. Numbers 7, 8, 11 and 12 are classified as uncertain in authenticity and are now out of print, except for number 7. These works were rediscovered through international research by Elisabetta Gesuato. Number 8 – a manuscript preserved in the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin – sets the left-hand part in the alto clef instead of the customary bass clef; it is an arrangement of the first part, Allegretto con variazioni, from the Baryton Trio no. 2 in A major for strings. Number 11 was rediscovered by chance after being thought lost, because it was not included in any library archive. During their search for number 12 in the Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria in Turin, researchers discovered that an erroneous catalog entry had confused number 11 with number 12. By chance, they thus found the missing number 11: an Artaria edition from Vienna from 1930, with a set of variations on the Andante in C major from the second part of Symphony Hob. I:94. This Andante also appears in a faithful keyboard transcription among Haydn's own arrangements, intended to promote the themes of his symphonic and chamber music. Number 12 eventually ended up in the Musikverein in Vienna, represented by Artaria (1930). The section of the catalog, marked with letters (C1–C2, D1–D2, F1–F2–F3, G1–G2, A1–A2–A3) and grouped by key, contains compositions that Hoboken considered spurious. In reconstructing this section, the following compositions were discovered: the Marlborough Variations Hob. XVII:C1, preserved in a manuscript from circa 1790 in the Badische Landesbibliothek in Karlsruhe; the Capriccios G2, composed in 1793 and preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris (Baillon editions); and the Variations A3, found in a manuscript by the monk Sebastiano Piacenti in a collection once owned by Countess Laura Donini Montesperelli (Perugia, 1765–1854) and now housed in the library of the abbey of San Pietro in Perugia.