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Hyacinthe JADIN: An Unsung "French Beethoven"?...

Sébastien Melmoth | Hôtel d'Alsace, PARIS | 02/06/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

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There have been other candidates for the epithet "French Beethoven" (most notably Georges Onslow and Camille Saint-Saëns), but the tragic early death of Haycinthe Jadin ended the chances for the most likely nominee, for Jadin's pianoforte Sonatas presented here sound very much like early-Beethoven.



This delightful and revelatory 1985 realisation by J.-C. Pennetier is performed on an original Schott pianoforte of 1830.

The instrument of course has leather-covered hammers and fewer strings, engendering an unique timbre.



(Cf. Wolfgang Brunner's recording of Bruckner's piano works on a c.1830 Bösendorfer.

Bruckner: Piano Works)

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So, how is it that this French musician (whose birth-year is given variously as 1769 or 1776) could produce music in so similar a vein as that of the youthful Beethoven (b. 1770)?

There are several lines of influence.



Firstly, Jadin studied keyboard in Paris with a certain N.-J. Hüllmandel who had been a pupil of C.P.E. Bach.

Beethoven had studied C.P.E. Bach's keyboard treatise Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen with his early teacher Neefe.



Secondly, Beethoven's later teacher Joseph Haydn (who was also greatly influenced by C.P.E. Bach's works) had immense popularity in Paris at the time of Jadin's musical education.

Jadin well knew Haydn's music; indeed, he dedicated a set of string quartets to Haydn's honor.



Thirdly, Jadin knew violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer in association with the Paris Conservatoire--this same Kreutzer whom Beethoven met at Vienna in 1798, and to whom he dedicated his infamous A-major Violin Sonata Op. 47.



Lastly, Beethoven's Rhineland home had for millennia been in a Latin-Gallic orbit--(at least much more so than German lands east of the Rhine).



En fin, Jadin was a remarkably prescient early-Romantic who favoured chromaticism, passionate intensity, and lied-like melodies.

(Note the unusual [for his place-time] use of the keys c#-minor and f#-minor in these Sonatas.)

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Charming cover-art features an adorable Fragonard pastel (of the artist's daughter Rosalie).

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Hyacinthe & Louis-Emmanuel Jadin: Trois quatuors

Hyacinthe Jadin: Piano Sonatas Nos. 1-3

Jadin: Sonatas for Fortepiano / Pennetier

String Trios Op. 2

Hyacinthe Jadin: Complete Sonatas for Fortepiano

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