Search - Haydn, Griffett, Tracey :: Haydn: Original Conzonettas

Riotous period performances

Larry VanDeSande | Mason, Michigan United States | 12/20/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In this remake of their 1996 Teldec CD, period keyboard player Bradford Tracey and tenor James Griffett, a couple Englishmen, give rampant performances of the two books of Canzonettas by composer Franz Joseph Haydn. If you've never heard these songs, they are less complex than Schubert lieder and often more tuneful. Old man Haydn, who was expert at large vocal ensemble work in his masses and oratorios, shows in these smaller works he was equally adept at chamber vocal music.



Griffett is a driven performer in these often simple songs about love, loss, pain, fidelity, sympathy and other human emotions. He belts out the "Sailor's Song" well. I don't like his elocution, though. It's not the best for an English speaker. For an English alternative, Thomas Allen sang several of these songs in a larger concert on a BBC3 recording from the 1990s (ASIN: B00002MXRF) that may or may not be available. Also try Christopher Genz (ASIN: B00004T2QL); the German does a better job with both the emotions and words in the music. Both performances are better than those here unless you want the period keyboard."