Karl Haas dishes up music of Boccherini and the Haydn Brothers

Last year, I offered Scherchen's recording of Bach's "A Musical Offering" in the Vuataz edition. I tacked on, as a filler, the Brandenburg Concerto No 5 conducted by Karl Haas. Here's some more Karl Haas leading short works of the Haydn Brothers and Boccherini.

A lot of people confuse the conductor/musicologist Karl Haas with the longtime American radio personality Karl Haas. Both, of course were German immigrants to the UK and USA respectively, and both received similiar musical training in their native German. Importantly, both left their native Germany as a result of war and the racial policies of the Nazi regime. However, the "British" Haas, having already established himself as a conductor and musical director in Germany, chose to do the same in the UK while the "American" Haas developed his abilities in mass communications to become the most listened to, and revered, classical music radio host in the United States, for well over a quarter century.

Karl Haas the conductor upon arriving on British shores, founded his London Baroque Ensemble, an orchestra that was dedicated to presenting, reviving, and disseminating works from the 17th and 18th centuries, to the wide general public. Haas led this ensemble until shortly before his death - very much a personal creation, it dissolved after his activity with it ended. He was an innovator whose influence on a whole generation of British musicians cannot be underestimated. After all, the UK is really the epicenter of period performance as we know it today.

Haas's recording here, along with others, display a fidelity to the score and an attempt to be faithful to practices that would have been common to the time in which the music was written. We have then, music that is presented as it was written, with almost a total absence of emotion and personal indulgence. In other words, very refreshing and quite astonishing for the early 50's when the tendency was to offer this music with fuller orchestra and modifications suited for the 20th century palette.

I hope to offer more Haas in the future.I especially want to acquire the full Brandenburg set and transfer that since the 5th left me with a strong opinion of the correctness of the Haas approach.

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Newell Jenkins and the Orchestra Academia dell'Orso in Boccherini and Cambini

Here's another fine Dover offering: Newell Jenkins conducting the Orchestra Academia dell' Orso in the Symphony in C major and Cello Concerto in D major, Op 34 of Boccherini and the Sinfonia Concertante No 1 in C major for Oboe, Bassoon and Orchestra of Giuseppe Cambini. I must say that Cambini is new to me and I'd characterize his music as Salieri light, enjoyable but hardly memorable.

Newell Jenkins was for many years the director and inspiration for New York's Clarion Concerts. Dr Jenkins introduced many late baroque and classical works to the US and also performed valuable scholarship on the music of the 18th century. I don't believe that the orchestra here is Italian based as the soloists do not have Italian surnames. My guess is that this orchestra is a New York pickup group of some sort, maybe even the Clarion Concerts orchestra using another name for contractural purposes. Perhaps someone can enlighten me further on this? Anyhow, enjoy!

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