Tom Beghin: "The Virtual Haydn: Perspectives for Scholarship and Performance"

ABSTRACT:

 A multi-year project at CIRMMT has come to conclusion: The Virtual Haydn, a recording of Haydn’s complete oeuvre for solo keyboard, on seven replicas of historical instruments and in the virtual acoustics of nine historical rooms, is being released as a boxed set of four Blu-ray discs by Naxos.  Key collaborators are Martha de Francisco, Wieslaw Woszczyk, and myself.

In this lecture I will revisit some of the project’s historical concepts, such as Haydn’s own relation to technology and the media of his time, rehearse some implications for modern-day interpretation, and self-analyze the experience of performing in virtual acoustics.  Examples will include the “Viennese short octave,” still largely unknown to modern-day scholars and performers, which Haydn made an essential part of his musical narrative, and an alternative print of his famous Sonata Nr. 52 in E-flat Major, in which he made adjustments for different acoustics, people, and pianos.

 Final attention will be given to the question of whether and how the new medium of Blu-ray has defined a “pure audio” recording project like ours.

Virtual Haydn