Day 57: Il Ritorno Di Tobia – Oratorio (Part I)

HaydnCD57Today’s performance – Haydn’s oratorio Il Ritorno Di Tobia (Part I) – harkens back to 1971.

Despite the age of this recording (42 years, as of today’s date), I think it sounds as fresh as if it had been recorded last week.

What doesn’t necessarily sound fresh to me is the music itself. It sounds, for want of a better word (and I’m sure I’ll get struck by the Haydn gods for even thinking such thoughts), lackluster.

The Cast:

Sarah: Veronika Kincses soprano
Raphael: Magda Kalmar soprano
Anna: Klara Takacs contralto
Tobias: Attila Fulop tenor
Tobit: Zsolt Bende baritone

The Musicians:

Budapest Madrigal Choir
Hungarian State Orchestra
Ferenc Szekeres

Incidentally, I couldn’t find much information on the Budapest Madrigal Choir or Ferenc Szekeres. The Hungarian State Orchestra changed its name to the Hungarian National Philharmonic.

I can tell you soprano Magda Kalmar was 27 when this was recorded. Contralto Klara Takcs was 26. Soprano Veronika Kincses was 23. Tenor Attila Fulop was 29.

Haydn was 43 when he composed Il Ritorno Di Tobia.

Track 1 (“Sinfonia”) doesn’t grab me by the lapels – not that I have any lapels at the moment. (Come to think of it, I’m not sure I even know what lapels are.)

Track 2 (“Chorus No. 1: Pieta d’un infelice”) featuring contralto Klara Takacs and baritone Zsolt Bende not only doesn’tgrab my non-existent lapels, it points me toward the door and says, “Begone!” Contralto and baritone are two of my least favorite vocal ranges. Contralto, to me, always sounds like a 58-year-old woman in a Baptist church (or that woman in all of the Marx Brothers movies).

So when Il Ritorno Di Tobia begins with a lackluster Sinfonia and follows up with an off-putting Chorus, I’m thinking this isn’t going to get any better.

And I was right.

I’m sorry. But baritone doesn’t hit the notes I dig most. For that, I think of Steve Perry of Journey. Or Dennis DeYoung of Styx. Or Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin. Or even some sodden Irishman singing “Oh Danny Boy.” That range is the sweet spot for me. This:

I could listen to that tenor all day long.

Track 4 (“Aria: No. 2b Sudo il guerriero”) is the exception to my rule about arias. Contralto Klara Takacs sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard. I’m sure to a trained musicologist she sounds as dulcet as the birds on a spring morning. But what I’m hearing makes me want to jam pencils in my ears.

Track 7 (“Aria: No. 4b Anna, m’ascolta!”) features new-found favorite soprano Magda Kalmar. And I’ll be darned if this isn’t my favorite track on today’s CD. Magda’s voice range reaches the clouds – and smugly waves good-bye as it passes by on its way to the stratosphere.

Here’s the story of this oratorio:

Il ritorno di Tobia (“The return of Tobias”) is an oratorio composed by Joseph Haydn in 1775. The work is the first oratorio the composer wrote and, according to Jones, was “his most extended and ambitious composition up to that time”.

The Italian-language libretto of the work is by Giovanni Gastone Boccherini, brother of the composer Luigi Boccherini. This libretto is harshly criticized by Jones, who notes that the author de-dramatizes vivid episodes in the source (the story of Tobit in the Apocrypha), depriving Haydn of the opportunity for highly dramatic musical utterance.

The work was premiered in Vienna on 2 April 1775, under the sponsorship of the Tonkünstler-Societät, a musician’s benevolent society…Today, the oratorio is eclipsed by Haydn’s later works in this genre — The Creation and The Seasons — and is seldom performed or recorded.

Ahh. That explains the date of this recording. There may not be any more recent ones of note.

Actually, the fact that it’s rare appeals to me. I’m a sucker for anything out of print, remastered, limited in edition, etc. Just ask my wife. Or look on my shelves.

So knowing this oratorio is one of Haydn’s least performed adds a lot to its cache.

Well, somewhat.

Well, a little.

Well, not at all.

No matter how I slice it, this oratorio is lugubrious, lackluster, and inaccessible. It’s not something I’ll ever listen to again.

Not even as something rare, remastered, or limited in edition.

I gotta draw the line somewhere.

For what its worth, below is Haydn’s not-played-very-often oratorio. This is not the recording to which I listened today. But, since it’s a live orchestra and performers you’ll be able to see what’s going on as the music plays. Listen to it all. Listen to none of it. It’s up to you. Sadly, I’ll have to listen to part two tomorrow.

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