The Music
In Hyacinthe Jadin (1776-1800) we meet a composer whose music and thinking was securely rooted in the tradition of 18th century baroque music on the one hand, on the other hand strongly influenced by the music of Joseph Haydn as well as newer developments in French music. Jadin's first book of quartets is dedicated to Haydn, whose music at that time enjoyed great popularity in Paris. The string quartets exhibit a thorough knowledge of and affinity for Haydn's style. His preference here and in the piano music for the chromatic, for song-like melodic features in the slow movements and subsidiary themes, dark moods and occasionally a somewhat nervous finale, show Jadin to be a true early romantic in spirit.
Jadin's music discloses a highly-developed feeling for the relationship between length and content in his pieces. In spite of a sometimes embarassing wealth of thematic material (in several sonatas the main theme appears only once at the outset, never to be heard again), everything is well-proportioned and organic. His music is never long-winded or artificially inflated. Unison statements (noema) or widely spaced figurations implying more than one line of activity in a single voice lend a spacious quality to the music which is rare in prior to 1800. While little has been written concerning improvised ornamental practice in French piano music of the period, Jadin's music does offer the player occasional opportunities for interpolated cadenzas (Op. V Nr. 3, Op VI Nr. 1), lead-ins and improvised melodic elaborations Op (VI Nr 1, ii). By the same token, the pristine clarity of much of his writing, however, discourages the sensitive player from ruffling or cluttering what is often a remarkably filigree and fragile musical surface.
Formal procedures in Jadin's piano music show him to be relative conservative concerning proportions within a movement or the overall balance and character of different movements within a sonata (for example development sections and codas do not reach enormous proportions as in Beethoven). In his earliest works, he preferred the two-movement format; with the exception of Op. 6 Nr. 2 (A-Major) all the sonatas after Op. III are in 3-movement form. Large-scale tonal relationships are on the whole relatively conventional with tonic/dominant or, in minor, tonic/mediant being the norm. The Op IV, Nr 2 in f-sharp minor sonata (a key unusual even as late as 1800) has all three movements in the same key. Equally seldom-used are the keys of c-sharp minor (Op IV, Nr 3) and g-minor (Op III, Nr 2) in which Jadin cast some of his most telling musical thoughts.
Jadin's piano music was intended for the more lightly constructed classical pianos such as the instrument used for this recording. Typical for the period, there are no pedal indications per se, although the damper pedal can be used judicially to good effect. The so-called „mutations“ such as Verschiebung (una corde, due corde, tre corde) or moderator are – as with Haydn or Mozart - almost never indicated in the score; indeed such gadgetry seems uncalled-for in Jadin's music. It is perhaps worth noting that the indication pour clavecin ou pianoforte is – as with Beethoven who also wanted to sell copy – a mere sales gimmick rather than a serious suggestion that this music might actually „work“ as harpsichord music.
Jadin's use of the fortepiano exhibits an avoidance of the extreme registers of the piano compass. At the same time he never resorts to mere generic Alberti-Bass figures but rather opts for distinctive broken chord figurations or figures of the Schwärmer type found frequently in string writing. In the context of what is principally a pianistic style dominated by the right hand, there are still occasional passages of surprisingly advanced virtuosity for the left hand (Op V, Nr 1, i and ii).
Oddly, one is tempted to describe Jadin's music in terms of what came only decades later. His music compares more than favorably with that of Beethoven, Field, Dussek and even Chopin (who might well have known, played and even taught Jadin's sonatas). Although Jadin was in many respects a child of his time, there is in his music something new, even daring and anticipatory. His is a musical language – gently and carefully feeling its way, germinal but undeniably present - which would be validated only decades later. With revolution music and opera dominating the musical life of the 1790's in Paris, Jadin had few mentors or artistic role models. He seems to have emerged alone and singlehandedly created a personal musical and pianistic style, On the surface, his works might appear at first modest and unassuming, but their content constitutes indeniably a unique and visionary contribution to the repertoire.
Richard Fuller, Wien (2005)