Why doesn't anybody play Haydn concerti?

[jamie0168]

I was under the impression that Haydn piano concerti didn't even exist until I looked for them and found some beautiful recordings of them. I tried to find more online and ended up finding recordings of a bunch of 10 year olds playing them.

I've spoken to several pianists about this and they also weren't familiar with Haydn concerti.

Is it because they're not as techinically challenging as others? If that's so, why do I still so many recordings of Mozart's concerti? (Don't be misled; I adore Mozart as well as Haydn.) Or is there some musical deficiency that I'm unaware of? I don't understand why these aren't part of our typical repertoire. Can anyone enlighten me?

[thalbergmad]

In my humble opinion, they are not in the same class as the Haydn sonatas. Whilst they do make excellent first concertos, they are to me devoid of interest and would have little to offer a fully developed pianist and/or audience.

Thal

[teresa_b]

I think they're pleasant, but as concertos go, Mozart wrote so many superior ones, he's the one to go with. 

Teresa

[sharon_f]

I've always seen the D major as part of the standard repertoire. Yes, it is most student's first concerto (it was mine), but it has also been recorded by pianist such as Kissin, Michelangeli, Ax, Andnes, Brendel, Pletnev, DeLaroccha, Kraus among others. It is may not be technically challenging or musically deep, but boy is it a lot of fun!

[somnifer]

In short, they're boring. They're like the first five or so of Mozart's piano concerti - they exist, but no one really wants to play or listen to them.

[hodi]

THEY ARE BORING AS HELL 

[jamie0168]

I'm sorry, guys. I just have to disagree. I don't find them boring at all. I find them very enthralling. Perhaps I say this because I really love Haydn's music. I just didn't know that people felt this way about his concerti. I'm actually quite saddened that these aren't appreciated more. 

[healdie]

probably because they are not technically hard the majority of people want to impress and arrogantly they do not see Haydn as a good way of showing their virtuositic skills, even beginners skip alot of the easy but yet pleasing pieces and go and attempt Chopin preludes that are technically harder but out of their reach.

i think people who do this miss alot of of very good music yes maybe Haydn doesn't sound like a Rachmaninoff or Liszt but he has many qualities that they don't