Books › grove's dictionary of music and musicians, 1916 › scan 403
Scan 403
grove's dictionary of music and musicians, 1916
20 lines. Read by computer on 11 September 2026. Printed page 355. See the scan on archive.org.
1at Esterház was opened with 'La Fedeltà premiata.' This opera was twice represented in Vienna in 1784, once in the presence of the Emperor Joseph, Haydn himself conducting. From 1780 dates his acquaintance with Artaria—the commencement of a business connection of many years' duration. The first works which Artaria published for him were six Clavier sonatas (op. 30), his first twelve lieder, six Quartets ('die Russischen'), six Divertissements in eight parts (op. 31), and six symphonies (opp. 51 and 52). In 1781-82 the Emperor Joseph received two visits from the Grand Duke Paul and his wife. Great entertainments were given in their honour, consisting chiefly of musical performances, for which the Grand Duchess had a great taste.1 Gluck's operas were given at the theatre, and some of Haydn's quartets played at her own house, so much to her satisfaction, that she gave him a diamond snuff-box, and took lessons from him. Haydn seems to have retained a pleasant recollection of her, for twenty years later—in 1802, when she was Dowager-Empress—he sent her his fine part-songs for three and four voices. He also dedicated the six 'Russian' quartets just mentioned to the Grand Duke. The Duke and Duchess had intended accompanying the Emperor to Eisenstadt, and Haydn was hastily composing an opera, but their departure was hurried, and the visit did not take place.
3About this time Haydn entered into correspondence with William Forster, the well-known violin-maker in London, to whom he sold the English copyright of a series of compositions. From first to last (the first receipt is dated August 22, 1781) Forster & Son published 129 of his works, including eighty-two symphonies. Almost simultaneously he received a letter from Le Gros, conductor of the Concerts Spirituels, saying that his 'Stabat Mater' had been performed four times with the greatest success, and, in the name of the members, asking permission to print it. They also invited him to come to Paris, and proposed to have all his future compositions engraved there for his own benefit. Cherubini's veneration for Haydn is said to have dated from his hearing one of the six symphonies (opp. 51 and 52) which he composed for the Concerts de la Loge Olympique. Besides the publishers already named, he had satisfactory dealings with Nadermann, Willmann, Imbault, Le Duc, and especially with Sieber.
5The opera which he composed for the expected visit of the Grand Duke and Duchess was 'Orlando Paladino' (given at Esterház in the autumn of 1782), which in its German form as 'Ritter Roland' has been more frequently performed than any of his other operas. It was followed by 'Armida' (composed in 1783, performed in 1784, and again in 1797 at Schick- aneder's theatre in Vienna), the autograph score of which he sent to London,2 in compensation for the non-completion of 'Orfeo.' In judging of his operas we may be guided by an expression of his own when refusing an invitation to produce one in Prague: 'My operas are calculated exclusively for our own company, and would not produce their effect elsewhere.' The overtures to six of them were published by Artaria as 'symphonies,' though under protest from Haydn. To 1782 also belongs the well-known 'Mariazeller-Messe' (in C, Novello, No. 15), so called from the place of that name in Styria. It was bespoken by a certain Herr Liebe de Kreutzner, and Haydn is said to have taken particular pleasure in its composition, not impossibly because it reminded him of a visit to Mariazell when a young man without experience, friends, or means of any kind. This was his eighth Mass, and he wrote no more till 1796, between which year and 1802 his best and most important works of the kind were composed.
7Between 1780 and 1790 he met a number of artists in Vienna whom he was destined to meet again in London, such as Mara, Banti, Storace, and her brother Stephen, Attwood, Janiewicz, and Jarnowick. In 1784 he met Paisiello, Sarti, and Signora Strinasacchi, the violinist, at Michael Kelly's lodgings; the latter paid him a visit at Esterház with Brida, an enthusiastic amateur.3
9[But by far the most important of his Viennese friendships was with Mozart, whom he probably met for the first time in the winter of 1781-82; on the occasion of the court-festivities given in honour of the Grand Duke Paul.4 There was no close tie of comradeship between the two men; Mozart seems never to have visited Eisenstadt, Haydn only came to Vienna for a brief annual visit; but they maintained, unbroken, the highest respect and affection for one another, and it is more than a coincidence that the finest works of both were written after the beginning of their acquaintance. Each contributed something to the alliance; Haydn was the more audacious in musical structure, Mozart richer in tone and far more masterly in orchestration; for the next ten years they interacted on one another, and after Mozart's death in 1791, his influence is still abundantly apparent in Haydn's Salomon symphonies, in his later quartets, and in the scoring of the 'Creation' and the 'Seasons.']
11The chief event of 1785 was the composition of the 'Seven Words of our Saviour on the Cross' for the cathedral of Cadiz, in compliance with a request from the chapter for appropriate instrumental music for Good Friday.
131 She was present at the well-known competition between Clementi and Mozart.
152 In the library of the Royal College of Music.
173 Kelly, Reminiscences, i. 221, calls it Eisenstadt by mistake.
194 We have no record of the actual meeting. But ever since 1774 Mozart had been studying Haydn's work, and we know that in the festivities of 1781-82 both artists took part.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.