Scan 636
Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians Volume 2, 1927
17 lines. Read by computer on 11 September 2026. Printed page 572. See the scan on archive.org.
1known 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 Aug. 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 Concert Spirituel, 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.
3The 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 Schikaneder's theatre in Vienna), the autograph score of which he sent to London 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.
5Between 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.
7But by far the most important of his Viennese friendships was with Mozart, whom he probably met for the first time in winter of 1781–1782, on the occasion of the court festivities given in honour of the Grand Duke Paul.3 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.'
9The 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. The work was published simultaneously by Artaria and Forster, and in this form Haydn produced it as 'Passione instrumentale' in London.4 He afterwards added choruses and solos,5 and divided it into two parts by the introduction of a Largo for wind instruments. In this new form it was produced for the first time at Eisenstadt in Oct. 1797, and published by Breitkopf & Härtel (1801), with a preface by the composer. It may seem surprising that the chapter of Cadiz should have applied to Haydn; but in fact he was well known in Spain to others besides the King, who had been in communication with him long before, as we have seen. Thus Boccherini wrote to him from Madrid expressing the pleasure he received from his works, and Yriarte celebrated him with enthusiasm in his poem of 'La musica' (Madrid, 1779). In Jan. 1785 Haydn acquired two interesting pupils—Fritz and Edmund von Weber. They were brought to him by their father Franz Anton, who had just remarried in Vienna. His desire to see one of his children develop into a great musician, afterwards so gloriously fulfilled in the composer of the
113 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.
124 Though often included among his quartets, it has nothing to do with them. It was first published alone by Artaria, but was afterwards omitted from his authorised series of Haydn's quartets. Artaria's publication (1787) in parts bore the title, '7 sonate, con un introduzione, ed al fine un terremoto'—orchestra (op. 47), strings (op. 48), PF solo (op. 49). For the publication in London by Forster see Pohl's Haydn in London, p. 92. Longman and Broderip announced in The Times, Jan. 1, 1788, 'A set of Quartetts … expressive of the Passions of our Saviour (op. 48), 8s.'
135 Various statements have been made about the adaptation. Pohl, Joseph Haydn, ii. 217-18, held that Haydn adapted to his music, perhaps with Van Swieten's assistance, words which he met with at Passau on his way to England in 1794, except those of the earthquake, which are from Rammler's 'Tod Jesu.' The Biographie universelle stated that the adaptation was by Michael Haydn, in which Ricmann concurs.
151 In the R.C.M.
162 Kelly, Reminiscences, i. 221, calls it Eisenstadt by mistake.
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