DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

1780- HAYDN — 1790 355
at Esterhaz was opened with ' La Fedelta premiata.
' This opera was twice represented in
Vienna in 1784, once in the presence of the Emperor
Joseph, Haydn himselfconducting. From
1780 dates liis acquaintance witli Artaria—the
commencement of a business connection of many
years' duration. Tlie first works wliicli Artaria
published for him were six Clavier sonatas (op.
30), his first twelve lieder7 six Quartets ('die
Russischen'), six Divertissements in eight parts
(op. 31), and six symjihonies (oppi. 51 and 52).
In 1781-82 the Emperor Jose[ih 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. ^
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 tliree 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, hut their
departure was hurried, and the visit did not
take j)lace.
About 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 p)ermission
to print it. They also invited him to come to
Paris, and proposed to have all his future com-
positions engraved there for his own benefit.
Cherubini's veneration for Haydn is said to have
dated from his hearing one of the six symjihonies
(opp. 51 and 62) which he composed for the
Concerts de la Loge Olympique. Besides the
publishers already named, he had satisfactory
dealings with Nadermann, Willmann, Imbault,
Le Due, and especially with Sieber.
The opera which he composed for the expiected
visit of the Grand Duke and Ducliess was
at Esterhaz in the
' Orlando Paladino ' (given
autumn of 1782), which in its German form as
'
'
Ritter Roland has been more frequently per-
formed than any of his otlier operas. It was
Armida (composed in 1783, per-
followed by '
'
formed in 1781, and again in 1797 at Sehick-
1 She waa present at the well-known competition between dementi
and Mozart.
aneder'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 : 'Jly operas are calculated
exclusively for our own company, and would
not prodtice their eHcct 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.
Between 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 niet Paisiello,
Sarti, and Signora Strinasacehi, the violinist, at
Michael Kelly's lodgings ; the latter paid him
a visit at Esterhaz with Brida, an enthusiastic
amateur. ^
[But by far the most impiortant 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.^ There was
no close tie of comradeship lietween 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 all'ection 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 inter-
acted 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.']
— The chief event of 1785 was the composition
of the ' Seven "Words of our Saviour on the
Cross ' for the cathedral of Cadiz, in com-
pliance with a request from the chapter for
appropriate instrumental music for Good Friday.
2 In the library of the Eoyal College of Music.
3 Kelly. Rernin'rsceDceR, i. 2'21, calls It Eisenstadt by miBtake,
J 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 178]-y'2 both artists took pjirt.