There he conducted new symphonies in subscription concerts organised by the entrepreneur Johann Peter Salomon. Eventually releasing him from court duties, the Esterházys allowed Haydn two visits to England (1791––95). There he had been inspired by hearing Handel’s oratorios. The Creation (1798) and The Seasons (1801) date from Haydn’s return to Vienna after two triumphant visits to London. The oratorios remain perennially popular. His operas may one day be similarly re-evaluated, though for all their attractiveness they suffer from comparison to Mozart’s psychologically perceptive inventions. Until recently Haydn’s concertos, piano trios and piano sonatas were neglected but recordings have revealed their considerable worth. The quartets show an ideal combination of intimate detail and sweeping total effect. The 1781 publication of the six string quartets op.33 marked a significant new phase, both in Haydn’s career and in the establishment of the genre. Commissions began to come from outside the Esterházy court, and Haydn’s employers allowed him to take them on. By the mid−1770s his fame was spreading, partly because of the newly developing infrastructure of music publishing. Perfectly timed and always appropriate, his musical wit reveals much of his personality. Haydn’s humour is less arcane than Mozart’s and less aggressive than Beethoven’s. His finales are notable for their jocularity. His third-movement minuets frequently mix the courtliness of the formal dance with more rustic tones. And yet they are not short of innovation. The features of Haydn’s symphonies are mirrored in most of the other genres in which he wrote. He also gave sonata form the proportions that saw it become the musical foundation of both Classical and Romantic eras. Haydn wasn’t the first symphonist, but he was the one who established the genre’s definitive four-movement design. That genius is best illustrated by his symphonies, of which he wrote 104. They appreciated Haydn’s genius and found him easy to get on with. By the standards of the time the Esterházy princes were benevolent masters. For good measure, he also had to produce a few new operas. They included running the orchestra, composing to entertain the court and its guests and presiding over the chapel choir and musicians. He was in effect a servant and his duties were considerable. As his Hungarian employers moved between their winter and summer palaces, Haydn followed. However, it was soon replaced by a more characteristic steadiness and civility. It is an apt description of music that was highly dramatic, musically adventurousness and emotionally unrestrained. Haydn’s first years of composing for the Esterházy family have been called his period of Sturm und Drang (‘storm and stress’). From then and for the next 30 years, Haydn was an employee of the Esterházy family. He was briefly employed in Vienna with the Italian opera composer Porpora and a Bohemian nobleman, Count Morzin, but real financial security did not come until 1761. He survived through busking and teaching. His voice had broken, but cutting off the pigtail of another choirboy had hastened his exit. He spent nine years as a chorister at St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna until he was suddenly ejected and left homeless and without income. Not only did he make every effort to learn and perfect his musical craftsmanship, he acquired the social skills to be welcome in any company. Haydn was a wheelwright’s son and a natural self-improver. But his influence was equally important on the concerto, the piano sonata and the piano trio. Two titles are regularly bestowed upon him: ‘Father of the Symphony’ and ‘Father of the String Quartet’. Almost single-handedly, Haydn established the formats on which classical music would be based for more than a century. The result was adulation, and it was richly deserved. When he was eventually granted a measure of freedom, he became one of the first composers to write for a mass audience. Joseph Haydn wore the livery uniform of a court servant for most of his career, composing and performing to order.
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