Franz Joseph Haydn

Haydn was known during his lifetime as “Papa Haydn.” During the 19th century he was dubbed “father of the symphony” (which he didn’t invent) and “father of the string quartet” (which he probably did). Yet these cosy terms underplay his questing intellect, sprightly sense of humour, and sheer productivity. He was born in 1732 and worked for half a century for a single princely family at their isolated palace in the Hungarian countryside. He thus “had to become original”, as he said, and took not only the symphony and the quartet but also the piano sonata, piano trio, and other genres of the day and invested them with a compositional rigour and expressive range that profoundly inspired not only his young friend Mozart and his younger pupil Beethoven but almost every musician in Europe. In addition, he created repertoires for such anomalous instruments as the baryton (a sort of viol) and lira organizzata (a combined hurdy-gurdy and organ). He became a prolific operatic composer during the 1770s and 1780s, although his operas soon fell from fashion and are only latterly being re-evaluated. During the 1790s in London, he wrote his final 12 (of 106) crowning symphonies. Then, during his last years in Vienna, he trumped them with six great masses for his princess’ name day and a pair of magnificent oratorios, The Creation and The Seasons, that recast the monumental choral style of Handel for a new century.