With the dawn of the year, the mad dash that was to be Haydn's life with Prince Nicholas began in earnest. As we saw earlier, January was marked by the wedding of the Prince's son, Anton. This ceremony alone required an opera, a (lost) cantata, music for the Feldmusik, and was also the most likely occasion for the composition of the first Te Deum, since as we have seen, one was celebrated immediately upon the return from Vienna. Nicholas' expectations for Haydn had to be high, since he represented the musical aspect of all that Nicholas aspired to. It was at this time that he acquired the nickname 'The Magnificent', and his pursuit of the arts had to live up to that same standard.
In February, back in Vienna, there was another grand party, this time at the Esterházy Palace on the Wallnerstrasse. Here again, we owe much to that party animal, Count Zinzendorf, to even know about this affair, and especially the fact that two new symphonies by Haydn premiered here, Hob 12 & 40. In the last essay, while discussing Acide and the two entr'acte's contained in it, I mentioned the good chance that they were eventually going to be reused in Symphony #12. And here, barely a month later, that brand new symphony premieres with what would be only one added movement (the Finale, it still lacks a minuet). All of which proves nothing, of course, but it does fire the curiosity though.
One of the ongoing challenges of maintaining a world class orchestra is the constant search for talent. Vienna, as the seat of the Empire, was a magnet for musicians, and in April Haydn and Nicholas struck gold with the hiring of one of the finest hornists of the time, Carl Frantz. Frantz was not only a premier hornist though, he also was highly skilled on the violin (a huge asset for a small orchestra) and he also played the baryton. This last item is remarked in passing, so no documentation exists to check the validity of my speculation, but I find it interesting to note that you can find explanatory notes later on (in 1765, to be exact) explaining that the Prince had been playing the baryton for a year or so at the time, but little further than that. My thought is that the hiring of Frantz served as a spur to Nicholas to learn the baryton. He already played the cello so it wasn't a huge step, and now he had a teacher at hand. If this is all true, then Frantz was not only responsible for inspiring Haydn into some of the finest horn music ever written, but also indirectly causing him to compose the huge corpus of baryton music too. So, a fortuitous April day in Vienna!
In July the Prince showed his appreciation yet again by giving Haydn a raise that amounted to a 30% improvement.
In August the fourth horn, Franz Reinert, was engaged, now giving Haydn the most amazing horn section one could imagine. Not only the quality, but the fact that 25% of the orchestra consisted of horns! In response to the added forces, and to give the new boys a chance to show off a bit, Haydn composed three works in 1763 that gave them an opportunity to showcase their wares. We will discuss them in more depth later, but the Cassation in D for 4 Horns (Hob. deest), and symphonies #13 and 72 are all outstanding examples of writing for the horn. I suspect that it was exhilarating for Haydn to suddenly have this opportunity, and he made the most of it.
It isn't a stretch at this point to say Haydn was working his way towards success! Where his strength seems to be showing is in the symphony, those from this year are rising rapidly to the level where they show Haydn to be the finest symphonist in town already. As we will see, he is making the genre his own, and comfortable enough in it to be using the famous Haydn wit to good effect. This is the Haydn we recognize readily, already becoming famous in distant places, as we shall see. Next time, we will begin to look at the music of 1763.
Thanks for reading!