Quote from K.k. priviligierte Realzeitung der Wissenschaften (April 6 1775):
The famous Herr Kapellmeister Hayden [sic] achieved a general success with the Oratorio entitled The Return of Tobias, performed on the 2nd and 4th, and displayed his well-known adroitness once again at its most advantageous. Expression, nature and art were so finely woven in his work that the listener must perforce love the one and admire the other. Especially his choruses glowed with a fire that was otherwise only in Händel; in short, the whole very numerous public was delighted and Hayden was the great artist once again, whose works are loved in the whole of Europe and in which foreigners find the original genius of a master….
When Hayden, umm, Haydn (will they ever get it right?) went to Vienna in April, 1775, to lead a performance of his new oratorio, he must have felt even the generous supply of musicians available to the Tonküntsler-Societät would be insufficient to the needs of this particular work. So he brought along some of the players from the Esterházy Band and Opera Co.. Magdalene Friberth played Sara, Carl Friberth was Tobia, Christian Specht was Tobit. These three arduous singing roles were not entrusted to strangers! In addition, Luigi Tomasini played violin and Marteau the cello. As we saw last year, an oratorio had an intermission, originally for a sermon. In Vienna, however, this time was filled with instrumental music. During the first night's performance, Tomasini played a violin concerto of his own composition, and the second night, Marteau followed suit with his own cello concerto.
Certainly Haydn had more than one reason to want to join the Vienna Musicians' Society. The prestige of membership, the chance to commune with one's peers, the special opportunity to give charitably, which was something which characterized Haydn throughout his life, and ultimately the life insurance which was its reason for being, all combined to give impetus to his decision. So he composed an oratorio and donated it for performance in 1775, hoping to receive an invitation to join. As we see in this press clipping, the oratorio was a smash, and in the event, the Society took in a net profit of 1712 gulden, a considerable sum indeed! Still, Haydn didn't gain membership for quite some time. In a business in which professional jealousies were frequently boiling over, Haydn's success and fortunate employment were viewed with envy by many influential members. In 1778, when he applied for membership, he was asked to pay 368 gulden as an admission fee because he was a foreigner. He accepted this condition, assuming the thirty miles to Eisenstadt did indeed make him a foreigner. Then, the Society required him to sign a contract pledging him to write a major composition whenever he was asked to do so! Of course he withdrew his application and demanded a refund, but in addition, we see him lose his temper publicly in one of the few times ever documented. A few years later, this same Society would take full advantage of the charitable aspects of Mozart, and yet again that worthy died an uninsured non-member. It is fair to say Vienna didn't always do rightly by her geniuses.
Quote from Pressburger Zeitung – 17 August, 1775:
New opera will be performed for a visit of members of Imperial Court. On the 13th Stephanie the Elder came to visit and performed with the Wahr troupe. They did Der Zerstreute (Il distratto) and also Goethe's Die Leiden des Jungen Werther (The Sorrows of Young Werther).
Christian Gottlob Stephanie, (b. Breslau, 1733, d. Vienna 1798), was usually known as Stephanie the Elder. From 1760 on he was a prominent actor at the Vienna Court Theatre. He wrote plays, the majority of which are adaptations of foreign dramas. He was the elder brother of Gottlieb Stephanie, whom Mozartians will know as the adapter of the libretto of The Abduction from the Seraglio. It is an interesting confluence; at this one little time, Esterházy had two of the most prominent actors in Europe acting on his stage.
Quote from Pressburger Zeitung (Sept 13, 1775):
"…the illustrious company saw the Italian opera composed especially for the occasion; it is called L'incontro improvviso, it in three acts and is taken from the French. The poetry is by Herr Friberth who is in the Princely service; the music is by Herr Joseph Hayden [sic], Kapellmeister to the Prince. The idea and plot are comic to the extreme, the music, as is customary with Hayden, excellent.
We have looked at a few of the Prince's parties over the years, and I will only put in a few details of this one. When Archduke Ferdinand, son of Maria Theresia and younger brother of Joseph II arrived with his consort and their retinue, it was party time! It is said, retrospectively, to have been the grandest ever. Hard to measure grandness, although this one sounds like a good time had by all.
The first day had various dramas, and the opera premiere. That evening there was a masked ball with nearly 1400 guests!
On the second day, there was an event which surpassed anything which Nicholas had previously displayed. Out in the park, he had built a reconstruction of a Paris boulevard, and the 'street' was lined with booths like a sideshow of street entertainers. There was a Punch & Judy theater with a real marionette show, a female singer who 'sang pictures'; i.e. - hideous pictures of murder scenes and such were held up while the singer sang verses describing the event depicted. This was a particularly Parisian thing, called Moritat, or as they were more widely known, murder ballads. There was a dentist's stand (really!), a dance platform with folk music and two musicians' stands. In short, it was a recreation of street life in an exotic world capitol! There were monkeys, lions, tigers, stilt walkers; pretty much anything one could imagine by way of entertainment. One thing I have come away with in reading about Nicholas Esterházy; he was a most imaginative and skilled entertainer in his own right. An impresario with the wealth to do it right and the will and imagination to set new definitions to what 'right' is!
After all this, it was off to the Marionette Opera House for a performance of the opera Alceste by Carlos d'Ordoñez. This was a German adaptation of the Italian libretto by Calzibigi, frequent collaborator with Gluck. The score is still extant from Haydn's own library, and is Ordoñez's own autograph copy. It is said to be most excellent, as one would expect in this setting!
I have really only touched on the highlights of this most interesting three days. I can scarcely believe the amount of time spent being entertained; when did they sleep!
1775 marks the end of an era at Eszterháza, though. This fantastic entertainment was to be the last of its kind. As I mentioned last year, Nicholas was now 60 years old. I really don't know if this is coincidence or if there was some quirk of character which caused him to completely change course in his cultural displays once he reached this age. We have seen a marked tapering off in his Baryton playing, for example, and next year an entirely new way to maximize his entertainment potential will come on the scene. Not that opera isn't already here, but the scale will rival that of a moderate sized city!
Beyond the opera, we have plenty of fine music this year to look forward to. Four new symphonies, the three remaining sonatas of the 'Anno 1776' set, plus an excellent lone sonata which harks back to the intense connoisseur works of the late '60's. On top of all that, we will come upon an entirely new genre, at least for this instrumentation, and a new way to enjoy the old standby, the divertimento. Then too, we have a new mass and a sole surviving Advent motet, so as he always does, Haydn manages to touch all the bases this year. Let's have a look!
Thanks for reading!