1790 marks the end of an era, in so many ways. While in that context, most of us think about the Revolution in France, but the happenings outside of Paris were just as thoroughly, albeit more quietly, erasing the culture of the last thousand and more years. With so many events this year, for us to understand Haydn and his life we must look at them not just as events but rather in their position as the beginnings, endings and symbolic representations of the cultural arc which was now coming to a climax!
As close to home as Vienna, on February 20, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II passed, leaving no heir. It was a lonely death. Joseph had been married twice, but had lost both wives to smallpox, and had no living children. He died believing himself a failure, insofar as his reforms seemed to have weakened his empire instead of strengthening it. He is buried in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna. His self-authored epitaph reads: "Here lies Joseph II, who failed in all he undertook." However, his support for ideals like religious tolerance led to lasting changes in Europe, and he paved the way for the complete abolition of feudalism in 1848. Now, though, for Joseph's brother, Leopold, the leadership of the Holy Roman Empire was his. For Vienna, it meant the end of Josephinian reforms, a cause for celebration for many. For Mozart, it meant the abrupt end of a promising run for Così fan tutte after only five performances. As for Haydn, now reconciled to another season in Eszterháza having got under way, there was probably little love lost. Haydn was a believer in The Enlightenment's rationalistic improvement of man, but on a personal level had no reason to love Joseph, who certainly did nothing for him (unlike Maria Theresia) and probably worked against him in some cases. Our difficulty in relating to the limited Big Picture view available to people back then makes it difficult to know what Haydn's thoughts may have been about what I will call the end of The Enlightenment. Like all labels, this one is applied retrospectively, and greater minds than mine can, of course, disagree with this judgment, but the timing of Joseph's death, along with the 1786 death of Frederick the Great in Germany, and the upcoming (1796) death of Catherine the Great in Russia, coupled with the situation of his sister, Marie Antoinette in France and the rise of the middle classes and the deterioration of the aristocracy, all combine to spell the end for The Ancient Regime, and on a far greater stage than merely Versailles and Paris!
But much closer to home than even the Emperor, February brings this news: Princess Marie Elisabeth Esterházy née von Weissenwolf, wife of Nicholas, died on February 25, a mere eight days before their fifty-third wedding anniversary.
[To MARIA ANNA VON GENZINGER, VIENNA. German]
Estoras, 14th March, 1790.
Nobly born, Most esteemed and kindest Frau von Gennzinger! [sic]
I ask Your Grace's forgiveness a million times for having so long delayed the answer to your two kind letters. This is not negligence (a sin from which Heaven will preserve me as long as I live) but is because of the many things I have to do for my most gracious Prince in his present melancholy condition. The death of his wife1 so crushed the Prince that we had to use every means in our power to pull His Highness out of this depression, and thus the first 3 days I arranged enlarged chamber music every evening with no singing; but the poor Prince, during the concert of the first evening, became so depressed when he heard my favorite Adagio in D that we had quite a time to brighten his mood with the other pieces. On the 4th day we had an opera, on the 5th a comedy [play], and then our theater daily as usual. Meanwhile I ordered them to prepare the old opera L'amor Artigiano by Gas(s)man2, because the Prince had said to me recently that he would like to see it: I wrote 3 new arias for it3, …. I am delighted that my favorite Arianna [Cantata] is well received at the Schottenhof4, but I do recommend Fräulein Peperl to articulate the words clearly, especially the passage chi tanto amai (who so loved) [snip]
Since I am sure that Your Grace takes an interest in all my doings (far more, in fact, than I deserve), I should like to tell Your Grace that last week I received a present of a charming gold snuff-box, weighing the value of 34 ducats (NB – not mentioned: it also had 50 ducats in gold inside!), from Prince von Wallerstein, together with an invitation to pay him a visit at his expense sometime this year; His Highness is specially desirous of making my personal acquaintance (a pleasant encouragement for my drooping spirits). Whether I shall make up my mind to go is another question. Do please forgive this hasty letter; I am, with every possible esteem, as always
Your Grace's sincere and obedient servant,
Josephus Haydn.
N.S. My respectful compliments to Your Grace's husband and the whole Hacker family.
- I have just lost my faithful and honest coachman; he died on the 25th of last month.
Landon's notes
1 MARIA ELISABETH, COUNTESS WEISSENWOLF, died on 25th February.
2 FLORIAN LEOPOLD GASSMANN (1723-1774), whose L'amor Artigiano was first produced at the Burgtheater in Vienna in 1767.
3 At least one of these "insertion arias" has survived: Da che penso a maritiarmi (for tenor, in Eb).
4 A Viennese tavern, connected with the Monastery of Gottweig.
We are never told, throughout the thirty years they lived in the same house, what sort of relationship Haydn may have had with the boss's wife. If this letter is all we have to go by, it would seem they were scarcely more than passing acquaintances, not quite as close of his coachman, who died the same day. Somehow I doubt this is so, though. Way back in 1778, we looked at a work which was quite undecided in its origins. This was a responsory, part of a Requiem Mass. Although he was quite undecided at the time of its discovery, thus relegating it to 1778, Landon later speculated this Libera me! (Deliver me!) might have been written for the occasion of Maria Elisabeth's funeral. Found in a pile of old music at St. Martin's Church in Eisenstadt, it was so hurriedly prepared that Haydn wrote it out himself and left Johann Schellinger, the copyist, to write out the instrumental parts which double the voices. In later years, Nicholas spent his entertainment time in the company of his mistress, but that cannot be taken as any sort of sign he wasn't still very much in love with his wife. It was culturally accepted then, perhaps more so than now, for a man of standing to have a mistress. It is unlikely anyone even thought twice about it, although it is hard to think Maria was totally insensitive to the idea. Who can say? But clearly, Nicholas was deeply troubled by her passing and was more than a little overwhelmed by grief. Business as usual wasn't going to be the answer here, although Haydn tried to maintain that posture.
As Spring wore on into Summer, Haydn continued his voluminous correspondence with Marianne Genzinger. No one can know, of course, what occurred between them when they were tête-à-tête, but as far as documentary evidence goes, we see nothing but perfect circumspection. When a letter in May went astray, we see one containing this:
[To MARIA ANNA VON GENZINGER, VIENNA. German]
Estoras, 13th May 1790.
Nobly born, Gracious and kindest Frau von Gennzinger!
I was astonished to see from your kind letter that Your Grace did not receive my last letter…. My dear benefactress, this is not the first time that some of my letters, and also those of many others, have gone astray … This occurrence makes me the more unhappy because Your Grace might blame me for my negligence, from which Heaven defend me ! Anyway, these curious people, male or female, cannot have discovered anything improper in this last letter, or in any of the others either…
And yet, the indiscretion, if there is any, in this following letter, stems more from Haydn's bold statement about feeling …;
[To MARIA ANNA VON GENZINGER, VIENNA. German]
Estoras, 27th June 1790.
[snip] Again I find that I am forced to remain here. Your Grace can imagine how much I lose by having to do so. It really is sad always to be a slave, but Providence wills it so. I'm a poor creature! Always plagued by hard work, very few hours of recreation, and friends? What am I saying? One true one? There aren't any true friends any more. One lady friend? Oh yes! There might be one. But she's far away from me. Oh well! I have my thoughts. God bless you, and may you never forget me!...
This entire period, from Haydn's return to Eszterháza to his hasty retreat to Vienna in October, contains more personal communication than we ever see from Haydn at any time, even his first year in London. If one were attempting to pigeonhole this relationship with Genzinger, it would be fair to say she was a much-needed ear to listen to him, when the realization that he was no longer content with his oh-so-wonderful life as a vassal of the Prince. Genzinger was his choice to be the first to hear that he had outgrown the biggest music gig which Central Europe had to offer!
Just the way it had crept up on Haydn, not a sudden arrival, fully formed, so was the moving on stretched out over a certain period of time. There was no dramatic 'Confrontation with the Boss in the Music Room', in the event, Haydn merely carried on, and things happened. The important thing to realize is he was fully prepared for them to happen, it was one more perfect example of how The Fates had kept an eye on him since his cousin saw him playing two sticks as a fiddle and carried him off to Hainburg!
Of course there was work, mainly getting the opera season fully underway. Things got stopped in the middle in late August, and so we have the unusual perspective of things half done. We have revivals of operas by Cimarosa, Guglielmi, Martín y Soler and Sarti, and new productions by Cimarosa (L'impresario in angustie) and Paisiello (Il barbiere di Siviglia) all completed. In preparation we find Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro of course, and also Salieri's Axur, Re d'Ormus. It is fairly certain that …Figaro was at least in rehearsals, and in fact had received a run-through in early August. By all appearances, by late August, things were starting to get back to normal a bit. Not so fast, though.
as Head of the Hungarian Guard
In late August, Nicholas began to feel quite ill, and must have realized it was more than a little serious. He packed up and headed to Vienna for medical treatment. Haydn's own movements at this time are reported variously; Wyn-Jones has him in Vienna, but Landon has opted for Eszterháza, which makes more sense without knowing more than we do. On September 28th Nicholas died. He was 76. The Wiener Zeitung merely says 'after a short illness', we simply don't know what suddenly overcame this huge node of vitality. Perhaps his wife's death took more out of him than even Haydn realized?
For today's Haydnists, or even for more general fans of music, the debt owed to Nicholas Esterházy is unimaginably large. There would have been no recognizable Joseph Haydn. The musical debt incurred by other familiar names, such as Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and the entire 19th century lineage which followed behind them, would not be what it is now. For better or worse, I must add, but still, entirely different. From 1780 on, Haydn's influence on the music of the time was all-pervasive. We have seen Haydn's Esterházy career, from his initial service to Prince Paul Anton in 1761, even before being hired officially, through the entire reign of Prince Nicholas, beginning in 1762 and ending now, in 1790. The 19th century derided Haydn badly for being what he was, as though he could have come out of his own time and become a man of their time instead. But the patronage system took him from being a talented pauper, itinerant church musician, Hanswurst accompanist and keyboard teacher and turned him into the most famous musician of his time, known and respected throughout Europe. And now, with the death of Nicholas and the events of Europe at the time, the system itself came crashing down, virtually overnight.
On September 30th, all of the musicians and actors were given notice by Prince Anton. The exceptions were Haydn, Tomasini and the wind band players, along with the Eisenstadt Kirchenmusiker (church musicians). Everyone else got six weeks' severance pay and a Laurel, and Hearty Handshake. Haydn got an annual pension in Nicholas' will of 1000 gulden, Tomasini got 400g. Haydn also was kept on as nominal Kapellmeister, at a salary of 400 gulden per year. His duties were… nothing!
On October 1st, Haydn left Eszterháza so quickly he left behind many of his important papers and scores. It was like a prison-break! No one was left behind but a few House Officers to be caretakers, and for the next 160 years, the place simply sat… Like all who lived in the Grand Manner, even Nicholas' death was a thing of wonder!
From October 1 to December 31, there is yet another whole year's worth of highly important activity to look at. Before we get to it, however, we will go through the music of 1790 in the usual way. There is a lot of it; where the man found the time is beyond me! This year then, we will close the year with one final essay on the events.
Thanks so much for reading!