|
Hob I: |
NC |
HRL |
Key |
Name |
Instruments |
|||
|
95 |
95 |
95 |
c |
Flute, 2 Oboes, 2 Bassoons, 2 Horns, 2 Trumpets, Timpani & Strings |
||||
|
96 |
96 |
96 |
D |
The Miracle |
2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 2 Bassoons, 2 Horns, 2 Trumpets, Timpani & Strings |
|||
|
Hob. # |
Genre |
Name |
Libretto |
Instruments / Voices |
||||
|
28:13 |
Italian Opera |
L'anima del filosofo, ossia Orfeo ed Euridice |
Carlo Francesco Badini |
2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Cors anglais, 2 Bassoons, 2 Horns, 2 Trumpets, Timpani, Harp, Strings & Continuo |
||||
Part of the problem which comes along with the huge mass of data resulting from Haydn's visits to England lies in keeping things ordered somehow. It seems to go hand in hand with any particular author's personal interest that when something to do with it occurs, wild tangents are struck off in that direction which make one struggle mightily to keep the thread in view.
My own solution to this problem will be to take smaller bites of the apple. Firstly, I have noticed that culturally, years in London appear to be broken into 'concert season' and otherwise. Since concert season begins in late January and extends till June, this makes a neat nearly-half-year increment to look at. Second, there are two distinctly different stories going on simultaneously; the public Haydn, as reported in the already omnipresent newspapers, and the private Haydn, who appears in his own letters and notebooks, and the diaries and journals and reminiscences of the people he interacted with. And while writing four essays merely to chronicle the events of a single year may seem burdensome, you will see in the event that even with four shots at it, I can no more than touch the surface of this era, the most fascinating time of Haydn's life. I will make every effort, then, to leave wild geese strictly to their own devices!
From the Public Advertiser, January 6, 1791
Musical arrangements for every day in the week, through the winter season
Sunday – The Noblemen's Subscription is held every Sunday at a different House
Monday – The Professional Concert – at Hanover Square Rooms – with Mrs. Billington
Tuesday – The Opera
Wednesday – The Ancient Music at the rooms on Tottenham Street, under the Patronage of their Majesties.
Thursday – The Pantheon. – A Pasticcio of Music and Dancing, in case that the Opera Coalition shall take place; if not, a concert with Madame Mara and Sig. Pacchierotti [OR]
The Academy of Ancient Music, every other Thursday, at Freemason's Hall.
Friday – A Concert under the auspices of Haydn at The Rooms, Hanover Square, with Sig. David.
Saturday – The Opera
This is the arrangement for each week throughout the season; and so full is the town of eminent professors in every department of the science, that there may be a double orchestra found of admirable performers, so as to open to places of musical entertainment every evening.
If Music be the food of Love, play on,
Give me excess of it; that surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
Shakespeare
It would appear as though Georgian London was quite the time and place to be a music lover! Which put more of a burden upon our Haydn than he may perhaps have expected. Since he was not only committed to taking part in all of the Salomon concerts, and the opera he was composing, but also he was asked (and he usually agreed) to take part in nearly all of the plethora of benefit concerts which dotted the landscape. On top of that, he was urgently invited to attend every concert in which he wasn't a participant, no doubt to lend his celebrity to the proceedings. The main rival, The Professional Concert, even gave Haydn an engraved ivory token which granted him free admission to every concert, something which he truly treasured.
As we saw, Haydn's agreement with Salomon was to provides new works for the concert series. Which means 'new to London', not necessarily newly new. Due to the obligation to first and foremost write an opera for Gallini, we can see the impossibility of any new symphonies turning up for opening night of the series. But the 'new to London' clause was a perfect answer for this dilemma, since Haydn had smartly packed up Symphonies #90 & 92. To balance this out, he foolishly overlooked bringing along #91!
On January 15, we see in all the London newspapers this advertisement:
[PRESS RELEASE – JANUARY 15, 1791]
HANOVER SQUARE. Mr. Salomon respectfully acquaints the Nobility and Gentry that he intends having twelve subscription concerts in the course of the present season. The first of which be on Friday the Eleventh of February next, and so continue on succeeding Fridays. Mr. Haydn will compose for every Night a New Piece of Music, and direct the execution of it at the Harpsichord.
The Vocal as well as Instrumental Performers will be of the first rate, and a List of them will appear in a few Days.
Subscriptions at Five Guineas, for the Twelve Nights, to be held at Messrs. Lockhard's, No. 36, Pall-Mall.
Tickets transferrable Ladies to Ladies, and Gentlemen to Gentlemen.
But as Burns reminds us, The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, Gang aft agley… and February 11 was missed by a mile! It wasn't anything to do with Haydn, though, but came down to the difficulty of getting all of the "Vocal as well as Instrumental Performers … of the first rate" across the Channel and ready to make music. Another try for the 25th of February also missed the mark, but finally, in the week leading up to March 11, precisely a month late, we see this announcement daily:
The Public Advertiser:
Hanover Square: Mr. Salomon respectfully acquaints the Nobility and Gentry, that his Concerts will open without further delay on Friday next, the 11th of March, and continue every succeeding Friday.
Part I
Overture (symphony) – Rosetti
Song – Sig. Tajana
Oboe Concerto – Mr. Harrington
Song – Signora (Nancy) Storace
Violin Concerto (comp. Viotti) – Madame Gautherot
Recit. & Aria (comp. Rusi) – Sig. David
Intermission
Part II
New Grand Overture – Haydn (#92, new to London)
Recit. & Aria – Signora Storace
Concertante for Pedal Harp & Pianoforte – Madame Krumpholtz and Mr. Dussek (comp. Dussek)
Rondo (comp. Andreozzi) – Sig. David
Full piece (symphony) – Koželuch
By all appearances, this was a not-at-all unusual lineup for a London concert at the time. The subscribers got their money's worth! What is really a shame, though, is the lack of more information on what works were played. This one actually has more information than most I have seen. By inference, and knowing the customs of the time, I believe that any concerto without a composer indicated, for example in this list, the Oboe Concerto, was composed by the performer. Beyond this, things like the identity of the Haydn symphony represent a large amount of detective work on the part of a musicologist, in this case, Robbins-Landon.
Do the performers live up to Salomon's promise of "Vocal as well as Instrumental Performers … of the first rate"? Sig. David was Giacomo David(e), who was considered one of the top tenors of the time. Nancy Storace was far more than a friend of Mozart, she was also an international star who had risen to the top in Italy, Vienna and now London. Jan Ladislav Dussek was already an internationally known pianist, and was a great favorite in 1790's London. Even Madame Krumpholtz was well-known, as the student and then wife of the famous harp virtuoso J.B. Krumpholtz, who had drowned himself in the Seine the previous year when she eloped off to London, allegedly with Dussek! So their appearance together at the Salomon concerts had the extra piquancy of some private scandal to spice the public virtuosity!
by Pietro Bettelini
Morning Chronicle, March 12:
The first concert under the auspices of Haydn was last night, and never, perhaps, was there a richer musical treat.
It is not wonderful that to souls capable of being touched by music, Haydn should be an object of homage, and even of idolatry; for like our own Shakespeare, he moves and governs the passions at his will.
The Chronicle, especially, was a very influential newspaper, being read on the continent as well as the home island, and as far away as Vienna. Landon doesn't make much of a point of it, but it should be noted here the very important comparison between Haydn and Shakespeare. Since Shakespeare was in the midst of a major revival at the time, it was no small thing to recognize Haydn's mastery of musical rhetoric as an accomplishment of that magnitude. But it was hardly a new comparison either, the earliest ones dating back to the publication in 1776 of a book by Karl Junker called Twenty Composers: A Sketch. Junker talks about how Haydn changed the course of Viennese music with his huge transgressions of the rules of composition. We talked about this particular subject when it was current, but Junker is rather different in that he supported Haydn's particular transgressions, finding them analogous to the mixture of comedy and drama in Shakespeare's plays. In an amusing analogy of his own, Junker talks about 'Comedy' as the character of a maiden in a play who was banished from the stage by the Imperial censor, Sonnenfels. She then went to Haydn and begged for acceptance, and he, being a softie, as it were, "seized the droll thing and shoved her into his own temple". The very important points of the comparison, as I see it, are two: Shakespeare and Haydn are both entirely original characters in terms of their inspiration. They both invented their own niche in structural terms; the dramatic play was never the same after Shakespeare, nor was the musical sonata form post-Haydn. And the added irreverence of mixing drama with comedy, which we so take for granted today, didn't exist in either discipline before these two put it there.
As we look at the specific works of 1791, we will cover some of the other concerts. Some other peculiarities come up; that is, peculiar to anyone who doesn't expect a string quartet as a highlight of a concert, for example. But this first one, and the reaction to it, are good representatives of what we will come to consider 'typical'. A great variety of fine music, well-performed, with Haydn cleverly placing his 'new' symphony at the beginning of the second part, which insures all late-comers are firmly ensconced, but not yet drowsy. Salomon leading from the first violins, Haydn accompanying on his fortepiano (still quaintly called a harpsichord in the press), which was not his way, but was the British way. He hadn't done it in Eszterháza in years, except for operas. When in Rome, however…
Next time we will have a look at one of Haydn's finest operas, certainly his greatest opera never to grace a stage!
Thanks for reading!