Hob. 1 No. |
NC |
HRL |
Key |
Instruments |
|
102 |
104 |
104 |
Bb |
2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 2 Bassoons, 2 Horns, 2 Trumpets, Timpani & Strings |
|
(Hoboken |
(New Chronology / Gerlach N°s.) |
(Robbins-Landon |
|||
Hob. 16 No. |
Genre |
Key |
Lan. No. |
Notes |
|
50 |
Grand Sonata |
C |
60 |
for Therese Jansen Bartolozzi |
|
51 |
Sonata |
D |
61 |
for Maria Hester Park |
|
52 |
Grand Sonata |
Eb |
62 |
for Therese Jansen Bartolozzi |
In some things, Haydn was a model of consistency. For example, when he composed solo piano sonatas, whether in Vienna or London, they were for ladies. Not that it was any great effort for him to find dedicatees, he was nearly always surrounded by ladies, many of whom really knew how to play the pianoforte well. And so it was in 1794. Since I am in a keyboard mood, let us look at two of these ladies, without whom we wouldn't have, not just the last three sonatas, but some few of the finest trios as well.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[To (JOHN?) PARKE [recte: Thomas Park] LONDON. English]
[London, 22nd October I794]
I am much obliged to you for the two so charming Prints, I tack me the liberty to Send for the Mistris Parck a little Sonat, and to come to Her next Friday or Saturday between 1 and 2 o'clock. I am Your most obedient St. [servant]
Haydn
[Address:] Mr. Park
Piccadilly Nr 32.
One of the enduring mysteries of the late keyboard sonatas has always been Hoboken 16:51, the wonderful little sonata in D major. Before publication of a 2001 essay by Thomas Tolley1, if you were looking for information about this piece, there was one answer, which was rather too much of the square peg/round hole sort. It is sandwiched between the two 'grand sonatas' which were definitely composed for Therese Jansen, ergo, it must also have been part of the set. But this solution doesn't take into account that it is of a totally different character and structure, unsuitable for large public performances, and with no reason to be part of a set with those others. So what's up?
The answer has been there, in the letter above, all this time, somehow managing to escape critical scrutiny. Landon, and every other writer, seems to have got thrown off the scent by the great number of 'Parck's' in and around the London music scene at just that time. And as we saw while looking at the Esterházy genealogy, there are a heck of a lot of women with the same first name, especially when it's 'Maria'! But as Tolley points out, the difference is in the details. Haydn, whose spelling could be all over the map, particularly in English, was quite careful not to get an 'e' on the end of Park. After all, he knew Maria Parke too, and quite well since she performed with him at Salomon's. And as we spoke of in the conversation concerning 'Mrs. Ployer', Haydn was very sensitive to women's marital status. So the person most frequently put forth as the object of the above letter, Maria Parke, who was the 21 year old, musical daughter of oboist John Parke, friend of Haydn, is actually disqualified by both the spelling of her name and the fact that it was 1815 before she entered marriage.
But the real clue is not in the spelling of the name, nor in any interrelationships implied in the letter, it is far plainer and more straightforward than that. The very first sentence, I am much obliged to you for the two so charming Prints, tells the whole story. You may remember back in 1789, Haydn was in contact with publisher Christian Breitkopf, and he closed his letter with this little postscript; P.S.: I would ask you at your convenience to send me a few English engravings, but beautiful ones, for I am a great admirer of them; I shall repay you gratefully by something of my work. As it turns out, this was no idle request. Among his possessions at the time of his death, in addition to far more books than you would have ever thought, was a very large collection of English engravings. Every great London engraver was represented, among them one Thomas Park. Park was prominent enough to have been chosen by the Royal Academy to reproduce some works of its President, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and the highly esteemed work above, by John Hoppner, of the beloved Mrs. Jordan, called the 'Duchess of Drury Lane' for her status as an actor. But it was two other paintings by two very prominent painters which Haydn got prints of in 1794: Sir William Beechey's Rosalie & Lubin, and Richard Morton Paye's Lubin & Rosalie. And in gratitude for Park's art, Haydn gifted his wife, Maria Hester Park, with some art of his own, a 'little Sonat'.
Maria Hester Park was clearly a fine pianist, although not of concert virtuoso caliber. We are fortunate, today, to have a recording with three of her own sonatas as well as a waltz for keyboard. Although they lack the genius which Haydn imparted to even a relatively slight work such as his sonata for her, they are warm, heartfelt and well-structured sonatas, ideally made for the probable venue in which they would have been performed. This excerpt from her husband's biography describes her and her playing as he saw them:
About this time [the early 1790s] he [Park] married … a lady whose musical accomplishments were but a part of her higher intellectual qualifications. The former had secured to her the friendship of Haydn, some of whose pieces were dedicated to her. As the musical instructress of many of the nobility, and notably of the family of the Duke of Devonshire, she was enabled to contribute very materially to the comfort of that happy and united home, which several of the poems we have referred to describe with such grateful affection. To her musical powers, one of the last of the Morning Thoughts [part of a collection of verse by Park published in 1818] makes allusion in the words:
By skill and science highly she was graced,
In music's melting art; and with such taste
And touch of feeling did she sounds convey,
Her heart appeared more than her hands to play.2
Jenkins does go on, later in the book, to clarify that it was actually just one work which Haydn dedicated. But the question which naturally arises after looking at this evidence is "how do we know it was Hob. 16:51?". And in fact, nowhere is it stated in black and white. Park never had the sonata published. The location of her copy of the autograph died with her, and the copy which she had made for Haydn himself, he sent to Breitkopf and Härtel in 1795 to be published, although it was not actually released until 1803 due to internal turmoil at the publishing house. And the copy was never returned or filed, and so, lost also. But there are only four possible candidates, since Haydn wrote no more for solo keyboard. Hob 17:6, the Piccolo Divertimento, which was composed in Vienna in 1793, but which Haydn certainly had with him in London. But this work was unquestionably dedicated to Mrs. Antonia Ployer, and is of a different character altogether than the description we see of Maria Hester's playing. And the Grand Sonatas for Theresa Jansen, which we will see shortly, are unlikely to be called a 'Little Sonat', even by Haydn in one of his joking moods. That is all there is. One work looking for a dedicatee::one dedicatee looking for her work. It barely even requires any deduction.
To truly understand the differences between music written for London and that written for Vienna at this time, one needs to have some fairly in-depth knowledge of both composition and the mechanics of piano building. The differences in these pianos are amazingly complex, since it is far more than just the physical differences themselves, it also includes the acoustic effects which these differences cause. And to go a step further, one must know and understand the compositional and notational conventions which either exploit or else mitigate these effects. When reading about works such as the Park Sonata, one can thus see things such as "the melody in octaves (of the opening Andante) exploits the sonorous treble register of the British pianoforte" (Landon), or the second movement, Presto, which is a tour-de-force of staccato, off-the-beat syncopations. It was treated like this:
The 'after-ring' of English pianos made it necessary for English composers to notate short notes with extra care in order to get the sharp cut-off that they wanted. This effect is often indicated by an alternation of quavers with quaver rests, with staccato dots over the notes, and sometimes the word 'staccato', 'agitato', or some character indication implying that the notes become shorter. We might call this 'counter-resonance notation'. Haydn was very much aware of this peculiarity of the English piano…3 (Oort)
This combination of compositional effects shows beyond doubt, that Haydn had become a full member, along with his close friends Clementi and Dussek, of the London Pianoforte School (LPS).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
London Notebook #1 (1792)
Pianists
Clementi
Duschek (Dussek)
Girowetz (Gyrowetz)
Burney
Mlle. [Fanny] Burney
Hüllmandel
Miss Barthelemon
(John Baptiste) Cramer
Miss Janson
Hummel from Vienna…
Our next lady was also a member of the LPS. Therese Jansen (or as Haydn called her, Janson), is believed to have been born in Aachen in Germany some time around 1770. Her father was a successful dancing master, who moved to London with his family. The family business, teaching dance to the upper class, was quite successful and was carried on by Therese and her younger brother Louis Jansen (1774–1840) into the later 1780's. Jansen's story is rather indicative of the place of women in 18th century Europe; if it hadn't been her good fortune to have been associated with Haydn, then the fact of her being among the top five pianists in London, including professionals, and a composer of some talent besides, she would have disappeared into oblivion, probably during her lifetime!
Both Therese and Louis studied with Muzio Clementi. She was considered one of Clementi's three most distinguished pupils, along with John Field and Johann Baptist Cramer, and by her young adulthood, she had become an outstanding performer. By 1791 she must have had quite a reputation, since Salomon gave her and her family free tickets to the first concert series. We have seen already, in discussing the Piccolo Divertimento, that Clementi and Dussek were easily the most prominent pianists in London, and Haydn was the top composer. So it should give some idea of her talent that between the three of them, in the years from 1790-95, they wrote specifically for her a total of eleven concert quality works!4
Concert quality, but almost no evidence of any concerts. There is mention of a performance of a Haydn sonata at the Anacreontic Society prior to 17915, but nothing else before the 19th century. Only one explanation presents itself; she had developed a career, possibly through her connections in the dance business, of playing at private parties for people wealthy enough to afford an entertainer who could have made a fortune if she had decided to go public. Even though England was not quite as bad as much of the Continent when it came to dropping professional musicians into the lower classes, it was still not the thing to do, as we saw with Rebecca Schroeter when she married a professional pianist.
While we will look at this again next year, in much closer proximity to the composition of the Keyboard Trios, it is an important point now, too. We saw in the above discussion of Maria Hester Park, that Haydn got to know her through his close association with her husband, engraver Thomas Park. But Thomas Park was not the only engraver Haydn knew in London. Really, he knew them all, but especially, he knew the Bartolozzi's, father Francesco and son Gaetano. Francesco was among the most prominent men in the business. Little things were a lucrative sideline for him, not just the big ones. Thus we even see here, one of his connections to the London music business:
Son Gaetano was one of the many who, in the 1780's, made the trip to Vienna to try and bring Haydn back to London.
[London Chronicle - 23 November 1786]
We hear that Haydn … has made an engagement with the professors at the Hanover-Square Concert. Young Bartolozzi, who is now at Vienna, was the negotiator at the occasion.
[Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser - 2 February 1787]
A musician, it would seem, has as little honor in his own country as a prophet, and of this the celebrated Haydn furnishes a remarkable proof. … a miserable apartment in the barracks, in which are his bed and an old spinet, or clavichord. In this situation, so unworthy of his genius, was Haydn found by Mr. Bartolozzi, who lately went to visit him. … It was upon this occasion that Haydn first expressed a desire to visit London, which was the origin of the negotiation now on the tapis between him and the managers of the Hanover-Square Concert.
As we know, those negotiations were doomed to failure. But they certainly present an interesting picture of poor Haydn! One scarcely knows what to make of that description: a gross exaggeration to help drum up support for the 'Bring Haydn to England' project? Or perhaps this; Bartolozzi was a child of wealth, anything less than he was accustomed to was going to be horrid by comparison. Or finally, it is exactly true at face value. The Prince didn't care what his people lived like when they were out of his sight… no, I don't think so.
The two sonatas which Haydn wrote for Jansen are considered to be his finest efforts in the genre. Their popularity has been unceasing, even during times when Haydn's music was less than popular. The reasons are not hard to discern from even a first listen. This was the first (and last) time in his career that Haydn would write solo keyboard works for the concert stage. He was well aware of the talent of his dedicatee, "Clementi's finest pupil", he was enamored of the new English pianoforte, and as a result, he produced works which equaled his finest orchestral and chamber works in inventiveness and appeal.
It is unknown which of these two works was composed first, or if they were even composed simultaneously. But there is no doubt the C major had a big head start. Way back in 1786, we looked at some less well-known pieces and ran across Hob. 17:9, an Adagio in F for solo keyboard. I told you then you hadn't heard the last of this piece, and indeed, here we see it, with some little modifications to fit it in, doing wonderful service as the inner movement of Janson Sonata #1. But the first movement Allegro is where we find out how deep Haydn was into English pianoforte style. If you are a violinist, you know that Sopra una corda is a marking which Haydn used sometimes in his string quartets. It means literally 'played on one string'. It isn't something that is doable on a Viennese fortepiano or harpsichord, and so you don't ever see it in Haydn's music till now. But right in the early development section of the first movement of Hob 60, we see the dynamic mark "pp open pedal", which in the language of the LPS meant 'depress the sopra una corda' pedal. This shifted the whole rack of hammers to one side so that instead of hitting all of the strings (either two or three), the hammer would just hit one string and make a much softer sound. Coupled with the fact that these pianofortes had either 51/2 (Broadwood, 1790) or 6 (Broadwood, 1794) octaves6, while Viennese fortepianos only had 5 octaves until 1805, and you can see why no Continental publisher ever touched these works before the early 19th century. In addition, this same movement has more dynamic marks than Haydn had ever used in a keyboard work before. Pianos in the right hand with simultaneous, off-the-beat sforzandos (fortes) in the left hand are just one example. Because the composition in this movement is so advanced, many musicologists have speculated over the years that this, rather than #62, is actually the final keyboard piece. If deduction were evidence….
Lastly, let us turn to #62. I just did a quick check of some music sales websites, and as I suspected, this is by a good measure the most recorded of Haydn's keyboard works. And why not? It has everything a listener could hope for, and players seem awfully fond of it too. Most of the writing I have found about it is highly technical, but in summary, it is, as you can easily and clearly hear from the start, from a completely different world than previous works, even ones as especially beautiful as the Genzinger Sonata (Hob. 49). Sitting in front of the crowd, piano lid braced open to project the sound towards them, in the manner of her friend Dussek, Jansen must have been on top of the world when she rolled out the unique chords of the opening, full of unusual modulations and rhythms, and into the central Adagio in the unheard of key of E major (in a work in E flat!!), something which wouldn't become the norm until after Franz Schubert made remote keys his trademark. The Presto finale, relentless and technically demanding, makes for a most satisfying finish to Haydn's keyboard oeuvre. Landon creates an artificial triumvirate which includes Mozart's K 457 in c minor and Beethoven's Op 13 Pathétique sonata, also in c minor, as temporal flankers for this work as the most highly influential keyboard works of the last half of the 18th century. If influential is construed as the effect on the rapidly approaching 19th, then it would be certainly hard to disagree with him!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As much composition as we have looked at so far, and really, we haven't dug any great mine shafts at all, there were yet other works completed in 1794, such as the superb symphony Hob 102 in the Autumn. And probably a start, at least, on 103 & 104. But there are some changes in the offing for the Salomon Concerts, even though you wouldn't know it as late as November.
The Sun, 7 November 1794
Salomon, it is said, means to carry on his Concert this winter, and as the Professional Concert is no more, it is probable that he will have a very flourishing season. The name of Haydn is a powerful charm in his favor; but with the aid of musical novelties from so great a composer, he may bid defiance to competition.
In this time period, we see the publication of Haydn's keyboard trios (Hob 15:18-20) which I think he brought along with him (or wrote here. If so, when?) and dedicated to the now-widowed Princess Maria-Anna (of Anton) in Eisenstadt. And we can meet a star from the next year, the golden-throated Brigida Banti, who will headline the concert stage in Haydn's final season. The carousel of music and social functions was non-stop in late 1794, and Haydn was riding high. Next year, we will see the offer of the big brass ring; will he grab it? Here comes 1795!
Thanks for reading!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1 – Thomas Tolley, Haydn, the Engraver Thomas Park, and Maria Hester Park's 'Little Sonat' (2001)
2 - Robert C. Jenkins, The Last Gleanings of a Christian Life. An Outline of the Life of Thomas Park (1885)
3 – Bart van Oort, Haydn and the English Classical Piano Style (2000)
4 – Dussek – (1790) 3 Sonatas for Fortepiano w/accompaniment of a Violin Opus 13 – Clementi – (1794) 3 Grand Sonatas Opus 33 – Haydn (1794) – 2 Grand Sonatas for Keyboard (Hob. 16: 50 & 52) and (1795) 3 Sonatas for Keyboard w/accompaniment of Violin & Cello – (Hob 15:27 – 29)
5 – Nicholas Salwey, Women Pianists in Late 18th-Century London" (2004)
6 – David Rowland, Piano music and keyboard compass in the 1790's (1999)