Haydn Seek

1795 – The Year part 6 - Great things come in smallish packets

Hob. 08#	Genre	Key		Name		Instruments
01	March	Eb		Derbyshire #1		2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons, 2 Horns, Trumpet & Serpent
02	March	C		Derbyshire #2		2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons, 2 Horns, Trumpet & Serpent
Hob. 26a#	Genre		Key		Title		Voice
31	Canzonetta		A		Sailor's Song		Soprano or Tenor w/Keyboard
32	Canzonetta		g		The Wanderer		Soprano or Tenor w/Keyboard
33	Canzonetta		E		Sympathy		Soprano or Tenor w/Keyboard
34	Canzonetta		Ab		She never told her love		Soprano or Tenor w/Keyboard
35	Canzonetta		G		Piercing Eyes		Soprano or Tenor w/Keyboard
36	Canzonetta		A		Content		Soprano or Tenor w/Keyboard
41	Canzonetta		f		The Spirit's Song		Soprano or Tenor w/Keyboard
42	Canzonetta		Eb		O Tuneful Voice		Soprano or Tenor w/Keyboard

George IV Entering Dublin in 1821
by William Turner de Lond
Accompanied by a Mounted Cavalry Band, perhaps
playing Haydn's 'March for the Prince of Wales'?

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As I mentioned last time, 1795 was a much bigger year for smaller music than for the large music we were expecting. One of the things we have learned so far over the years is that Haydn seems to have put as much effort and ingenuity into his smaller works as he did in the largest ones. He certainly left himself plenty of opportunities for that here.

There is a genre which I am enamored of, and which Haydn certainly wrote a goodly amount of music in, but sadly, little of it has survived. Marches for military wind band have a tendency to be ephemeral. Prince Esterházy had a wind band during the entire time Haydn worked for him, and Count Morzin had one before that. There can be no doubt about Haydn writing any number you wish to place here of pieces for them, but scarcely a dozen can be heard today. In 1792, we heard the marvelous march which Haydn composed for the Prince of Wales. This year, we find this rather odd story in Dies' biography. Haydn actually does get the times in the story mixed up, or maybe Dies does, but as for the rest of the tale...

[From Joseph Haydn: 18^th century Gentleman & Genius by Vernon Gotwals*]

[Dies: 20^th visit, 17 May 1806]
[snip]…he received a visit from an officer who was, to be sure, very polite but no friend of small talk, and who briefly stated the purpose of his visit. He wished that Haydn might compose two military marches for him. Haydn excused himself, saying that the opera Orfeo [NB (me) – undoubtedly not so. Perhaps Symphony 103/104?] left him no extra time, that he only wrote when he was in the right humor for it, and could not know whether the estro musicale [musical inspiration] would take him early or late. He would—if it were agreeable—get a competent composer to write them under his personal supervision.

"The marches must be by you. If I had wanted what you are proposing, I should not have come to you."

While the officer was saying that, his hand played with the guineas in his pocket, now and then gathering up a handful and letting them roll back again in the pocket.

"The sound of the gold," said Haydn, "reminded me that England was to be my land of opportunity, so I asked him how much time he was allowing me to wait for the estro."

"A fortnight. And the price?"

"Fifty guineas."

"Here is my hand on it; I shall come on the appointed day."

Haydn completed the marches. The officer came, Haydn sat down at the pianoforte and played the first march (E flat major) with his usual expressive performance. The officer, motionless as a statue, listened.

"He doesn't like it," thought Haydn. The playing ended. The officer said as coldly as possible, "Ancor una volta" [Play it again!]

Haydn, not knowing what to make of it, played the march a second time, and redoubled his powers in the playing, while casting a furtive glance toward the officer's countenance in the hope of reading approval there. Not a trace of it! When he had ended, the officer stood up. Haydn thought, "He will not hear the second march even once." Meanwhile the officer brought a roll of fifty guineas out of his pocket, handed it over to the astonished Haydn, and still saying nothing, took the one march and started to go away.

"Don't you want to hear the second march too?"

"No," the officer replied, "it can't possibly be better than the first. Farewell! Tomorrow I sail for America."

Sir Henry (Harpur) Crewe
7th Baronet (1763-1819) -
by Sir Thomas Lawrence

This story seems to be a combination of things as they actually happened, and things which Haydn later filled in with details as he remembered them. Sir Henry Harpur, who commissioned the works, was the Sheriff of Derbyshire, and also the founder of the Derbyshire Guards, a "body of Cavalry consisting of Gentlemen and Yeomen". It isn't known if the officer in the story is Harpur or one of his representatives, I rather think the latter. This organization occurred in 1794-95, and it was 1795 when he commissioned the marches from Haydn. The autographs still exist, one of them dated in Haydn's hand. Thus my assertion that Orfeo [L'anima filisofo](1791) is right out and it was possibly one of the late symphonies which had Haydn otherwise occupied at the time. The original printing which Harpur had made contains both marches in full orchestration as well as in piano arrangements, which are so well done that Landon feels they must have been by Haydn himself. This is congruent with the story Haydn told Dies. They are especially nice marches, although the lack of trios, which eliminates the need to repeat the opening makes them unduly short. As for me, I could easily stand them being five minutes each!

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DUKE ORSINO

And what's her history?

VIOLA

A blank, my lord. She never told her love,
But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,
Feed on her damask cheek: she pined in thought,
And with a green and yellow melancholy
She sat like patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed?

Shakespeare – Twelfth Night - Act 2. Scene 4.

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Since Haydn first met Anne Hunter in 1791 or '92, they had been separated by circumstance until April, 1795. But in the meantime, Haydn's Six Original Canzonettas, published in 1794, had been a resounding success, and he had also been working on a second set. Anne almost certainly gave him the poems to set all at once, probably just before he left the first time in June (or early July?), 1792. We have spoken quite extensively about Haydn's great attraction to the English pianoforte. When you combine this with the English passion for home music making, it was a natural outlet for Haydn's creative power. Although he only completed three solo sonatas and the Piccolo Divertimento, they were, perhaps, his most inspired solo works. In addition, as we shall see in the immediate present, he wrote fifteen accompanied sonatas (keyboard trios) from 1793 to 1796, and at the very least, fourteen original songs and 150 Scottish National Songs. And these are just among the works which have survived, which we know is not everything. One could legitimately argue that most or all of these works would not have been composed had this fascination with the pianoforte not existed.

From a timeline of Anne Home-Hunter:
On 17 April [1795] Haydn visits Anne in Blackheath and she may have collaborated with him on his Second Sett of VI Original Canzonettas dedicated to Lady Charlotte Bertie, daughter [NB (me) recte: wife] of the Earl of Abingdon. Perhaps she gives him two poems that he later set to music: 'O Tuneful Voice' and 'The Spirit's Song'. Haydn leaves England for the last time.

Caroline Grigson - The Life and Poems of Anne Hunter - Haydn's Tuneful Voice

This may be the correct sequence of events, although current theory has Haydn already possessing all of the poems he was to get from Anne, which is ten. As far as we know, this is the only time Haydn saw Anne again after her husband died, although, as always, it is so very difficult to be sure. My own thought on what they were up to that April day involves the poems which were not by Anne. Her rich store of literature and great knowledge of poetry would have been an invaluable aid to Haydn in the selection of the four texts which she didn't write.

Hob 26a:31     Sailor’s Song – Anne Hunter High on the giddy bending mast The seaman furls the rending sail, And, fearless of the rushing blast, He careless whistles to the gale. Rattling ropes and rolling seas, Hurly-burly, hurly-burly, War nor death can him displease. The hostile foe his vessel seeks, High bounding o'er the raging main, The roaring cannon loudly speaks, 'Tis Britain's glory we maintain. Rattling ropes and rolling seas, Hurly-burly, hurly-burly, War nor death can him displease.	Hob 26a:32     The Wanderer – Anne Hunter To wander alone when the moon, faintly beaming With glimmering lustre, darts thro' the dark shade, Where owls seek for covert, and nightbirds complaining Add sound to the horror that darkens the glade. 'Tis not for the happy; come, daughter of sorrow, 'Tis here thy sad thoughts are embalm'd in thy tears, Where, lost in the past, disregarding tomorrow, There's nothing for hopes and nothing for fears.
Hob 26a:34     She Never Told Her Love – Shakespeare She never told her love, But let concealment, like a worm in the bud, Feed on her damask cheek...; She sat, like Patience on a monument, Smiling at grief.	Hob 26a:33     Sympathy – Metastasio In thee I bear so dear a part, By love so firm, so firm am thine, That each affection of thy heart By sympathy is mine. When thou art griev'd, I grieve no less, My joys by thine are known, And ev'ry good thou would'st possess Becomes in wish my own.
Hob 26a:36     Content – poem/lyric by Anonymous (original title Transport of Pleasure, lyrics changed in 2nd edition but same music) Ah me, how scanty is my store! Yet, for myself, I'd ne'er repine, Tho' of the flocks that whiten o'er Yon plain one lamb were only mine. 'Tis for my lovely maid alone, This heart has e'er ambition known; This heart, secure in its treasure, Is bless'd beyond measure, Nor envies the monarch his throne. When in her sight from morn to eve, The hours they pass unheeded by; No dark distrust our bosoms grieves, And care and doubt far distant fly. 'Tis for my lovely maid alone, This heart has e'er ambition known; This heart, secure in its treasure, Is bless'd beyond measure, Nor envies the monarch his throne.	Hob 26a:35         Piercing Eyes – Anonymous Why asks my fair one if I love? Those eyes so piercing bright Can ev'ry doubt of that remove, And need no other light. Those eyes full well do known my heart, And all its working see, E'er since they play'd the conq'ror's part, And I no more was free.
Hob 26a:41     The Spirit’s Song – Anne Hunter Hark! Hark, what I tell to thee, Nor sorrow o'er the tomb; My spirit wanders free, And waits till thine shall come. All pensive and alone, I see thee sit and weep, Thy head upon the stone Where my cold ashes sleep. I watch thy speaking eyes, And mark each falling tear; I catch thy passing sighs, Ere they are lost in air.	Hob 26a:42 O Tuneful Voice – Anne Hunter O tuneful voice I still deplore, Thy accents, which I hear no more, Still vibrate on my heart. In Echo's cave I long to dwell And still to hear that sad farewell When we were forced to part. Bright eyes! O that the task were mine To guard the liquid fires that shine And round your orbits play, To watch them with a vestal's care, To feed with smiles a light so fair That it may ne'er decay.

 

Orsino & Viola from Twelfth Night
by Frederick Richard Pickersgill

In addition to the six works in the 'Second Sett of Original Canzonettas', Haydn also set two more Hunter poems in 1795, although he never had them published in England. O Tuneful Voice was Hunter's seeming farewell to Haydn, and his to her. The Spirit's Song, which Haydn thought was another Shakespeare poem, or so he told his publisher, was probably the very best of the ten songs which Haydn/Hunter produced together. Not only is the poem itself of especially nice quality, but Haydn's piano, in a soulful f minor, is a masterpiece of accompaniment, with surprising voice entries and modulations. If Haydn really did believe it was a Shakespeare work, perhaps that explains the extra effort he put into it. His other Shakespeare work, She Never Told Her Love, is, to my mind, the very finest of the fourteen canzonettas. Unlike other songs in those days, it is 'through-composed', that is, the entire is written out, it doesn't have any repeating stanzas. This was a commonplace by the time of Schubert, but a rarity before then. The true beauty of the song is in the lyric though. Haydn (and Hunter) pared down the original Shakespeare, which I quoted at the beginning of this section, one of the most singularly moving speeches Shakespeare wrote. Even so, Viola's raw emotion is right on the surface, captured forever in this little gem of a work.

One final point I'd like to make about these works stems from an observation I've made while looking through the fairly numerous recordings I have of them. Hardly any are sung by tenors, who would be equally well suited to the task. Haydn didn't write these solely for ladies to sing. He was well known to have a superb tenor voice. We saw this recently:

Memoirs of John Parke
After his introduction, Haydn, by desire of the Queen, sat down at the pianoforte and, surrounded by Her Majesty and her royal and accomplished daughters, sung, and accompanied himself admirably in several of his Canzonets.

I hope if you have a chance at a recital by a tenor you will take it up, or lacking that, there are a few nice recordings to enjoy, which will give you a different viewpoint on these wonderful works.

Next time we will look at even more 'small' works, some of Haydn's finest efforts among them.

Thanks for reading!

*Joseph Haydn: 18^th century Gentleman & Genius by Vernon Gotwals appears to be the first edition of Two Contemporary Portraits. 

1795 – The Year part 5 - Not just 'big', great!

Hob No.	NC	HRL	Key	Name	Instruments
I:103	105	105	Eb	Drumroll	2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets in Bb, 2 Bassoons, 2 Horns in Eb & C, 2 Trumpets in Eb & C, Timpani & Strings
I:104	106	106	D	London	2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons, 2 Horns, 2 Trumpets, Timpani & Strings
(Hoboken catalog  N°s.)	(New Chronology / Gerlach  N°s.)	(Robbins-Landon  N°s.)			Notes
Ia:3			C	Overture to Windsor Castle	This is the original overture to the 1791 opera L'anima del filosofo. It was used by Salomon until he wrote his own in 1796. It is scored for full orchestra, but detailed 'as played' scores no longer exist.
Hob. No.	Genre		Key		Voice & Instruments
24a:10	Cantata (Scena) – Recitative & Aria		f	Berenice, che fai?	Soprano, Flute, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons, 2 Horns & Strings

A village church on a stormy day
Thomas Gainesborough

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Over the many years which we have explored so far, we have come to think of Haydn as a composer of 'big music'. Symphonies, operas, masses, sacred music, just the sort of things which stick in your head when you think of Haydn. Or any other composer of his caliber, for that matter. And 1795 was the final London year, equal to any in terms of success. So he must have written a lot of 'big music', it seems so certain, one practically remembers it is so. Now it comes as a surprise, or at least it did to me, to discover that aside from the two symphonies for the year, 103 and 104, the only other thing approaching big music is the scena for Soprano & Orchestra, Berenice, che fai?. Even the overture which Haydn contributed to Salomon's "English Opera" was actually written in 1791 for Haydn's own, unperformed Orpheus opera. Isn't it odd how our imagination can play the occasional trick on us like that?

There are so many fine recordings of these symphonies, and rightly so!

As always, though, quality makes up for quantity. These three works are from the peak of Mt. Haydn. As a bonus for us, there is plenty of quality among the 'smaller' works of the year, as we will see in due course.

Morning Chronicle 3 March 1795
This concert [series] is very deservedly in high fashion, and must necessarily increase the fame it has acquired. [snip]… Another new Overture, by the fertile and enchanting Haydn was performed; which as usual, had continual strokes of genius, both in air and harmony. The introduction excited the deepest attention, the Allegro charmed, the Andante was encored, the Minuets, especially the Trio, were playful and sweet, and the last movement was equal, if not superior to the preceding.

"Fertile and enchanting…". Certainly a far cry from the written out old man we heard about a couple of years ago. This was the world première of Symphony #103 in Eb, yet another pinnacle work from this year.

Hob. I:103 Symphony #105 in Eb
Movement	Tempo	Meter	Key
Introduction	Adagio	3/4	Eb
I	Allegro con spirito	6/8	Eb
II	Andante più tosto Allegretto	2/4	Eb
III	Menuet: Allegro	3/4	Eb
Trio	Allegro	3/4	Bb
IV	Finale: Allegro con spirito	₵ (2/2)	Eb
Instruments	2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets (in Bb) 2 Bassoons, 2 Horns (in Eb & C), 2 Trumpets (in Eb and C), Violin Solo, 2 Violins, Viola, Cello, Double Bass

Like all of Haydn's late symphonies, this one can hardly have failed to excite comment and endless analysis from the endless analyzers of the music world. Peter Brown describes one of the earlier efforts, which turned out to be the more interesting to me, that of J.J. Momigny, who devoted twenty-six pages of his composition textbook of 1806 to a narrative discussion of what Haydn was doing in this symphony. His long and entertaining story concerns villagers, gathered in a country church to seek safety from a thunderstorm rolling through, praying all the while. The storm is symbolized by the famous timpani roll in measure 1, for which the symphony is named. The storm moves by and the villagers all go out into the town, grateful for being spared, but arguing over who was scared and who not, meanwhile dancing and partying in general. At the height of the name-calling the storm returns and they all scurry back to the church and begin praying again! All of these actions are tied to musical parts (well, the dancing part was easy), and also to the groups of instruments interacting in a 'call and response' manner.

Nowadays, we have a modest snicker over this kind of storytelling, but what if it is, in fact, exactly what Haydn had in mind? You scoff? Consider then how we find descriptions from Haydn's own lips, such as this in The New Grove Haydn. James Webster tells us:

Haydn was also a master of rhetoric. This is a matter not only of musical 'topoi' [NB – a rhetorical convention or formula] and rhetorical 'figures' but also of contrasts in register, gestures, implications of genre and the rhythms of destabilization and recovery, especially as these play out over the course of an entire movement. Referential associations are common in his instrumental music, especially symphonies (nos.6–8, 22, 26, 30–31, 44–5, 49, 60, 64, 73, 100); they invoke serious human and cultural issues, including religious belief, war, pastoral, the times of day, longing for home, ethnic identity and the hunt. Haydn told Griesinger and Dies that he 'often portrayed moral characters in his symphonies' and that one early Adagio presented 'a dialogue between God and a foolish sinner' (unidentified; perhaps from no. 7, 22 or 26). In his vocal music Haydn (like Handel) was a brilliant and enthusiastic word-painter. This trait is but one aspect of his musical imagery in general: in addition to rhetorical figures and 'topoi' it comprises key associations (e.g. E with the hereafter), semantic associations (e.g. the flute with the pastoral) and musical conceptualizations... [snip]

In our far more sophisticated modern musical society, it is more interesting to me to get some sort of a picture of how Haydn and his contemporaries perceived music, both in its construction and its subsequent deconstruction. We have survived the philosophical and technical onslaught of countless Romantics and post-Romantics, who have reduced music appreciation into an endless stream of jargon which is completely exclusive rather than inclusive, so maybe the 18^th century had a point. In Momigny's view, Haydn is telling a story, one we can all relate to. He is as matter-of-fact in the telling as if it was a short story rather than a symphony. And we can relate to it because, while we may have largely outgrown small town bickering and hiding in the village church, storms and coping with them are still an everyday fact of life.

I hadn't intentionally headed down this path, but I ran across Momigny's tale while researching what modern musicology thinks of this superb symphony. As it turns out, the introduction is one of those unique aspects which Haydn introduced to England. The music gets used in three different ways, first as an introduction, of course, but later on it becomes part of the Allegro, in diminution, and later still, in a slower tempo, as part of the coda. This idea had only been used once before, which could be where Haydn got it from, in a symphony in Vienna by Carlos Ordoñez in the 1770's. And there it would have ended, since Ordoñez went into obscurity until the late 20^th century. But I bring this up here for a different reason. Unless you are a music theorist, you probably didn't know that 'in diminution' means that the same tones are used in relatively the same tonal values, but the duration values are shorter, so the net effect is they are played more quickly. It's a sort of embellishment or melodic variation, or a way to insert a musical reminiscence without redoing the entire section in the original manner. More of us know what a coda is, a sort of different ending you would jump to when you play something through a second time. The different places that parts of the introduction are used, is also indicated by Momigny's as 'the storm returned and they all rushed back to the church'. The reality here is that Brown, the modern theorist, and Momigny, the 18^th century theorist, are telling the same story. But Brown is telling it to his peers, while Momigny is telling it to you and me. This difference represents progress. I suspect if we progress much further, I will no longer understand anything! Either way, it is a brilliant symphony, and a favorite of many a Haydnist.

Fourth London Notebook

On 4th May 1795, I gave my benefit concert in the Haymarket Theatre…[snip]…a new Symphony in D, the twelfth and last of the English;

Hob. I:104 Symphony #106 in D Major
Movement	Tempo	Meter	Key
Introduction	Adagio	4/4	d
I	Allegro	₵ (2/2)	D
II	Andante	2/4	G
III	Menuet: Allegro	3/4	D
Trio	Allegro	3/4	Bb
IV	Finale: Spiritoso	₵ (2/2)	D
Instruments	2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets (in A) 2 Bassoons, 2 Horns (in D & G), 2 Trumpets (in D), 2 Violins, Viola, Cello, Double Bass
"Fine, Laus Deo" ~~~~~ "Finished, Praise God"

When the 63 year-old Haydn appended Fine, Laus Deo to what he knew would be his final symphony for England, what sense of relief must he have felt? A burden had been lifted from his shoulders. He had fulfilled all of his promises, contractual and otherwise, had achieved the highest possible honors and popularity, he had even managed something which few other musicians before him had even begun to accomplish; he had put some money away for a comfortable retirement. Now, he would soon be going home to finish out his allotted three-score and seventeen in a well-deserved sinecure which he had spent the last 45 years preparing.

There are many analyses of this symphony, more, in fact, than probably any other work by Haydn, so it would be fruitless for me here to try to surpass those (or even equal them). My personal rôle is to listen and enjoy, which I did here many times over. We have seen, in looking at the London works to date, how Haydn mixed 'easy' with 'hard'. When it comes to difficulty of perception of the work as a whole. N^o. 100, for example, is considered easy, while N^o. 99 is not. What we really mean by those terms lies in the challenge to the listener to be able to follow where Haydn wants you to go. I say follow, because anticipating where he is going has proved to be virtually impossible, at least according to some great musical minds like Sir Donald Tovey. But the modern symphony, by which I mean modern in 1795 and looking forward, not backward, contains two large elements; the active participation required to follow a 'hard' work, and the simple melodic and harmonic audible enjoyment which is evident in an 'easy' one. In this work, Haydn found the magic formula by which these two aspects were perfectly balanced so to please the greatest number of listeners, no matter their level of musical sophistication.

6^th May, 1795 - The Morning Chronicle
…[Haydn] rewarded the good intentions of his friends by writing a new Overture for the occasion, which for fullness, richness, and majesty, in all its parts, is thought by some judges to surpass all his other compositions. A Gentleman, eminent for his musical knowledge, taste and sound criticism, declared this to be his opinion; That, for fifty years to come Musical Composers would be little better than imitators of Haydn; and would do little more than pour water on his [tea] leaves. We hope this prophecy may prove false; but probability seems to confirm the prediction.

~~~~~

Fourth London Notebook
On 4th May 1795, I gave my benefit concert in the Haymarket Theatre. The room was full of a select company… [snip] …. Scena nuova by me, Mad. Banti [English :] (She song very scanty). [German :] The whole company was thoroughly pleased and so was I. [snip]

It is not hard to imagine Haydn deriving a good deal of enjoyment from having a truly great singer to work with. He had many nearly great ones at Eszterháza, and some very good ones in London so far, but Brigida Banti was one of the rare greats.

Two fine realizations of Berenice, che fai?

The text for this work is taken from Act 3, scene 9 of Antigono by Metastasio, a libretto which had originally been set by Hasse in 1743 (performed at Carnival, 1744) and subsequently set by masters such as Galuppi, Piccinni, Jommelli, Gluck, Traetta and Paisiello along with twenty-five or so others. As always with Metastasio (thus his popularity) the poetry is direct, emotional and dramatic. Here, Haydn sets just one scene, with an irregular arrangement of arias and recitatives. This irregularity was not uncommon at the time, and serves to increase the drama. For all intents and purposes it is a cantata.

Here is the story: Although betrothed to Antigono, Berenice is actually in love with his son, Demetrio. Torn between his feelings for Berenice and his filial duty, Demetrio can see no way out of his predicament, and has resolved to kill himself. In Berenice, che fai?, the disconsolate heroine deliriously laments her fate and longs to die alongside her beloved:

Recitativo Berenice, che fai? Muore il tuo bene, stupida, e tu non corri? Oh Dio! Vacilla l'incerto passo; un gelido mi scuote insolito tremor tutte le vene, e a gran pena il suo peso il pic sostiene. Dove son? Qual confusa folla d'idee tutte funeste adombra la mia ragion? Veggo Demetrio: il veggo che in atto di ferir... Fermati! Vivi! D'Antigono io sarn. Del core ad onta volo a giurargli fc: dirn che l'amo; dirn... Misera me, s'oscura il giorno, balena il ciel! L'hanno irritato i miei meditati spergiuri. Ahimè! Lasciate ch'io soccorra il mio ben, barbari Dei. Voi m'impedite, e intanto forse un colpo improvviso... Ah, sarete contenti; eccolo ucciso. Aspetta, anima bella: ombre compagne a Lete andrem. Se non potei salvarti potrn fedel... Ma tu mi guardi, e parti? Aria Non partir, bell'idol mio: per quell'onda all'altra sponda voglio anch'io passar con te. Voglio anchio…   Recitativo Me infelice! Che fingo? Che ragiono? Dove rapita sono dal torrente crudel de' miei martiri? Misera Berenice, ah, tu deliri! Aria Perché se tanti siete, che delirar mi fate, perchè non m'uccidete, Affanni del mio cor? Crescete, oh Dio, crescete, fin che mi porga aita con togliermi di vita L'eccesso del dolor

Recitative Where am I? What is this chaotic host of gloomy ideas that clouds my reason? I see Demetrius: I see him in the act of striking Stop! Live on! I will belong to Antigonus. Against my heart's desire I fly to plight my troth to him: I will say that I love him; I will say. . . Woe is me, the day grows dark, lightning flashes across the sky! It is angered by my willful perjuries. Alas! Let me aid my beloved, cruel gods. You hold me back, and in the meantime, perhaps an unexpected blow. . . Ah, now you will be satisfied; behold, he is slain! Wait, lovely soul: together, as shades, We will go to Lethe. If I could not save you, still, faithful, I will be able to… But you look on me and depart?   Aria Do not go, fair idol of my heart: Across those waters to the farther shore I wish to accompany you.   Recitative Wretch that I am! What am I imagining? What am I saying? Whither have I been transported By the cruel torrent of my sufferings? Unhappy Berenice, ah, you are raving!   Aria Why, if you are so many That you can drive me mad, Why do you not kill me, Torments of my heart? Increase, ah God, grow ever greater, until excess of grief comes to my aid by taking my life from me.

One needs only sit and listen to this work to begin to appreciate the changes, the ripening of talent, which had come to Haydn during his brief time in London. The demands of pleasing a fickle public, the immediate feedback from the daily 'papers, the huge cadre of true musical connoisseurs; 'very nice' simply wouldn't do. And this piece is way beyond 'very nice'! The musical concept, the boldness of execution, the dramatic design, are all on a level higher than, not only Haydn, but nearly all other composers of the period. Landon states that only Mozart's Ch'io mi scordi di te (K 505), which he wrote for Nancy Storace when she was leaving Vienna for good, and Beethoven's Ah, perfido! (Opus 65, 1796), which Beethoven modeled directly on Haydn's work, are in the same class as Berenice, che fai?. And just a reminder: Madame Banti did NOT sing very scanty!

Big music. It's true, Haydn didn't write most of his big music this year, but it can be fairly said, what he did write was bigger than most.

Next time we will begin to look at some of the 'smaller' music Haydn wrote this year. There is far more than a little bit of that!

Thanks for reading!