Haydn: 107 Symphonies

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Deutsch, Otto Erich (1965). Mozart: A Documentary Biography. Stanford: Stanford University Press– via Internet Archive. This famous symphony makes clear why Haydn's minor-mode 'Sturm und Drang' works have been so highly regarded. The entire work is terse and concentrated not a note is wasted and sustains its mood of stern passion with remarkable consistency. The only relief from E minor is the bright parallel mode, E major, in the trio of the minuet and the slow movement. In all these respects it bears comparison with Beethoven's second 'Razumovsky' String Quartet.

Sutcliffe, W. Dean (1989). "Haydn's Musical Personality". The Musical Times. 130 (1756): 341–344. doi: 10.2307/966030. JSTOR 966030. Deutschlandlied, the German national anthem – and Austria’s before that – was originally Haydn’s patriotic anthem written for Emperor Francis II, Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser. Haydn also used the tune in his String Quartet Op 76 No 3, thus the “Emperor” Quartet. It’s also the hymn Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken. Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto is a favourite processional, while the slow movement of his Surprise Symphony – where a gentle theme is punctuated by a startling fortissimo chord – is one of the first tunes taught in children’s music lessons. His life

I must have something to do—usually musical ideas are pursuing me, to the point of torture, I cannot escape them, they stand like walls before me. If it's an allegro that pursues me, my pulse keeps beating faster, I can get no sleep. If it's an adagio, then I notice my pulse beating slowly. My imagination plays on me as if I were a clavier." [q] Haydn smiled, the blood rushed to his face, and he said "I am really just a living clavier." House in Vienna (now a museum) where Haydn spent the last years of his life

The remoteness of Eszterháza, which was farther from Vienna than Eisenstadt, led Haydn gradually to feel more isolated and lonely. [32] He longed to visit Vienna because of his friendships there. [33] Of these, a particularly important one was with Maria Anna von Genzinger (1754–1793), the wife of Prince Nikolaus's personal physician in Vienna, who began a close, platonic relationship with the composer in 1789. Haydn wrote to Mrs. Genzinger often, expressing his loneliness at Esterháza and his happiness for the few occasions on which he was able to visit her in Vienna. Later on, Haydn wrote to her frequently from London. Her premature death in 1793 was a blow to Haydn, and his F minor variations for piano, Hob. XVII:6, may have been written in response to her death. [34] Beside that, Il Giardino Armonico sustains an intense recording activity. After many years as an exclusive group of Teldec Classics achieving several major awards for its recordings of works by Vivaldi and the other 18thcentury composers, the group had an exclusive agreement with Decca/ L’Oiseau-Lyrerecording Händel’s Concerti Grossi Op. VIand the cantata Il Pianto di Mariawith Bernarda Fink.The main couplings (various alternative ones did appear along the way) on Nimbus were: Volume 1 ( N15426-30, 5CDs) Symphonies Nos 1-20; Volume 2 ( NI5683-87, 5CDs) Symphonies 21-39, "A" & "B"; Volume 3 ( N15530-4, 5CDs) Symphonies 40-54; Volume 4 ( N15590-4, 5CDs) Symphonies 55-69; Volume 5 ( N15652-5, 4CDs) Symphonies 70-81; Volume 6 ( N154119-20, 2CDs) Symphonies 82-87 ("The Paris Symphonies"); Volume 7 ( N15417-8, 2CDs) Symphonies 88-92; and Volume 8 ( N15200-4, 5CDs) Symphonies 93-104 ("The London Symphonies"). A handful of alternatives and subsets – "great" and "Stürm und Drang" etc. – was also issued during the lifetime of the project.