20 years later—in 1802, when she was Dowager-Empress—he sent her his fine part-songs for 3 and 4 voices. He also dedicated the 6 'Russian' quartets just mentioned to the Grand Duke. The Duke and Duchess had intended accompanying the Emperor to Eisenstadt, and Haydn was hastily composing an opera, but their departure was hurried, and the visit did not take place.
About this time Haydn entered into correspondence with William Forster, the well-known violin-maker in London, to whom he sold the English copyright of a series of compositions. From first to last (the first receipt is dated Aug. 22, 1781) Forster and Son published 129 of his works, including 82 symphonies. Almost simultaneously he received a letter from Le Gros, conductor of the 'Concerts Spirituals,' saying that his 'Stabat Mater' had been performed four times with the greatest success, and, in the name of the members, asking permission to print it. They also invited him to come to Paris, and proposed to have all his future compositions engraved there for his own benefit. Cherubini's veneration for Haydn is said to have dated from his hearing one of the six symphonies (op. 51 and 52) which he composed for the 'Concerts de la Loge Olympique.' Besides the, publishers already named, he had satisfactory dealings with Nadermann, Willmann, Imbault, Le Duc, and especially with Sieber.
The opera which he composed for the expected visit of the Grand Duke and Duchess was 'Orlando Paladino' (given at Esterház in the autumn of 1782), which in its German form as 'Ritter Roland' has been more frequently performed than any of his other operas. It was followed by 'Armida' (composed in 1783, performed in 1784, and again in 1797 at Schickaneder's theatre in Vienna), the autograph[1] score of which he sent to London, in compensation for the non-completion of 'Orfeo.' In judging of his operas we may be guided by an expression of his own when refusing an invitation to produce one in Prague: 'My operas are calculated exclusively for our own company, and would not produce their effect elsewhere.' The overtures to six of them were published by Artaria as 'symphonies,' though under protest from Haydn. To 1782 also belongs the well-known 'Mariazeller-Messe' (in C, Novello, No. 15), so called from the place of that name in Styria. It was bespoken by a certain Herr Liebe de Kreutzner, and Haydn is said to have taken particular pleasure in its composition, not impossibly because it reminded him of a visit to M ariazell when a young man without experience, friends, or means of any kind. This was his eighth Mass, and he wrote no more till 1796, between which year and 1802 his best and most important works of the kind were composed.
Between 1780 and 1790 he met a number of artists in Vienna whom he was destined to meet again in London, such as Mara, Banti, Storace, and her brother Stephen, Attwood, Janiewicz, and Jarnowick. In 1784 he met Paisiello, Sarti, and Signora Strinasacchi, the violinist, at Michael Kelly's lodgings; the latter paid him a visit at Esterház with Brida, an enthusiastic amateur.[2]
The chief event of 1785 was the composition of the ' Seven Words of onr Saviour on the Cross' for the cathedral of Cadiz, in compliance with a request from the chapter for appropriate instrumental music for Good Friday. The work was published simultaneously by Artaria and Forster, and in this form Haydn produced it as 'Passions instrumentale' in[3] London. He afterwards added choruses and solos, and divided it into two parts by the introduction of a Largo for wind instruments. In this new form it was produced for the first time at Eisenstadt in Oct. 1797 and published by Breitkopf & Härtel (1801), with a preface by the composer. It may seem surprising that the chapter of Cadiz should hav applied to Haydn; but in fact he was well known in Spain to others besides the king, who had been in communication with him long before, as we have seen. Thus Boccherini wrote to him from Madrid expressing the pleasure he received from his works, and Yriarte celebrated him with enthusiasm in his poem of 'La Musica' (Madrid, 1779). In Jan. 1785 Haydn acquired two interesting pupils—Fritz and Edmund von Weber. They were brought to him by their father Franz Anton, who had just remarried ia Vienna. His desire to see one of his children develop into a great musician, afterwards so gloriously fulfilled in the composer of the 'Freischütz,' was, to a certain extent, granted in Edmund. In the same year Mozart dedicated the well-known six quartets to Haydn, in terms of almost filial affection. It was after listening to a performance of one of these that Haydn said to Mozart's father, in his open-hearted way, 'I declare to you on my honour that I consider your son the greatest composer I have ever heard; he has taste, and possesses the most consummate knowledge of the art of composition.' He spoke of him still more warmly in a letter to Prague in 1787. The relation in which these two great men stood to each other does credit to them both, and leads us to form a high estimate of their characters. It would be difficult to find a parallel instance.
In 1787 Haydn received a pressing invitation to London, from W. Cramer, the violinist, who wrote offering to engage him at any cost for the Professional Concerts. Gallini also wrota asking his terms for an opera. Nothing came of either at the time, but Salomon determined to try what personal influence would do, and despatched Bland, the music-publisher, to Vienna, where he arrived in November, and finding Haydn still at Esterház, followed him there. He did not attain his main object, but Haydn gave him the copyright of several of his
- ↑ In the possession of the Sacred Harmonic Society of London, catalogue No. 185.
- ↑ Kelly, Reminiscences, i. 221, calls it Eisenstadt by mistake.
- ↑ Though often included among his quartets, it has nothing to do with them. It was first published alone by Artaria, but was afterwards omitted from his authorised series of Haydn's quartets.
