User:Opus33/Joseph Haydn: reception history

During his lifetime, Joseph Haydn was perhaps the most celebrated of composers; his music was widely played and he received honors and awards from throughout Europe. In the two centuries since his death in 1809, public and critical esteem for Haydn's music has varied, following a U-shaped curve: it dropped off considerably during the period from his death to the late 19th century, then rose again from about 1920 to the present.

Decline

A posthumous and fictionalized portrait of Haydn from the 19th century. For portraits painted from life, see Joseph Haydn

It was the onset of the Romantic Era that led to a drop in Haydn's reputation; music was now being written in a very different style and the new composers (several of whom were also critics) understandably wanted to make space on concert programs for new music. Robert Schumann notably patronized Haydn, writing in 1841:

Haydn's music has always been played here often. Today it is impossible to learn anything new from him. He is like a familiar friend of the house whom all greet with pleasure and with esteem but who has ceased to arouse any particular interest.

Curiously, the following year Schumann "rediscovered" Haydn, as it were, embarking on a period of intensive study of the quartets and playing them four-hands on the piano with his wife Clara. His public assessments of Haydn became more positive.

Berlioz and Wagner were both hostile to Haydn's work; Wagner notably complained that Haydn's work is too rhythmically lively (a view that perhaps reflects the oft-sedate pace of Wagner's own compositions). [ xxx citation from Proksch needed for Wagner's opinion. ] Other views common at the time were that Haydn's music was child-like in outlook, technically very simple, and lacking in emotional depth. Although affection for Haydn's music by audiences led to its continued appearance on programs by 1900 the number of Haydn compositions consistently played had shrunk to just a few (notable holdouts were The Creation and some of the London symphonies.) By about 1900 Haydn's critical reputation had reached its nadir.

Revival

The Haydn revival came from various sources and was gradual. Among the figures Proksch cites as being responsible are Vincent d'Indy, Heinrich Schenker, Arnold Schoenberg, Donald Francis Tovey, and Wanda Landowska. The development of long-playing recordings starting in the mid 20th century made it possible for listeners to hear much more of the composer's vast output; and eventually complete series were recorded of the genres in which Haydn was fecund: symphonies ([[other guy Antal Dorati ] ], 1973, proksch 1969-1972, string quartets (Aeolian Quartet 1976, Proksch 218), piano trios (Beaux Arts Trio, 1978), and eventually the baryton trios (Esterházy Ensemble; 2009). With the late 20th century a fair number of the recordings came to be on historical instruments (see Historically informed performance), and Haydn's reputation rose in tandem with the increased popularity of this approach to performance.

A curious theme of the revival was the conversion of Haydn from a composer suitable for children to one suited to connoisseurs, a term used by Charles Rosen in his famous book The Classical Style, as well as by Grammophone critic Richard Wigmore. Schenker wrote, "No doubt that Haydn who today has sunk to the level of child-performers, will one day rise again from the children to the adults, as basically the rarest and most adult people of all belong to his circle.

References

Proksch (2015) is a detailed book-length study of Haydn reception history and is the primary source for this article.

• Kennaway, James (2016) Bad Vibrations: The History of the Idea of Music as a Cause of Disease. Routledge. Extracts posted on line at Google Books: [6].
• Proksch, Brian (2015) Reviving Haydn: New Appreciations in the Twentieth Century. Boydell & Brewer.
• Rosen, Charles (1997) The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven. New York: Norton.
• Wigmore, Richard (20xx) Haydn. [ xxx nice quick narrative ]