Who was Joseph Haydn? Part I | Op. 2
Joseph Haydn is less talked about than Mozart and Beethoven, but his contributions to classical music are immense. In part 1 of a 2-part series, discover his incredible journey from disgraced choirboy to celebrated composer.
In this episode, you’ll:
Understand how creative freedom lead him to become the “father of the symphony” and the “father of the string quartet”
Explore the relationship between Haydn and Mozart
Learn the meaning behind the “Farewell Symphony”
Be surprised by Haydn’s mischief as a member of the Vienna Boys’ Choir
For the best experience, please watch the video at the top of the page.
Episode Transcript and Timestamps
DANIEL ADAM MALTZ: Grüß Sie from Vienna, Austria. Welcome to Classical Cake, the podcast where we discuss topics relating to Viennese classicism while enjoying one of Vienna's delicious cakes. I'm your host Daniel Adam Maltz.
Today we are talking about the life of one of my favorite composers, Joseph Haydn. This is part one of a two-part series.
My guest is Alexander Krakhofer, a historian who shares his knowledge as a culture ambassador for the city of Vienna. He works at the Haydn Geburtshaus in Rohrau, Austria. Alexander, thank you for joining me.
ALEXANDER KRAKHOFER: Thank you so much, Daniel, for having me.
MALTZ: So you mentioned in an email that your ancestors had a special tie to the Haydn family.
KRAKHOFER: Yes, that's true because my family has been around in the little rural town of Rohrau for hundreds of years, basically. And yeah, it's a coincidence, but I could find out they were next-door neighbors to the Haydn family.
MALTZ: Wow, that's great. It's just proof of how history comes alive here. It's something that's not just in a book.
KRAKHOFER: Yes. In Austria, you basically have history and history places always tied closely together. So, it's true. You find it everywhere. Just turn a stone.
Featured cake: Esterházy Schnitte [1:29]
MALTZ: Very appropriately, today's cake is Esterházy Schnitte, which is named after the aristocratic Esterházy family whom Haydn served as court composer for almost 30 years.
Prince Nicholas Esterházy’s support of the arts gave Haydn the freedom to experiment, which aided and Haydn's numerous musical innovations.
This delicious cake consists of a yellow buttercream spiced either with cognac or vanilla between four or five thin layers of almond meringue dough and is completely covered by a white sugar fondant glaze and decorated with a distinctive chocolate-striped pattern. It is personally one of my favorite cakes in Vienna.
So, let's dig in.
KRAKHOFER: And, Daniel, it looks really delicious.
Growing up in a musical household [2:18]
MALTZ: First, let's start in the year 1732 in the humble Austrian village of Rohrau, Haydn's birthplace. It was about a six-hour carriage ride outside of Vienna. Today, by car it takes about 45 minutes. Haydn recalled later in his life that his childhood home was very musical. In what ways did growing up in a musical home shape the young Haydn?
KRAKHOFER: Well, I guess like every child you will always remember the lullabies you hear as a child. And, of course, in times before television, before radio, before electricity even, you had to make your own entertainment. And this was house music.
Haydn’s life in the Vienna Boys’ Choir [2:58]
MALTZ: When he was seven years old, Haydn was introduced to Georg Reutter, the director of the famous Vienna Boys’ Choir and joined the next year. What was Haydn's life like in the Vienna Boys’ Choir?
KRAKHOFER: Well, in the Vienna Boys’ Choir, you can imagine in that time a choir combined with a school. It was quite formal. They had not only to learn music and singing, but all the theoretical parts you need to be a good choir of a quality that would even find approval from the Imperial family of that time.
They were also kept strict in order like in boarding schools that you can imagine.
Difference between Vienna Boys’ Choir then and now [3:50]
MALTZ: Yeah, sure. And, of course, the Vienna Boys’ Choir is still around today and still famous around the world. So what are the differences between what Haydn’s experience would have been compared to the current Sängerknaben (Boys’ Choir)?
KRAKHOFER: Today, it's absolutely international. You have children, boys from all around the world, and they also travel all around the world to spread their amazing music and art.
Hungry Haydn [4:15]
MALTZ: I've also read during this time that Haydn was scantily fed.
KRAKHOFER: Well. Yes, I can guess so. Well, the coin stayed with the teachers and the people in charge. Not so much with the boys.
MALTZ: Or is it just that boys are never satisfied with how much food they get.
KRAKHOFER: Growing up, boys are always hungry. Come on. That’s just a fact. [Laughter]
MALTZ: Yeah. I've read that Haydn and the other choristers would be inspired or motivated to sing better so that they would get invited to aristocratic homes to sing where they would, of course, been served hors d'oeuvres.
KRAKHOFER: Yes. That's for sure true because having a nice meal for the boys would have been an interesting way to improve their singing. Yes, I guess so.
Voices of the Haydn brothers [5:00]
MALTZ: Yeah, and that Haydn was quite renowned for his voice was he not?
KRAKHOFER: Yes. He had a good voice as you can read in old books or manuscripts. Probably, this was his first talent as when Mr. Reutter met Haydn and found out he was to be fit for the Boys’ Choir. So definitely yes.
And, by the way, not very much known there was a third Haydn brother next to Joseph and Michael who was going by the name Johann [Evangelist] who became a professional singer.
MALTZ: Really? Wow.
KRAKHOFER: He's always forgotten in history. So, that’s why I like to mention him.
Yeah. Because I know that Michael Haydn was also in the Boys’ Choir and outshone Haydn in many ways, sometimes – Joseph Haydn, that is. But, I had never heard of this Johann [Evangelist] Haydn.
KRAKHOFER: Yes, that's true. There is not much known about him. Only that he landed, so to speak, also in Eisenstadt where he sang in the church under the supervision of his brother.
And you mentioned Michael Haydn being in the Boys’ Choir, too. Yes. There is also a very nice little story when, because Joseph was much older, they had a kind of tutoring system in the Boys’ Choir. And so it happens that the older brother, Joseph, became a tutor for his younger brother of which he was very, very proud.
Expulsion from the Vienna Boys’ Choir [6:39]
MALTZ: So, later in his teenage years, Haydn was expelled from the Vienna Boys’ Choir. Why?
KRAKHOFER: Well, there were two basic reasons, or three, I could say. Well, first one, Haydn not only liked to joke around, he was kind of a real prankster.
So he tried to play sometimes quite bad jokes on his fellows at school. Like, cutting off the hair of other boys when they sat in school so that they could not go in public for like three months until their hair grew back or other things.
Then there was this little thing happening. It was at Saint Leopold's Feast, which is like the local saint for Lower Austria. There was to be the festival in a monastery where also Maria Theresia, the Empress, would be.
Well, Haydn was around 16 ½ years, 17 years old.
And the Empress just noted, ‘Oh, this Haydn, he was good before, but now he sings like a rooster.’
Whatever the Empress says, you can imagine said consequences.
MALTZ: So Haydn was officially expelled and caned it’s said for cutting the pigtails off. But as you have told us, there's always more to the story.
KRAKHOFER: Yes.
Going from rags to court composer [8:08]
MALTZ: So after Haydn’s expulsion from the Vienna Boys’ Choir, Haydn didn't even have a place to sleep. How did he go from rags to court composer?
KRAKHOFER: Well, that would be a long story if we'd go into the details. But after he was expelled, he met the tenor singer Johann Michael Spangler, who just gave him a roof over his head. Probably, he met the boy hanging around somewhere here in the first district of Vienna. And I guess he knew him before. And he said, ‘Oh, just come on Joseph, you can stay at my place. And it happens because… it said Joseph Haydn was not only a person who was always friendly, but he knew how to behave. So that was never like a problem of behavior when he was in good company.
Michaelerhaus on Kohlmarkt in Vienna.
The second man who helped him was a man called Mr. Buchholz and he gave him a little credit, of roundabout 160 gulden, which was quite a lot of money. And this enabled a young Haydn to rent the apartment in the Michaelerhaus in the first district here in the old city center. Well, the apartment was not too good because, in the summertime, it was tremendously hot because it was just beneath the roof. In the middle of the year, it just drains through when it was raining through the roof. And, in the wintertime, it was terribly cold.
But the house was quite interesting. Because now we would come to a place that saw fascinating people living in it.
You had Nicola Porpora, and you also had an old duchess Esterházy. Well, there we have the first connection between the Esterházys and Haydn – even if it was just meeting at the staircase, right?
MALTZ: So what I like about Haydn at this time – what I find particularly inspiring – is his determination and desire to be who he felt he was to be, a composer. And the fact that he, in this era, practically taught himself composition.
KRAKHOFER: Mainly, yes. It is said Haydn was self-taught to a certain degree. That's true. But living in the house with Mr. Pietro Metastasio and Mr. Porpora, I could find out he had lessons together with these masters while he also gave lessons in music himself.
This was very important for Haydn's upcoming as a musician. He could learn really a lot because these older musicians were like in their sixties and seventies when he met them first. So they had had their career and they saw the potential in the young man.
Haydn’s marriage [11:33]
MALTZ: At this point, Haydn slowly climbed the social ladder, so to speak, and got better and better patronage and better and better students and better and better positions. And he felt that it was about time… that someone of his station should fall in love with somebody and get married.
KRAKHOFER: Yes, that's true.
MALTZ: And so he did find this person, but she chose to become a nun. So, instead, he married her sister Maria Anna. I'm sure that worked out well. [Laughter] So how would you describe their marriage?
KRAKHOFER: The marriage of Haydn – while they were married actually in St. Stephens Cathedral here in Vienna – was not happy at all, I'd say. Because, sadly, his wife had no interest in music at all. Even well as we can read it, she tended to take away his notes and his music papers and use them for baking cakes! [Laughter]
So when you love music and you're a musician, you can understand that's terrible. You can't do this.
How did Schloss Esterházy and Esterháza influence Haydn?
MALTZ: When Haydn was 29 years old, he was appointed vice court composer, by Prince Anton Esterházy. Prince Anton quickly died the next year. So Haydn worked for Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, whose patronage of the arts sparked a golden age for Haydn's creative output. And the Esterházy court split their time between the palace in Eisenstadt and the extremely remote Esterháza,
Can you describe these two places and how they affected Haydn's life and work?
Schloss Esterházy in Eisenstadt, Austria
KRAKHOFER: Yes, I might add. It was not only these two places because they also had a [palace] in the city center. So, for the first years of his job with the Esterházys, Haydn came to Vienna very regularly, so he was not cut out from what happened in this city.
So Esterháza and, of course, the palace in Eisenstadt, they're quite interesting. Because the structure of the places back then was like you imagine it would have been. You had the nobleman who ruled everything who basically owned all the land around and the people who work directly for him were to be his servants. And so was young Haydn. He was a servant to the Prince Esterházy. But, on the other hand, he was also considered an officer of the household, which gave him a good status.
So traveling, not only around with the Prince, but he was also in charge of the princely orchestra and much more so he had to provide the music, the Prince required for his parties, which, of course, he gave at Esterháza Palace.
And so they were driving around in carriages. And that's one thing I love. When you listen to Haydn's music, you can basically hear the inspiration Haydn got out of the landscape. When you know the Burgenland and Northern Hungary area, when you see the landscape during the year and you have the music of Haydn somehow in the back of your head, you will understand much more what inspired this great musician.
How did isolation affect Haydn? [14:44]
MALTZ: One of the defining things I think about this time during Haydn's life was the sense of isolation that he felt. You mentioned that, in the early years, he spent quite a lot of time in Vienna, but that became less and less. Is that true?
KRAKHOFER: That's true. Absolutely. Because the life of the Esterházy court got more and more centered at Esterháza Palace and this is quite far away from Vienna, especially back in those days. Not only that, but there were big projects for Haydn to do for the Prince Esterházy.
MALTZ: And so there's a quote from Haydn at this time to talk about him lamenting his isolation. He said ‘I was cut off from the world. There was no one to confuse or torment me and I was forced to become an original.’
KRAKHOFER: Yes. That's one of my favorite quotes. And original, yes, he was an original. Because Haydn had this kind of wit and also humor. You can feel it in his compositions when you hear the music. And original not only means to be cut off from the rest of the world, but to follow your own way, to follow what you believe in, to do the kind of music and to create the expression you want the world to have from you.
MALTZ: And he had access to this orchestra, which he says allowed him to experiment endlessly, which one can imagine as a composer, to have an orchestra at your disposal means that… and to have nothing but time on your hands is a pretty conducive environment to how we get over a hundred symphonies and hundred string quartets and 60 piano sonatas, etc.
KRAKHOFER: Definitely. And that's just what we know. There are probably a lot more to find of Haydn’s compositions – especially the early ones – which are just somewhere in some archives just hidden still.
The story behind the Farewell Symphony [17:15]
MALTZ: This wit and humor, something that permeates his whole life, his character, his music with wit and humor. There is also a cleverness in there.
KRAKHOFER: Definitely he had a high social intelligence, so he was a man who knew how the people listening to his music at concerts… he exactly knew them and he knew how they would react to what he did so he could play with them and enjoyed it.
MALTZ: And the Farewell Symphony being that Prince Nikolaus was enjoying an extended stay at what was supposed to be his summer palace, in Esterháza, but which he preferred to stay at for much longer periods of time.
The side effect of this was his whole court and his whole orchestra went with him, but they weren't allowed to bring their families – their wives and their children. And, after a number of months away, the musicians naturally start missing and desiring to be with their family. And so they came to Haydn to ask him to work his magic.
And he comes out with this Farewell Symphony, which is in the last movement, slowly the orchestra members extinguish the candle on their stand and walk off the stage. And as it goes, the Prince Nikolaus got the hint and said, ‘okay, we'll pack up and we'll go back to Eisenstadt.’
KRAKHOFER: Yes, this is kind of a musical petition, I put it. Because, they could not address the Prince like, ‘Oh Sir, please, we want to go to our families.’ So they had to find the more intelligent way. More or less Haydn had to find it for all of them, and it pretty well worked.
MALTZ: You know, I see this sort of recreated on modern concert stages when orchestras will say oh, we'll do the Farewell Symphony and it'll be a good joke. And as they turn off the lights or whatever, or they walk away and leave and snicker and the audience snickers. But I don't think it would have been this way. I don't think it would've been a funny joke. I think Haydn was seriously trying to say the musicians missed their family. This is a solemn thing.
KRAKHOFER: Definitely. And all the musicians on their note holders, they had one or two candles. And, when they left the concert, it’s said they just blew out the candle. So it got darker and darker in the room, which was also symbolic visually.
Who was Luigia Polzelli? [19:08]
MALTZ: So another story we had talked earlier about: Haydn’s tenuous relationship with his wife, we'll call it.
And so there came a soprano to Esterháza by the name of Polzelli in whom he took quite a liking.
KRAKHOFER: Yes. This young lady caught the eye of Haydn. And one thing we definitely know about Haydn, he may not have loved his wife much, but he loved the woman in general. So there are a lot of rumors of Mr. Haydn sneaking around and having little little affairs.
MALTZ: Showing how much influence he had on the princely household being that Luigia Polzelli and her husband were both subpar musicians and Prince Nicholas was not happy with them and was planning to, you know, get rid of their contracts and say they have to leave. When it came to Prince Nikolaus’s attention that his esteemed court composer had taken a liking to the soprano. He says to himself… well sometimes we have to make some exceptions for the general happiness of the household.
KRAKHOFER: Definitely. And, well, the story continues. Two generations of Princes Esterházy later, a letter arrived from Italy and this letter is asking for a kind of a little pension or money. It's signed with ‘the granddaughter of Joseph Haydn.’ So this little affair with Ms. Polzelli, I guess produced an offspring. And this would be the only known offspring of Haydn, which in his marriage had no children.
MALTZ: Very interesting.
The relationship between Haydn and Mozart [20:58]
MALTZ: There is one relationship that Haydn made during this time that is of a special interest – that is the friendship with Mozart. What were the dynamics between these two men?
KRAKHOFER: Well, first, probably people listening know he was way younger than Haydn. And they met in Vienna around 1781 it’s said, and this was when Haydn, as a guest, attended a concert Mozart was playing here in Vienna.
And, he saw the potential — heard, as they say, this angelic, this unique sound Mozart even when he was a young man, he could produce what he gave to the world. And, sure they became friends. And not only like friends like people, you know, they became close friends.
There is something heart throbbing. After Mozart had passed away, Mozart's wife, Constanze, said ‘Haydn, was Wolfgang’s best friend’ and she would have known definitely.
MALTZ: And so these two men had great respect for each other.
KRAKHOFER: Yes. They did write letters to each other because Mozart was living in Vienna; Haydn stayed most of his time in Esterháza or in the [palace] in Eisenstadt.
When Haydn had invented the string quartet, Mozart composed some quartets himself and he sent them to Haydn… And he said, ‘My dear friend. I humbly send you my [attempts] in creating what you have invented so gloriously – and please let me know if it's good enough.’ And this came from Mozart.
So, Mozart, he kind of also was a humble personality, even if he's always pictured quite bubbly and fresh. But, with his friends he could be very serious. And, also, they were close. Because sometimes in the letters when you get to see pictures or the originals is ‘mi carissimo’ and he writes ‘my friend from the bottom of my heart’ as an introduction. And this says a lot about the relationship.
And one thing which is mentioned not too much in the books – is both Mozart and Haydn were Freemasons and they were in the same lodge here in Vienna.
MALTZ: To illustrate sort of a humility that these two men had in their friendship and the lack of jealousy thereof, the famous quote that Haydn says to Leopold about his son Mozart, ‘Before God and as an honest man, I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me, either in person or by name. He has taste. And furthermore, the most profound knowledge of composition.’
KRAKHOFER: There is nothing more to say on Mozart, because it comes from Haydn directly. Haydn wanted to give his appreciation he felt for his friend Wolfgang also to the father who he knew from Mozart directly had always been too strict and said, ‘You have to become better Wolfgang’ and, come on, did Wolfgang Mozart need to become better than he was? I guess not. [Laughter]
MALTZ: No, I suppose not.
Part 2: Haydn’s later years
Please join us for part two of this podcast to learn why Beethoven and Haydn had a rocky relationship, how Haydn was celebrated and honored during two trips to London, and the shocking 145 year journey to his final resting place.