The Arts: Blessed both in his protected life and in his prodigious musical gifts, the achievements of the great Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) can be overshadowed by those of his equally talented and more worldly contemporaries. Now an exhibition and a series of Irish concerts is bringing his legacy closer, writes Eileen Battersby

IT IS A suitably gracious setting; a subtly lit gallery dominated by the wonders of the Arts of the Bookpermanent exhibition at Ireland's treasure, the magnificent Chester Beatty Library. The visitor will most likely hear the music of Haydn's Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in D Major before the eyes rest on the original handwritten score currently on display in a long glass case. Also on display are other Haydn first-edition scores, including a Dublin first edition of Twelve Original Ballads, which was published by Edmund Lee of Dame Street in around 1820. In this year of the 200th anniversary of his death the world celebrates the achievement of the great Austrian composer, who knew that music is the universal language. Haydn never doubted this.

In December 1790, shortly before setting off at the age of 58 for his first visit to London, he met Mozart and a well-known impresario, Johann Peter Salomon, for supper in a Viennese inn. Having begun touring as a child prodigy, Mozart was probably incapable of remembering a time when he wasn’t a seasoned cosmopolitan and, as a friend of Haydn’s, was not guilty of one-upmanship when suggesting to the older man that he might find London a daunting experience. After all, Haydn, whose life had been dominated by his 30-year protected sojourn at the Esterhazy court, didn’t speak English and hadn’t travelled.

“My language,” replied Haydn, who was known to be confident, if rarely egotistical, “is understood throughout the world.”

During his lifetime, Joseph Haydn, man of the Enlightenment, was a superstar, producing a huge body of diverse, invariably immaculately well-structured works, ranging from symphonies and chamber music to operas, masses and sublime oratorios, such as The Creationand The Seasons. There was no struggle, no anger. Instead there is immense humanity, cerebral power, humour and, at times, as in The Farewell Symphony, breathtaking pathos. Ironically, though, he would become overshadowed by the mercurial Mozart, 24 years his junior, who died in 1791, while Haydn's one-time pupil, Beethoven, would emerge as a giant, his difficult personality and tragic deafness adding to the musical legacy.

By contrast, Haydn’s life in a court environment seemed mild. After the despair of seeing his first love, Therese Keller, become a nun, his subsequent unhappy marriage was soon efficiently countered by two passionate love affairs.

Haydn, in time, came to be seen as a father figure to Mozart and Beethoven – but he was an equal, the central figure in the evolution of the string quartet and a composer of 104 symphonies. On show in the current exhibition is a first-edition manuscript of six quartets dated c1777, as well as the first-edition score of three quartets c1797. Trois Simphonies(1784) is on display, as is a first edition of Grand Overturedated 1804.

The story surrounding the second Cello Concerto has a few twists. The score was rediscovered in 1951, but prior to this an element of doubt had caused many musicologists to suggest that the concerto – scored for solo cello, two oboes, two horns and strings – which was initially published in 1804 under Haydn’s name, had been composed by Anton Kraft, an Esterhazy court cellist. Haydn may well have discussed the work with Kraft, who was a virtuoso, and such a discussion would not have been unusual. When the score resurfaced in 1951 it was authenticated as being in Haydn’s handwriting, dated 1783 and with his signature on the cover. The ink is fainter than it would once have been, but it is there, clear to see: the handwriting of Haydn.

Why are these treasures on show in Dublin and not Vienna at this important time? Well, because Walter Hagg, Austria’s ambassador to Ireland and an admirer of Haydn, approached Dr Michael Ryan, director of the Chester Beatty Library.

“It was as simple as that,” says Ryan, who loves classical music and saw the Chester Beatty as an ideal host for the Haydn exhibits. The loan of the various manuscripts was then organised by Dr Johanna Rachinger, director of the Austrian National Library in Vienna.

Could the success of this cultural collaboration mean further exhibitions featuring, for example, archival material relating to Schubert and Beethoven? The possibilities are exciting, and endless.

HAYDN'S CELLO WORKShave interesting histories. A similar tale of loss and discovery surrounds his Cello Concerto No 1 in C, which was performed last month at the National Gallery by cellist Arun Rao under Ite O'Donovan with the Orlando Chamber Orchestra. Presumed lost until 1961, the concerto was rediscovered, covered in dust, in the Radenin archive in the National Museum of Prague. It had its first modern premiere at the 1962 Prague Spring Festival when the work was played by Miloš Sádlo and the Prague Radio Orchestra. Composed in 1765, when Haydn was 33, for his friend, Joseph Weigl, it is an expectedly virtuosic piece, brilliantly inventive, with a demanding showcase third movement that is strongly Italian in style. The concerto can be heard again in Dublin when Guy Johnson performs the work at an all-Haydn concert in the National Concert Hall on November 23rd, in a programme which also includes the Trumpet Concerto in E flat.

Before that, in October, the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt will be in Ireland for a tour that includes performances of the Haydn Trio in C major.

Although isolated at court, Haydn was always aware of contemporary musical trends. He was not involved in a competitive musical world, yet, as he said himself, he could be original. He was most certainly a traditionalist, but was also an innovator.

As part of that National Gallery programme last month, the Lassus Scholars and Piccolo Lasso sang Haydn’s Missa Cellensis in C, which dates from 1782, the year before the Cello Concerto No 2. One of the 14 Masses he composed during a long career, Missa Cellensis was his eighth, and the last he would write for several years. The reason says a great deal about the power of the church as, under Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo, the use of instrumental music in church was prohibited.

The archbishop was a strict individual and felt the costs of such music could not be justified. He saw orchestral music as expensive and instead encouraged the use of the German hymn – more humble perhaps, and certainly far less pricey. His decree would also affect Mozart, so both composers reluctantly turned away from the Mass as a musical genre.

After the death of Archbishop Colloredo, the prohibition relaxed and they both made a triumphant return to the form. Haydn, by then back at the Esterhazy court, completed his last six great Masses, including the Mass in D minor (the Nelson Mass) and Missa in Tempore Belli (Mass in Time of War, or Kettledrum Mass). Haydn's later career ran in parallel with the Napoleonic wars, and he was to die during Napoleon's bombardment of Vienna.

Haydn’s first Mass, Missa Brevis in F, was composed in 1749 when he was aged only 17 and coming to the end of his career as a boy chorister in St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna. It is short (as the title suggests) yet sophisticated. Scored for two soprano solo voices, possibly, as has been suggested, for those of Joseph himself (whose voice broke late) and of his younger brother, Michael.

Haydn would forget about this Mass for almost 50 years until 1805, when he was cataloguing his work and confirmed the original date of composition as 1749. The Lassus Scholars will perform this Mass in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, this Sunday, June 14th, at 11am, and again on Sunday, June 28th, at St Kevin’s Church on Dublin’s Harrington Street.

Haydn enthusiasts may also look to the Haydn in Vienna concert series, which runs from August 29th to September 3rd, and the Danube Music Festival, which runs from August 28th to September 4th.

BORN IN 1732, the son of a music-loving craftsman father who played the harp, Haydn was lucky in his family and fortunate in his gifts, which helped him, as the second of 12 children, to a life of ease and fulfilment. It all began with a beautiful singing voice that would open the world of music to him.

To see an original score bearing the composer’s handwriting helps bring the man behind the music that bit closer.

Haydn's Hot Six

1 String Quartet in D, Op 20, No 4

2 String Quartet in G, Op 76, No 1

3 Symphony No 99 in E flat

4 The Creation

5 Piano Trio No 28 in E major

6 Piano Trio No 30 in E flat

Arts of the Book

is on permanent display at the Chester Beatty Library Dublin; cbl.ie