Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Tchaikovsky Research
Le Nozze di Figaro, opera, KV 492 (1786) — see Letter 2253 to Sergey Taneyev, 1/13–3/15 April 1883, quoted above. Requiem, KV 626 (1791) — see ...
Haydn
For God's sake, do read the bulky but very interesting book on Mozart by Otto Jahn. You will see from it what a wonderful, irreproachable, infinitely kind, and angelically pure nature he had. He was the incarnation of the ideal of a great artist who creates because of an unconscious stirring of his genius. He wrote music as the nightingales sing, i.e. without pausing to think, without doing violence to himself. [...] Everyone loved him; he had the most marvellous, cheerful, and equable temperament. There was not a whit of pride in him. Whenever he met <anchor>Haydn</anchor>, he would express his love and veneration for him in the most sincere and fervent terms. The purity of his soul was absolute. He knew neither envy nor vengefulness nor spite, and I think that all this can be heard in his music, which has reconciling, clarifying, and caressing properties [...]
Joseph Haydn - Tchaikovsky Research
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# Joseph Haydn

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Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), in a 1791 portrait by Thomas Hardy

Austrian composer (b. 31 March 1732 [N.S.] at Rohrau; d. 31 May 1809 [N.S.] in Vienna), born Franz Joseph Haydn.

## Contents

## Tchaikovsky and Haydn

As Herman Laroche emphasized in the Foreword to his 1898 edition of his late friend's music review articles, Haydn was not one of Tchaikovsky's favourite composers. Nevertheless, Laroche added, it was characteristic of Tchaikovsky's firm conviction about the importance of German classical music that he should have recommended the board of directors of the Russian Musical Society to feature as many of Haydn's string quartets as possible in the concerts it organized. Tchaikovsky was certainly familiar with a fair amount of Haydn's prolific output, as during his years at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory he had played the flute in the student orchestra, and Haydn symphonies were frequently on the repertoire. Even in later years he would sometimes play through Haydn's works on the piano. However, despite all the respect he felt for Haydn's vital contribution to the development of classical music and his hard-working ethos, there was not enough warmth and content in his works, as Tchaikovsky saw it (see the references listed below). In the obituary which Laroche published shortly after Tchaikovsky's death, he noted how, notwithstanding his love of the eighteenth century in general, "[Tchaikovsky's] archaic tastes did not extend to the music of that age. With the exception of Mozart, whom he had loved ever since his youth and to whom he remained faithful right to the very end, and quite possibly Haydn, too, who interested him in patches, he was indifferent to all music before Beethoven..." [1]. Taking Beethoven as his bench-mark (as Tchaikovsky frequently did), there was not so much in "good old" Haydn's music that could stand such a comparison.

## Arrangements by Tchaikovsky

- _Gott Erhalte Franz den Kaiser "Gott Erhalte Franz den Kaiser (Haydn)")_ (1874) — arrangement of Haydn's music for the Austrian National Anthem (1797).

## General Reflections on Haydn

Bold references indicate particularly detailed or interesting references.

### In Tchaikovsky's Music Review Articles

- TH 266 — Tchaikovsky calls Haydn the "father of all contemporary music", emphasizes how he had devoted his finest energies to chamber music, and after hearing a "delightfully naïve and cheerful" string quartet by him exhorts the Russian Musical Society to feature as many of Haydn's quartets as possible in its concert programmes.
- TH 270 — lists Haydn together with Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Glinka as examples of the type of "hard-working artist" who concentrated on his music rather than seeking to draw attention to himself by championing various "theories" or causes (as in the case of Wagner).
- TH 276 — discusses the "invaluable historical services" which "the jovial old Haydn" had rendered for the development of symphonic and chamber music, paving the way for Mozart and Beethoven; but points out the "slickness and elegant coldness" of his music, which never moved one as profoundly as that of the following generations of composers. Nevertheless, Tchaikovsky insists that Haydn's "nice and pretty" music ought to be played more often in the Russian Musical Society concerts.
- TH 298 — referring to an unspecified symphony in G major by Haydn, Tchaikovsky calls it "an ancient but still splendid piece of music!"

### In Tchaikovsky's Letters

- Letter 3675 to Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, 21 September/3 October 1888, in which Tchaikovsky discusses, amongst other things, how it was quite impossible to accuse Beethoven of prolixity, even in his late string quartets:

### In Tchaikovsky's Diaries

- Diary entry for 20 September/2 October 1886, in which Tchaikovsky reflects mainly on his contrasting feelings for Mozart and Beethoven, but mentions Mozart's predecessors at the end:

## Views on Specific Works by Haydn

### In Tchaikovsky's Music Review Articles

- Symphony No. 103 in E-flat major, Hob. I/103 (1795), "The Drumroll" — TH 276

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## Notes and References



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