2014 Program Notes, Book 3 43
Friday, June 27 and Saturday, June 28, 2014
SYMPHONY NO. 98 IN B-FLAT MAJOR
(1791-1792)
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Haydn’s Symphony No. 98 is scored for flute, two oboes, two
bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, harpsichord and
strings. The performance time is 28 minutes. This is the first
performance of this symphony by the Grant Park Orchestra.
When Haydn first arrived there, in 1791, London was one
of the world’s greatest cities of music. In addition to considerable activity at the
traditional performance sites of church and court, London had boasted an active
operatic life since well before Handel settled there in 1710; regularly enjoyed public
concerts, including the “Bach-Abel Concerts,” produced by Johann Christian Bach
(Johann Sebastian’s youngest son) and Carl Friedrich Abel between 1765 and 1782,
and the series run after 1786 by Johann Peter Salomon, who had enticed Haydn to
visit London following the death of Prince Nicolaus Esterházy in September 1790;
kept busy a knowledgeable band of critics to report in the press on all important
musical events; and was home to a large and faithful body of discriminating
patrons, both aristocratic and middle class, who eagerly supported a wide variety
of worthwhile undertakings. Within a week of Haydn’s landing in England on New
Years’ Day 1791, the
Public Advertiser
published a schedule detailing the wealth
of music available in the city for the first six months of the year: Sunday — The
Noblemen’s Subscription, held every week in a different house; Monday — The
Professional Concerts (Salomon’s chief rival); Tuesday — opera; Wednesday —
“ancient music” (i.e., Corelli, Vivaldi, Handel, etc.) at rooms in Tottenham Street;
Thursday — concerts of music and dance at the Pantheon and programs by the
Academy of Ancient Music; Friday — Salomon’s concerts at the Hanover Square
Rooms; Saturday — opera.
Haydn was swept at once into the artistic and social whirl of the capital upon
his arrival. On January 8th, he wrote to Maria Anna von Genzinger in Vienna that
he was “occupied in looking at this endlessly huge city of London, whose beauties
and marvels quite astonished me. I immediately paid the necessary calls, such as to
the Neapolitan Ambassador and to our own [Austrian ambassador]; both called on
me in return two days later, and four days ago I lunched with the former.... My arrival
caused a great sensation throughout the whole city, and I went the round of all the
newspapers for three successive days. Everyone wants to know me. I had to dine out
six times up to now, and if I wanted, I could dine out every day; but first I must consider
my health and secondmy work.” Haydn was soon befriended by an entire battalion of
admirers from all social classes, including musicians, scholars, businessmen — even
the royal family. He received an honorary doctorate from Oxford University in July
1791, had more invitations for dinners, parties, social engagements and weekends at
Britain’s best town houses and country manors than he could possibly accept, gave
lessons to members of some of the city’s finest families, and made so much money
that, as he later told his biographer Griesinger, “My eyes popped out of my head.”
The focal point for the English mania surrounding Haydn was Salomon’s series of
Friday concerts at the Hanover Square Rooms, which ran from March 11th to May
16th, and featured a work by Haydn at every performance. The Symphonies Nos. 95
and 96 were composed in London in 1791 and first heard at the concerts that spring.
The entire venture proved to be such a success that Haydn was easily convinced to
stay for another season the following year, and to return again in 1794-1795.
