Joseph Haydn.
Princes, Patrons and Sponsors

October 29 – December 19, 2009

Monday to Friday 9 a.m. – 6 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Entrance: € 5,00 (Students, pensioners € 3,00)

Guided tours will be announced or by prior appointment
Information, details, descriptive material: office@a-wgm.com
TEL +43 1 505 86 81 44, FAX +43 1 505 86 81 66

Whereas our Spring exhibition portrays Joseph Haydn the 'international star' particularly in the altogether three years that he lived in London, our Autumn exhibition will be devoted to his activities in Esterháza, Eisenstadt and Vienna and to the influence emanating from his work here.

The customary image of Haydn as a composer in livery, treated like a servant at the prince's court, needs to be convincingly corrected in this exhibition. Haydn belonged to the highest rank of service, was entitled to a uniform of which he was proud and to any number of perks, he was responsible for a budget and had an orchestra, a choir and soloists under his command, whose boss he was in all administrative and artistic concerns. To use a modern concept: He was musical director and manager in one person.

Even if his compositions were intended largely for his conducting activities, he accepted composition commissions from Spain, France, Germany and from – mainly aristocratic – sponsors from the Hapsburg countries. He also supplied the bourgeoisie with music, both by means of works composed for personal friends and via publishers' offers. It needs to be demonstrated that, in his generation, he was the composer most widely published and of whose work the greatest number of editions were available on the market, which was a result as much of his fame as of his business acumen.

In the same way that the Counts Esterházy were, to a certain extent, patrons rather than employers, Haydn also found other admirers of his art who patronised him.

Haydn was, however, never dependent on others in his professional life; he was self-confident and independent enough to make his own way as an emancipated artist. What is fascinating about his life is the very fact that on the one hand, he fulfilled all the traditional Baroque era requirements of a conductor to an aristocratic court and, on the other hand, achieved the status of an emancipated artist in exemplary fashion. He stood in the service of the court and served the bourgeoisie, was employee and entrepreneur at the same time, composed for commissions while creating works which remained true to his compositional concerns.

These exciting facets of the true Haydn portrayal will be documented by means of exemplary objects from the archive, library and collections of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien, where documentational material concerning Haydn has been collected since 1812.

On display will be: Original scores of important works, principally those which were not composed within the framework of his activities as court composer (the first genuine string quartets and the last, uncompleted concerto for horn and trumpet, the Kleine Orgelsolomesse; from large-scale works like cantatas and oratorios to musical miniatures like the Floetenuhrstuecke), appropriate examples from his correspondence, documentation concerning his publishing activities, personalia (from portraits to visiting cards), first editions, contemporary portrayals of how Haydn's music was played and where he performed, portraits of his employers, patrons and sponsors. Several of these objects are being publicly exhibited for the first time.

The exhibition is devoted to a composer, but it does not only concern itself with musical topics; it includes cultural, commercial and socio-historical aspects and deals with the social and political phenomena that enable us to gain an understanding of music history. The majority of objects on exhibit are, therefore, extra-musical.

The exhibition is not only aimed at an audience interested in music, but at anyone who is sufficiently historically interested and curious to investigate, by the example of Joseph Haydn, the larger context of history, culture and art and indeed, to experience it by means of appropriate objects.

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