Haydn in Vienna

Great music, great buildings: matching music and place

This festival combines music and architecture in a singularly beguiling way. All the concerts take place in historic buildings – palaces, abbeys, churches, theatres – which are among the most beautiful, magnificent or charming in Vienna and the Danubian region.

Most are of the same period as the music performed in them, and in some cases there are specific historical associations between the two. Matching music and place – that is the governing principle of this festival.

We have engaged musicians of the highest calibre from Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic, lands of the former Habsburg Empire whose music these festivals explore. Many are among the leading specialists in their particular field.

Celebrating Haydn

By the time of his death in 1809, Josef Haydn had become the most internationally celebrated composer in history. He had the advantage of relative longevity (he was 77 to Mozart’s 35 and Beethoven’s 56), but the verdict of his contemporaries is amply justified by his exceptional productivity, his innovativeness and by the quality of his creations: many of his compositions rank among the supreme masterpieces in their category.

There is scarcely a genre in the classical canon to which he did not make a major contribution, and to some – the symphony, the string quartet and the piano trio – he set the course for future developments far beyond his own era and that of his immediate successors.

But too often nowadays Haydn is relegated to the warm-up slot in a concert. These festivals aim to enhance appreciation of his music by removing it from the shadow of the more boisterous and extrovert compositions of the Romantic and later eras.

Haydn’s genius consists of melodic brilliance, extraordinary fecundity of ideas, infinite subtleties and self-effacing cleverness. Even his most expressive moments are tempered with humanity and intelligence. For sheer life affirming beauty he has no rival. Musicians tend to gravitate more and more towards Papa Haydn, though promoters remain wary and mainstream audiences diffident.

Music by the eponymous composer is preponderant in ‘Haydn in Vienna’, though the programmes include several of his contemporaries.

Other composers’ anniversaries

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was born in the year that Haydn died, and ‘Haydn in Vienna’ pays due homage by including two major pieces by him. Exhibiting grace, wit and cleverness, Mendelssohn is perhaps the nineteenthcentury composer closest to Haydn.


Vienna Imperialis, capital of music

As capital of a vast, multinational agglomeration of territories which after six hundred years of haphazard growth came to encompass much of Central Europe, Vienna is a city of appropriately imperial magnificence and one of the world’s foremost centres of historic art and architecture. There is also much unspoilt streetscape of charm and unpretentious beauty, the layout revealing its mediaeval or Roman origin.


Moreover, Vienna has been Europe’s most important centre of music for most of the last four hundred years.

All seven venues of the ‘Haydn in Vienna’ concerts are ones Haydn would or could have known, and it is known that his music was played under his direction in three of them. In one concert the piece we hear was first performed in that very place.

A rare intensity of musical communication

The audiences are small, and so are the venues, enabling a closeness to the musicians which engenders a rare intensity of musical communication.

Musicians love playing for these festivals. Not only are the venues an inspiring change from modern concert halls, but the audiences are among the best in the world – attentive, knowledgeable, appreciative.

An important ingredient are the lectures on the music which take place daily. With Richard Wigmore it would be difficult to do better.


       

THE CONCERTS

Concerts and Performers

Concert 1
Sunday 30th August, morning
Baryton Trios

Vienna, Palais Esterházy
The Esterházy Ensemble
Works for baryton trio by Haydn and
Tomasini

The baryton (viola di bordone) is an exotic stringed instrument, rather like a bass viol with the addition of sympathetic strings. Rare even in the eighteenth century, it became an obsession of Haydn’s patron, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, who demanded a regular supply of baryton music for his own use. Haydn duly obliged with duos, divertimenti, concertos and no fewer than 126 trios.

Where better to have this performance than in the Esterházy family’s own palace in the centre of Vienna. The principal hall, retaining the rich Neo-Classical decor Haydn would have known, is very rarely accessible to visitors. The programme consists of three three-movement divertimenti, two by Haydn and one by Luigi Tomasini (1741–1808, the Esterházy orchestra leader).

The Esterházy Ensemble, directed by Michael Brüssing, specialises in music for baryton and viola da gamba at the court of the eponymous princes. Their recording of the complete baryton trios is published in 2008 as part of the Brilliant Classics Haydn edition.

Concert 2
Sunday 30th August, afternoon
‘Mass in Time of War’

Vienna, Basilica of Maria Treu (Piaristenkirche)
Capella Savaria, Capella Cantorum, Ákos Paulik (conductor), Mária Zádori (soprano), Judit Németh (alto), Zoltán Megyesi (tenor), Krisztián Cser (bass)
Haydn’s ‘Mass in Time of War’

The single work in this programme, Haydn’s Missa in tempore belli (or ‘Kettledrum Mass’, 1796), was commissioned by the Piarist fathers and first performed in this church. With French troops advancing on Vienna, this impassioned, dramatic work can be interpreted as an urgent appeal for peace.

The monastery church of the Piarists is one of the finest High Baroque churches in Austria, but difficulty of access means that it is rarely seen by visitors. Designed ten years before Haydn was born, it was completed – with frescoes by Maulbertsch – when he was over thirty.

Founded in 1981, Capella Savaria is the oldest period-instrument ensemble in Hungary. (‘Savaria’ is the Latin form of Szombathely, their city of origin.) Outstanding for the vigour and verve as well as the authenticity of their playing, they have performed in most countries in Europe as well as in the Americas,
and have recorded over 60 CDs. Their regular collaborator, the choir Capella Cantorum is of commensurate excellence.

Concert 3
Monday 31st August, morning
Piano Trios

Vienna, Albertina, Hall of the Muses
Vienna Piano Trio
Haydn and Mendelssohn


Haydn’s glorious trios for violin, cello and piano are among his best-kept secrets, and arguably the most under-explored and under-valued corpus of works in the chamber repertoire. This programme includes two of the finest, Nos. 27 (in C) and 29 (in E flat), and Mendelssohn’s Opus 66 (in C minor) in honour of the bicentenary of the younger composer’s birth.

For twenty years, the Vienna Piano Trio – Wolfgang Redik (violin), Matthias Gredler (cello), Stefan Mendl (piano) – has been performing regularly in festivals and concert halls in virtually every major music centre in Europe, the Americas, Australia and the Far East. They unfailingly give moving performances which balance classical nobility, romantic turbulence and affecting delicacy.

The Albertina, a Habsburg residence named after a son-in-law of Empress Maria Theresa, is home to one of the world’s greatest collections of prints and drawings. The building was thoroughly refurbished at the beginning of the nineteenth century and beautifully restored a few years ago. The Musensaal on the upper floor is the light-filled and delicately Neo-Classical venue for the concert.

Concert 4 (Danube, Concert 5)
Monday 31st August, evening
Early Haydn symphonies

Vienna, Liechtenstein Gartenpalais
Wiener Akademie
Roberto Paternostro (conductor)

The Liechtensteins were the wealthiest aristocratic dynasty of the Austro-Hungarian empire and outstanding patrons of art and architecture. One of the grandest residences of the age, their ‘garden palace’ (1691–1711) was created by some of the most talented practitioners of the building arts then working in Central Europe. The splendid Hercules Hall, venue for this concert, has frescoes by Andrea Pozzo, master of Baroque illusionism.

The programme includes three early symphonies by Haydn, the wholly delightful ‘Morning’, ‘Midday’ and ‘Evening’ (Nos. 6, 7 & 8), and the Symphony No. 1 by his older contemporary CPE Bach, whom he greatly admired.
 
The Wiener Akademie was founded in 1985 and has become internationally respected for its unmistakably Austrian musicality, virtuosity and lively interpretation of repertoire ranging from Baroque to early Romantic music played on period instruments. They focus on bringing to light lesser known works alongside masterpieces of the standard repertoire. For many years they have had a regular concert series at the Vienna Musikverein.

Concert 5
Tuesday 1st September, morning
String Quartets

Vienna, Hofburg, Rittersaal
Quatuor Mosaïques
String quartets by Haydn and Mendelssohn

The winter palace of the Habsburg emperors, the Hofburg is a vast agglomeration of buildings which grew during the course of six centuries of building and refurbishment. The first of our two concerts here is in the Rittersaal, a mideighteenth-century hall with white and gold Rococo stucco and woodwork and red silk wall hangings.

Quatuor Mosaïques, one part French and three parts Viennese (Erich Höbarth and Andrea Bischof violin, Anita Mitterer viola, Christophe Coin cello) has an international reputation as the finest of string quartets that specialise in historically-informed performance with period instruments. They play Haydn’s Quartet Op. 76/3 in C major (‘Emperor’) and a quartet by Mendelssohn, Op. 44/2 in E minor.


Concert 6
Tuesday 1st September, afternoon
‘The Seasons’

Eisenstadt, Schloss Esterházy
Wiener Kammerchor, Bach Consort Wien
Rubén Dubrovsky (conductor) Cornelia Horak (soprano), Daniel Johannsen (tenor), Josef Wagner (bass – baritone)
Haydn, Die Jahreszeiten

The second of Haydn’s two great, late oratorios, The Seasons was the last major work which Haydn composed. Its composition at the height of his maturity owed much to his London visits: hearing Handel’s Messiah was profoundly inspiring, and the text for The Seasons was based on James Thompson’s poem of the same name.

Eisenstadt, an attractive country town to the south-east of Vienna, is dominated by a vast 17th-century mansion, the principal seat of the Esterházy family, for whom Josef Haydn was the Kapellmeister for most of his career. It was in the Great Hall of Schloss Esterházy in Eisenstadt that many of Haydn’s works were first performed, and it still retains the wooden floor that Haydn insisted be laid on the marble original for acoustical reasons.

Formed in 1999, the Bach Consort Wien has found its artistic home in Vienna’s Musikverein where it regularly performs as the house ensemble in the Early Music cycle. Abroad, they have performed at festivals in Germany, Spain, Portugal and Croatia, and future travel plans include Switzerland, Italy and France. The soloists are all very well known in Austria in the opera house and on the concert platform, while the Wiener Kammerchor is one of Austria’s finest choirs with regular appearances at the Wiener Konzerthaus and the Musikverein amongst others.

Concert 7
Wednesday 2nd September, afternoon
Haydn Benefit Concert, 4th May 1795 in the New Room, King’s Theatre, London

Vienna, Hofburg, Zeremoniensaal
Austro-Hungarian Haydn Philharmonic
Adam Fischer (conductor), Wolfgang Redik (violin), Thomas Höniger (oboe)

Haydn’s Symphonies Nos. 100 (‘Military’) and 104; duet from Orlando Paladino and concert aria ‘Scena di Berenice’ by Haydn; Oboe Concerto by Giuseppe Ferlendis; Violin Concerto by Giovanni Battista Viotti.

This concert is an almost complete reconstruction of a particular event (the benefit in question was Haydn’s: he was awarded the substantial profits), the authenticity extending to the practice of interleaving symphonic movements with other pieces.

Freed from almost feudal servitude by the death in 1790 of his employer Prince Nikolaus I Esterházy, Haydn was soon on his way to London for the first of two visits, each lasting around eighteen months. Measured by the quantity of musical events, their variety, cosmopolitanism and funding, London was at the time the leading centre for music in Europe. Haydn was fêted as a celebrity, his concert series were immensely successful, and he returned to Vienna a wealthy man.

Embedded within the Hofburg and rarely accessible to the public, the ‘Hall of Ceremonies’ is the grandest hall in Vienna, magnificently embellished with Corinthian columns.

The Austro-Hungarian Haydn Philharmonic was founded by Adam Fischer in 1987 to bring together outstanding musicians from both countries. It has recorded Haydn’s complete symphonies in Schloss Esterházy in Eisenstadt and has acquired an international reputation as one of the most spirited and sensitive interpreters of the Viennese classics. They have toured widely, with repeated appearances at the Mostly Mozart festival in New York, the BBC Proms in London and the Mozart Festival in Salzburg.
       

PRACTICALITIES

Hotel Sacher
Vienna’s most famous hotel, the sequence of lounges are discreetly opulent rather than grand, and the
bedrooms are luxuriously decorated and appointed. All are well equipped and all have a bath. The two
restaurants are excellent and the café is redolent of Austria’s history. Single rooms are double rooms for sole occupancy. The junior suites have separate living space and separate showers and bath tubs, while the suites are additionally distinguished by antique furnishings and original works of art. Situated just behind the Staatsoper, it is the best located of the festival hotels, the four inner-city concerts being less than ten minutes away on foot.
Suite for two people sharing
Price per person: £5,690
Junior Suite for two people sharing
Price per person: £3,700
Double or twin room for two people sharing
Price per person: £3,180 Price per person with extra night 28th August: £3,390
Double room for single occupancy Price: £3,775 Price with extra night 28th August: £4,080

Hotel Bristol
One of the grand old hotels of Vienna, this 5-star establishment retains the opulent décor of a century ago. The hotel is excellently located on the Ringstrasse, the boulevard encircling the old centre, and overlooking the Opera House. None of the four inner-city concerts is much more than ten minutes away on foot. All rooms are air-conditioned and well equipped. Most bathrooms have a bath, some have a shower only. The hotel has two restaurants and a bar. Single rooms are double rooms for sole occupancy. Junior suites and suites have separate living room space and separate showers and bath tubs. The junior suites have a terrace and the suites have a balcony.
Suite for two people sharing
Price per person: £4,170
Junior Suite for two people sharing
Price per person: £3,510
Double or twin room for two people sharing
Price per person: £2,920
Price per person with extra night 28th August: £3,060
Double room for single occupancy
Price: £3,310
Price with extra night 28th August: £3,520

Radisson SAS Hotel
A five-star hotel located on Parkring, the former city walls, now the inner ring. Though a modern building, the décor is traditional, and the service is excellent. Every room has a safe, minibar and adjustable air-conditioning and bathrooms have a bath and hairdryer. The hotel has two restaurants
and a bar. Single rooms are double rooms for sole occupancy. The junior suites have separate living room space as well as separate showers and bath tubs. The four concerts within the inner city can be reached on foot in twenty-five minutes or less.
Junior Suite for two people sharing
Price per person: £2,730
Double or twin room for two people sharing
Price per person: £2,490
Price per person with extra night 28th August: £2,560
Double room for single occupancy
Price: £2,680
Price with extra night 28th August: £2,770

Hotel am Stephansplatz
This small family-owned 4-star hotel enjoys a very central location in the pedestrianised zone in front of the Gothic cathedral. Reopened in 2005 after extensive renovations, rooms are contemporary in style and are equipped with safe, minibar and adjustable air-conditioning. All bathrooms have a bath and hairdryer. There is a breakfast room and a bar where snacks are served but there is no restaurant. Single rooms are double rooms for sole occupancy. Church bells from the nearby cathedral are audible throughout the hotel.
Double or twin room for two people sharing
Price per person: £2,480
Price per person with extra night 28th August: £2,590
Double room for single occupancy
Price: £2,850
Price with extra night 28th August: £3,040

The choice of hotel, and with it the restaurants for dinner we have linked to each hotel, are the sole determinants of the different prices for the festival package. Otherwise the ingredients are the same for everyone.

Price without flights: subtract £150 from the package price.

All prices are per person.         

MORE DETAILS

Days 1 and 6
Travelling to Vienna

Flights from London to Vienna are included in the price of the festival. (Alternatively, you can choose to make your own flight arrangements – see Option 6). We are also offering a flight the day before the festival starts for those who would like to spend more time in Vienna.

From London Heathrow with Austrian Airlines and British Airways (all flight times subject to change).

Option 1. Flying out one day early. 28th August: depart Heathrow 09.25, arrive Vienna Schwechat
12.45 (Austrian Airlines OS 452). 3rd September: depart Vienna Schwechat 13.25, arrive London Heathrow 14.50 (OS 461). This option includes an extra night at the hotel. For prices see Practicalities.

Option 2 (Austrian Airlines). 29th August: depart Heathrow 09.25, arrive Vienna Schwechat 12.45 (OS 452). 3rd September: depart Vienna Schwechat 17.15, arrive London Heathrow 18.40 (OS 455).

Option 3 (British Airways). 29th August: depart Heathrow 09.55 (BA 700), arrive Vienna Schwechat 13.15. 3rd September: depart Vienna Schwechat 11.45, arrive Heathrow 13.15 (BA 697).

Option 4 (Austrian Airlines). 29th August: depart Heathrow 12.55 (OS 454), arrive Vienna Schwechat 16.20. 3rd September: depart Vienna Schwechat at 19.45, arrive Heathrow 21.20 (OS 457).

Option 5 (British Airways). 29th August: depart Heathrow 15.05 (BA 704), arrive Vienna Schwechat 18.30. 3rd September: depart Vienna Schwechat 14.10, arrive Heathrow at 15.35 (BA 701).

Option 6: no flights. If you wish to make your own flight arrangements, there is a reduction of £150. You are welcome to join the airport transfers of any of the above options.

Days 2–5
Participants will be given a timetable of the events with details of times and locations of concerts, lectures, dinners, coach transport and all other arrangements.

Getting around Vienna
All the hotels selected for the festival are between 3 and 25 minutes from the four concerts in the inner city. (Coaches are provided to get to the Piaristenkirche, the Liechtenstein Palais and to Eisenstadt.)

Participants are issued with a travel pass which will allow unrestricted use of the excellent tram and metro system. Taxis are plentiful.

Walking is unavoidable to get around Vienna and Eisenstadt, and few of the venues have a lift. Participants need to be averagely fit, sure-footed and able to manage everyday walking and stairclimbing without difficulty. The festival is not really suitable for wheelchair users but please speak to us if you would like to discuss this.      

BOOKING

Concerts and Performers

Concert 1
Sunday 30th August, morning
Baryton Trios

Vienna, Palais Esterházy
The Esterházy Ensemble
Works for baryton trio by Haydn and
Tomasini

The baryton (viola di bordone) is an exotic stringed instrument, rather like a bass viol with the addition of sympathetic strings. Rare even in the eighteenth century, it became an obsession of Haydn’s patron, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, who demanded a regular supply of baryton music for his own use. Haydn duly obliged with duos, divertimenti, concertos and no fewer than 126 trios.

Where better to have this performance than in the Esterházy family’s own palace in the centre of Vienna. The principal hall, retaining the rich Neo-Classical decor Haydn would have known, is very rarely accessible to visitors. The programme consists of three three-movement divertimenti, two by Haydn and one by Luigi Tomasini (1741–1808, the Esterházy orchestra leader).

The Esterházy Ensemble, directed by Michael Brüssing, specialises in music for baryton and viola da gamba at the court of the eponymous princes. Their recording of the complete baryton trios is published in 2008 as part of the Brilliant Classics Haydn edition.

Concert 2
Sunday 30th August, afternoon
‘Mass in Time of War’

Vienna, Basilica of Maria Treu (Piaristenkirche)
Capella Savaria, Capella Cantorum, Ákos Paulik (conductor), Mária Zádori (soprano), Judit Németh (alto), Zoltán Megyesi (tenor), Krisztián Cser (bass)
Haydn’s ‘Mass in Time of War’

The single work in this programme, Haydn’s Missa in tempore belli (or ‘Kettledrum Mass’, 1796), was commissioned by the Piarist fathers and first performed in this church. With French troops advancing on Vienna, this impassioned, dramatic work can be interpreted as an urgent appeal for peace.

The monastery church of the Piarists is one of the finest High Baroque churches in Austria, but difficulty of access means that it is rarely seen by visitors. Designed ten years before Haydn was born, it was completed – with frescoes by Maulbertsch – when he was over thirty.

Founded in 1981, Capella Savaria is the oldest period-instrument ensemble in Hungary. (‘Savaria’ is the Latin form of Szombathely, their city of origin.) Outstanding for the vigour and verve as well as the authenticity of their playing, they have performed in most countries in Europe as well as in the Americas,
and have recorded over 60 CDs. Their regular collaborator, the choir Capella Cantorum is of commensurate excellence.

Concert 3
Monday 31st August, morning
Piano Trios

Vienna, Albertina, Hall of the Muses
Vienna Piano Trio
Haydn and Mendelssohn


Haydn’s glorious trios for violin, cello and piano are among his best-kept secrets, and arguably the most under-explored and under-valued corpus of works in the chamber repertoire. This programme includes two of the finest, Nos. 27 (in C) and 29 (in E flat), and Mendelssohn’s Opus 66 (in C minor) in honour of the bicentenary of the younger composer’s birth.

For twenty years, the Vienna Piano Trio – Wolfgang Redik (violin), Matthias Gredler (cello), Stefan Mendl (piano) – has been performing regularly in festivals and concert halls in virtually every major music centre in Europe, the Americas, Australia and the Far East. They unfailingly give moving performances which balance classical nobility, romantic turbulence and affecting delicacy.

The Albertina, a Habsburg residence named after a son-in-law of Empress Maria Theresa, is home to one of the world’s greatest collections of prints and drawings. The building was thoroughly refurbished at the beginning of the nineteenth century and beautifully restored a few years ago. The Musensaal on the upper floor is the light-filled and delicately Neo-Classical venue for the concert.

Concert 4 (Danube, Concert 5)
Monday 31st August, evening
Early Haydn symphonies

Vienna, Liechtenstein Gartenpalais
Wiener Akademie
Roberto Paternostro (conductor)

The Liechtensteins were the wealthiest aristocratic dynasty of the Austro-Hungarian empire and outstanding patrons of art and architecture. One of the grandest residences of the age, their ‘garden palace’ (1691–1711) was created by some of the most talented practitioners of the building arts then working in Central Europe. The splendid Hercules Hall, venue for this concert, has frescoes by Andrea Pozzo, master of Baroque illusionism.

The programme includes three early symphonies by Haydn, the wholly delightful ‘Morning’, ‘Midday’ and ‘Evening’ (Nos. 6, 7 & 8), and the Symphony No. 1 by his older contemporary CPE Bach, whom he greatly admired.
 
The Wiener Akademie was founded in 1985 and has become internationally respected for its unmistakably Austrian musicality, virtuosity and lively interpretation of repertoire ranging from Baroque to early Romantic music played on period instruments. They focus on bringing to light lesser known works alongside masterpieces of the standard repertoire. For many years they have had a regular concert series at the Vienna Musikverein.

Concert 5
Tuesday 1st September, morning
String Quartets

Vienna, Hofburg, Rittersaal
Quatuor Mosaïques
String quartets by Haydn and Mendelssohn

The winter palace of the Habsburg emperors, the Hofburg is a vast agglomeration of buildings which grew during the course of six centuries of building and refurbishment. The first of our two concerts here is in the Rittersaal, a mideighteenth-century hall with white and gold Rococo stucco and woodwork and red silk wall hangings.

Quatuor Mosaïques, one part French and three parts Viennese (Erich Höbarth and Andrea Bischof violin, Anita Mitterer viola, Christophe Coin cello) has an international reputation as the finest of string quartets that specialise in historically-informed performance with period instruments. They play Haydn’s Quartet Op. 76/3 in C major (‘Emperor’) and a quartet by Mendelssohn, Op. 44/2 in E minor.


Concert 6
Tuesday 1st September, afternoon
‘The Seasons’

Eisenstadt, Schloss Esterházy
Wiener Kammerchor, Bach Consort Wien
Rubén Dubrovsky (conductor) Cornelia Horak (soprano), Daniel Johannsen (tenor), Josef Wagner (bass – baritone)
Haydn, Die Jahreszeiten

The second of Haydn’s two great, late oratorios, The Seasons was the last major work which Haydn composed. Its composition at the height of his maturity owed much to his London visits: hearing Handel’s Messiah was profoundly inspiring, and the text for The Seasons was based on James Thompson’s poem of the same name.

Eisenstadt, an attractive country town to the south-east of Vienna, is dominated by a vast 17th-century mansion, the principal seat of the Esterházy family, for whom Josef Haydn was the Kapellmeister for most of his career. It was in the Great Hall of Schloss Esterházy in Eisenstadt that many of Haydn’s works were first performed, and it still retains the wooden floor that Haydn insisted be laid on the marble original for acoustical reasons.

Formed in 1999, the Bach Consort Wien has found its artistic home in Vienna’s Musikverein where it regularly performs as the house ensemble in the Early Music cycle. Abroad, they have performed at festivals in Germany, Spain, Portugal and Croatia, and future travel plans include Switzerland, Italy and France. The soloists are all very well known in Austria in the opera house and on the concert platform, while the Wiener Kammerchor is one of Austria’s finest choirs with regular appearances at the Wiener Konzerthaus and the Musikverein amongst others.

Concert 7
Wednesday 2nd September, afternoon
Haydn Benefit Concert, 4th May 1795 in the New Room, King’s Theatre, London

Vienna, Hofburg, Zeremoniensaal
Austro-Hungarian Haydn Philharmonic
Adam Fischer (conductor), Wolfgang Redik (violin), Thomas Höniger (oboe)

Haydn’s Symphonies Nos. 100 (‘Military’) and 104; duet from Orlando Paladino and concert aria ‘Scena di Berenice’ by Haydn; Oboe Concerto by Giuseppe Ferlendis; Violin Concerto by Giovanni Battista Viotti.

This concert is an almost complete reconstruction of a particular event (the benefit in question was Haydn’s: he was awarded the substantial profits), the authenticity extending to the practice of interleaving symphonic movements with other pieces.

Freed from almost feudal servitude by the death in 1790 of his employer Prince Nikolaus I Esterházy, Haydn was soon on his way to London for the first of two visits, each lasting around eighteen months. Measured by the quantity of musical events, their variety, cosmopolitanism and funding, London was at the time the leading centre for music in Europe. Haydn was fêted as a celebrity, his concert series were immensely successful, and he returned to Vienna a wealthy man.

Embedded within the Hofburg and rarely accessible to the public, the ‘Hall of Ceremonies’ is the grandest hall in Vienna, magnificently embellished with Corinthian columns.

The Austro-Hungarian Haydn Philharmonic was founded by Adam Fischer in 1987 to bring together outstanding musicians from both countries. It has recorded Haydn’s complete symphonies in Schloss Esterházy in Eisenstadt and has acquired an international reputation as one of the most spirited and sensitive interpreters of the Viennese classics. They have toured widely, with repeated appearances at the Mostly Mozart festival in New York, the BBC Proms in London and the Mozart Festival in Salzburg.