Haydn in Eisenstadt
- International festival in the small country town where Haydn was based for most of his career.
- Orchestra in residence: the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra under Adam Fischer.
- Other artists include Ton Koopman and the Freiburger Barockorchester.
- Visits to other places associated with Haydn including the great summer palace in Hungary.
Few small country towns have such an important place in the history of music as Eisenstadt; and few festivals other than the Haydntage offer the privilege of hearing music in the hall where it was first performed.
Eisenstadt is now in the Burgenland, the small province comprising the plain south-east of Vienna which before 1919 was part of Hungary. Dominating the townscape is a vast mansion, the principal seat of the Esterházy, the richest and most powerful noble family in Habsburg Hungary. Successive princes, but especially Nicholas (1762-90), were lovers of music who maintained a choir, orchestra and Kappellmeister whose duty it was to conduct and compose. For over forty years their Kappellmeister was Joseph Haydn.
The wooden floor that Haydn insisted be laid on the marble original to improve the acoustics is still in the Great Hall of Schloss Esterházy; here the orchestral concerts and operas of the festival take place. Further associations with the composer extend into the town of Eisenstadt and the countryside around.
The orchestra in residence is the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra under conductor Adam Fischer, internationally acclaimed as leading interpreters of the composer. They are joined by outstanding ensembles and soloists. The programme on offer this year is almost exclusively by Haydn, to celebrate the bicentenary of his death in 1809.
Read the itinerary