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171-562: Their repertoire includes Haydn , Beethoven , Schubert , Mendelssohn , Schumann , Bartók , Janáček , Korngold and Britten , as well as the work of contemporary composers such as John Adams , Thomas Adès and Brett Dean . They have given premieres of works by Dean, Peter Maxwell Davies and Donnacha Dennehy . The Doric is Teaching Quartet in Association with the Royal Academy of Music (from 2015) and artistic director of

342-595: A Gramophone review as a "very auspicious recording debut". Since 2009 the quartet has recorded for the British label Chandos , starting with Korngold's quartets and including an ongoing cycle of Haydn quartets. In 2011, the Doric made the first recording of the original uncut first string quartet of William Walton . They made the second recording of Adams's Absolute Jest in 2017 and have recorded works by Dean, including his quintet with Dean on viola. In 2018, they recorded

513-707: A Requiem Mass , described by the critic Ivan March as "long-neglected and under-prized". Like Mozart before him, Schumann was haunted by the conviction that the Mass was his own requiem. All of Schumann's major works and most of the minor ones have been recorded. From the 1920s his music has had a prominent place in the catalogues. In the 1920s Hans Pfitzner recorded the symphonies, and other early recordings were conducted by Georges Enescu and Toscanini. Large-scale performances with modern symphony orchestras have been recorded under conductors including Herbert von Karajan , Wolfgang Sawallisch and Rafael Kubelík , and from

684-564: A "happy and naturally cheerful temperament", but in his later life, there is evidence for periods of depression, notably in the correspondence with Mrs. Genzinger and in Dies's biography, based on visits made in Haydn's old age. Haydn was a devout Catholic who often turned to his rosary when he had trouble composing, a practice that he usually found to be effective. He normally began the manuscript of each composition with In nomine Domini [in

855-569: A "house officer" in the Esterházy establishment, Haydn wore livery and followed the family as they moved among their various palaces, most importantly the family's ancestral seat Schloss Esterházy in Eisenstadt and later on Esterháza , a grand new palace built in rural Hungary in the 1760s. Haydn had a huge range of responsibilities, including composition, running the orchestra, playing chamber music for and with his patrons, and eventually

1026-467: A 1000-florin pension from Nikolaus. Since Anton had little need of Haydn's services, he was willing to let him travel, and the composer accepted a lucrative offer from Johann Peter Salomon , a German violinist and impresario , to visit England and conduct new symphonies with a large orchestra. The choice was a sensible one because Haydn was already a very popular composer there. Since the death of Johann Christian Bach in 1782, Haydn's music had dominated

1197-564: A catalyst in the next stage in Haydn's career, the achievement of international popularity. By 1790 Haydn was in the paradoxical position ... of being Europe's leading composer, but someone who spent his time as a duty-bound Kapellmeister in a remote palace in the Hungarian countryside." The new publication campaign resulted in the composition of a great number of new string quartets (the six-quartet sets of Op. 33 , 50 , 54/55, and 64 ). Haydn also composed in response to commissions from abroad:

1368-493: A composer beyond solo piano works. During 1840 Schumann turned his attention to song, producing more than half his total output of Lieder , including the cycles Myrthen ("Myrtles", a wedding present for Clara), Frauenliebe und Leben ("Woman's Love and Life"), Dichterliebe ("Poet's Love"), and settings of words by Joseph von Eichendorff , Heinrich Heine and others. In 1841 Schumann focused on orchestral music. On 31 March his First Symphony , The Spring ,

1539-690: A concert review for the Washington Post , praised the quartet's almost perfect cohesion, and highlighted their "knife-edged ... clean, almost strident sound", which he attributed to a lack of vibrato . Harriet Smith, in a recording review for Gramophone magazine, singled out the Doric's "ability to reveal detail, though never at the cost of broader spans" as well as "their elasticity of phrasing, combined with an absolute confidence of ensemble without ever seeming overly obsessed with it". Paul Driverby, writing in The Sunday Times , described

1710-480: A concert tour of Russia; her husband joined her. They met the leading figures of the Russian musical scene, including Mikhail Glinka and Anton Rubinstein and were both immensely impressed by Saint Petersburg and Moscow. The tour was an artistic and financial success but it was arduous, and by the end Schumann was in a poor state both physically and mentally. After the couple returned to Leipzig in late May he sold

1881-607: A conductor was a charity performance of The Seven Last Words on 26 December 1803. As debility set in, he made largely futile efforts at composition, attempting to revise a rediscovered Missa brevis from his teenage years and complete his final string quartet . The former project was abandoned for good in 1805, and the quartet was published with just two movements. Haydn was well cared for by his servants, and he received many visitors and public honors during his last years, but they could not have been very happy years for him. During his illness, Haydn often found solace by sitting at

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2052-459: A cook in the palace of Aloys Thomas Raimund, Count von Harrach , the presiding aristocrat of Rohrau. Neither parent could read music; however, Mathias was an enthusiastic folk musician , who during the journeyman period of his career had taught himself to play the harp. According to Haydn's later reminiscences, his family was extremely musical, and they frequently sang together and with their neighbours. Haydn's parents had noticed that their son

2223-560: A daughter in September, the first of the Schumanns' seven children to survive. The following year Schumann turned his attention to chamber music. He studied works by Haydn and Mozart, despite an ambivalent attitude to the former, writing: "Today it is impossible to learn anything new from him. He is like a familiar friend of the house whom all greet with pleasure and with esteem, but who has ceased to arouse any particular interest". He

2394-624: A developing reputation. According to Chissell, her concerto debut at the Leipzig Gewandhaus on 9 November 1835, with Mendelssohn conducting, "set the seal on all her earlier successes, and there was now no doubting that a great future lay before her as a pianist". Schumann had watched her career approvingly since she was nine, but only now fell in love with her. His feelings were reciprocated: they declared their love to each other in January 1836. Schumann expected that Wieck would welcome

2565-738: A different journey; it was stolen by phrenologists shortly after burial, and the skull was reunited with the other remains only in 1954, now interred in a tomb in the north tower of the Bergkirche . James Webster writes of Haydn's public character thus: "Haydn's public life exemplified the Enlightenment ideal of the honnête homme ( honest man ): the man whose good character and worldly success enable and justify each other. His modesty and probity were everywhere acknowledged. These traits were not only prerequisites to his success as Kapellmeister , entrepreneur and public figure, but also aided

2736-613: A familiar figure on the London concert scene. The 1794 season was dominated by Salomon's ensemble, as the Professional Concerts had abandoned their efforts. The concerts included the premieres of the 99th, 100th, and 101st symphonies. For 1795, Salomon had abandoned his own series, citing difficulty in obtaining "vocal performers of the first rank from abroad", and Haydn joined forces with the Opera Concerts, headed by

2907-564: A few months. Haydn immediately began his pursuit of a career as a freelance musician. Haydn struggled at first, working at many different jobs: as a music teacher, as a street serenader, and eventually, in 1752, as valet-accompanist for the Italian composer Nicola Porpora , from whom he later said he learned "the true fundamentals of composition". He was also briefly in Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz 's employ, playing

3078-420: A flood of compositions, and his musical style continued to develop. Much of Haydn's activity at the time followed the musical taste of his patron Prince Nikolaus. In about 1765, the prince obtained and began to learn to play the baryton , an uncommon musical instrument similar to the bass viol , but with a set of plucked sympathetic strings . Haydn was commanded to provide music for the prince to play, and over

3249-424: A great deal simply by serving as a professional musician there. Like Frankh before him, Reutter did not always bother to make sure Haydn was properly fed. As he later told his biographer Albert Christoph Dies , Haydn was motivated to sing well, in hopes of gaining more invitations to perform before aristocratic audiences, where the singers were usually served refreshments. By 1749, Haydn had matured physically to

3420-438: A great deal to Emanuel Bach, that I understood him and have studied him with diligence." According to Griesinger and Dies, in the 1750s Haydn studied an encyclopedic treatise by Johann Mattheson , a German composer. As his skills increased, Haydn began to acquire a public reputation, first as the composer of an opera, Der krumme Teufel , "The Limping Devil", written for the comic actor Joseph Felix von Kurz, whose stage name

3591-473: A large project, the largest I've yet undertaken – it's not an opera – I believe it's well-nigh a new genre for the concert hall". Szenen aus Goethes Faust (Scenes from Goethe's Faust), composed between 1844 and 1853, is another hybrid work, operatic in manner but written for concert performance and labelled an oratorio by the composer. The work was never given complete in Schumann's lifetime, although

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3762-457: A letter of introduction from a mutual friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim . Brahms had recently written the first of his three piano sonatas, and played it to Schumann, who rushed excitedly out of the room and came back leading his wife by the hand, saying "Now, my dear Clara, you will hear such music as you never heard before; and you, young man, play the work from the beginning". Schumann was so impressed that he wrote an article – his last – for

3933-593: A license to permit opera performances in the theatre he directed, the King's Theatre . Haydn was well paid for the opera (£300) but much time was wasted. Thus only two new symphonies, no. 95 and no. 96 Miracle , could be premiered in the 12 concerts of Salomon's spring concert series in 1791. Another problem arose from the jealously competitive efforts of a senior, rival orchestra, the Professional Concerts , who recruited Haydn's old pupil Ignaz Pleyel as

4104-405: A little son". He was the fifth and last child of August Schumann and his wife, Johanna Christiane ( née Schnabel). August, not only a bookseller but also a lexicographer, author and publisher of chivalric romances , made considerable sums from his German translations of writers such as Cervantes , Walter Scott and Lord Byron . Robert, his favourite child, was able to spend many hours exploring

4275-496: A mixed critical reception, both during his lifetime and since, but there is widespread agreement about the high quality of his solo piano music. In his youth the familiar Austro-German tradition of Bach , Mozart and Beethoven was temporarily eclipsed by a fashion for the flamboyant showpieces of composers such as Moscheles . Schumann's first published work, the Abegg Variations , is in the latter style. But he revered

4446-637: A new world to him". Haydn returned to Vienna in 1795. Prince Anton had died, and his successor Nikolaus II proposed that the Esterházy musical establishment be revived with Haydn serving again as Kapellmeister. Haydn took up the position on a part-time basis. He spent his summers with the Esterházys in Eisenstadt, and over the course of several years wrote six masses for them including the Lord Nelson mass in 1798. By this time Haydn had become

4617-564: A pianist was evident from an early age: in 1850 the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (Universal Musical Journal) printed a biographical sketch of Schumann which included an account from contemporary sources that even as a boy he possessed a special talent for portraying feelings and characteristic traits in melody: From 1820 Schumann attended the Zwickau Lyceum, the local high school of about two hundred boys, where he remained till

4788-502: A public figure in Vienna. He spent most of his time in his home, a large house in the suburb of Windmühle, and wrote works for public performance. In collaboration with his librettist and mentor Gottfried van Swieten , and with funding from van Swieten's Gesellschaft der Associierten , he composed his two great oratorios, The Creation (1798) and The Seasons (1801). Both were enthusiastically received. Haydn frequently appeared before

4959-453: A result of having been underfed throughout most of his youth. He was not handsome, and like many in his day he was a survivor of smallpox ; his face was pitted with the scars of this disease. His biographer Dies wrote: "he couldn't understand how it happened that in his life he had been loved by many a pretty woman. 'They couldn't have been led to it by my beauty. ' " Haydn had a dark complexion and black eyes. His nose, large and aquiline,

5130-474: A review of Haydn for Limelight magazine, notes that the quartet chooses not to deliver a traditional Classical performance but rather a "re-examination" of the works, writing that that they "splash around wideband dynamics and proto-expressionistic timbres with ... obvious abandon". The Doric's earliest disc was a live recording of Haydn, under the Wigmore Hall Live label, which was described in

5301-548: A richness and profusion of material, and a disciplined yet varied expression." In 1760, with the security of a Kapellmeister position, Haydn married. His wife was the former Maria Anna Theresia Keller (1729–1800), the sister of Therese (b. 1733), with whom Haydn had previously been in love. Haydn and his wife had a completely unhappy marriage, from which time permitted no escape. They produced no children, and both took lovers. Count Morzin soon suffered financial reverses that forced him to dismiss his musical establishment, but Haydn

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5472-462: A rival visiting composer; the two composers, refusing to play along with the concocted rivalry, dined together and put each other's symphonies on their concert programs. The end of Salomon's series in June gave Haydn a rare period of relative leisure. He spent some of the time in the country ( Hertingfordbury ), but also had time to travel, notably to Oxford, where he was awarded an honorary doctorate by

5643-511: A slow movement". Its unorthodox structure may have made it less appealing and it is not often performed. Schumann composed six overtures, three of them for theatrical performance, preceding Byron 's Manfred (1852), Goethe 's Faust (1853) and his own Genoveva . The other three were stand-alone concert works inspired by Schiller's The Bride of Messina , Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and Goethe's Hermann and Dorothea . The Piano Concerto (1845) quickly became and has remained one of

5814-625: A successful secular oratorio , Das Paradies und die Peri (Paradise and the Peri ), based on an oriental poem by Thomas Moore . It was premiered at the Gewandhaus on 4 December and repeat performances followed at Dresden on 23 December, Berlin early the following year, and London in June 1856, when Schumann's friend William Sterndale Bennett conducted a performance given by the Philharmonic Society before Queen Victoria and

5985-403: A time he also had cello and flute lessons with one of the municipal musicians, Carl Gottlieb Meissner. Throughout his childhood and youth his love of music and literature ran in tandem, with poems and dramatic works produced alongside small-scale compositions, mainly piano pieces and songs. He was not a musical child prodigy like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or Felix Mendelssohn , but his talent as

6156-547: A trend towards playing the orchestral music with smaller forces in historically informed performance . After the successful premiere in 1841 of the first of his four symphonies the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung described it as "well and fluently written ... also, for the most part, knowledgeably, tastefully, and often quite successfully and effectively orchestrated", although a later critic called it "inflated piano music with mainly routine orchestration". Later in

6327-509: A year Schumann called his Liederjahr (year of song). These are Dichterliebe (Poet's Love) comprising sixteen songs with words by Heine; Frauenliebe und Leben (Woman's Love and Life), eight songs setting poems by Adelbert von Chamisso ; and two sets simply titled Liederkreis – German for "Song Cycle" – the Op. 24 set, consisting of nine Heine settings and the Op. 39 set of twelve settings of poems by Eichendorff. Also from 1840

6498-610: Is Teaching Quartet in Association with the Royal Academy of Music (from 2015). In 2018 the quartet became artistic director of the Mendelssohn on Mull Festival on the Isle of Mull . The quartet's main repertoire includes Haydn , Beethoven , Schubert and works by early romantic composers such as Mendelssohn and Schumann ; 20th-century works particularly by Bartók , Janáček , Korngold and Britten ; and works by living composers such as Thomas Adès and Brett Dean . In 2016–17,

6669-484: Is known for its humor. The most famous example is the sudden loud chord in the slow movement of his "Surprise" symphony ; Haydn's many other musical jokes include numerous false endings (e.g., in the quartets Op. 33 No. 2 and Op. 50 No. 3 ), and the remarkable rhythmic illusion placed in the trio section of the third movement of Op. 50 No. 1 . Schumann Robert Schumann ( German: [ˈʁoːbɛʁt ˈʃuːman] ; 8 June 1810 – 29 July 1856)

6840-516: Is still his piano works and songs from the 1830s and 1840s on which his reputation is primarily based. He had considerable influence in the nineteenth century and beyond. In the German-speaking world the composers Gustav Mahler , Richard Strauss , Arnold Schoenberg and more recently Wolfgang Rihm have been inspired by his music, as were French composers such as Georges Bizet , Gabriel Fauré , Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel . Schumann

7011-542: Is technically challenging for the pianist Schumann also wrote simpler pieces for young players, the best-known of which are his Album für die Jugend (Album for the Young, 1848) and Three Sonatas for Young People (1853). He also wrote some undemanding music with an eye to commercial sales, including the Blumenstück (Flower Piece) and Arabeske (both 1839), which he privately considered "feeble and intended for

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7182-401: Is the cycle of short, interrelated pieces, often programmatic , though seldom explicitly so. They include Carnaval , Fantasiestücke , Kreisleriana , Kinderszenen and Waldszenen (Wood Scenes). The critic J. A. Fuller Maitland wrote of the first of these, "Of all the pianoforte works [ Carnaval ] is perhaps the most popular; its wonderful animation and never-ending variety ensure

7353-403: Is the set Schumann wrote as a wedding present to Clara, Myrthen ( Myrtles – traditionally part of a bride's wedding bouquet), which the composer called a song cycle, although comprising twenty-six songs with lyrics from ten different writers this set is a less unified cycle than the others. In a study of Schumann's songs Eric Sams suggests that even here there is a unifying theme, namely

7524-617: Is today the national anthem of Germany. (Modern Austria uses a different anthem .) During the later years of this successful period, Haydn faced incipient old age and fluctuating health, and he had to struggle to complete his final works. His last major work, from 1802, was the sixth mass for the Esterházys, the Harmoniemesse . By the end of 1803, Haydn's condition had declined to the point that he became physically unable to compose. He suffered from weakness, dizziness, inability to concentrate and painfully swollen legs. Since diagnosis

7695-544: The Neue Zeitschrift für Musik titled " Neue Bahnen " (New Paths), extolling Brahms as a musician who was destined "to give expression to his times in ideal fashion". Hall writes that Brahms proved "a personal tower of strength to Clara during the difficult days ahead": in early 1854 Schumann's health deteriorated drastically. On 27 February he attempted suicide by throwing himself into the River Rhine . He

7866-687: The Musikverein on 1 January 1847 attracted a sparse and unenthusiastic audience, but in Berlin the performance of Das Paradies und die Peri was well received, and the tour gave Schumann the chance to see numerous operatic productions. In the words of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians , "A regular if not always approving member of the audience at performances of works by Donizetti , Rossini, Meyerbeer , Halévy and Flotow , he registered his 'desire to write operas' in his travel diary". The Schumanns suffered several blows during 1847, including

8037-524: The Surprise , Military , Drumroll and London symphonies; the Rider quartet; and the "Gypsy Rondo" piano trio. The great success of the overall enterprise does not mean that the journeys were free of trouble. Notably, his first project, the commissioned opera L'anima del filosofo was duly written during the early stages of the trip, but the opera's impresario John Gallini was unable to obtain

8208-743: The Alban Berg , Artemis and LaSalle quartets, and, after separately attending music colleges, they came to the attention of the Young Concert Artists Trust in 2006, where they were advised by Alasdair Tait . Early concerts in the UK include at the Wigmore Hall in London in 2004. The quartet won first prize at the 2008 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and second prize at the " Premio Paolo Borciani " International String Quartet Competition. The quartet toured Japan in

8379-663: The Cello Concerto (1850) remain in the concert repertoire and are well represented on record. The late Violin Concerto (1853) is less often heard but has received several recordings. Schumann composed a substantial quantity of chamber pieces, of which the best-known and most performed are the Piano Quintet in E ♭ major , Op. 44, the Piano Quartet in the same key (both 1842) and three piano trios,

8550-571: The Great C major Symphony . Ferdinand allowed him to take a copy away and Schumann arranged for the work's premiere, conducted by Mendelssohn in Leipzig on 21 March 1839. In the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik Schumann wrote enthusiastically about the work and described its " himmlische Länge " – its "heavenly length" – a phrase that has become common currency in later analyses of the symphony. Schumann and Clara finally married on 12 September 1840,

8721-430: The Mendelssohn on Mull Festival (from 2018). They have recorded for Chandos since 2009. The original quartet comprised Alex Redington and Jonathan Stone ( violins ), Chris Brown ( viola ) and John Myerscough ( cello ). There have been some changes in the line-up over the years: Hélène Clément replaced Tandree on viola in 2013, and Ying Xue replaced Stone as second violin in 2018. The current members are: The quartet

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8892-712: The Neue Zeitschrift , and in December the family moved to Dresden. Schumann had been passed over for the conductorship of the Leipzig Gewandhaus in succession to Mendelssohn, and he thought that Dresden, with a thriving opera house, might be the place where he could, as he now wished, become an operatic composer. His health remained poor. His doctor in Dresden reported complaints "from insomnia, general weakness, auditory disturbances, tremors, and chills in

9063-486: The Paris symphonies (1785–1786) and the original orchestral version of The Seven Last Words of Christ (1786), a commission from Cádiz , Spain. The remoteness of Eszterháza , which was farther from Vienna than Eisenstadt, led Haydn gradually to feel more isolated and lonely. He longed to visit Vienna because of his friendships there. Of these, a particularly important one was with Maria Anna von Genzinger (1754–1793),

9234-535: The Prince Consort . Although neglected after Schumann's death it remained popular throughout his lifetime and brought his name to international attention. During 1843 Mendelssohn invited him to teach piano and composition at the new Leipzig Conservatory , and Wieck approached him with an offer of reconciliation. Schumann gladly accepted both, although the resumed relationship with his father-in-law remained polite rather than close. In 1844 Clara embarked on

9405-488: The River Rhine but was rescued and taken to a private sanatorium near Bonn , where he lived for more than two years, dying there at the age of 46. During his lifetime Schumann was recognised for his piano music – often subtly programmatic – and his songs. His other works were less generally admired, and for many years there was a widespread belief that those from his later years lacked the inspiration of his early music. More recently this view has been less prevalent, but it

9576-684: The Symphony " and "Father of the String quartet". Haydn spent much of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Esterházy family at their Eszterháza Castle. Until the later part of his life, this isolated him from other composers and trends in music so that he was, as he put it, "forced to become original". Yet his music circulated widely, and for much of his career he was the most celebrated composer in Europe. The melody of his patriotic "Emperor's Hymn" " Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser ", (1797)

9747-582: The University of Heidelberg which, unlike Leipzig, offered courses in Roman , ecclesiastical and international law (as well as reuniting Schumann with his close friend Eduard Röller who was a student there). After matriculating at the university on 30 July 1829 he travelled in Switzerland and Italy from late August to late October. He was greatly taken with Rossini 's operas and the bel canto of

9918-410: The first and second from 1847 and the third from 1851. The Quintet was written for and dedicated to Clara Schumann. It is described by the musicologist Linda Correll Roesner as "a very 'public' and brilliant work that nonetheless manages to incorporate a private message" by quoting a theme composed by Clara. Schumann's writing for piano and string quartet – two violins, one viola and one cello –

10089-637: The 2008–9 season, after winning the Osaka competition. Their American debut came in 2010, with concerts in New York and Washington, and they have since visited the USA annually. They first toured Australia in 2019. The Australian composer Brett Dean wrote his String Quartet No. 3, Hidden Agendas , for the Doric. In 2010, the quartet premiered Peter Maxwell Davies 's Blake Dreaming at the Wigmore Hall, with

10260-426: The Doric's playing as "flamboyant when called for, but not otherwise; vibrato sparing but beautiful; ensemble impeccable – a true togetherness." Richard Wigmore, reviewing their series of Haydn recordings for Gramophone , describes them as "technically impeccable, commanding a wide palette of colour and dynamics" but states "they can be uncommonly free over tempo, occasionally to the point of mannerism." Philip Clark, in

10431-782: The English Channel on New Year's Day of 1791. It was the first time that the 58-year-old composer had seen the sea. Arriving in London, Haydn stayed with Salomon in Great Pulteney Street (London, near Piccadilly Circus ) working in a borrowed studio at the Broadwood piano firm nearby. It was the start of a very auspicious period for Haydn: both the 1791–1792 journey, along with a repeat visit in 1794–1795, were greatly successful. Audiences flocked to Haydn's concerts; he augmented his fame and made large profits, thus becoming financially secure. Charles Burney reviewed

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10602-481: The Frankh household was not easy for Haydn, who later remembered being frequently hungry and humiliated by the filthy state of his clothing. He began his musical training there, and could soon play both harpsichord and violin. He also sang treble parts in the church choir . There is reason to think that Haydn's singing impressed those who heard him, because in 1739 he was brought to the attention of Georg Reutter

10773-525: The German Lied . His affinity with the piano is heard in his accompaniments to his songs, notably in their preludes and postludes, the latter often summing up what has been heard in the song. Schumann acknowledged that he found orchestration a difficult art to master, and many analysts have criticised his orchestral writing. Conductors including Gustav Mahler , Max Reger , Arturo Toscanini , Otto Klemperer and George Szell have made changes to

10944-588: The King in London, in 1797 Haydn wrote a patriotic "Emperor's Hymn" " Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser ", ("God Save Emperor Francis"). This achieved great success and became "the enduring emblem of Austrian identity right up to the First World War" (Jones). The melody was used for von Fallersleben's Deutschlandlied (1841), which was written as part of the German unification movement and whose third stanza

11115-608: The US in 1987. She finds the work "full of high drama and supercharged emotion. In my opinion, it's very stageworthy, too. It’s not at all static". Unlike the opera, Schumann's secular oratorio Das Paradies und die Peri was an enormous success in his lifetime, although it has since been neglected. Tchaikovsky described it as a "divine work" and said he "knew nothing higher in all of music." The conductor Sir Simon Rattle called it "The great masterpiece you've never heard, and there aren't many of those now. ... In Schumann's life it

11286-518: The Wigmore Hall to have an in-house audience, with a programme of Mozart and Britten . In 2022, the Doric performed the complete set of Bartók quartets over three concerts on a single day at the Aldeburgh Festival ; Ivan Hewett , in a Telegraph review, described the concerts as "wonderful because they simply revealed the music in all its rich humanity, and gave it a special intimate quality I'd never been aware of before." The Doric

11457-570: The Younger , the director of music in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, who happened to be visiting Hainburg and was looking for new choirboys. Haydn passed his audition with Reutter, and after several months of further training moved to Vienna (1740), where he worked for the next nine years as a chorister. Haydn lived in the Kapellhaus next to the cathedral, along with Reutter, Reutter's family, and

11628-572: The age of eighteen, studying a traditional curriculum. In addition to his studies he read extensively: among his early enthusiasms were Schiller and Jean Paul . According to the musical historian George Hall, Paul remained Schumann's favourite author and exercised a powerful influence on the composer's creativity with his sensibility and vein of fantasy. Musically, Schumann got to know the works of Haydn , Mozart, Beethoven , and of living composers Carl Maria von Weber , with whom August Schumann tried unsuccessfully to arrange for Robert to study. August

11799-459: The baritone Roderick Williams ; and in 2015 or 2016, they premiered Donnacha Dennehy 's The Weather of It , also at the Wigmore. They were conducted by John Adams in his Absolute Jest for String Quartet and Orchestra, a "staggeringly challenging" piece which makes "fearsome demands" on the quartet. After the lifting of the coronavirus lockdown in 2020, the quartet gave the first concert at

11970-423: The bitter opposition of Wieck, who did not regard his pupil as a suitable husband for his daughter, Schumann married Clara in 1840. In the years immediately following their wedding Schumann composed prolifically, writing, first, songs and song‐cycles including Frauenliebe und Leben ("Woman's Love and Life") and Dichterliebe ("Poet's Love"). He turned his attention to orchestral music in 1841, completing

12141-416: The classics of literature in his father's collection. Intermittently, between the ages of three and five-and-a-half, he was placed with foster parents, as his mother had contracted typhus . At the age of six Schumann went to a private preparatory school, where he remained for four years. When he was seven he began studying general music and piano with the local organist, Johann Gottfried Kuntsch , and for

12312-593: The complete Britten string quartets at Snape Maltings , Aldeburgh , for which Clément was loaned the composer's own viola, an 1843 Giussani, by the Britten–Pears Foundation. She describes the instrument as having a "wonderfully light quality", an "expressive A string" and an "extremely rich and full" tone, with a "bright quality". During its association with the Mendelssohn on Mull Festival, the quartet recorded Mendelssohn's six string quartets , as well as

12483-432: The composer himself. Although during the twentieth century it became common practice to perform these cycles as a whole, in Schumann's time and beyond it was usual to extract individual songs for performance in recitals. The first documented public performance of a complete Schumann song cycle was not until 1861, five years after the composer's death; the baritone Julius Stockhausen sang Dichterliebe with Brahms at

12654-495: The composer wrote his first string quartets. Of them, Philip G. Downs said "they abound in novel effects and instrumental combinations that can only be the result of humorous intent". Their enthusiastic reception encouraged Haydn to write more. It was a turning point in his career. As a result of the performances, he became in great demand both as a performer and a teacher. Fürnberg later recommended Haydn to Count Morzin , who, in 1757, became his first full-time employer. His salary

12825-548: The composer's two quintets with the violist Timothy Ridout . Sources: Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( / ˈ h aɪ d ən / HY -dən ; German: [ˈfʁants ˈjoːzɛf ˈhaɪdn̩] ; 31 March 1732 – 31 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period . He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio . His contributions to musical form have led him to be called "Father of

12996-443: The composer), Friedrich Schorr , Alexander Kipnis and Richard Tauber , followed in a later generation by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau . Although in 1955 the authors of The Record Guide expressed regret that so few of Schumann's songs were available on record, by the early twenty-first century every song was on disc. A complete set was published in 2010 with the songs in chronological order of composition;

13167-698: The concert scene in London; "hardly a concert did not feature a work by him". Haydn's work was widely distributed by publishers in London, including Forster (who had their own contract with Haydn) and Longman & Broderip (who served as agent in England for Haydn's Vienna publisher Artaria ). Efforts to bring Haydn to London had been made since 1782, though Haydn's loyalty to Prince Nikolaus had prevented him from accepting. After fond farewells from Mozart and other friends, Haydn departed from Vienna with Salomon on 15 December 1790, arriving in Calais in time to cross

13338-467: The day before her twenty-first birthday. Hall writes that marriage gave Schumann "the emotional and domestic stability on which his subsequent achievements were founded". Clara made some sacrifices in marrying Schumann: as a pianist of international reputation she was the better-known of the two but her career was continually interrupted by motherhood of their seven children. She inspired Schumann in his composing career, encouraging him to extend his range as

13509-414: The death of their first son, Emil, born the year before, and the deaths of their friends Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn. A second son, Ludwig, and a third, Ferdinand, were born in 1848 and 1849. Genoveva , a four-act opera based on the medieval legend of Genevieve of Brabant , was premiered in Leipzig, conducted by the composer, in June 1850. There were two further performances immediately afterwards, but

13680-537: The deepest spirit of the Romantic era ", and concludes: "As both man and musician, Schumann is recognized as the quintessential artist of the Romantic period in German music. He was a master of lyric expression and dramatic power, perhaps best revealed in his outstanding piano music and songs ..." Schumann believed the aesthetics of all the arts were identical. In his music he aimed at a conception of art in which

13851-456: The earlier German masters, and in his three piano sonatas (composed between 1830 and 1836) and the Fantasie in C (1836) he showed his respect for the earlier Austro-German tradition. Absolute music such as those works is in the minority in his piano compositions, of which many are what Hall calls "character pieces with fanciful names". Schumann's most characteristic form in his piano music

14022-532: The edge of the repertory". With a large family to support, Schumann sought financial security and with the support of his wife he accepted a post as director of music at Düsseldorf in April 1850. Hall comments that in retrospect it can be seen that Schumann was fundamentally unsuited for the post. In Hall's view, Schumann's diffidence in social situations, allied to mental instability, "ensured that initially warm relations with local musicians gradually deteriorated to

14193-422: The esteem in his "Haydn" quartets . In 1785 Haydn was admitted to the same Masonic lodge as Mozart, the " Zur wahren Eintracht " in Vienna. In 1790, Prince Nikolaus died and was succeeded as prince by his son Anton . Following a trend of the time, Anton sought to economize by dismissing most of the court musicians. Haydn retained a nominal appointment with Anton, at a reduced salary of 400 florins, as well as

14364-579: The experience and had to depart at intermission. Haydn lived on for 14 more months. His final days were hardly serene, as in May 1809 the French army under Napoleon launched an attack on Vienna and on 10 May bombarded his neighborhood. According to Griesinger, "Four case shots fell, rattling the windows and doors of his house. He called out in a loud voice to his alarmed and frightened people, 'Don't be afraid, children, where Haydn is, no harm can reach you!'. But

14535-475: The favorable reception of his music." Haydn was especially respected by the Esterházy court musicians whom he supervised, as he maintained a cordial working atmosphere and effectively represented the musicians' interests with their employer; see Papa Haydn and the tale of the "Farewell" Symphony . Haydn had a robust sense of humor, evident in his love of practical jokes and often apparent in his music, and he had many friends. For much of his life he benefited from

14706-425: The feet, to a whole range of phobias". From the beginning of 1845 Schumann's health began to improve; he and Clara studied counterpoint together and both produced contrapuntal works for the piano. He added a slow movement and finale to the 1841 Phantasie for piano and orchestra, to create his Piano Concerto, Op. 54. The following year he worked on what was to be published as his Second Symphony , Op. 61. Progress on

14877-619: The financial precariousness of musical life made him astute and even sharp in his business dealings. Some contemporaries (usually, it has to be said, wealthy ones) were surprised and even shocked at this. Webster writes: "As regards money, Haydn…always attempted to maximize his income, whether by negotiating the right to sell his music outside the Esterházy court, driving hard bargains with publishers or selling his works three and four times over [to publishers in different countries]; he regularly engaged in 'sharp practice'" which nowadays might be regarded as plain fraud. But those were days when copyright

15048-490: The first of his four symphonies. In the following year he concentrated on chamber music, writing three string quartets , a Piano Quintet and a Piano Quartet . During the rest of the 1840s, between bouts of mental and physical ill health, he composed a variety of piano and other pieces and went with his wife on concert tours in Europe. His only opera, Genoveva (1850), was not a success and has seldom been staged since. Schumann and his family moved to Düsseldorf in 1850 in

15219-454: The first concert thus: "Haydn himself presided at the piano-forte; and the sight of that renowned composer so electrified the audience, as to excite an attention and a pleasure superior to any that had ever been caused by instrumental music in England." Haydn made many new friends and, for a time, was involved in a romantic relationship with Rebecca Schroeter . Musically, Haydn's visits to England generated some of his best-known work, including

15390-557: The first movement of a symphony (it was too thinly orchestrated according to Wieck and was never completed). An additional activity was journalism. From March 1834, along with Wieck and others, he was on the editorial board of a new music magazine, Neue Leipziger Zeitschrift für Musik (New Leipzig Music Magazine), which was reconstituted under his sole editorship in January 1835 as the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik . Hall writes that it took "a thoughtful and progressive line on

15561-633: The four and is influenced by Beethoven and Schubert. The Third Symphony (1851), known as the Rhenish , is, unusually for a symphony of its day, in five movements, and is the composer's nearest approach to pictorial symphonic music, with movements depicting a solemn religious ceremony in Cologne Cathedral and outdoor merrymaking of Rhinelanders. Schumann experimented with unconventional symphonic forms in 1841 in his Overture, Scherzo and Finale , Op. 52, sometimes described as "a symphony without

15732-474: The hope that his appointment as the city's director of music would provide financial security, but his shyness and mental instability made it difficult for him to work with his orchestra and he had to resign after three years. In 1853 the Schumanns met the twenty-year-old Johannes Brahms , whom Schumann praised in an article in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik . The following year Schumann's always-precarious mental health deteriorated gravely. He threw himself into

15903-604: The imperial children during carnival season, and as supplementary singers in the imperial chapel (the Hofkapelle ) in Lent and Holy Week. With the increase in his reputation, Haydn eventually obtained aristocratic patronage, crucial for the career of a composer in his day. Countess Thun, having seen one of Haydn's compositions, summoned him and engaged him as her singing and keyboard teacher. In 1756, Baron Carl Josef Fürnberg employed Haydn at his country estate, Weinzierl , where

16074-552: The influence of Schumann's". The first movement pitches against each other the forthright Florestan and dreamy Eusebius elements in Schumann's artistic nature – the vigorous opening bars succeeded by the wistful A minor theme that enters in the fourth bar. No other concerto or concertante work by Schumann has approached the popularity of the Piano Concerto, but the Concert Piece for Four Horns and Orchestra (1849) and

16245-434: The instrumentation before conducting his orchestral music. The music scholar Julius Harrison considers such alterations fruitless: "the essence of Schumann's warmly vibrant music resides in its forthright romantic appeal with all those personal traits, lovable characteristic and faults" that make up Schumann's artistic character. Hall comments that Schumann's orchestration has subsequently been more highly regarded because of

16416-683: The ladies". The authors of The Record Guide describe Schumann as "one of the four supreme masters of the German Lied ", alongside Schubert, Brahms and Hugo Wolf . The pianist Gerald Moore wrote that "after the unparalleled Franz Schubert", Schumann shares the second place in the hierarchy of the Lied with Wolf. Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians classes Schumann as "the true heir of Schubert" in Lieder . Schumann wrote more than 300 songs for voice and piano. They are known for

16587-617: The large-scale Carnaval , Davidsbündlertänze (Dances of the League of David), Fantasiestücke (Fantasy Pieces), Kreisleriana and Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood) (1834–1838). He was a co-founder of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (New Musical Journal) in 1834 and edited it for ten years. In his writing for the journal and in his music he distinguished between two contrasting aspects of his personality, dubbing these alter egos "Florestan" for his impetuous self and "Eusebius" for his gentle poetic side. Despite

16758-541: The later chamber works are the Sonata in A minor for Piano and Violin , Op. 105 – the first of three chamber pieces written in a two-month period of intense creativity in 1851 – followed by the Third Piano Trio and the Sonata in D minor for Violin and Piano , Op. 121. In addition to his chamber works for what were or were becoming standard combinations of instruments, Schumann wrote for some unusual groupings and

16929-649: The later years of the 1830s were marked by an unsuccessful attempt by Schumann to establish himself in Vienna, and a growing friendship with Mendelssohn, who was by then based in Leipzig, conducting the Gewandhaus Orchestra . During this period Schumann wrote many piano works, including Kreisleriana (1837), Davidsbündlertänze (1837), Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood, 1838) and Faschingsschwank aus Wien (Carnival Prank from Vienna, 1839). In 1838 Schumann visited Schubert's brother Ferdinand and discovered several manuscripts including that of

17100-419: The law as a career, he wrote to his mother on 30 July 1830 telling her how he saw his future: "My entire life has been a twenty-year struggle between poetry and prose, or call it music and law". He persuaded her to ask Wieck for an objective assessment of his musical potential. Wieck's verdict was that with the necessary hard work Schumann could become a leading pianist within three years. A six-month trial period

17271-560: The law as a profession. After his final examinations at the Lyceum in March 1828 he entered Leipzig University . Accounts differ about his diligence as a law student. According to his roommate Emil Flechsig  [ de ] , he never set foot in a lecture hall, but he himself recorded, "I am industrious and regular, and enjoy my jurisprudence  ... and am only now beginning to appreciate its true worth". Nonetheless reading and playing

17442-428: The mid-1840s), either because of his declining health, or because his increasingly orthodox approach to composition deprived his music of the Romantic spontaneity of the earlier works. The late-nineteenth century composer Felix Draeseke commented "Schumann started as a genius and ended as a talent". In the view of the composer and oboeist Heinz Holliger , "certain works of his early and middle period are praised to

17613-554: The mid-1990s smaller ensembles such as the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées with Philippe Herreweghe and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique with John Eliot Gardiner have recorded historically informed readings of Schumann's orchestral music. The songs featured in the recorded repertoire from the early days of the gramophone, with performances by singers such as Elisabeth Schumann (no relation to

17784-500: The most popular Romantic piano concertos. In the mid-twentieth century, when the symphonies were less well regarded than they later became, the concerto was described in The Record Guide as "the one large-scale work of Schumann's which is by general consent an entire success". The pianist Susan Tomes comments, "In the era of recording it has often been paired with Grieg's Piano Concerto (also in A minor) which clearly shows

17955-400: The mounting of operatic productions. Despite this backbreaking workload, the job was in artistic terms a superb opportunity for Haydn. The Esterházy princes (Paul Anton, then from 1762 to 1790 Nikolaus I ) were musical connoisseurs who appreciated his work and gave him daily access to his own small orchestra. During the nearly thirty years that Haydn worked at the Esterházy court, he produced

18126-423: The name of her home town, Asch . The Symphonic Studies are based on a melody said to be by Ernestine's father, Baron von Fricken, an amateur flautist. Schumann and Ernestine became secretly engaged, but in the view of the musical scholar Joan Chissell , during 1835 Schumann gradually found that Ernestine's personality was not as interesting to him as he first thought, and this, together with his discovery that she

18297-469: The name of the Lord] and ended with Laus Deo [praise be to God]. He retained this practice even in his secular works; he frequently only uses the initials "L. D.", "S. D. G." [ soli Deo gloria ], or Laus Deo et B. V. M. [... and to Beatae Virgini Mariae ] and sometimes adds, "et om si " ( et omnibus sanctis – and all saints) Haydn's early years of poverty and awareness of

18468-704: The new music of the day". Among the contributors were friends and colleagues of Schumann, writing under pen names: he included them in his Davidsbündler (League of David) – a band of fighters for musical truth, named after the Biblical hero who fought against the Philistines – a product of the composer's imagination in which, blurring the boundaries of imagination and reality, he included his musical friends. During successive months in 1835 Schumann met three musicians whom he regarded with particular respect: Felix Mendelssohn , Chopin and Moscheles. Of these, he

18639-504: The next ten years produced about 200 works for this instrument in various ensembles, the most notable of which are the 126 baryton trios . Around 1775, the prince abandoned the baryton and took up a new hobby: opera productions, previously a sporadic event for special occasions, became the focus of musical life at court, and the opera theater the prince had built at Esterháza came to host a major season, with multiple productions each year. Haydn served as company director, recruiting and training

18810-496: The order of themes compared to the exposition and uses extensive thematic development . Haydn's formal inventiveness also led him to integrate the fugue into the classical style and to enrich the rondo form with more cohesive tonal logic (see sonata rondo form ). Haydn was also the principal exponent of the double variation form—variations on two alternating themes, which are often major- and minor-mode versions of each other. Perhaps more than any other composer's, Haydn's music

18981-705: The organ in the Bohemian Chancellery chapel at the Judenplatz . While a chorister, Haydn had not received any systematic training in music theory and composition. As a remedy, he worked his way through the counterpoint exercises in the text Gradus ad Parnassum by Johann Joseph Fux and carefully studied the work of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach , whom he later acknowledged as an important influence. He said of CPE Bach's first six keyboard sonatas, "I did not leave my clavier till I played them through, and whoever knows me thoroughly must discover that I owe

19152-491: The other a worldly realist – both in love with the same woman at a masked ball. Schumann had by now come to regard himself as having two distinct sides to his personality and art: he dubbed his introspective, pensive self "Eusebius" and the impetuous and dynamic alter ego "Florestan". Reviewing an early work of Chopin in 1831 he wrote: Schumann's pianistic ambitions were ended by a growing paralysis in at least one finger of his right hand. The early symptoms had come while he

19323-480: The other four choirboys, which after 1745 included his younger brother Michael . The choirboys were instructed in Latin and other school subjects as well as voice, violin, and keyboard. Reutter was of little help to Haydn in the areas of music theory and composition, giving him only two lessons in his entire time as chorister. However, since St. Stephen's was one of the leading musical centres in Europe, Haydn learned

19494-412: The piano and playing his " Emperor's Hymn ". A final triumph occurred on 27 March 1808 when a performance of The Creation was organized in his honour. The very frail composer was brought into the hall on an armchair to the sound of trumpets and drums and was greeted by Beethoven, Salieri (who led the performance) and by other musicians and members of the aristocracy. Haydn was both moved and exhausted by

19665-549: The piano occupied a good deal of his time, and he developed expensive tastes for champagne and cigars. Musically, he discovered the works of Franz Schubert , whose death in November 1828 caused Schumann to cry all night. The leading piano teacher in Leipzig was Friedrich Wieck , who recognised Schumann's talent and accepted him as a pupil. After a year in Leipzig Schumann convinced his mother that he should move to

19836-582: The piano. Stockhausen also gave the first complete performances of Frauenliebe und Leben and the Op. 24 Liederkreis . After his Liederjahr Schumann returned in earnest to writing songs after a break of several years. Hall describes the variety of the songs as immense, and comments that some of the later songs are entirely different in mood from the composer's earlier Romantic settings. Schumann's literary sensibilities led him to create in his songs an equal partnership between words and music unprecedented in

20007-593: The piece was not the success Schumann had been hoping for. In a 2005 study of the composer, Eric Frederick Jensen attributes this to Schumann's operatic style: "not tuneful and simplistic enough for the majority, not 'progressive' enough for the Wagnerians ". Franz Liszt , who was in the first-night audience, revived Genoveva at Weimar in 1855 – the only other production of the opera in Schumann's lifetime. Since then, according to Kobbé's Opera Book , despite occasional revivals Genoveva has remained "far from even

20178-422: The poetic was the main element. According to the musicologist Carl Dahlhaus , for Schumann, "music was supposed to turn into a tone poem , to rise above the realm of the trivial, of tonal mechanics, by means of its spirituality and soulfulness". In the late nineteenth century and most of the twentieth it was widely held that the music of Schumann's later years was less inspired than his earlier works (up to about

20349-407: The point of torture, I cannot escape them, they stand like walls before me. If it's an allegro that pursues me, my pulse keeps beating faster, I can get no sleep. If it's an adagio , then I notice my pulse beating slowly. My imagination plays on me as if I were a clavier." Haydn smiled, the blood rushed to his face, and he said "I am really just a living clavier." The winding down of Haydn's career

20520-488: The point that he was no longer able to sing high choral parts. Empress Maria Theresa herself complained to Reutter about his singing, calling it "crowing". One day, Haydn carried out a prank, snipping off the pigtail of a fellow chorister. This was enough for Reutter: Haydn was first caned , then summarily dismissed and sent into the streets. He had the good fortune to be taken in by a friend, Johann Michael Spangler, who shared his family's crowded garret room with Haydn for

20691-504: The point where his removal became a necessity in 1853". During 1850 Schumann composed two substantial late works – the Third ( Rhenish ) Symphony and the Cello Concerto . He continued to compose prolifically, and reworked some of his earlier works, including the D minor symphony from 1841, published as his Fourth Symphony (1851), and the 1835 Symphonic Studies (1852). In 1853 the twenty-year-old Johannes Brahms called on Schumann with

20862-457: The production of its full effect, and its great and various difficulties make it the best possible test of a pianist's skill and versatility". Schumann continually inserted into his piano works veiled allusions to himself and others – particularly Clara – in the form of ciphers and musical quotations. His self-references include both the impetuous "Florestan" and the poetic "Eusebius" elements he identified in himself. Although some of his music

21033-460: The proposed marriage, but he was mistaken: Wieck refused his consent, fearing that Schumann would be unable to provide for his daughter, that she would have to abandon her career, and that she would be legally required to relinquish her inheritance to her husband. It took a series of acrimonious legal actions over the next four years for Schumann to obtain a court ruling that he and Clara were free to marry without her father's consent. Professionally

21204-455: The public, often leading performances of The Creation and The Seasons for charity benefits, including Tonkünstler-Societät programs with massed musical forces. He also composed instrumental music: the popular Trumpet Concerto , and the last nine in his long series of string quartets, including the Fifths , Emperor , and Sunrise . Directly inspired by hearing audiences sing God Save

21375-409: The quality of the texts he set: Hall comments that the composer's youthful appreciation of literature was constantly renewed in adult life. Although Schumann greatly admired Goethe and Schiller and set a few of their verses, his favoured poets for lyrics were the later Romantics such as Heine , Eichendorff and Mörike . Among the best-known of the songs are those in four cycles composed in 1840 –

21546-647: The quartet began to use Classical (transitional-period) bows made by Luis Emilio Rodriguez Carrington for repertoire as late as Mendelssohn. Myerscough states that while the Classical bows generate a quieter sound and require more work from the player, they increase the clarity, responsiveness and range of articulation. Toby Deller, writing in The Strad , characterises the Doric's work as having "clearly shaped phrasing, clean articulation, distinct voicing and uncannily immaculate ensemble playing". Charles T. Downey, in

21717-477: The same evening he collapsed and was taken to what proved to be to his deathbed. He died peacefully in his own home at 12:40 a.m. on 31 May 1809, aged 77. On 15 June, a memorial service was held in the Schottenkirche at which Mozart's Requiem was performed. Haydn's remains were interred in the local Hundsturm cemetery until 1820, when they were moved to Eisenstadt by Prince Nikolaus. His head took

21888-626: The singers and preparing and leading the performances. He wrote several of the operas performed and wrote substitution arias to insert into the operas of other composers. 1779 was a watershed year for Haydn, as his contract was renegotiated: whereas previously all his compositions were the property of the Esterházy family, he now was permitted to write for others and sell his work to publishers. Haydn soon shifted his emphasis in composition to reflect this (fewer operas, and more quartets and symphonies) and he negotiated with multiple publishers, both Austrian and foreign. His new employment contract "acted as

22059-529: The skies, while on the other hand a pious veil of silence obscures the more sober, austere and concentrated works of the late period". More recently the later works have been viewed more favourably; Hall suggests that this is because they are now played more often in concert and in recording studios, and have "the beneficial effects of period performance practice as it has come to be applied to mid-19th-century music". Schumann's works in some other musical genres – particularly orchestral and operatic works – have had

22230-500: The soprano Giuditta Pasta ; he wrote to Wieck, "one can have no notion of Italian music without hearing it under Italian skies". Another influence on him was hearing the violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini play in Frankfurt in April 1830. In the words of one biographer, "The easy-going discipline at Heidelberg University helped the world to lose a bad lawyer and to gain a great musician". Finally deciding in favour of music rather than

22401-453: The spirit was stronger than the flesh, for he had hardly uttered the brave words when his whole body began to tremble." More bombardments followed until the city fell to the French on 13 May. Haydn, was, however, deeply moved and appreciative when on 17 May a French cavalry officer named Sulémy came to pay his respects and sang, skillfully, an aria from The Creation . On 26 May Haydn played his "Emperor's Hymn" with unusual gusto three times;

22572-447: The string quartet; no other composer approaches his combination of productivity, quality and historical importance in these genres. A central characteristic of Haydn's music is the development of larger structures out of very short, simple musical motifs , often derived from standard accompanying figures. The music is often quite formally concentrated, and the important musical events of a movement can unfold rather quickly. Haydn's work

22743-465: The theme on which the variations are based. The use of a musical cryptogram became a recurrent characteristic of Schumann's later music. In 1831 he began lessons in harmony and counterpoint with Heinrich Dorn , musical director of the Saxon court theatre, and in 1832 he published his Op. 2, Papillons (Butterflies) for piano, a programmatic piece depicting twin brothers – one a poetic dreamer,

22914-540: The third section was successfully performed in Dresden, Leipzig and Weimar in 1849 to mark the centenary of Goethe's birth. Jensen comments that its good reception is surprising as Schumann made no concessions to popular taste: "The music is not particularly tuneful ... There are no arias for Faust or Gretchen in the grand manner". The complete work was first given in 1862 in Cologne , six years after Schumann's death. Schumann's other works for voice and orchestra include

23085-492: The university. The symphony performed for the occasion, no. 92 has since come to be known as the Oxford Symphony , although it had been written two years before, in 1789. Four further new symphonies (Nos. 93 , 94 , 97 and 98 ) were performed in early 1792. While traveling to London in 1790, Haydn had met the young Ludwig van Beethoven in his native city of Bonn . On Haydn's return, Beethoven came to Vienna and

23256-427: The violinist Giovanni Battista Viotti . These were the venue of the last three symphonies, 102, 103, and 104. The final benefit concert for Haydn ("Dr. Haydn's night") at the end of the 1795 season was a great success and was perhaps the peak of his English career. Haydn's biographer Griesinger wrote that Haydn "considered the days spent in England the happiest of his life. He was everywhere appreciated there; it opened

23427-519: The wife of Prince Nikolaus's personal physician in Vienna, who began a close, platonic relationship with the composer in 1789. Haydn wrote to Mrs. Genzinger often, expressing his loneliness at Esterháza and his happiness for the few occasions on which he was able to visit her in Vienna. Later on, Haydn wrote to her frequently from London. Her premature death in 1793 was a blow to Haydn, and his F minor variations for piano, Hob. XVII:6, may have been written in response to her death. Another friend in Vienna

23598-399: The work was slow, interrupted by further bouts of ill health. When the symphony was complete he began work on his opera, Genoveva , which was not completed until August 1848. Between 24 November 1846 and 4 February 1847 the Schumanns toured to Vienna, Berlin and other cities. The Viennese leg of the tour was not a success. The performance of Schumann's First Symphony and Piano Concerto at

23769-400: The work with a preconceived idea of what an opera must be like, and finding that Genoveva did not match their preconceptions they condemned it out of hand. In Harnoncourt's view it is a mistake to look for a dramatic plot in this opera: Harnoncourt's view of the lack of drama in the opera contrasts with that of Victoria Bond , who conducted the work's first professional stage production in

23940-416: The world of business, in his dealings, for example, with relatives, musicians and servants, and in volunteering his services for charitable concerts, Haydn was a generous man – e.g., offering to teach the two infant sons of Mozart for free after their father's death. When Haydn died he was certainly comfortably off, but by middle class rather than aristocratic standards. Haydn was short in stature, perhaps as

24111-480: The year a second symphony was premiered and was less enthusiastically received. Schumann revised it ten years later and published it as his Fourth Symphony . Brahms preferred the original, more lightly-scored version, which is occasionally performed and has been recorded, but the revised 1851 score is more usually played. The work now called the Second Symphony (1846) is structurally the most classical of

24282-451: Was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , whom Haydn had met sometime around 1784. According to later testimony by Michael Kelly and others, the two composers occasionally played in string quartets with Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (second violin) and Johann Baptist Wanhal (cello) for small gatherings attended by Giovanni Paisiello and Giovanni Battista Casti . Impressed by Mozart's work, Haydn praised it unstintingly to others. Mozart returned

24453-448: Was "Bernardon". The work was premiered successfully in 1753, but was soon closed down by the censors due to "offensive remarks". Haydn also noticed, apparently without annoyance, that works he had simply given away were being published and sold in local music shops. Between 1754 and 1756 Haydn also worked freelance for the court in Vienna. He was among several musicians who were paid for services as supplementary musicians at balls given for

24624-474: Was Haydn's pupil up until the second London journey. Haydn took Beethoven with him to Eisenstadt for the summer, where Haydn had little to do, and taught Beethoven some counterpoint . While in Vienna, Haydn purchased a house for himself and his wife in the suburbs and started remodeling it. He also arranged for the performance of some of his London symphonies in local concerts. By the time he arrived on his second journey to England (1794–1795), Haydn had become

24795-453: Was a German composer, pianist, and music critic of the early Romantic era . He composed in all the main musical genres of the time, writing for solo piano, voice and piano, chamber groups , orchestra, choir and the opera. His works typify the spirit of the Romantic era in German music. Schumann was born in Zwickau , Saxony, to an affluent middle-class family with no musical connections, and

24966-473: Was a respectable 200 florins a year, plus free board and lodging. Haydn's job title under Count Morzin was Kapellmeister , that is, music director. He led the count's small orchestra in Unterlukawitz and wrote his first symphonies for this ensemble – perhaps numbering in the double figures. Philip Downs comments of these first symphonies: "the seeds of the future are there, his works already exhibit

25137-420: Was a setback to Schumann's career: he had a severe and debilitating mental crisis. This was not the first such attack, although it was the worst so far. Hall writes that he had been subject to similar attacks at intervals over a long period, and comments that the condition may have been congenital, affecting August Schumann and Emilie, the composer's sister. Later in the year, Schumann, having recovered, completed

25308-420: Was agreed. Later in 1830 Schumann published his Op. 1, a set of piano variations on a theme based on the name of its supposed dedicatee, Countess Pauline von Abegg (who was almost certainly a product of Schumann's imagination). The notes A-B♭-E-G-G (A-B-E-G-G in German nomenclature, which uses "B" for the note known elsewhere as B♭ and "H" for the note known elsewhere as B[♮]), played in waltz tempo, make up

25479-586: Was also a major influence on the Russian school of composers, including Anton Rubinstein and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky . Robert Schumann was born in Zwickau , in the Kingdom of Saxony (today the German state of Saxony ), into an affluent middle-class family. On 13 June 1810 the local newspaper, the Zwickauer Wochenblatt (Zwickau Weekly Paper), carried the announcement, "On 8 June to Herr August Schumann , notable citizen and bookseller here,

25650-441: Was an illegitimate, impecunious, adopted daughter of Fricken, brought the affair to a gradual end. According to the biographer Alan Walker , Ernestine may have been less than frank with Schumann about her background and he was hurt when he learnt the truth. Schumann felt a growing attraction to Wieck's daughter, the sixteen-year-old Clara . She was her father's star pupil, a piano virtuoso emotionally mature beyond her years, with

25821-509: Was central to the development of what came to be called sonata form . His practice, however, differed in some ways from that of Mozart and Beethoven , his younger contemporaries who likewise excelled in this form of composition. Haydn was particularly fond of the so-called monothematic exposition , in which the music that establishes the dominant key is similar or identical to the opening theme. Haydn also differs from Mozart and Beethoven in his recapitulation sections, where he often rearranges

25992-436: Was disfigured by the polyps he suffered during much of his adult life, an agonizing and debilitating disease that at times prevented him from writing music. James Webster summarizes Haydn's role in the history of classical music as follows: He excelled in every musical genre. [...] He is familiarly known as the "father of the symphony" because he composed 107 symphonies, and could with greater justice be thus regarded for

26163-700: Was formed for a London String Quartet Foundation symposium, although Redington, Brown and Myerscough already knew each other having attended Pro Corda in Suffolk together as children. They gained early exposure after winning the Bristol Millennium Chamber Music Competition at the age of eighteen, which led to a residency at the Wiltshire Music Centre . From 2002, the Doric studied with ProQuartet in Paris with

26334-406: Was gradual. The Esterházy family kept him on as Kapellmeister to the very end (much as they had with his predecessor Werner long before), but they appointed new staff to lead their musical establishment: Johann Michael Fuchs in 1802 as Vice-Kapellmeister and Johann Nepomuk Hummel as Konzertmeister in 1804. Haydn's last summer in Eisenstadt was in 1803, and his last appearance before the public as

26505-663: Was in contrast with earlier piano quintets with different combinations of instruments, such as Schubert's Trout Quintet (1819). Schumann's ensemble became the template for later composers including Brahms, Franck , Fauré , Dvořák and Elgar . Roesner describes the Quartet as equally brilliant as the Quintet but also more intimate. Schumann composed a set of three string quartets (Op. 41, 1842). Dahlhaus comments that after this Schumann avoided writing for string quartet, finding Beethoven's achievements in that genre daunting. Among

26676-410: Was in its infancy, and the pirating of musical works was common. Publishers had few qualms about attaching Haydn's name to popular works by lesser composers, an arrangement that effectively robbed the lesser musician of livelihood. Webster notes that Haydn's ruthlessness in business might be viewed more sympathetically in light of his struggles with poverty during his years as a freelancer—and that outside

26847-492: Was initially unsure whether to pursue a career as a lawyer or to make a living as a pianist-composer. He studied law at the universities of Leipzig and Heidelberg but his main interests were music and Romantic literature . From 1829 he was a student of the piano teacher Friedrich Wieck , but his hopes for a career as a virtuoso pianist were frustrated by a worsening problem with his right hand, and he concentrated on composition. His early works were mainly piano pieces, including

27018-547: Was likely to distress all concerned and reduce the chances of recovery. Friends, including Brahms and Joachim, were permitted to visit Schumann but Clara did not see her husband until nearly two and a half years into his confinement, and only two days before his death. Schumann died at the sanatorium aged 46 on 29 July 1856, the cause of death being recorded as pneumonia . Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (2001) begins its entry on Schumann: "[G]reat German composer of surpassing imaginative power whose music expressed

27189-526: Was most influenced in his compositions by Mendelssohn, although the latter's restrained classicism is reflected in Schumann's later works rather than in those of the 1830s. Early in 1835 he completed two substantial compositions: Carnaval , Op. 9 and the Symphonic Studies , Op.13. These works grew out of his romantic relationship with Ernestine von Fricken  [ de ] , a fellow pupil of Wieck. The musical themes of Carnaval derive from

27360-566: Was musically gifted and knew that in Rohrau he would have no chance to obtain serious musical training. It was for this reason that, around the time Haydn turned six, they accepted a proposal from their relative Johann Matthias Frankh, the schoolmaster and choirmaster in Hainburg , that Haydn be apprenticed to Frankh in his home to train as a musician. Haydn therefore went off with Frankh to Hainburg and he never again lived with his parents. Life in

27531-404: Was not a great success in Schumann's lifetime and has continued to be a rarity in the opera house. From its premiere onwards the work was criticised on the grounds that it is "an evening of Lieder and nothing much else happens". The conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt , who championed the work, blamed music critics for the low esteem in which the work is held. He maintained that they all approached

27702-401: Was not particularly musical but he encouraged his son's interest in music, buying him a Streicher grand piano and organising trips to Leipzig for a performance of Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) and Carlsbad to hear the celebrated pianist Ignaz Moscheles . August Schumann died in 1826; his widow was less enthusiastic about a musical career for her son and persuaded him to study for

27873-481: Was often flexible about which instruments a work called for: in his Adagio and Allegro , Op. 70 the pianist may, according to the composer, be joined by either a horn, a violin or a cello, and in the Fantasiestücke , Op. 73 the pianist may be duetting with a clarinet, violin or cello. His Andante and Variations (1843) for two pianos, two cellos and a horn later became a piece for just the pianos. Genoveva

28044-647: Was premiered by Mendelssohn at a concert in the Gewandhaus at which Clara played Chopin's Second Piano Concerto and some of Schumann's works for solo piano. His next orchestral works were the Overture, Scherzo and Finale , the Phantasie for piano and orchestra (which later became the first movement of the Piano Concerto ) and a new symphony (eventually published as the Fourth, in D minor ). Clara gave birth to

28215-408: Was quickly offered a similar job (1761) by Prince Paul Anton , head of the immensely wealthy Esterházy family . Haydn's job title was only Vice-Kapellmeister, but he was immediately placed in charge of most of the Esterházy musical establishment, with the old Kapellmeister Gregor Werner retaining authority only for church music. When Werner died in 1766, Haydn was elevated to full Kapellmeister. As

28386-407: Was rescued by fishermen, and at his own request he was admitted to a private sanatorium at Endenich , near Bonn , on 4 March. He remained there for more than two years, gradually deteriorating, with intermittent intervals of lucidity during which he wrote and received letters and sometimes essayed some composition. The director of the sanatorium held that direct contact between patients and relatives

28557-475: Was still a student at Heidelberg, and the cause is uncertain. He tried all the treatments then in vogue including allopathy , homeopathy , and electric therapy, but without success. The condition had the advantage of exempting him from compulsory military service – he could not fire a rifle – but by 1832 he recognised that a career as a virtuoso pianist was impossible and he shifted his main focus to composition. He completed further sets of small piano pieces and

28728-419: Was stronger in his praise of Mozart: "Serenity, repose, grace, the characteristics of the antique works of art, are also those of Mozart's school. The Greeks gave to 'The Thunderer' a radiant expression, and radiantly does Mozart launch his lightnings". After his studies Schumann produced three string quartets, a Piano Quintet (premiered in 1843) and a Piano Quartet (premiered in 1844). In early 1843 there

28899-399: Was the most popular piece he ever wrote, it was performed endlessly. Every composer loved it. Wagner wrote how jealous he was that Schumann had done it". Based on an episode from Thomas Moore 's epic poem Lalla Rookh it reflects the exotic, colourful tales from Persian mythology popular in the nineteenth century. In a letter to a friend in 1843 Schumann said, "at the moment I'm involved in

29070-424: Was uncertain in Haydn's time, it is unlikely that the precise illness can ever be identified, though Jones suggests arteriosclerosis . The illness was especially hard for Haydn because the flow of fresh musical ideas continued unabated, although he could no longer work them out as compositions. His biographer Dies reported Haydn saying in 1806: I must have something to do—usually musical ideas are pursuing me, to

29241-560: Was used for von Fallersleben's Deutschlandlied (1841), whose third stanza is today the national anthem of Germany. He was a friend and mentor of Mozart , a tutor of Beethoven , and the elder brother of composer Michael Haydn . Joseph Haydn was born in Rohrau , Austria, a village that at that time stood on the border with Hungary. His father was Mathias Haydn , a wheelwright who also served as "Marktrichter", or marketplace supervisor. Haydn's mother Maria, née Koller, had worked as

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