Part 7 (1/2)

Royalty Again

In this same month--November--he visited the Marionettes at the Fantoccini Theatre in Saville Row, prompted, no doubt, by old associations with Esterhaz On the 24th he went to Oatlands to visit the Duke of York, who had just married the Princess of Prussia ”I reraciousness and honour On the third day the Duke had me taken twelve miles towards toith his own horses The Prince of Wales asked for my portrait

For two days we , ie, froht Then we had supper, and at three o'clock went to bed” After this he proceeded to Cae to see the university, thence to Sir Patrick Blake's at Langhae visit he writes: ”Each university has behind it a very rooes, in order to afford passage over the strea's Chapel is fa It is all of stone, but so delicate that nothing more beautiful could have been made of wood It has already stood for 400 years, and everybody judges its age at about ten years, because of the firmness and peculiar whiteness of the stone The students bear themselves like those at Oxford, but it is said they have better instructors There are in all 800 students”

Froham he went to the house of a Mr Shaw, to find in his hostess the ”most beautiful wo, was alwaysthe ”es, another of his London admirers When quite an oldhis visit, and on which his naold

Pleyel in Opposition

But other ed his attention The directors of the Professional Concerts, desiring to take advantage of his popularity, endeavoured to ements with Salomon and Gallini

In this they failed ”I will not,” said Haydn, ”break my word to Gallini and Saloain induce one to so much expense on ainers by it”

Thus defeated in their object, the Professionals decided to bring over Haydn's own pupil, Ignaz Pleyel, to beat the Gerround

It was not easy to upset Haydn's equanientle nature, coupled with past experiences, enabled him to take it all very calmly ”From my youth upwards,” he wrote, ”I have been exposed to envy, so it does not surprise me when any attehty above is my support There is no doubt that I find many who are envious of me in London also, and I know them almost all Most of them are Italians But they can do me no harm, for my credit with this nation has been established far too h with his rivals At first he wrote of Pleyel: ”He behaves hireat modesty” Later on he remarked that ”Pleyel's presuo to all his concerts, for I love him” It is very pleasant to read all this But how far Haydn's feelings towards Pleyel were influenced by patriotic considerations it is impossible to say

The defeated Professionals had a certain advantage by being first in the field in 1792 But Haydn was only a few days behind the concert, and the success of the entire series was in no way affected by the ridiculous rivalry Sy quartets, a clavier trio, airs, a cantata, and other works were all produced at these concerts, and with almost invariable applause Nor were Haydn's services entirely confined to the Salo Barthelemon, the violinist; Haesler, the pianist; and Madam Mara, of who the ”Hallelujah” Chorus

Close of the Season

The last concert was given on June 6 ”by desire,” when Haydn's compositions were received with ”an extasy of ad Chronicle put it, with the greatest eclat Haydn's subsequent

He made excursions to Windsor Castle and to Ascot ”to see the races,” of which he has given an account in his note-book

Herschel and Haydn

Froh, where he was introduced to Herschel In this case there was so like real co once played the oboe, and later on acted as organist, first at Halifax Parish Church, and then at the Octagon Chapel Bath The big telescope hich he discovered the planet Uranus in 1781 was an object of great interest to Haydn, as evidently a out of doors ”in the most intense cold for five or six hours at a time”

Visits were also paid to Vauxhall Gardens, where ”the ” ”The place and its diversions,” adds Haydn, ”have no equal in the world”

At St Paul's

But theof the Charity Children in St Paul's Cathedral, when so like 4000 juveniles took part ”I was more touched,” he says in his diary, ”by this innocent and reverent music than by any I ever heard inchant by John Jones: [Jones was organist of St Paul's Cathedral at this time His chant, which was really in the key of D, has since been supplanted Haydn ure: a h Berlioz was impressed exactly in the same hen he heard the Charity Children in 1851 He was in London as a juror at the Great Exhibition; and along with his friend, the late G A Osborne, he donned a surplice and sang bass in the select choir He was sothat he hid his face behind his music and wept

”It was,” he says, ”the realization of one part of my dreams, and a proof that the powerful effect of musical masses is still absolutely unknown” [See Berlioz's Life and Letters, English edition, Vol I, p

281]

London Acquaintances

Haydnthis London visit

Besides those already raver, to whose wife he dedicated three clavier trios and a sonata in E flat (Op 78), which, so far unprinted in Geriven by Sterndale Bennett in his Classical Practice There was also John Hunter, described by Haydn as ”the greatest and us in London,” who vainly tried to persuade him to have a polypus removed from his nose It was Mrs Hunter rote the words for”My ton, the fael of beauty and the Saint Cecilia of song” There is no more familiar anecdote than that which connects Haydn with Sir Joshua Reynolds's portrait of this notorious character Carpani is responsible for the tale He says that Haydn one day found Mrs Billington sitting to Reynolds, as painting her as St Cecilia listening to the angels ”It is like,” said Haydn, ”but there is a strange mistake” ”What is that?” asked Reynolds ”You have painted her listening to the angels You ought to have represented the angels listening to her” It is a very pretty story, but it cannot possibly be true Reynolds's portrait of Mrs Billington was painted in 1789, two years before Haydn's arrival, and was actually shown in the Academy Exhibition of 1790, the last to which Sir Joshua contributed [The portrait, a whole length, was sold in 1798 for 325 pounds, 10s, and again at Christie's, in 1845, for 505 guineas--to an American, as usual] Of course Haydn may have made the witty remark here attributed to hi of the portrait That he was an enthusiastic adton there can be no doubt

Another Romance

There was another intimacy of th When Dies published his biography of Haydn in 1810 he referred to a batch of love-letters written to the co this visit to London The existence of the letters was known to Pohl, who devotes a part of his Haydn in London to them, and prints certain extracts; but the letters theinal English or in a German translation until Mr Henry E Krehbiel, the well-known Ah the columns of the New York Tribune Mr Krehbiel was enabled to do this by co into possession of a transcript of Haydn's London note-book, hich ill deal presently Haydn, as he infor which tells its own story touching his feelings towards the missives and their fair author” He preserved the the souvenirs of his visit, and when Dies asked hilishin London who loved h sixty years old, she was still lovely and amiable, and I should in all likelihood have le” Who was the lady thus celebrated? In Haydn's note-book the following entry occurs: ”Mistress Schroeter, No 6 Jaham Gate” The inquiry is here answered: Mistress Schroeter was the lady

Mistress Schroeter