DAILY DOSE of BEETHOVEN (October 21, 2020)
In this series, we will examine an explosion in creativity over a period of only 30 years (1771-1801), and the agapic love between creative minds which made it possible. The three composers cited are from three different generations. Their birth years are as follows:
Haydn 1732
Mozart 1756
Beethoven 1770
Mozart called Haydn "Papa Haydn", and indeed it was like a father-son relationship. In 1771, at the age of fifteen, Mozart took a new Symphony by Haydn, Symphony No. 42 in D Major, and wrote it out note by note in order to learn from it. He then proceeded to compose his own Symphony No. 20 in D major, in 1772.
Why did he study this work in particular? A leading Haydn scholar, the late H.D. Robbins Landon, reports that Haydn made a breakthrough in 1771, and suggested comparing the slow movement of this symphony, which sings beautifully, to any earlier one, which he proposed would sound more "stiff". Here is the slow movement from Symphony No. 42, which really does sing:
and here is the Andante from Symphony No. 39, of only a couple of years earlier, which does seem a bit more "stiff."
What accounts for this transformation? Mr. Robbins-Landon tells us that Haydn composed an Italian opera in between! Symphony No. 42 shows the influence of Italian bel-canto singing, even in an instrumental form. It was not Haydn's first exposure to Italian bel-canto though. Earlier, he had studied with the renowned Italian opera composer, Nicola Porpora.
Not every previous work of Haydn sounds “stiff”, but we do hear a big change with this work, as well with the set of six string quartets Op. 20, which he also composed in 1771.
Here is the complete Symphony No. 20 of Mozart. If you wish to compare slow movements, the Andante begins at 7:55.
THEIR FRIENDSHIP
When Mozart moved to Vienna in 1781, he and Haydn became fast friends. And, although Haydn was still a mentor of sorts to Mozart, the then 25-year-old Mozart soared, especially after discovering the works of J.S. Bach and Handel in 1782.
There was no competition or jealousy between them. They played in quartets together, and Haydn wrote about Mozart in 1787:
“If I could only impress on the soul of every friend of music, and on high personages in particular, how inimitable are Mozart’s works, how profound, how musically intelligent, how extraordinarily sensitive! (for this is how I understand them, how I feel them) — why then the nations would vie with each other to possess such a jewel within their frontiers… but should reward him, too: for without this, the history of great geniuses is sad indeed, and gives but little encouragement to posterity to further exertions… It enrages me to think that this incomparable Mozart is not yet engaged in some imperial or royal court! Forgive me if I lose my head. But I love this man so dearly.”