Ravinia 2019, Issue 2, Week 4

Haydn was more than the resident composer of the Esterházy family for much of his productive life; he also directed their orchestra, played chamber music for and with the family’s guests (above), and mounted productions of opera. Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) explored other avenues of income before entering into one of the more remarkable jobs in the annals of music. A brief biographical sketch he wrote in 1761 describes his predicament after he could no longer sup- port himself by singing in court and cathedral choirs: “When my voice changed, I barely managed to stay alive by giving music lessons to children for about eight years. In this way many talented peo- ple are ruined; they have to earn a miserable living and have no time to study. … I eventu- ally was given a position as music director to Count Morzin and, following this, to His Highness Prince Ester- házy; there it is my desire to live and to die.” The Esterházy family was one of the wealthiest families in the Austro-Hungarian empire, and Haydn essentially stayed in their employ for the remainder of his life, during which time he composed an enormous corpus of music, includ- ing more than 100 symphonies, a dozen or so masses, nearly a score of concertos, close to 70 string quartets, 400 folksong arrangements, some two dozen operas (including a few for the prince’s marionette theater), and well over 150 works for an obscure stringed instrument called the baryton, which was the prince’s favorite instrument. All this, in addi- tion to myriad trios, songs, cantatas, and sonatas (some of which dot programs by pianist Richard Goode on July 25 and flutists Sir James and Lady Jeanne Galway on Septem- ber 10), as well as such curiosities as works for “flute-clock,” kept Haydn busy and earned him a handsome income, the third-highest in the Esterházy establishment after the property manager and the prince’s personal physician. Yet Haydn was subject to restrictions that prevented him from traveling, and despite his growing renown throughout Europe, he wore the livery of a household servant. This sort of treatment was not acceptable to Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), who had little regard for hereditary privilege and felt his talent and genius made him the social equal of anyone. (And he is virtually without equal in terms of modern concert programming—no fewer than nine Ravinia concerts this sum- mer feature a work by Beethoven.) Music was becoming more democratic: concert atten- dance was no longer restricted to the nobility, and henceforth musicians would look beyond aristocratic patronage for their economic security. Beethoven is regarded as the first major composer who supported himself entirely on what his music earned in the marketplace, through sales of concert tickets or sheet music. Until his deafness curtailed his concert career, Beethoven was probably known to as many Viennese as a key- board virtuoso as he was as a composer. Franz Liszt (1811–86) took that phenomenon to new and un- precedented heights. He was not merely an admired perform- er; he virtually created the concept of the celebrity artist as we know it today. He invented the concert genre of the solo recital; for the first time, audiences paid to see one artist for an entire evening. Liszt first composed music primarily as a vehicle for his own virtuosity (such as his First Piano Concerto, featured under the hands of André Watts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conductor Marin Alsop on July 27), but later went on to concentrate on composing orchestral works as well as conducting music by his colleagues that he championed. 24 RAVINIA MAGAZINE | JUNE 17 – JUNE 30, 2019