Michael Haydn

Just like his brother Joseph, who was his senior by five years, Michael Haydn (1737-1806) received his basic musical training at the St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, where the main focus lay on church music. After a first engagement in the remote Austrian provinces, which he began in 1757, Haydn moved on to the Prince-Archbishop’s court in Salzburg in 1763, where he was employed as a violinist, “Concert-Meister” or concert master – almost in the modern sense but with continual composing obligations. Salzburg became Haydn’s main place of residence and he hardly ever left the city. One of his colleagues there was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart who was to become a life-long friend. After Mozart left for Vienna, Haydn took over his position as court organist in 1782.

Haydn was a diligent and extremely prolific composer whose stylistically conservative creations were guided by the requirements of his changing employers. Thus, his more than 800 compositions were initially dominated by instrumental music and later, from his appointment as court organist on, by church music, which was considered to set musical standards from the late 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century. Haydn’s works of church music were immensely widespread throughout the entire Danube-region and were performed regularly so that the number of performances of Michael Haydn’s compositions outshined those of his older brother for a long period of time.

As of April 2023