What springs to mind?

When you see this picture of Beethoven, what kind of music do you think of?
His symphonies
or his wonderful piano sonatas?

It might surprise you to know what he spent quite a lot of his time doing.
Although he wrote a lot of piano variations and chamber music, and more than a hundred songs, what he wrote most of was
(drum roll, please Jamie)

Arrangements of British folksongs!

He wrote more than two hundred of them. Why? Because he was paid very well for it. The more they commissioned, the more he churned out.

The portrait on the right is a picture of a teacher of Beethoven (and Mozart). Joseph Haydn is one of the most important composers of the 18th Century.When you think of Haydn, what springs to mind? Is it  his  very popular Surprise Symphony, or his oratorio, The Creation?

You probably don't think of the odd-looking instrument on the left. Do you know what it is? It is called a baryton. Haydn wrote 175 pieces for it, because his patron, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy enjoyed playing the instrument, and kept asking, and paying, for more pieces to play.
It sounds like a bass viol da gamba, and has 6 or 7 strings which are bowed, and 10 more which vibrate in sympathy with the other strings, or which can be plucked. It is very hard to play and fell out of favour. 

Here is a movement from a Haydn baryton trio. Do you think these instruments will ever return to popularity?

Haydn Seek

He was the most famous composer of his day, more popular than Handel had been and certainly more popular than Mozart or Bach were, in their own lifetimes. He has been called the father of the symphony and the father of the string quartet. New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians says

No other composer approaches his combination of productivity, quality and historical importance in these genres.

Mozart and Beethoven were both taught by him, and were greatly influenced by his music. But surprisingly, most people would not know much of his music.

I'm hoping to change this with The Haydn Pages. This is my effort to add a little about Joseph Haydn, because there is not a lot of information about him that is easily accessible.

As a student, I learnt his wonderful late Sonata in E Flat Major, Hob XVI:52, when I was studying for my licentiate diploma (L Mus A). This is the first movement, played by Bulgarian pianist, Ivaila Ivanova.