On Home Ground - Dénes Bartha and Haydn Research in Hungary
On Home Ground - Dénes Bartha and Haydn Research in Hungary

Summary/Abstract: In 1761, Joseph Haydn, a young composer already highly regarded in Vienna, was appointed deputy kappelmeister by Prince Paul Anton Esterházy, the highly educated and music-loving head of that wealthy, pro-Habsburg Hungarian aristocratic family. Haydn remained in the Prince’s employ until his death on 31 May 1809, even though in the last decade and a half his employment had become increasingly formal. The surviving papers concerning more than three decades in the service of the Esterházys as well as countless documents pertaining to his activities, first in Kismarton (Eisenstadt) and then in Eszterháza, are now housed at the National Széchényi Library in Budapest. Of course, there are numerous documents, letters and scores in other European libraries and archives too, yet there is no doubt that Budapest is the international centre for sources concerning Haydn’s works. Some items from this treasure trove had been published already between the two world wars by Esterházy archivist János Hárich, yet the true extent of its richness did not become apparent until 1957. That year, in preparation for the upcoming 150th anniversary of Haydn’s death in 1959, and facilitated by the thaw that followed repression after the 1956 revolution, archivist Arisztid Valkó published some Haydn documents. Hárich, who had been imprisoned along with Pál Esterházy (no longer Prince after 1945), continued the work with unflagging energy in Austria after leaving the country in 1956 until the 1970s.[...]

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