0:00:05 > 0:00:10# When Britain first at Heaven's command... #
0:00:10 > 0:00:15Britain in the second half of the 18th century bestrode the globe.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18Enormously rich, enormously powerful.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21But what we failed to produce during this time
0:00:21 > 0:00:24was a national composer of real genius.
0:00:24 > 0:00:28We were, however, and continue to be, a nation of anthem-lovers.
0:00:28 > 0:00:32We British naturally create songs that we can all wrap our lungs around,
0:00:32 > 0:00:36which tap into the public mood, and somehow draw us together.
0:00:36 > 0:00:41# Rule Britannia! Britannia rule the waves
0:00:41 > 0:00:45# Britons never, never, never
0:00:45 > 0:00:50# Shall be slaves. #
0:00:50 > 0:00:57Like it or loathe it, Rule Britannia has been a firm part of British national identity since the 1740s,
0:00:57 > 0:01:02the decade that also saw the birth of our other big national tune.
0:01:02 > 0:01:08# ..Long to reign over us
0:01:08 > 0:01:13# God save the Queen. #
0:01:14 > 0:01:18So, two iconic tunes, but no great national composer.
0:01:18 > 0:01:24And once again, the man that became our national musical hero at the end of the 18th century was,
0:01:24 > 0:01:30like Handel before him, a foreigner. He came from Austria and his name was Franz Joseph Haydn.
0:01:30 > 0:01:33And he wrote this...
0:01:33 > 0:01:37MUSIC: "Gott Erhalte Franz Den Kaiser"
0:01:39 > 0:01:43..the Austrian Imperial Anthem, subsequently adopted by the Germans.
0:01:45 > 0:01:48Let's face it, they got the better tune.
0:01:48 > 0:01:53But Britain's relationship with Haydn really was a two-way street.
0:01:53 > 0:01:58We caused a seismic shift in his composition, and he took our musical destiny forwards.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27Haydn arrived in Britain on New Year's Day 1791,
0:02:27 > 0:02:30the first of two substantial visits he made here.
0:02:30 > 0:02:35He was already revered internationally as the world's greatest composer,
0:02:35 > 0:02:37and yet, he'd spent his entire working life
0:02:37 > 0:02:41closeted away in the service of noble princes on the Hungarian border.
0:02:41 > 0:02:47And only now, at the age of nearly 60, did he have the opportunity to travel independently.
0:02:47 > 0:02:49The world was his oyster.
0:02:49 > 0:02:53But it was Britain he chose to come to.
0:03:09 > 0:03:16In 1791, this country was more progressive, open, free and rich than any other in Europe.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19And, interestingly, economic, political and cultural power
0:03:19 > 0:03:23was in the process of shifting from the aristocracy and the Church
0:03:23 > 0:03:26to the new, confident and swelling middle class.
0:03:30 > 0:03:35It's important to realise that Haydn was massively popular in Britain, long before he'd even come here.
0:03:35 > 0:03:40We knew him through his scores, symphonies and quartets, which were being performed around the country.
0:03:40 > 0:03:45This was an age, of course, before recording, so it wasn't like Haydn's discs were travelling,
0:03:45 > 0:03:49it was his scores that were travelling, and we were loving them.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52As a conductor, I'm endlessly being confronted by new music,
0:03:52 > 0:03:54and I clearly remember the day, about 15 years ago,
0:03:54 > 0:03:59when I finally, suddenly, got hold of The Farewell Symphony - Haydn's symphony number 45.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02And I opened the first page of this score...
0:04:02 > 0:04:05It's in F-sharp minor, by the way, which is a really prickly, dodgy key,
0:04:05 > 0:04:10a key that was rarely used by composers in this era because of its instability.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14I opened the page and it just jumped out at me, practically grabbed my throat off.
0:04:14 > 0:04:15It's so powerful.
0:04:21 > 0:04:26It starts with this stunningly strong set of chords, thundering down and then back up again,
0:04:26 > 0:04:29and then goes to something abjectly soft.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44Haydn had a tremendous sense of theatre,
0:04:44 > 0:04:48he was a great teller of stories, and we British have always loved that.
0:04:59 > 0:05:05I suppose the key to this music, why we loved it so much, is this sense of drama, of story telling.
0:05:05 > 0:05:10Also this tremendous sense of forward motion, there's something immensely optimistic about that,
0:05:10 > 0:05:13the earth elemental power of the rhythmic drive,
0:05:13 > 0:05:17even though the outer tenor of the music - it's a minor key - is quite sombre.
0:05:32 > 0:05:38Late 18th-century Britain had an insatiable appetite for thrilling, spectacular entertainment.
0:05:38 > 0:05:44Fortunes were being made and lost in enterprises such as extravagant masquerade balls,
0:05:44 > 0:05:49the famous Oxford Street Pantheon, which functioned as a kind of winter pleasure gardens,
0:05:49 > 0:05:53and the mind-blowing novelty of Robert Barker's Rotunda,
0:05:53 > 0:05:58which opened just here, in 1793, on the corner of Cranbourn Street and Leicester Square,
0:05:58 > 0:06:03and which, for five shillings, offered the public the Georgian equivalent of the Imax cinema,
0:06:03 > 0:06:09a gigantic 360-degree view of exotic cities like Constantinople,
0:06:09 > 0:06:12stirring patriotic scenes from the British Fleet,
0:06:12 > 0:06:15or battles from the Napoleonic wars.
0:06:15 > 0:06:18Now, just a couple of years before Robert Barker opened his Rotunda,
0:06:18 > 0:06:21a violinist and impresario by the name of Johann Peter Salomon
0:06:21 > 0:06:28determined that Haydn's name should be up there in lights, so to speak, in Britain's capital.
0:06:30 > 0:06:34Marshall Marcus is the nearest modern equivalent to Salomon,
0:06:34 > 0:06:38formally a violinist, a self-confessed Haydn nut,
0:06:38 > 0:06:42he's now head of music at London's Southbank Centre.
0:06:42 > 0:06:44Huge coup, wasn't it, for London to get Haydn?
0:06:44 > 0:06:48It was, and it's one of those things, almost like an accident,
0:06:48 > 0:06:53that Salomon, who worked in London, happened to be travelling around in Europe,
0:06:53 > 0:06:58he was in Cologne when he heard the news that the prince who employed Haydn was dead,
0:06:58 > 0:07:00and he went straight to Vienna.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03It was one of those moments when you've just got to do it.
0:07:03 > 0:07:07He went to Vienna, he went to see Haydn, and he said, "You're coming with me to London."
0:07:07 > 0:07:10And they, sort of, made this accord, as he put it,
0:07:10 > 0:07:14and he brought him here. And it was just an extraordinary opportunity.
0:07:14 > 0:07:16We all look for those.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19Why do you think London was so attractive to Haydn?
0:07:19 > 0:07:22Well, this is the world's table at that point.
0:07:22 > 0:07:26Everything is going on here, it was an extraordinary magnet for musicians.
0:07:26 > 0:07:32It's been that for hundreds of years, and it continues today to be that. And huge potential for earning.
0:07:32 > 0:07:38The contract that was done with him, he got £200 for a commission to write six symphonies,
0:07:38 > 0:07:41and £200 more for the copyright there,
0:07:41 > 0:07:43£250 for a benefit.
0:07:43 > 0:07:49I think I estimated he was offered in the region of £1,200, which was a massive sum in those days.
0:07:49 > 0:07:55London was the centre of what was important. Music was the rage, Haydn was the man, London was the place.
0:08:08 > 0:08:10London hit Haydn like a sledgehammer.
0:08:10 > 0:08:15It was the busiest, the noisiest, the dirtiest, the most industrialised city on the planet.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28Haydn made sense of it by trying to understand it,
0:08:28 > 0:08:30compulsively collecting data.
0:08:30 > 0:08:32Like this, for instance.
0:08:32 > 0:08:37He wrote, "The city of London consumes eight times 100,000 cart-loads of coal each year.
0:08:37 > 0:08:39"Each cart holds...
0:08:39 > 0:08:43"In the month of January 1792, a roasting chicken costs seven shillings,
0:08:43 > 0:08:47"a turkey nine shillings, a dozen larks...
0:08:47 > 0:08:50"The national debt of England is estimated to be over 200 million.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53"The city of London keeps 4,000 carts for...
0:08:53 > 0:08:58"An apprentice works from six o'clock in the morning to six o'clock in the evening,
0:08:58 > 0:09:00"and during this time he is not...
0:09:00 > 0:09:02"..But every quarter of an hour of absence is docked.
0:09:02 > 0:09:07"NB, a duck, if it's plucked, costs five shillings."
0:09:11 > 0:09:14Cool and clinical collections of information.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16This is how Haydn's mind works.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19His sense of London, his sense of industrialisation.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22What does it tell us about the man and, in particular, his music?
0:09:22 > 0:09:28Look, of course he's interested in the poetical, but he's most interested in form and structure.
0:09:33 > 0:09:38He's already perfected his art, by the 1760s-70s, decades before he's come to London.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41And now he's just gonna go and enjoy himself.
0:09:45 > 0:09:49Let's take the 71 No 2, the string quartet, that first movement,
0:09:49 > 0:09:52and you've got this very slow opening.
0:09:52 > 0:09:54And it sounds very portentous, it's very serious.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10And then immediately after a few bars, he just punctures that.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17And he starts, what you wouldn't even call a tune, it's sort of this...
0:10:17 > 0:10:20jumping figure. Bo-bum, bo-bum, bo-bum...
0:10:28 > 0:10:33And then you think, "OK, what's he gonna do with it?" And of course, he does all sorts of things with it.
0:10:33 > 0:10:40He puts it upside down, he covers it in as an accompaniment, he makes the harmony go to some bizarre places.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56And it's so interesting that many composers go into a, sort of, late phase,
0:10:56 > 0:10:58when it all gets very serious.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02But Haydn just has a technique that allows him to go to the edge and come back.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05The number of times you get to a point and think, "Now it's getting serious,"
0:11:05 > 0:11:08and you expect a sort of Beethovian crisis,
0:11:08 > 0:11:10and he says, "No, no, just joking," and he moves on.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26This is where he's such a scientist.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29That he's got the same kind of zealous need to discover
0:11:29 > 0:11:34all the which ways that one might treat or work a piece of music, a thread,
0:11:34 > 0:11:36just as an alchemist might in a laboratory.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39That's exactly how I see Haydn.
0:11:39 > 0:11:44He's one of those people who's forever looking at the structure of the world and saying,
0:11:44 > 0:11:47"What happens if you turn that upside down there, or that way round?"
0:11:47 > 0:11:50I just think it's that constant curiosity.
0:12:01 > 0:12:05His tunes are not the things that will catch you - it's the form, it's the structure.
0:12:05 > 0:12:11I was once talking to a musician who said, "The thing about Haydn is, the structure IS the expression."
0:12:11 > 0:12:16And I think that was one of the most profound things I've heard about him.
0:12:18 > 0:12:24But Haydn was here to deliver. He needed to make an impact with that structure and form.
0:12:24 > 0:12:30Early Georgian London had got its greatest thrills from the dramatic narrative spectacular of opera.
0:12:30 > 0:12:33But the public of the 1790s was about to be ravished
0:12:33 > 0:12:37by the entirely abstract musical spectacle of the symphony.
0:12:37 > 0:12:41And over the next four years, Haydn, dubbed "the father of the symphony",
0:12:41 > 0:12:46was to write a dozen of them. Those we now know as the London Symphonies.
0:12:46 > 0:12:50Together, they represent not only the real crown jewels of his output,
0:12:50 > 0:12:53but also his single greatest public achievement in this country.
0:12:53 > 0:12:58And of all of them, the one that the British public most completely wowed to,
0:12:58 > 0:13:00was his Symphony No 100 - The Military.
0:13:21 > 0:13:25In March 1791, Salomon launched Haydn onto the London scene,
0:13:25 > 0:13:30with a 12-week series of subscription concerts in the Hanover Square Rooms,
0:13:30 > 0:13:32which were sadly destroyed in 1900.
0:13:32 > 0:13:38So, for this film, we're performing, in the closest match you can find - the Assembly Rooms in Bath -
0:13:38 > 0:13:42with my orchestra of period instruments, Army Of Generals.
0:13:49 > 0:13:53These were high-prestige, fashionable events.
0:13:53 > 0:13:54And they were expensive.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57Five guineas for 12 concerts was typical for a series like that,
0:13:57 > 0:13:59and that's a lot of money.
0:14:06 > 0:14:10London audiences made their presence felt,
0:14:10 > 0:14:15whether it was through ecstatic applause, even during the middle of a piece.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20But if the music didn't take their fancy,
0:14:20 > 0:14:26they would engage in conversation and go off to the refreshment room.
0:14:26 > 0:14:32The composer had to really work hard to attract the attention of his audiences.
0:14:36 > 0:14:40The demanding British public presented a distinct new challenge for Haydn.
0:14:40 > 0:14:44He's now, effectively, a commercial composer.
0:14:44 > 0:14:49And like the best showmen, he's got to grab the attention of his paying audience from the very start.
0:14:49 > 0:14:54The Holywell Music Room in Oxford is Europe's oldest purpose-built concert-hall.
0:14:54 > 0:15:02Back in the 1790s, audiences here would have expected to be gripped, even by smaller-scale works.
0:15:02 > 0:15:04Haydn is a master of starting with a bang.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07How about this for an opening gambit?
0:15:17 > 0:15:18Or this?
0:15:23 > 0:15:25And what about this?
0:15:41 > 0:15:46And for me, it's that combination in Haydn of both showman and scientist
0:15:46 > 0:15:51that chimes so perfectly with the appetite and nature of the British in the 1790s.
0:16:05 > 0:16:07EXPLOSION
0:16:09 > 0:16:12This is the Royal Institution Of Great Britain,
0:16:12 > 0:16:16which was founded in the 1790s for the advancement and promulgation of science.
0:16:16 > 0:16:18And its public meetings were so popular
0:16:18 > 0:16:22that very often the street was literally crammed with carriages,
0:16:22 > 0:16:27which is why this street, Albemarle Street, was London's first one-way street.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31What's the purpose of this great theatrical space?
0:16:31 > 0:16:36This is the main lecture theatre that's been here, more or less, since the beginning,
0:16:36 > 0:16:38and it's where we entertain the public with science.
0:16:38 > 0:16:43I'm desperate to hear about the experiment, famously caricatured by Gillray,
0:16:43 > 0:16:45that took place in this very room, didn't it?
0:16:45 > 0:16:50Yes, it happened about 1801, and it shows Thomas Garnett, who was professor of chemistry here,
0:16:50 > 0:16:53administering laughing gas to Sir John Hippisley,
0:16:53 > 0:16:55and showing Hippisley farting.
0:16:55 > 0:16:57What did laughing gas actually do?
0:16:57 > 0:16:59It didn't make you fart, did it?
0:16:59 > 0:17:01It didn't make you fart, no. But it did make you laugh,
0:17:01 > 0:17:03and it was very enjoyable.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06Davy, in Bristol, where he discovered its properties,
0:17:06 > 0:17:10was a friend of Coleridge and Southey - poets and philosophers -
0:17:10 > 0:17:11and he tested it out on them.
0:17:11 > 0:17:16And they, basically in Coleridge's case, certainly added it to his repertoire of recreational drugs.
0:17:16 > 0:17:21Davy was a romantic, he read poetry, and he was the most engaging of lecturers,
0:17:21 > 0:17:24he would do the most dangerous things you could possibly imagine.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27He would explode chemicals, anything to attract an audience,
0:17:27 > 0:17:34cos, even today, when we have school children in, the thing that gets them really excited is an explosion.
0:17:36 > 0:17:43To what extent were they trying to show the common person that science was something they could understand?
0:17:43 > 0:17:47The Royal Institution was not meant for the common person.
0:17:47 > 0:17:51It cost five guineas to belong to the Royal Institution, which is about £500 or £600.
0:17:51 > 0:17:54That's exactly what it cost if you wanted to buy a subscription
0:17:54 > 0:17:57to a series of concerts that Salomon and Haydn were giving.
0:17:57 > 0:18:00That tells you what class they were aiming at.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12Haydn hit London like, well, a bit like a chemical explosion.
0:18:12 > 0:18:17Can you sense what it was about Haydn that so inflamed the public appetite?
0:18:17 > 0:18:23When Haydn arrived, it was two years after the French Revolution,
0:18:23 > 0:18:30and by that time it was becoming increasingly clear that there would have to be war against France.
0:18:30 > 0:18:35And, indeed, halfway through Haydn's visit to London, Britain did indeed go to war.
0:18:35 > 0:18:41And so there was, in some classes, there was an overwhelming patriotism
0:18:41 > 0:18:46that saw in Haydn music that could be employed for patriotic purposes.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00The Times gave a very vivid description of the first performance.
0:19:00 > 0:19:02"Encore! Encore! resounded from every seat.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05"The ladies themselves could not forbear.
0:19:05 > 0:19:08"It is the advance into battle and the march of men.
0:19:08 > 0:19:12"The sounding of the charge, the clash of arms, the groans of the wounded,
0:19:12 > 0:19:15"and what may well be called the hellish roar of war."
0:19:21 > 0:19:26I think he's also a hit, though, because there is a growing seriousness.
0:19:26 > 0:19:31And the notion that a concert is just a party, is just entertainment,
0:19:31 > 0:19:36he caters for that side, but he also caters for those who want to delve further.
0:19:36 > 0:19:40He's a great entertainer, but he's also a great learner.
0:20:05 > 0:20:06It wasn't all plain sailing, though.
0:20:06 > 0:20:13From Haydn's diaries and notebooks we know that he found the sheer cacophony of this city difficult.
0:20:13 > 0:20:18"The noise that the common people make as they sell their wares in the street in intolerable!"
0:20:24 > 0:20:28When Haydn first came to London, he lodged with Salomon in a house on this spot,
0:20:28 > 0:20:30number 18 Great Pulteney Street.
0:20:30 > 0:20:35And just over on the other side of the road, was the most famous piano maker in London, Broadwood.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38And bizarrely, Haydn started composing in a room at the back of the shop.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41Imagine the noise, piano tuning, piano selling.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44So, he's grappling with the cacophony of London life on every level,
0:20:44 > 0:20:47but he's also encountering a far more wonderful sound,
0:20:47 > 0:20:52that of Georgian Britain's most exciting and most modern piece of musical technology.
0:21:11 > 0:21:14At Finchcocks Musical Museum in Kent,
0:21:14 > 0:21:20I heard for myself the extraordinary differences between continental and British pianos of the day.
0:21:20 > 0:21:24This is kind of the instrument that Haydn would have known before he came to Britain.
0:21:24 > 0:21:26This is a Viennese fortepiano,
0:21:26 > 0:21:29literally "loud-soft",
0:21:29 > 0:21:33and that's exactly what it does, but in a very sophisticated way.
0:21:33 > 0:21:39It's got two knee levers that change the quality of sound.
0:21:39 > 0:21:44The one on the left makes the dampers lift off the string, so it's like a harp,
0:21:44 > 0:21:48everything resonates in a very sweet way.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51And the one on the right is called a modulator pedal,
0:21:51 > 0:21:55where a felt comes between the hammer and the string.
0:22:05 > 0:22:12So, this is a veritable Viennese jewel. A wonderful series of pearl-like droplets of sound.
0:22:12 > 0:22:18Over here, on the other hand, we have this magnificent, protein-rich beast, which is the British piano.
0:22:18 > 0:22:20Yep, this is a Broadwood,
0:22:20 > 0:22:25which is exactly the same type of piano that Haydn would have had when he came to London.
0:22:25 > 0:22:29And it's bigger, it's louder,
0:22:29 > 0:22:33it's more dangerous and experimental.
0:22:33 > 0:22:38It's got two levers, which are now called pedals.
0:22:38 > 0:22:40There's a sustaining pedal...
0:22:42 > 0:22:48And then you've got the una corda pedal, as most of the keys have three strings,
0:22:48 > 0:22:52and as you put it down further and further, it can get quieter and quieter.
0:22:55 > 0:22:59Haydn in the morning, he would get up and improvise with a piano.
0:22:59 > 0:23:05So, I could imagine him finding a new piano and being so excited, playing lots of big chords.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13And then getting so excited by that, he wants to find the opposite.
0:23:13 > 0:23:17So maybe putting the new una corda pedal down, and then suddenly...
0:23:19 > 0:23:24The credit to the Broadwood factory is that it's so advanced in its technology.
0:23:24 > 0:23:26They're really trying to push the piano forward.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29And composers were asking for that all the time.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32Gone are the days of just going...
0:23:35 > 0:23:40You can feel that there's more to give here. By Haydn's time you might have...
0:23:44 > 0:23:46And then suddenly the whole orchestra joins in.
0:23:46 > 0:23:51I think that the makers and composers were working in tandem, really.
0:24:10 > 0:24:16Haydn's time in Britain exposed him to something he'd never have seen on mainland Europe -
0:24:16 > 0:24:20a composer celebrated as a national icon.
0:24:20 > 0:24:26Handel, master of public spectaculars, creator of the oratorio.
0:24:26 > 0:24:30Haydn witnessed the King himself rise to his feet for the Hallelujah Chorus,
0:24:30 > 0:24:36in one of the mammoth festivals of Handel's music that took place each year at Westminster Abbey.
0:24:38 > 0:24:43But at another extreme, the British public mingled music with more hedonistic delights
0:24:43 > 0:24:47in the pleasure gardens of cities like Bath, Tonbridge and London.
0:24:47 > 0:24:52# They say there is an echo here They say there is and echo here
0:24:52 > 0:24:55# I'll try, I'll try, I'll try
0:24:55 > 0:24:59# Try again, try again... #
0:24:59 > 0:25:04In 1781, the popular hit of the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens was this little number,
0:25:04 > 0:25:07about an invisible echo, calling for its tea.
0:25:12 > 0:25:17# That's it, that's it
0:25:17 > 0:25:22# The echo calls for tea It's very droll... #
0:25:22 > 0:25:26Ten years later, its composer was to have a profound resonance in Haydn's life.
0:25:29 > 0:25:33# It seems to me no humour to cram
0:25:33 > 0:25:35# Cram, cram, cram
0:25:37 > 0:25:39# As I hope to live It calls for ham. #
0:25:45 > 0:25:49This is Herschel's house, and from here he pretty much ran the music scene in Bath.
0:25:49 > 0:25:53He taught, he composed and he arranged the concerts at the Assembly Rooms.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56He was a very successful musician and impresario,
0:25:56 > 0:26:01in fact, one of the great figures in the musical life of late 18th-century Britain.
0:26:01 > 0:26:05But music-making was only half of Herschel's life.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10In the daytime, he'd be making music up there,
0:26:10 > 0:26:15but as night fell, he'd come down here, to the bowels of the building.
0:26:18 > 0:26:20In this little room behind the kitchen,
0:26:20 > 0:26:26Herschel would spend night after night grinding mirrors of the highest optical quality,
0:26:26 > 0:26:30in order to create the most sophisticated telescopes of his age.
0:26:30 > 0:26:34Herschel spent many hours in this little back garden with his telescopes,
0:26:34 > 0:26:38often in the bitter cold, observing the night sky.
0:26:38 > 0:26:42And on one such night, the 13th of March, 1781,
0:26:42 > 0:26:47he made his big discovery - the unfortunately named planet, Uranus.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42There's a man with a telescope in a field. Hi, Chris.
0:27:42 > 0:27:44- Hi, how are you?- I'm good, thank you.
0:27:44 > 0:27:49The first thing I've gotta ask you is, how significant was it that Herschel discovered a new planet?
0:27:49 > 0:27:52I think it was the most significant discovery
0:27:52 > 0:27:53of his century and several since.
0:27:53 > 0:27:55For the whole of human history,
0:27:55 > 0:27:59the Ancient Greeks, everyone knew there were six planets -
0:27:59 > 0:28:04the Earth, and the five that you can see with the naked eye - moving amongst the stars.
0:28:04 > 0:28:07And suddenly, Herschel, with his giant telescope,
0:28:07 > 0:28:13adds not just a new star, not just a new fuzzy patch, but a new world to what we knew about the cosmos.
0:28:13 > 0:28:19Haydn comes to Britain, and he's heard of this celebrated astronomer, the man who's discovered Uranus,
0:28:19 > 0:28:24and of course he's keen to see him. Finally, the two meet. What do you think Herschel would have shown him?
0:28:24 > 0:28:26I'm sure they talked about music,
0:28:26 > 0:28:31but I have this image, as well, of Haydn being led out to the back of Herschel's house
0:28:31 > 0:28:37and into the observatory, and shown these enormous telescopes with which Herschel was making his name.
0:28:37 > 0:28:42Haydn marvelled at the actual sight of the telescope itself, let alone what he could see through it.
0:28:42 > 0:28:44And at the cost of it.
0:28:44 > 0:28:49He wrote down in his diary about how expensive this thing was,
0:28:49 > 0:28:52and how much Herschel was making as a telescope maker.
0:28:52 > 0:28:56So there's clearly some mercenary... Maybe that's what they talked about,
0:28:56 > 0:29:01maybe everything we've been imagining is ridiculous, and they sat and compared bank statements.
0:29:03 > 0:29:07I'm sure they will have pored over Herschel's star maps, his drawings,
0:29:07 > 0:29:10probably the page with Uranus carefully sketched in.
0:29:10 > 0:29:14You can imagine the book being opened and passed round along with the scores.
0:29:14 > 0:29:19And perhaps they stood there on a rainy, miserable night like this,
0:29:19 > 0:29:24and Herschel maybe told Haydn what he wanted to show him,
0:29:24 > 0:29:28and maybe I should do the same. I wanted to show you an object called the Orion Nebula.
0:29:33 > 0:29:36You can see it with the naked eye, it's a faint misty patch.
0:29:36 > 0:29:42Herschel was the first to realise that this is a place where stars are being born.
0:29:43 > 0:29:49Perhaps he stood there talking to Haydn, saying, "I can show you where our solar system came from."
0:30:01 > 0:30:07Was Haydn's depiction of the beginning of our universe, many years later,
0:30:07 > 0:30:11the legacy in sound from that encounter with Herschel?
0:30:11 > 0:30:17Its extraordinary zero-gravity harmony takes us to the edge of the known musical universe.
0:30:21 > 0:30:23This is radical music.
0:30:23 > 0:30:27Herschel's career seems to me to be about expansions.
0:30:27 > 0:30:31You start with the solar system that we know, and he adds a planet.
0:30:31 > 0:30:33He doesn't remove the solar system, he adds something.
0:30:43 > 0:30:46Haydn was religious. Herschel was a religious man as well,
0:30:46 > 0:30:52so, these discoveries aren't challenging God or the established religion at all.
0:30:55 > 0:31:02But it's a grander universe for God to have created and for astronomers and musicians to play in, I suppose.
0:31:14 > 0:31:19In 1792, Haydn's first British visit came to an end,
0:31:19 > 0:31:23and he returned home to Austria for just over a year.
0:31:23 > 0:31:29The son of a rural wheelwright, Haydn had trained as a choirboy at St Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna.
0:31:29 > 0:31:35In his 20s, he'd gone into service with the Esterhazy family in the small town of Eisenstadt,
0:31:35 > 0:31:3730 miles south-east of Vienna.
0:31:37 > 0:31:42The magnificent Esterhazy Palace was to prove the perfect laboratory
0:31:42 > 0:31:45for the young composer's extraordinary talents.
0:31:45 > 0:31:51So Walter, am I imagining Haydn walking to work along this corridor every day?
0:31:51 > 0:31:55Yeah. He wasn't living in the palace, but this was his workshop.
0:31:55 > 0:31:57So, he would be there twice a day,
0:31:57 > 0:32:01speaking with the Prince, to get the wishes from him,
0:32:01 > 0:32:03what kind of music he wants to hear,
0:32:03 > 0:32:05- or what he has to prepare.- Yeah?
0:32:05 > 0:32:09And then he rehearsed here with the musicians.
0:32:09 > 0:32:10He was rehearsing in this room?
0:32:10 > 0:32:14In this room and maybe rooms next to this.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17Oh, my goodness! Oh, wow.
0:32:17 > 0:32:20This is some adventure playground.
0:32:20 > 0:32:22- Unbelievable!- Yeah.
0:32:22 > 0:32:25- I always say this is Haydn's Graceland.- Yeah.
0:32:25 > 0:32:28And you can hear - ha!
0:32:28 > 0:32:30The most beautiful acoustic.
0:32:30 > 0:32:34It wasn't like this, the acoustic, because the wood wasn't here.
0:32:34 > 0:32:37When he came in here, so he found this place, ja?
0:32:37 > 0:32:39Wonderful hall. Big hall.
0:32:39 > 0:32:44- With a marble floor?- With the marble floor. This is not so good for acoustic conditions.
0:32:44 > 0:32:50So, he asked the Prince to put wood on it so that... It's better for it.
0:32:50 > 0:32:53And now we find even the bills of the carpenters who did this.
0:32:53 > 0:32:55In 1761.
0:32:55 > 0:33:02Haydn asked for conditions to have the perfect situation. Like you said, it was a workshop for him.
0:33:02 > 0:33:05So. You said, "Wow," when you came in here, ja?
0:33:05 > 0:33:07Maybe Haydn did as well,
0:33:07 > 0:33:10and he had to compose symphonies for the Prince.
0:33:10 > 0:33:12There were no symphonies before,
0:33:12 > 0:33:19so Haydn came here and we have this famous, er, Nos 6, 7 and 8... Symphonies...
0:33:19 > 0:33:20Matin, midi, soir.
0:33:20 > 0:33:24Morning, lunchtime and evening,
0:33:24 > 0:33:28and look up on the ceiling. That's what it is.
0:33:28 > 0:33:31We have L'Aurora, the goddess of sunrise.
0:33:31 > 0:33:34On the carriage.
0:33:34 > 0:33:36And we have here La Luna,
0:33:36 > 0:33:39and it's the evening, ja?
0:33:39 > 0:33:41The evening goddess.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44And in the middle, this marriage on Olympus.
0:33:44 > 0:33:46But it's noon.
0:33:46 > 0:33:48That is incredible.
0:33:48 > 0:33:50So, morning, noon, evening.
0:33:50 > 0:33:53Nos 6, 7 and 8 now.
0:34:34 > 0:34:38The man himself is in here, he looks up at these pictures, how practical.
0:34:38 > 0:34:42"I'll write a piece of music about that one, then that one, then that one."
0:34:42 > 0:34:47And in every movement there are solo parts into it for his musicians.
0:35:04 > 0:35:09So, he's playing to the strengths of the particular hot musicians within the orchestra.
0:35:09 > 0:35:13So this is also very clever, because what did he do? He showed to the Prince,
0:35:13 > 0:35:18"You engaged perfect musicians, look how wise you did,"
0:35:18 > 0:35:23and to the musicians he showed, "I'll look after you, that you have perfect music to play,
0:35:23 > 0:35:25"to show off in front of the Prince,
0:35:25 > 0:35:27"to show off what you really can do."
0:35:27 > 0:35:29And so, ja, this developed.
0:35:40 > 0:35:46Prince Nikolaus of Esterhazy could trust Haydn to keep him at the cutting edge of symphonic invention.
0:35:46 > 0:35:51But he also had a rather touching passion for an unusual and archaic instrument.
0:35:55 > 0:35:58What is this wonderful instrument?
0:35:58 > 0:36:00It's called a baryton.
0:36:00 > 0:36:04It has six, or sometimes seven strings, like this one,
0:36:04 > 0:36:09and they're tuned a little bit like a guitar or a lute.
0:36:09 > 0:36:10It's not easy to play.
0:36:10 > 0:36:15OK, if you play viol, that's one thing, but...
0:36:15 > 0:36:21Hang on a minute, there's a whole other set of strings behind the set of strings you were showing us.
0:36:21 > 0:36:25Yes. And that can create problems. I mean, you have to work on that.
0:36:25 > 0:36:29So, you're playing with the thumb of your left hand, on the strings at the back.
0:36:29 > 0:36:32- Yes, I pluck them. - Talk about multitasking!
0:36:32 > 0:36:35That's it. And that's the problem about it!
0:36:36 > 0:36:39So you can accompany yourself in the worst case.
0:36:48 > 0:36:50Or something like this.
0:36:50 > 0:36:54And that's what makes it sound special, but what makes it a little hard to play,
0:36:54 > 0:36:56so there's not too many people trying to do that!
0:37:12 > 0:37:14Had the Prince not played the baryton,
0:37:14 > 0:37:18do you think Haydn would have written nearly so much music for it?
0:37:18 > 0:37:20I'm sure he wouldn't have written anything.
0:37:20 > 0:37:25Even in those times, it was a very special instrument.
0:37:28 > 0:37:31After just a few years at Esterhazy,
0:37:31 > 0:37:35Prince Nikolaus rewarded him with the post of head of music,
0:37:35 > 0:37:39and Haydn was able to buy his first house, just down the road from the palace.
0:37:39 > 0:37:43This is his house where he lived, and he worked from here.
0:37:43 > 0:37:47- And we have this little thing here. - Is that his piano?
0:37:47 > 0:37:49Ja. His fortepiano.
0:37:49 > 0:37:54Anton Walter built this, from Vienna. Was very famous at this time.
0:37:54 > 0:37:57I always say please don't touch.
0:37:57 > 0:37:58LAUGHTER
0:37:58 > 0:38:00- But...- But being as I'm with you...
0:38:00 > 0:38:02I think we can manage this.
0:38:02 > 0:38:05- Fantastic. - Maybe you try. Have a try.
0:38:16 > 0:38:20Beautiful, delicate little sound. Just as you'd expect.
0:38:20 > 0:38:23They're such little perfect instruments, these Viennese fortepianos.
0:38:23 > 0:38:27This is a Walter, and I think I'm right in saying Mozart had a Walter as well?
0:38:27 > 0:38:30Ja. In his birthplace, in Salzburg,
0:38:30 > 0:38:34they have a fortepiano. It's thought it's an Anton Walter.
0:38:34 > 0:38:37And, when this was restored,
0:38:37 > 0:38:41- they found out it's from the same piece of wood.- No!
0:38:41 > 0:38:46- So they're brothers. - That is ridiculous. - And Haydn and Mozart are friends.
0:38:46 > 0:38:51These two great masters, Haydn and Mozart, both own fortepianos which are drawn from the same tree.
0:38:51 > 0:38:54- That is quite remarkable. - A good coincidence, I think.
0:38:54 > 0:38:58- Look at this picture, ja? - Now, that is THE famous image of Haydn, isn't it?
0:38:58 > 0:39:01- Younger man, yeah.- Yeah.
0:39:01 > 0:39:03He is on his fortepiano, composing.
0:39:03 > 0:39:05He's got a very kind face.
0:39:05 > 0:39:07Do you agree with that?
0:39:07 > 0:39:10He himself said, "I'm not a handsome man,
0:39:10 > 0:39:13"but women love me anyway."
0:39:13 > 0:39:19But, um... He was good-humoured, and I'm sure you could see this in his face.
0:39:19 > 0:39:22That he loved to talk with people,
0:39:22 > 0:39:25that he was in peace with himself.
0:39:25 > 0:39:29And I think this is very important to understand, also, his music.
0:39:29 > 0:39:33He struggled, of course, like everyone struggles, in his life,
0:39:33 > 0:39:37and you can hear it in his music sometimes,
0:39:37 > 0:39:42but it always ends in peace and with hope.
0:39:42 > 0:39:44It's always a bright future at the end.
0:39:44 > 0:39:48It's very interesting, because if you think about any piece of his music,
0:39:48 > 0:39:52it will have moments of melancholy, it will have moments of sheer high spirits,
0:39:52 > 0:39:54and lots of other things in between.
0:39:54 > 0:39:57But it never quite goes to that dark place that Mozart, say, does,
0:39:57 > 0:40:00where it's like he's gouging your soul out.
0:40:00 > 0:40:02He is more grounded I think, though.
0:40:02 > 0:40:07Where he lived, he knew he has a place in life.
0:40:07 > 0:40:11Maybe Mozart travelled too much as a young boy.
0:40:11 > 0:40:13Didn't he have a home?
0:40:13 > 0:40:15Haydn had a home.
0:40:15 > 0:40:18And he had this region here.
0:40:18 > 0:40:26It wasn't so easy for him. But I think this is very important to understand - he wasn't torn apart.
0:40:50 > 0:40:52In 1794, Haydn came to Britain for a second time,
0:40:52 > 0:40:56with a visit that proved to be every bit as triumphant as the first,
0:40:56 > 0:40:59and again, lasting about 18 months.
0:40:59 > 0:41:05Widespread public affection for Haydn hadn't diminished, especially amongst the ladies.
0:41:05 > 0:41:08Haydn, whose wife stayed home in Austria during these visits,
0:41:08 > 0:41:12once said that he couldn't understand how he'd been loved by so many pretty women,
0:41:12 > 0:41:14claiming, "They can't have been drawn by my beauty."
0:41:25 > 0:41:29Probably the most significant relationship Haydn had in London
0:41:29 > 0:41:34was with the widow of the former master of the King's music, herself a pianist, Rebecca Schroeter.
0:41:34 > 0:41:39Haydn later told his biographer that he would have married her very easily,
0:41:39 > 0:41:40"Had I been free at the time."
0:41:40 > 0:41:43HE LAUGHS
0:41:52 > 0:41:57Perhaps some of the youthful energy of this liaison with Rebecca Schroeter
0:41:57 > 0:42:03is reflected in the three great piano trios that Haydn completed on this second London visit,
0:42:03 > 0:42:04and dedicated to her.
0:42:11 > 0:42:17For me, it was fascinating to find evidence of Mrs Schroeter's intimacy with the older composer -
0:42:17 > 0:42:22her signature on a contract that Haydn made with a London publisher at the end of his second visit,
0:42:22 > 0:42:24now housed in the British Library.
0:42:24 > 0:42:27Well, Simon, it looks, well, highly legal.
0:42:27 > 0:42:29Indeed it was a legal document.
0:42:29 > 0:42:31I think it gives us an idea
0:42:31 > 0:42:35of how Haydn was engaged with the commercial world in London.
0:42:35 > 0:42:39So, what we've got here is an agreement with the publisher Hyde,
0:42:39 > 0:42:42and it's quite a long shopping list.
0:42:42 > 0:42:46If you have a look at what he indicated he might write -
0:42:46 > 0:42:51symphonies, quartets, piano sonatas, piano trios,
0:42:51 > 0:42:54English songs, Italian songs, catches and glees -
0:42:54 > 0:42:59the whole range of different genres that might have been available at the time.
0:42:59 > 0:43:02And one of the things that's really interesting about this catalogue,
0:43:02 > 0:43:08is that we've got here, "Three grand symphonies, £100."
0:43:08 > 0:43:10- Lot of money.- That's a lot of money.
0:43:10 > 0:43:15But then you look over here, and we've got three piano trios, as we would now call them,
0:43:15 > 0:43:21much smaller scale pieces, easier and quicker to compose, £75.
0:43:21 > 0:43:24What we're talking about is the domestic music market, aren't we?
0:43:24 > 0:43:27The idea that your front room became your own little concert hall.
0:43:27 > 0:43:33Absolutely, and of course, we should bear in mind from the point of view of the publisher,
0:43:33 > 0:43:36if you sold a set of parts for symphonies,
0:43:36 > 0:43:42how many people across the country were going to be able to buy those parts and put on these symphonies?
0:43:42 > 0:43:45What really made the money was the music for the drawing room,
0:43:45 > 0:43:48and that was typically the piano music,
0:43:48 > 0:43:54piano music that was played by women, by the daughters of the household,
0:43:54 > 0:43:59it was an accomplishment that might lead you to the perfect husband, one might say,
0:43:59 > 0:44:02we see that, of course, in the novels of Jane Austen, for example.
0:44:02 > 0:44:05Or, on the other hand, songs.
0:44:05 > 0:44:11Very astute of Hyde to include some English songs in the lists of pieces that he hoped Haydn might produce.
0:44:11 > 0:44:13But also very astute of Haydn.
0:44:13 > 0:44:18He's writing, presumably, with an eye on the money he was going to make.
0:44:18 > 0:44:19Well, absolutely.
0:44:19 > 0:44:22And here we are again, if we just have a look at this here -
0:44:22 > 0:44:26"Six English songs with accompaniment for pianoforte,"
0:44:26 > 0:44:31£75 again. It's an absolutely remarkable amount of money to pay.
0:44:35 > 0:44:41# Now the dancing sunbeams play
0:44:41 > 0:44:48# On the green and glassy sea
0:44:48 > 0:44:54# Come, and I will lead the way
0:44:54 > 0:45:00# Where the pearly treasures be
0:45:03 > 0:45:07# Come, and I will lead the way
0:45:07 > 0:45:14# Where the pearly treasures be
0:45:14 > 0:45:17# Where the pearly treasures be
0:45:17 > 0:45:20# Where the pearly treasures be... #
0:45:20 > 0:45:26This must've been amazing for Haydn, who'd been pretty much indentured all of his adult life,
0:45:26 > 0:45:28his professional life,
0:45:28 > 0:45:33to be doing deals with a publisher in London which were gonna get him untold sums of money.
0:45:33 > 0:45:37Well, Haydn, I must say, was a very acute businessman in that sense.
0:45:37 > 0:45:43Almost too acute. He did tend to sell things several times,
0:45:43 > 0:45:47um, around Europe. They didn't have the same copyright ideas that we have nowadays.
0:45:47 > 0:45:52So you mean he could sell the same piece to different people at the same time?
0:45:52 > 0:45:55As long as it was in a different country, that was kind of all right.
0:45:55 > 0:45:59# Follow, follow, follow me
0:45:59 > 0:46:02# Follow, follow, follow me... #
0:46:06 > 0:46:09In Britain and the rest of Europe,
0:46:09 > 0:46:13one of the great love affairs of the time was with all things Scottish.
0:46:13 > 0:46:17Here, Haydn cannily spotted another rich scene to mine,
0:46:17 > 0:46:22and was easily persuaded to start work on commercial arrangements of Scottish folk song
0:46:22 > 0:46:23for the domestic market.
0:46:23 > 0:46:29To what extent was this, well, Haydn's, very vigorous publication of all these Scottish folk songs,
0:46:29 > 0:46:33to what extent was it building this sense of the mythology of the north of Britain?
0:46:33 > 0:46:36Oh, I think hugely. I think hugely.
0:46:36 > 0:46:40And, of course, Haydn's just one of a handful of European composers
0:46:40 > 0:46:41who do this kind of job.
0:46:41 > 0:46:43A lot of, er, a lot of...
0:46:43 > 0:46:50publications appear in Scotland with local, less well known musicians doing arrangements,
0:46:50 > 0:46:55and then, towards the end of the 18th century, Haydn does some arrangements for a London publisher,
0:46:55 > 0:46:58and then George Thomson appears on the scene,
0:46:58 > 0:47:00and he's the big daddy of this process.
0:47:00 > 0:47:04And, to be honest, I don't know that either of them at that particular point
0:47:04 > 0:47:07realised how big a project this would end up being.
0:47:07 > 0:47:13Would Haydn have actually heard authentic Scottish folk song? And music?
0:47:13 > 0:47:15Highly unlikely, I think, is the answer.
0:47:15 > 0:47:21Haydn, sadly, doesn't come north of the border, unlike some of the other composers who do set Scottish songs.
0:47:21 > 0:47:24But he does experience performances in London,
0:47:24 > 0:47:29and "Scotch songs", as they're termed at that time, are really popular from the early 18th century,
0:47:29 > 0:47:32and they're popular on a really popular level,
0:47:32 > 0:47:37so they're performed at Vauxhall Gardens, they're performed in cantatas on the concert platform,
0:47:37 > 0:47:41but more importantly, a lot of these publications are created for domestic performance.
0:47:57 > 0:48:02# Should auld acquaintance be forgot
0:48:02 > 0:48:05# And never brought tae mind
0:48:05 > 0:48:09# Should auld acquaintance be forgot
0:48:09 > 0:48:13# And auld lang syne
0:48:13 > 0:48:17# For auld lang syne, my dear
0:48:17 > 0:48:21# For auld lang syne
0:48:21 > 0:48:24# We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet
0:48:24 > 0:48:29# For auld lang syne... #
0:48:30 > 0:48:34Auld Lang Syne is a very old tradition in Scotland,
0:48:34 > 0:48:37as a song of parting, frequently sung at social events.
0:48:37 > 0:48:39Of course, the one that we sing,
0:48:39 > 0:48:42and constantly refer to, is the version that Robert Burns wrote.
0:48:42 > 0:48:47# We twa hae run aboot the braes
0:48:47 > 0:48:50# And pu'd the gowans fine... #
0:48:50 > 0:48:56Auld Lang Syne was just one of a staggering 400 Scottish folk songs that Haydn arranged,
0:48:56 > 0:49:01to meet the positively insatiable public demand of the time.
0:49:01 > 0:49:05Nowadays, I think a lot of people feel very negative about them.
0:49:05 > 0:49:07I mean, what was Thomson doing,
0:49:07 > 0:49:11asking Haydn to touch these melodies that he knew nothing about? How dare he?
0:49:11 > 0:49:16But at the time, I think, what Thomson was doing made perfect sense to him.
0:49:16 > 0:49:21He was inspired by new European music and he loved his national music, and he wanted to bring the two together.
0:49:24 > 0:49:30Both Haydn's extended visits to Britain had been successes beyond his wildest dreams.
0:49:30 > 0:49:34Our streets really had been paved with gold for him.
0:49:34 > 0:49:40But the frenetic pace of London was eventually too much for the elderly composer,
0:49:40 > 0:49:43and in 1795, Haydn made a final parting.
0:49:43 > 0:49:49Now he wanted time to crystallise the ideas and experiences of these four years,
0:49:49 > 0:49:52in some of his greatest late works.
0:49:55 > 0:49:58Haydn spent the last 14 years of his life in Austria,
0:49:58 > 0:50:01riding high off the back of his successes in Britain.
0:50:01 > 0:50:08Not least the money he'd made, which allowed him to build this luxurious house on the outskirts of Vienna.
0:50:08 > 0:50:11But something that had really inspired Haydn about his time in Britain
0:50:11 > 0:50:15was their expression of nationhood through a single song.
0:50:15 > 0:50:18Britain was the first country to have a national anthem.
0:50:18 > 0:50:21And Haydn thought to himself, "Austria needs one of these, too."
0:50:21 > 0:50:22So he wrote one.
0:50:34 > 0:50:36God Protect Emperor Franz.
0:50:38 > 0:50:40Two years after leaving Britain,
0:50:40 > 0:50:45the master of form and structure also proved he could write an iconic tune.
0:50:45 > 0:50:51A melody which managed to survive not only the collapse of the Austrian monarchy in 1918,
0:50:51 > 0:50:54but even its appropriation by the Nazis.
0:51:33 > 0:51:39But the wealthy international celebrity didn't break his bonds with his employers at Esterhazy.
0:51:39 > 0:51:44OK, so Haydn comes back from his great victorious successes in London.
0:51:44 > 0:51:46How is he now perceived?
0:51:46 > 0:51:50He came back as the most famous composer of his time.
0:51:50 > 0:51:57So, he got world fame, and he came back to this remote little town of Eisenstadt,
0:51:57 > 0:51:58and he had a new prince -
0:51:58 > 0:52:00The fourth Prince Esterhazy.
0:52:00 > 0:52:06Because he was so famous, they wanted to keep him. They wanted to connect his name to the Esterhazy family.
0:52:06 > 0:52:10Like having the crown jewels in your house - everyone's gonna want to come and see.
0:52:10 > 0:52:15Exactly! That was Haydn famous, and so the Esterhazys were famous.
0:52:15 > 0:52:18And he had only to composed one piece per year for the Esterhazys.
0:52:18 > 0:52:20- Just one piece?- Just one piece...
0:52:20 > 0:52:25Because in the past he'd composed so much, all the time, for the Esterhazys.
0:52:25 > 0:52:29For real, ja, but he's still got money, so he had so much freedom.
0:52:29 > 0:52:33He had an income from them, he had a pension from them,
0:52:33 > 0:52:36It was like a life insurance.
0:52:36 > 0:52:38Tell me about the Nelson visit.
0:52:38 > 0:52:45It was 1800. Lord Nelson and Emma, Lady Hamilton, they came from Italy on their way back to London.
0:52:45 > 0:52:47It was a long way back home.
0:52:47 > 0:52:53And in Vienna, they were there for a longer period, they were famous there. The most famous couple.
0:52:53 > 0:52:58And the Esterhazy Prince of course wanted to have him in his castle, in his palace.
0:52:58 > 0:53:02Because, most famous person, in his palace...
0:53:02 > 0:53:09Lord Nelson only came when Prince Esterhazy guaranteed that Haydn would be here,
0:53:09 > 0:53:12because Lady Emma Hamilton wanted to sing with Haydn.
0:53:12 > 0:53:20The story goes that the Prince was a little bit annoyed, because Lady Hamilton was all the time with Haydn.
0:53:20 > 0:53:23And Lord Nelson was always playing cards!
0:53:25 > 0:53:32But they performed here a mass Haydn composed two years before, which is now, the name is, Nelson Mass.
0:53:32 > 0:53:36My appetite's whetted now, I've got to have a go on this little peach of an organ.
0:53:36 > 0:53:40THE organ that Haydn knew and played himself.
0:54:06 > 0:54:11A lot of men in Britain either have, or would like to have, a garden shed.
0:54:12 > 0:54:14It is a Great British tradition.
0:54:14 > 0:54:17But not exclusively so.
0:54:17 > 0:54:19This is Haydn's garden shed,
0:54:19 > 0:54:24on what were the outskirts of the 18th-century Eisenstadt.
0:54:24 > 0:54:28A place where I imagine he'd come for sheer peace and quiet. For repose.
0:54:28 > 0:54:32Perhaps to spend time tending the garden, perhaps potting some seedlings,
0:54:32 > 0:54:36but just quietly to think, and to open his mind.
0:54:36 > 0:54:40And it's in one of his last great works, The Creation,
0:54:40 > 0:54:43that we get a real glimpse into Haydn's inner world.
0:55:51 > 0:55:57For me, that utterly ravishing sunrise that lies at the heart of Haydn's Creation
0:55:57 > 0:56:03reveals a man who'd discovered, whilst in Britain, what it is to really look at the heavens.
0:56:03 > 0:56:09And it's fascinating to compare it with that far slenderer Sunrise, composed so many years before,
0:56:09 > 0:56:15when the brilliant young man arrived at Esterhazy, and merely gazed at a painted ceiling.
0:56:16 > 0:56:21Although it was composed in Austria, I always think of The Creation as a British work.
0:56:21 > 0:56:26It's based on an English text, but most importantly, it's an oratorio,
0:56:26 > 0:56:30that great British form, developed by Handel for and with the British.
0:56:30 > 0:56:34But, ultimately, I think it sums up Haydn's time here,
0:56:34 > 0:56:40and his delight at completing the circle where art, science and faith meet.
0:56:40 > 0:56:46# The heavens are telling the glory of God
0:56:52 > 0:56:58# The wonder of His work displays the firmament
0:57:01 > 0:57:06# The wonder of His work displays the firmament
0:57:12 > 0:57:19# The day that is coming speaks it the day... #
0:57:23 > 0:57:26In the early morning of the 31st of May 1809,
0:57:26 > 0:57:28surrounded by friends,
0:57:28 > 0:57:31Haydn died peacefully at his home in Vienna.
0:57:35 > 0:57:41But Haydn's influence on our musical landscape extended far beyond any individual work.
0:57:41 > 0:57:46Like Handel before him, he seized the opportunities our nation offered.
0:57:46 > 0:57:50Big symphonies, for increasingly popular public concerts,
0:57:50 > 0:57:52choral works to draw people together,
0:57:52 > 0:57:54music inspired by folk song,
0:57:54 > 0:57:56music for the home.
0:57:56 > 0:58:02Working and developing alongside us, Haydn left Britain a richer musical nation.
0:58:02 > 0:58:04# ..the firmament
0:58:04 > 0:58:08# Displays the firmament
0:58:08 > 0:58:11# The wonder of His work... #
0:58:11 > 0:58:14Next week, in the final episode of The Birth Of British Music,
0:58:14 > 0:58:20we'll see how Felix Mendelssohn redefined the power of music for a Victorian world.
0:58:20 > 0:58:25# ..The heavens are telling the glory of God
0:58:25 > 0:58:30# The wonder of His work
0:58:36 > 0:58:41# Displays the firmament
0:58:41 > 0:58:44# Displays the firmament
0:58:44 > 0:58:47# Displays the firmament. #
0:58:47 > 0:58:51Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd