Essential Haydn

"Anyone can see that I'm a good-natured fellow," said Joseph Haydn. And anyone can hear it too: the personal warmth that led his friends (who included Mozart and the young Beethoven) to call him “Papa” gives his music an irresistibly engaging quality. But don't be misled. Despite spending much of his career on the staff of a Hungarian prince, this son of an Austrian village wheelwright was one of the Classical era's great revolutionaries: reinventing the string quartet and symphony, and becoming ever bolder and more inventive as he grew older. Contemporaries found his religious music almost too cheerful (Haydn was simultaneously a devout believer and a follower of the Enlightenment); audiences across Europe reacted with astonished delight to his late symphonies and oratorios. But he put just as much personality into the smallest minuet or trio – and no-one writes wittier finales. Over a seven-decade career Haydn created an almost inexhaustibly generous catalogue of music, and wherever you dip in, you'll find yourself in the company of one of music's most entertaining, imaginative and life-enhancing personalities.