(Griesinger, 153). In 1790, Haydn was invited by the violinist JP Salomon to go to London to write opera, symphonies, and other works. He composed his last f 12 symphonies for performance there, where they enjoyed great success; he also wrote symphony concertante, choral pieces, piano trios, piano sonatas and songs (some to English words) as well as arranging British folksongs for publishers in London and Edinburgh (Griesinger, 157). But because of intrigues his opera, L’anima del filosofo, on the Orpheus story, remained unperformed (Griesinger, 157). He was honored and feted generously and played, sang and conducted before the royal family (Griesinger, 161). He also heard Handel’s musical performances in Westminster Abbey.Back in Vienna, his main duty was to produce masses for the princess’s nameday. He wrote six works, firmly in the Austrian mass tradition but strengthened and invigorated by his command of symphonic technique ( Boynick, 3). Other works of his late years include further string quartets (opp. 71 between the London visits, op. 76 and the op.77 pair after them), showing great diversity of style and seriousness of content yet retaining his vitality and fluency of utterance; some have a more public manner, acknowledging the new use of string quartets at the concerts as well as in the home (Hughes, 48). The most important work, however, is his oratorio The Creation in which his essentially simple-hearted joy of Man, Beast and Nature, and his gratitude to God for his creation of these things to our benefit (Boynick, 3). He then followed this piece with The Seasons, which is very similar, but is separated into sections rather than a whole.Haydn died in 1809 after twice dictating his recollections and preparing a catalogue of his works (Boynick, 3). He was widely revered, even though by the time of his death, his music was old-fashioned compared with Beethoven’s. Some of his music rem...
