Day four: Wien - Haydnhaus

We woke up to another nice sunny day. Since the city of Vienna is celebrating the 200th anniversary of Haydn's death (on May 31) this year, we decided to go to Haydnhaus first, which is only a short bus ride away in District 6. After his return from London, Haydn lived in this house on Haydngasse (used to be called Kleine Steingasse before this street was renamed) during his final years. This part of Vienna was considered a vorstadt (suburb) during Haydn's time, but the tranquility inspired him to complete two of his most famous pieces: Die Schöpfung (the Creation) and Die Jahreszeiten (the Seasons).



There are a number of interesting displays and we learned quite a lot about Haydn and his work. For example, the tune of the German national anthem, Das Lied der Deutschen, came from Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser, which Haydn wrote when Austria was under Napoleon's attack. Copies of his canons, which were not published until after his death, are framed and hung on the wall in his bedroom (similar to how he had it). One of the rooms in the Haydnhaus is dedicated to Brahms, who was an ardent admirer of Haydn and whose residences in Vienna no longer exist. Unlike Mozart, who gambled his fortune away, Papa Haydn was quite a philanthropist and supported older folks who had no children to turn to (just as Haydn himself). When he passed away, Haydn left a handsome amount to his copyist Johann Elßler, whose daughter Fanny Elßler was a famous ballerina (and with whom I share the same birthday), and to his maid Anna Kremnitzer.

The audio guides used in Haydnhaus are all iPod Touch. The narratives are much shorter than those at the Mozarthaus, and have more musical interludes of much higher output quality. All in all, Gabriel was one happy fellow after this visit to the Haydnhaus.