1 Esterházy Privatstiftung Archiv, Schloss Forchtenstein (EPA), Protocolle (PR) 6625 f. 172r. The princely administration mostly used the ‘Eszterház’ form, in Latin script and with flawless Hungarian spelling and accent. Contemporary Hungarian usage oscillated between the equally correct forms of ‘Eszterház’ and ‘Eszterháza’, whereas the modern Hungarian usage, which also used to be official between 1900 and 1950, is unequivocally ‘Eszterháza’. This form has been taken over by today's ‘politically correct’ English and American – and more and more by German – musicology, although ‘Eszterház’ is equally correct historically. However, the form ‘Esterháza’, also fashionable among authors writing in German, is to be considered a corrupted form, mixing features of the place name and of the name of the family. Finally, the use of the family name as place name (as in ‘Haydn spent many years in Esterházy/Esterhazy’) also occurs, but this is a straightforward error.

2 Windisch, (Karl Gottlieb,) Beschreibung des Hochfürstlichen Schlosses Esterháß im Königreiche Ungern (Preßburg: Anton Löwe, 1784), 26 Google Scholar. Preßburg is now Bratislava, in Slovakia (in Hungarian, Pozsony).

3 According to a splendid study by art historian Edit Szentesi that provides an account and evaluation of contemporary descriptions of Eszterháza, Gottfried von Rotenstein is identical with Preßburg apothecary Gottfried Stegmüller, who had bought himself a title and whose Red Crab pharmacy still stands in Michalská Street. Szentesi, Edit, ‘Eszterháza 18. századi leírásai’, in Kő kövön: Dávid Ferenc 73. születésnapjára / Stein auf Stein: Festschrift für Ferenc Dávid (Budapest: Vince, 2013), volume 2, 165–229 Google Scholar, with German abstract (‘Eszterháza in der zeitgenössischen Öffentlichkeit’). Since the publication of this book, I have come across the same information on page 51 of Johann Mathias Korabinsky's Beschreibung der königl. ungarischen Haupt- Frey- und Krönungsstadt Preßburg (Preßburg: bey Johann Mathias Korabinsky, 1782–1785?): ‘Herr Gottfr. Stegmüller sonst von Rottenstein’. Like Edit Szentesi in the field of the contemporary descriptions, Ferenc Dávid, the dedicatee of this festschrift, has introduced me to the realm of the archival documents connected with Eszterháza. I express my most sincere thanks to both of them.

4 von Rotenstein, Gottfried, ‘Reisen durch einen Theil des Königreichs Ungarn, im 1763sten und folgenden Jahren. Erster Abschnitt’, in Bernoulli, Johann, ed., Sammlung kurzer Reisebeschreibungen und anderer zur Erweiterung der Länder- und Menschenkenntniß dienender Nachrichten (Berlin: Bernoulli, 1783), volume 9, 252 Google Scholar, and von Rotenstein, Gottfried, Lust-Reisen durch Bayern, Würtemberg, Pfalz, Sachsen, Brandenburg, Österreich, Mähren, Böhmen und Ungarn, in den Jahren 1784 bis 1791 (Leipzig: Friedrich Schneider, 1793), volume 3, 162 Google Scholar. The latter, considerably enlarged, version has so far been mostly ignored by Haydn and Eszterháza research. I am indebted to the literary historian Katalin Czibula for having drawn my attention to this important source well before the publication of the Szentesi study.

5 Sander, Heinrich, Beschreibung seiner Reisen durch Frankreich, die Niederlande, Holland, Deutschland und Italien; in Beziehung auf Menschenkenntnis, Industrie, Litteratur und Naturkunde insonderheit (Leipzig: Friedrich Gotthold Jacobäer und Sohn, 1784), volume 2, 564 Google Scholar.

6 ( Korabinsky, Johann Matthias,) Almanach von Ungarn auf das Jahr 1778 (Vienna and Preßburg: ‘im Verlage der Gesellschaft’[, 1778]), 325 Google Scholar, and Korabinsky, Johann Matthias, Geographisch-historisches und Produkten Lexikon von Ungarn (Preßburg: Weber und Korabinsky, 1786), 167 Google Scholar.

7 A few random examples: ‘Sala Terren’ and ‘Vorsahl’: EPA, Bau Cassa (BC) 1781 N 122; ‘Grosser Saal’: EPA, Secretariats-Protocolle (SP) 1781 F 3 N 161 P 2; ‘Grosser Vorsaal’: SP 1781 F 3 N 169 P 11; ‘Oberer Vorsaal’: SP 1781 F 1 N 54 and BC 1781 N 90; ‘Vor Sall’: BC 1781 N 63 (the last three documents are connected with the same reparation work executed in the palace).

8 EPA, PR 6075.

9 Personal memoirs by Zorn de Bulach from 1772, in L'Ambassade du Prince Louis de Rohan à la Cour de Vienne, 1771–1774. Notes écrites par un gentilhomme, officier supérieur attaché au Prince Louis de Rohan, ambassadeur du roi et publiées par son arrière-petit-fils le baron Zorn de Bulach (Strasbourg: Fischbach, 1901), 69–72; Relation des fêtes données à sa Majesté l'Imperatrice par S. A. M^gr le Prince d'Esterhazy dans son Château d'Esterhaz le 1^r & 2^e 7^bre 1773 (Vienna: Ghelen[, 1773]), v; (Alphons Heinrich Traunpaur,) Excursion à Esterhaz en Hongrie en mai 1784 (Vienna: Jean Ferdinand Noble de Schönfeld[, 1784]), f. 12v.

10 (Windisch,) Beschreibung, 23.

11 Rotenstein, ‘Reisen durch einen Theil des Königreichs Ungarn’, 257; (Windisch,) Beschreibung, 23; (Korabinsky,) Almanach von Ungarn, 325; Korabinsky, Geographisch-historisches Lexikon von Ungarn, 168.

12 Relation, vi, and Zorn de Bulach, Notes écrites par un gentilhomme, 70.

13 The expression ‘musique de table’ (‘asztali musika’) itself appears (in Hungarian) at a later time, in the description of a banquet arranged on the occasion of Prince Anton's inauguration as the lord-lieutenant of Sopron county in 1791; see Hadi és más nevezetes történetek 5 (1791), 182.

14 The French text says ‘diner’, but this meal should rather be regarded as a lunch, since at 4 p. m. the guests were already taking a stroll in the park.

15 Relation, viii. See Landon, H. C. Robbins, Haydn: Chronicle and Works, volume 2: Haydn at Eszterháza, 1766–1790 (London: Thames and Hudson, 1978), 193 Google Scholar.

16 Rotenstein, Lust-Reisen, 191.

17 Rotenstein, ’Reisen durch einen Theil des Königreichs Ungarn’, 260.

18 It is almost certain that this time the word ‘play’ refers to billiards, games of cards or some kind of gambling rather than music-making. Compare with the characterization of Prince Nicolaus by Rotenstein: ‘Der Fürst liebte ehemals das Spiel, jezt spielt er gar nicht, haßt die Spieler und alle Spiele’ (The prince used to like playing in former times, but now he does not play at all; he hates players and all games); Rotenstein, Lust-Reisen, 187–188. We should collate this information with the fact that when his elder brother Paul Anton paid off Nicolaus's overwhelming debts in 1751, one of the conditions of Nicolaus's officer's parole (his vow of honour) was that he keep himself away from expensive Vienna for some time (‘Wienn . . . auf einige Zeit zu verlassen’, or elsewhere ‘das theure Wienn meiden’ (to avoid expensive Vienna)); see Arisztid Valkó, ‘Újabb adatok a fertődi (eszterházi) kastély építéstörténetéhez’ (Recent Details Concerning the History of the Construction of the Palace at Fertőd (Eszterháza)), Ars Hungarica 28 (1982), 83. And if we consider furthermore that the gambling opportunities at his residence at Süttör (the later Eszterháza) must have been infinitesimal in comparison with Vienna, we are tempted to think that both contemporary witnesses might have been referring to Nicolaus's gambling addiction, but tactfully refrained from mentioning it explicitly.

19 Rotenstein, Lust-Reisen, 166–167. The inventory of the palace from 1832, mentioned above, lists a few music stands in this antechamber (I thank Ferenc Dávid for this information).

20 Kittsee (or Köpcsény in Hungarian) is a settlement and palace near Preßburg/Bratislava, but on the opposite (southern) side of the Danube. In the eighteenth century it was owned by the Esterházys; in the late nineteenth century it went over to the possession of the Batthyány counts.

21 Rotenstein, Lust-Reisen, 213.

22 H-Bn (= Országos Széchényi Könyvtár / National Széchényi Library, Budapest), Zeneműtár (Music Collection), A. M. 602, originally in the Esterházy Archives in Forchtenstein Castle, General-Cassa (GC), 1771 R 8 F 15 Lit. Z.

23 EPA, GC 1763 R 5 F 1 N 1.

24 Tank, Ulrich, Studien zur Esterházyschen Hofmusik von etwa 1620 bis 1790 (Regensburg: Bosse, 1981), 489 Google Scholar.

25 Korabinsky, Geographisch-historisches Lexikon von Ungarn, 168.

26 In Hungarian: Fertő tó (= Lake Fertő).

27 Sander, Beschreibung seiner Reisen, 564 (italics printed in bold characters in the original). I thank Edit Szentesi for drawing my attention to this source.

28 Landon, Haydn at Eszterháza, 447. However, the venue was by no means peculiar. For example, on 22 May 1783 a ball took place in the picture gallery; relevant bills: EPA, BC 1783 R 16 2.Qu N 25, 29. Compare also Dávid, Ferenc and Fatsar, Kristóf, ‘Esterházy “Fényes” Miklós herceg itineráriuma és az általa rendezett ünnepségek hercegi rangra emelkedésétől haláláig (1762–1790)’ (The Itinerary of Nicolaus Esterházy ‘The Magnificent’ and the Festivities Arranged by Him from His Inauguration as a Prince until His Death (1762–1790)), Levéltári Közlemények 75/1 (2004), 101 Google Scholar.

29 The relevant issues of Preßburger Zeitung are available online at <www.difmoe.eu/archiv/year?content=Periodika&kalender=0&name=Pre%C3%9Fburger+Zeitung&title=Pre%C3%9Fburger+Zeitung> (31 March 2016).

30 This issue is missing from the online version of the newspaper made accessible by the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek at <http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?aid=wrz>. I was able to study a copy at the Wienbibliothek (formerly Wiener Stadtbibliothek) on microfilm.

31 ‘1781. 05. 29.–30. Eszterháza: ünnepség Albert herceg és Mária Krisztina részvételével’ (29–30 May 1781 Eszterháza: festivity with the participation of Duke Albert and Marie Christine): Dávid and Fatsar, ‘The Itinerary of Nicolaus Esterházy’, 101.

32 Bessenyei, György, Az eszter-házi vígasságok (Vienna, 1772)Google Scholar, see the end of page 9. The poem describes the festivities connected with the visit of Prince Rohan, the French ambassador to Vienna at that time, later Archbishop of Strasbourg.

33 Horányi, Mátyás, in his The Magnificence of Eszterháza (London: Barrie and Rockliff, 1962)Google Scholar, makes a mention (on page 87, with no reference to any source) of ‘a symphony and selected concert pieces’ performed under Haydn's direction during the fancy-dress ball that was one of the features of Maria Theresia's 1773 visit, following the performance of L'infedeltà delusa in the opera house. The venue of the ball was the Chinese ballroom, or ‘Redouten-Saal’, next to the opera house, where the great fire burst out six years later, destroying both buildings. (Horányi has in fact mixed up the Chinese ballroom with the Chinese pavilion, or ‘Bagatelle’, which was built elsewhere, and not until 1783.) However, such a concert programme is missing from the detailed description provided by the Relation as well as from the two contemporary press reports, and so this datum does not seem to have any foundation. In fact, it would have been rather astonishing if the musicians, dressed in Chinese uniforms, had performed symphonies and the like during the celebrations, which lasted until dawn, rather than playing invigorating (and not necessarily Chinese) dance music. On the other hand, we cannot exclude the possibility of a ‘relaxation’ concert taking place between the opera performance and the ball.

34 Landon, Haydn at Eszterháza, 30. Landon first uses the correct word ‘Prachtsaal’, though curiously he refers to Vályi, the Hungarian translator of Korabinsky, rather than to Korabinsky himself ( Vályi, András, Magyar országnak leírása, volume 1 (Buda: Királyi Universitás, 1796), 623 Google Scholar). However, in the next paragraph he writes ‘Prunksaal’, a word I have never met in contemporary sources. Landon even talks about ‘a great music room . . ., specially designed for the purpose’, without any reference or foundation, in a slightly later publication; see Landon, H. C. Robbins, Haydn: A Documentary Study (New York: Rizzoli, 1981), 54 Google Scholar.

35 Feder, Georg, ‘Haydn, Joseph’, in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: Allgemeine Enzyklopädie der Musik, second edition, ed. Finscher, Ludwig (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2002)Google Scholar, Personenteil 8, column 914. My translation. The mention of the opera house as a concert venue, to my knowledge a completely new idea at that time (apart from a hidden and tangential remark; see note 41), is not substantiated by any document. The list of references also fails to offer a clue. Remarkably, in volume 6, published just one year earlier, Ágnes Sas was still echoing the ‘official’ view: ‘In the centre of the palace stood the big concert-room’. ‘Fürst Miklós (II), Nikolaus Joseph’, in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, second edition, Personenteil 6, column 523. László Somfai's ‘Eszterháza’ entry in the New Grove Dictionary avoids the question (The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, ed. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan, 2001), volume 8, 351–352). Finally, in his summary of Western music history, Richard Taruskin envisions no fewer than ‘two concert rooms in the palace itself’ (Richard Taruskin, The Oxford History of Western Music, volume 2, The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 526.)

36 Philipp Georg Bader, ‘Verzeichniß der Opern, Academien, Marionetten und Schauspiele welche von 23n . Januarii bis Xbris 1778 . auf den Hochfürstliche [sic] Bühnen in Esterhatz gegeben worden sind’, Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár (National Archives of Hungary), P 149 15. cs. 1/a–7.

37 Landon, Haydn at Eszterháza, 98.

38 To avoid being too unjust, one must note that Landon was by no means alone with his ‘ceremonial-hall hypothesis’, or in regarding it as self-evident. Among others, James Webster put the photo of the ceremonial hall on the cover of his renowned book Haydn's ‘Farewell’ Symphony and the Idea of Classical Style (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), although in the blurb he prudently referred to it as the ‘presumable’ venue of the first performance of the symphony. The organizers of the ‘Haydn at Eszterháza’ Festival from 1998 to 2009, myself among them, were of the same opinion, and with a perfectly good conscience, as quite a few prestigious artists – I remember Andrew Manze especially vividly – asserted that this room and its acoustics had meant a true revelation to them, offering a key for the understanding of Haydn's compositions. (In those days we had no knowledge of Feder's doubts as brought forward in his entry in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.)

39 Horányi, The Magnificence of Eszterháza, 118–119, and Landon, Haydn at Eszterháza, 63–64.

40 Original document: Esterházy Familien-Archiv, Eisenstadt, Ablage des Regenten Rahier (RR), 1779 N 1226, presently in H-Bn, Music Collection, A. Th. 89, document no. 5 (earlier, together with Hárich's complete Acta Musicalia and Acta Theatralia selections of documents, in the Theatre History Collection). This document comprises two sections with different dates, but the original date of the regulation itself is 14 February 1778. Another, slightly different version (Bader's draft) of the same document is essentially identical as far as the relevant points of the regulation are concerned: Familien-Archiv, Miscellanea (MI), F 41 N 33, presently in H-Bn, Music Collection, A. M. 3579.

41 EPA, BC 1776, Bau Cassa Rechnungen N 16. The transcription found in Hárich's legacy was edited by Else Radant and H. C. Robbins Landon in Haydn Yearbook 19 (1994), 131–132. The English translation following the transcription clearly shows that Radant and Landon have misunderstood or misread quite a few essential points of the document. (This is why I am instead using my own translation.) Their most important mistake is not understanding that the details given relate to genres rather than venues. However, this time they finally acknowledge the fact that there were concerts held in the theatre – more than a decade and a half after the publication of the Eszterháza volume of Landon's monograph.

42 Anton Kühnel, originally a double-bass player in the instrumental ensemble at Eszterháza, was employed for decades as ‘Bauschreiber’, or administrator of construction and maintenance work. He often prepared documents referring to theatre and opera as well.

43 Note that the comma in the title is found in the Eszterháza libretto. As to the date of the premiere, a different document suggests that this took place two days later: EPA, BC 1776, Auszügel 2.Qu N 47.

44 ‘Luster’ = Lüster; our sources often use ŭ (meaning u) instead of ü out of sheer laziness.

45 On an engraving found within the Beschreibung, ‘Alleen welche Berceaux formiren’.

46 The alley and the pergola were already in existence in 1760. Compare Galavics, Géza, ‘Eszterháza 18. századi ábrázolásai – a kép mint művészettörténeti forrás’ (Eighteenth-Century Depictions of Eszterháza: Pictures as a Source for Art History’), Ars Hungarica 28/1 (2000), 38 Google Scholar.

47 EPA, BC 1776, Bau Cassa Rechnungen N 12.

48 Marionette productions had only been happening since 1772, when Prince Nicolaus simply bought the marionette theatre which Carl Michael von Pauerspach (1737–1802), an Austrian state official and playwright, had set up in his home. Then, in 1773, he made Pauerspach the actual director of the newly constructed permanent marionette theatre at Eszterháza.

49 We talk about one week rather than two weeks because the week between 1 and 7 April that year was Holy Week, and so no productions took place after 30 March.

50 EPA, BC 1776, Bau Cassa Rechnungen N 23.

51 Compare EPA, BC 1776 N 12, 16, 23, 27, 28, 34, 44, 45, 50, 51, 55, 59, 74, 77, 82, 86, 87, 96.

52 Compare for example, Landon, H. C. Robbins, ‘Haydn's Marionette Operas and the Repertoire of the Marionette Theatre at Esterház Castle’, Haydn Yearbook 1 (1962), 192–193 Google Scholar.

53 Szentesi, ‘Eszterháza in der zeitgenössischen Öffentlichkeit’, 174.

54 Dallos, Márton, Eszterházi várnak, és ához tartozandó nevezetessebb helyeinek rövid le-irása (Short Description of the Castle of Eszterháza and of the Noteworthier Places Belonging to It) (Sopron: Siess, 1781)Google Scholar. Translation by Sara Liptai and David Ennever.

55 Framery, Nicolas-Étienne, Notice sur Joseph Haydn (Paris: Brasseur, 1810), 15–16 Google Scholar (my italics). I collated Landon's edition of Framery's text (Haydn at Eszterháza, 757–763) with a copy of the original book available in the British Library with the shelfmark Hirsch 3307. My translation.

56 Dies, Albert Christoph, Biographische Nachrichten von Joseph Haydn (Vienna: Camesianische Buchhandlung, 1810), 47 Google Scholar.

57 ‘Bemerkungen Neukomms zu den Biographischen Nachrichten von Dies’, cited in Seeger, Horst, ‘Zur musikhistorischen Bedeutung der Haydn-Biographie von Albert Christoph Dies (1810)’, Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft 1/3 (1959), 29 Google Scholar; translation in Landon, Haydn at Eszterháza, 181.

58 Gregor August Griesinger, Biographische Notizen über Joseph Haydn, published in instalments in eight 1809 issues of the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, then in a separate volume (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1810), 28–29; Carpani, Giuseppe, Le Haydine, ovvero Lettere su la vita e le opere del celebre maestro Giuseppe Haydn (Milan: Buccinelli, 1812), 115–118; Carl Ferdinand Pohl, Joseph Haydn, volume 2 (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1882), 57Google Scholar.

59 Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung (2 October 1799), column 14; Dies, Nachrichten, 47–48.

60 Morrow, Mary Sue, Concert Life in Haydn's Vienna: Aspects of a Developing Musical and Social Institution (Stuyvesant: Pendragon, 1989), 65–66 Google Scholar.

61 EPA, GC 1764, R 8 F 7 N 37.

62 EPA, Eisenstädter District (ED) N 537, 3–4 November 1765, facsimile and transcription in Pratl, Josef, ed., Acta Forchtensteiniana (Tutzing: Schneider, 2009)Google Scholar, DVD enclosure, 4 November 1765.

63 Compare, for example, the annual accounts of the musicians’ incomes for 1767 and 1768: EPA, GC 1767 R 9 F 2 N 83 and GC 1768 R 9 F 1 N 26. Compare too the thoughts of Gerhard Winkler: ‘das Ensemble . . . bestand mehr oder weniger aus Solisten – daher ist es nicht wahrscheinlich, dass der Haydnsaal der ursprüngliche Aufführungsort war, weil der Saal hierfür zu groß ist!’ (the ensemble consisted more or less of soloists, and so it is unlikely that the Haydn room was the original performance venue: the hall was too big for them!). Winkler, Gerhard J., ‘Musik für den Dienstherrn zum Anteil der Fürsten Esterházy am Phänomen Haydn’, in Die Familie Esterházy im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert: Tagungsband der 28. Schlaininger Gespräche, Wissenschaftliche Arbeiten aus dem Burgenland 128 (Eisenstadt: Burgenländisches Landesmuseum, 2009), 396 Google Scholar.

64 Pohl, , Joseph Haydn, volume 2, 367–371 Google Scholar; Landon, Haydn at Eszterháza, 94–98; Horányi, The Magnificence of Eszterháza, 230–235.

65 Meaning the second month of the year, namely February.

66 Compare, for example, H-Bn, Music Collection, A. M. 785 (originally GC, no sigla available).

67 Excursion, f. 11r.

68 Nicolai, Friedrich, Beschreibung einer Reise durch Deutschland und die Schweitz, im Jahre 1781 (Berlin and Stettin: [Nicolai,] 1785), volume 4, 541–542 Google Scholar. Partly quoted in English translation in Morrow, Concert Life, 144.

69 Morrow, Concert Life, 143. More examples may be found in Sisman, Elaine, ‘Haydn's Theater Symphonies’, Journal of the American Musicological Society 43/2 (1990), 300–301 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

70 Compare Krzeszowiak, Tadeusz, Freihaustheater in Wien 1787–1801: Wirkungsstätte von W. A. Mozart und E. Schikaneder. Sammlung der Dokumente (Vienna, Cologne and Weimar: Böhlau, 2009), 447 Google Scholar.

71 Morrow, Concert Life, 151.

72 Quoted in Landon, Haydn: Chronicle and Works, volume 4: Haydn: The Years of ‘The Creation’, 1796–1800 (London: Thames and Hudson, 1977), 55, with reference to Olleson, Edward, ‘Haydn in the Diaries of Count Karl von Zinzendorf’, Haydn Yearbook 2 (1963), 49 Google Scholar. Landon takes it for granted that the symphony in question was No. 103 (‘Drumroll’); I would not exclude either No. 100 (‘Military’) or, horribile dictu, No. 94 (‘The Surprise’, or, as it was probably known to Count Zinzendorf , ‘Symphonie mit dem Paukenschlag’).

73 This objection could be underpinned by reference, among other things, to Breitkopf's 1769 catalogue, containing the incipits of an opera overture by Hasse and four symphonies by Haydn under the same ‘SINFONIE’ heading. For a facsimile see Landon, Haydn: A Documentary Study, 79.

74 EPA, PR 6276, volume 1 (Cammer- und Theater-Musicalien), 47–49.

75 As stated explicitly in Esterházy-Archiv, GC 1782 F 12 R 19 N 29 = A. M. 1152: ‘Sinfonien von verschiedenen Authoren’.

76 EPA, GC 1777 F 14 R 20 N 21. Transcription in Pratl, Forchtensteiniana, DVD enclosure, 4 December 1777.

77 EPA, BC 1783 R 16 2.Qu N 11; EPA, BC 1783 R 16 2.Qu N 17; Esterházy-Archiv, BC 1783 N 74 = H-Bn, Music Collection, A. M. 3974; Esterházy-Archiv, BC 1783 N 80 = A. M. 3975; Esterházy-Archiv, BC 1783 N 104 = A. M. 3973; Esterházy-Archiv, BC 1783 N 121 = A. M. 3970; Esterházy-Archiv, BC 1783 N 135 = A. M. 3971; Esterházy-Archiv, BC 1783 N 157 = A. M. 3972; EPA, BC 1783 R 16 4.Qu N 17.

78 From this point on I am following the datings of Georg Feder's Haydn work list as published in the ‘Haydn, (Franz) Joseph’ entry of Grove Music Online <www.oxfordmusiconline.com> (7 March 2016).

79 See Bartha, Dénes, ed., Joseph Haydn: Gesammelte Briefe und Aufzeichnungen (Kassel and Budapest: Bärenreiter and Akadémiai, 1965), 129–130 Google Scholar; English translation in Landon, H. C. Robbins, ed., The Collected Correspondence and London Notebooks of Joseph Haydn (London: Barrie and Rockliff, 1959), 42–43 Google Scholar.

80 Joseph Haydn Werke, series 1, volume 11, Sinfonien 1782–1784, ed. Sonja Gerlach (Munich: Henle, 2003), vii. My translation.

81 Tank, Studien zur Esterházyschen Hofmusik, 499; standing as of 1 January 1785. However, according to the ‘Kammer Music Stand’ of the same date (EPA, General-Cassa Handbuch 1785, fols 95–97), the number of instrumentalists employed was only twenty-two.

82 Our conclusion is concordant with James Webster's opinion: ‘The conjecture that [Haydn] composed his symphonies until about 1779, perhaps until 1782, primarily for the Esterházy court holds true.’ (‘Die Vermutung bleibt nach wie vor aufrecht, daß [Haydn] bis etwa 1779, vielleicht sogar bis 1782 seine Sinfonien primär für den Esterházyschen Hof komponierte.’) Webster, James, ‘Haydns Symphonik zwischen “Sturm und Drang” und “Wiener Klassik”: Zur Ästhetik der gehobenen Unterhaltungsmusik’, in Winkler, Gerhard J., ed., Das symphonische Werk Joseph Haydns: Referate des internationalen musikwissenschaftlichen Symposions Eisenstadt, 13.–15. September 1995 (Eisenstadt: Burgenländisches Landesmuseum, 2000), 84 Google Scholar.

83 EPA, Süttör Missiles, F 6 N 20. Published, among others, in Bartha, Briefe, 83. For an English translation see Landon, Haydn at Eszterháza, 42–43.

84 Symphony No. 89 is a possible exception, as it has no trumpet parts; still, it was published in several places shortly after its completion.

85 See Bartha, Briefe, 231; English translation in Landon, Correspondence, 98.

86 There is a relative shortage of Adagios in D major in Haydn's instrumental output of the 1780s. Possible candidates are the slow movements of the ‘Paris’ Symphony No. 87 in A major or of the ‘Oxford’ Symphony No. 92. In addition, Symphony No. 88 in G major has a Largo in D major, and there occur further examples in the symphonies of the 1760s and 1770s), together with the touching second movement (Adagio cantabile) of the String Quartet in A major Op. 55 No. 1. I was unable to find anything more, leaving aside the baryton pieces, by then surely a distant memory, and the opening Siciliano, also marked Adagio, of the String Trio in D major hV:21, then a quarter of a century old and lacking the depth of feeling of the movements mentioned above. This short list, nevertheless, leaves open the question of the approximate size of the group of players on this occasion.

87 EPA, BC 1789 N 444. As explained briefly in note b of Table 1, each Stabenen-Ausweis was an account listing payments made to stagehands and supernumeraries.

88 For detailed documentation relating to this see my dissertation: János Malina, ‘Az 1776 és 1790 közötti eszterházi operaévadok kronológiája’ (The Chronology of the Eszterháza Opera Seasons between 1776 and 1790) (PhD dissertation, Liszt Ferenc Zeneművészeti Egyetem (Franz Liszt Academy of Music) Budapest, 2016).

89 What is more, whilst in the Viennese theatres opera performances were suspended – aside from Holy Week – during Lent (compare Link, Dorothea, The National Court Theatre in Mozart's Vienna (Oxford: Clarendon, 1998), 17 Google Scholar), at Eszterháza, in an almost provocative fashion, the 1786 and 1790 opera seasons began on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, while in the 1788 season the second performance took place on Ash Wednesday. This in spite of the fact that opera performances held on Wednesdays were a rarity from the beginning!

90 EPA, GC 1772 Züsser N 444.

91 Compare Sisman, ‘Theater Symphonies’, 301.

92 In fact, the order just outlined would not become questionable even if Horányi's information concerning the symphonies and concertos performed during a ball could somehow be substantiated. Or, to put it in a more general way, the existence of some seasonal or occasional forms of music-making, involving other locations, does not change this fundamental picture.

93 It belongs to the peculiar character of Eszterháza that from among the various forms of music-making it was exactly the accademies, held in the opera house and accessible to the widest of publics, which seem to have delivered the highest artistic quality to the listeners.