Joseph Haydn | Fine autograph letter signed, to C.G. Breitkopf, 7 September 1795

Joseph Haydn.

Fine autograph letter signed ("Joseph Haydn [paraph]"), to the publisher Christoph Gottlob Breitkopf, ABOUT A SONATA AND THREE ENGLISH SONGS, APPARENTLY UNPUBLISHED

thanking him with characteristic humour for the letter he received that morning telling him that he will receive his property back, requesting to know from whom and in what manner he might expect to receive payment of 3 ducats and 16 groschen, and likewise the manuscript sonata ("...welche schon verfertigt und sehr schön ist...") and three English songs, remarking ironically in a postscript that Breitkopf had already had the sonata for six months before its announcement and that, while this might not be inconvenient for the publisher, it is a matter of great interest to himself

...Ich dancke Ihnen derohalben vielmahl, und erwarte nur von Ihnen die Anweisung, durch wenn, und auf welche Arth /: NB nur nicht durch die Hn Artaria :/ ich Ihnen die 3 Ducaten 16 g[roschen] und zugleich die Manuskript Sonate welche schon verfertigt und sehr schön ist, wie auch eine Copie von drey Englischen Liedern übermachen solle...

1 page, 4to (23 x 19cm), "C & I Honig" paper, integral autograph address panel ("Monsieur de Breitkopf, Leipzig"), docketed by the recipient, Vienna, 7 September 1795, careful repair to fold on verso, remains of red wax seal ("JH"), seal tear

APPARENTLY UNPUBLISHED: NOT IN BARTHA, LANDON OR THE HAYDN YEARBOOK. With the exception of one example from 1789, this is the earliest known letter by Haydn to Breitkopf.

This is a characteristically testy letter by Haydn (with a beautiful signature) to the publishing firm of Breitkopf (from the same year that G.C. Härtel joined the firm following the death in 1794 of the great J.G.I. Breitkopf). It would seem that Haydn was responding to a (no longer extant) letter from Breitkopf. This was the period of the late, great flowering of Haydn's genius, the letter having been written shortly after the composer's return to Vienna (little more than a week after, in fact) from his triumphant second visit to England (1794-1795).

The 'manuscript sonata' referred to by Haydn in the letter, if not the Piano Trio in E flat (Hob. XV/30), appears to be a reference to the Piano Sonata in D (Hob. XVI/51), written in 1794, and in the event published by Breitkopf only in 1805.

PROVENANCE:

Sotheby's, London, 4 December 1998 (lot 129)

LITERATURE:

Thomas Tolley, 'Haydn, the engraver Thomas Park, and Maria Hester Park's 'little sonat' ', Music & Letters, lxxxii (2001), pp.421-431