Maria Anna von Genzinger

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Maria Anna von Genzinger (1750-1793), called "Marianne", was a Viennese amateur musician, the mother of five children, and a friend of the composer Joseph Haydn. Her correspondence with Haydn preserves a personal view of the composer not available from any other biographical source.[1].

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[edit] Background

Marianne, born Maria Anna von Keyser, was the wife of an eminent and wealthy medical doctor, Peter Ludwig von Genzinger. Dr. Genzinger served as personal physician of Haydn's patron Prince Nikolaus Esterházy.

At the time the friendship began, Haydn was 56 years old, and was nearing the end of his nearly 30 years of service under Prince Esterházy at the remote palace of Esterháza in Hungary. Although he was the most celebrated of all composers at the time, he still was bound by loyalty and economic considerations to the Prince. Haydn frequently sought to visit Vienna, which however lay a considerable distance from Esterháza.

[edit] The origin of the friendship

The friendship apparently originated from correspondence: having arranged the Andante movement of one of Haydn's symphonies for piano, Mrs. Genzinger sent a copy of her work to the composer, asking him to critique it:[2]

With your kind permission I take the liberty to send a pianoforte arrangement of the beautiful adagio in your admirable composition. I arranged it from the score quite alone, and without the least help from my master. I beg that, if you should discover any errors, you will be so good as to correct them. I do hope that you are in perfect health, and nothing do I wish more than to see you soon again in Vienna, in order to prove further my high esteem.

The letter implies that Mrs. Genzinger had met Haydn in person, at least briefly, though the occasion is not known. Haydn responded with words of praise:

In all my previous correspondence, nothing was ever so agreeable to me as the surprise of seeing your charming writing, and reading so many kind expressions; but still more did I admire what you sent me--the admirable arrangement of the adagio, which, from its correctness, might be engraved at once by any publisher. I should like to know whether you arranged the adagio from the score, or whether you gave yourself the amazing trouble of first putting it into score from the separate parts, and then arranging it for the piano, for, if the latter, such an attention would be too flattering to me, and I feel that I really do not deserve it.
Best and kindest Frau v. Genzinger! I only await a hint from you as to how, and in what way, I can serve you; in the meantime, I return the adagio, and hope that my talents, poor though they be, may ensure me some commands from you.

A social invitation to the Genzingers' home soon followed. Haydn biographer Karl Geiringer describes Haydn's visits to the Genzingers as follows:[3]

Both the doctor and his charming wife, Marianne, an excellent singer and pianist, were real friends of music. On Sundays, the musical elite of Vienna used to assemble at the Genzingers' home for performances of the first quality. Haydn attended these gatherings whenever he was in Vienna, and they meant a great deal to him. There he found an atmosphere that seemed like the fulfullment of his old dreams: a comfortable, pleasant home; a woman of high culture who took the keenest interest in every one of his new compositions and who at the same time was so thoughtful a hostess that she prepared his favorite dishes; musically gifted children whom he could guide. The Genzinger home offered him all that he had missed throughtout his married life. He basked in this congenial atmosphere, only to feel all the more strongly the misery of his lonely existence when he returned to Eszterháza.

[edit] Haydn's loneliness

The backdrop to this description is that Haydn's own marriage had been unhappy almost from the very start, and had produced no children. Haydn was also conducting a long term love affair with the singer Luigia Polzelli, but this may have been fading, in light of the fact that two years later Haydn did not bring Luigia with him on his first visit to London. Haydn may also have been deprived of ordinary male friendship, given that his contract required him to act as a "house officer" and remain socially aloof from the musicians under his direction.[4]

That Haydn did indeed feel lonely during his final years at Eszterháza is suggested by a letter to Marianne, dated February 9, 1790:[5]

Well, here I sit in my wilderness; forsaken, like some poor orphan, almost without human society, melancholy, dwelling on the memory of past glorious days. Yes, past, alas! And who can tell when those happy hours may return--those charming meeting where the whole circle has but one heart and one soul--all those delightful musical evenings that can only be remembered and not described?

Other letters suggest that Haydn, whose persona is often assumed to be uniformly and stereotypically jolly (see Papa Haydn) experienced depression at times[6]. A letter of May 1790 reads:[7]:

I beg Your Grace not to shy away from comforting me by your pleasant letters, for they cheer me up in my isolation, and are highly necessary for my heart, which is often very deeply hurt.

[edit] The first London journey

Haydn may be assumed to have visited the Genzingers more often after the death of Prince Nikolaus (28 September, 1790), when he was dismissed by the new prince from his duties, was given a pension, and promptly moved to Vienna. However, the stay in Vienna was only for a brief time; on 15 December, 1790, Haydn left Vienna on the first of his two journeys to London, where he enjoyed great success both musically and financially. Much of the information we have about Haydn's London visits comes from letters he wrote to Marianne while there.

[edit] Death and mourning

The last letter from Haydn to Mrs. Genzinger is dated 13 November 1972, thus following his return to Vienna on July 24.[8]

Gracious Lady!
Apart from wishing you a Good Morning, this is to ask you to give the bearer of this letter the final big Aria in F minor from my opera, because I must have it copied for my Princess. I will bring it back myself in 2 days at the latest. Today I take the libety of inviting myself to lunch, which I shall have the opportunity of kissing Your Grace's hands in return. Meanwhile I am, as always,
Y[our] G[race's]
Most obedient servant,
Joseph Haydn

By "my opera" Haydn meant his L'anima del filosofo, completed the previous year; the aria in question is a lament by the main character Orpheus.

The letter gives no hint at all that Marianne was ill, but in fact she died only two months later, on 26 January, 1793. Haydn's feelings at the time are not preserved, though the musicologist H. C. Robbins Landon suggests[9] that his F Minor Variations for piano, which stand out in Haydn's oeuvre for their tone of impassioned anguish, may have been written as a tacit commemoration of Marianne.[10]

Karl Geiringer writes[11] "With Marianne's death, something never to be recaptured went out of Haydn's life. A certain sarcasm in his nature began to show, an asperity of which the diary of his second trip to London offers many instances."

[edit] A love affair?

Geiringer and other biographers have addressed the question of whether Haydn was in love with Marianne. The most likely answer seems to be that he was, but was very aware of how catastrophic the consequences would be for Marianne if they pursued a romantic connection, and exercised restraint. Moreover, the various veiled utterances found in Haydn's letters are not matched in Marianne's, who (Geiringer) "certainly showed no more than friendliness."[12]

Haydn biographer Mary Hughes writes[13]:

It is easy to see that he was, in a deeply respectful way, half in love with Marianne ... He anxiously assures her, when one of his letters to her had been lost on the way, that it contained nothing dishonourable for the inquisitive to seize on ... His deep anxiety was that she ... should take fright and break off their correspondence.

[edit] Genzinger as dedicatee

Haydn wrote his piano sonata in E flat, Hob. XVI/49 (1790), for Mrs. Genzinger. The work is considered one of Haydn's finest sonatas[14]. Concerning the slow movement, Haydn wrote to Mrs. Genzinger, "I recommend it especially to your attention for it contains many things which I shall analyze for your grace when the time comes; it is rather difficult but full of feeling."[15].

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Geiringer 1982, 90
  2. ^ Text from Hadden 1902; see External Links below
  3. ^ 1982, p. 90
  4. ^ See Clause 3 of Haydn's contract with the Eszterházys, printed p. 44 of Geiringer 1982
  5. ^ Selection quoted from Geiringer 1982, 90
  6. ^ This seems to be the view of Webster and Feder (2002, 45), and Geiringer (2002, 95) says of this period, "Haydn had ceased to be happy at Eszterháza."
  7. ^ Webster and Feder 2002, 45
  8. ^ Robbins Landon and Jones 1988, 244-245
  9. ^ Robbins Landon 1955, 559
  10. ^ This web site goes further, suggesting that the Variations actually quote the F minor aria for Orpheus mentioned above (though the resemblance appears to be rather slight). As the Web site points out, the aria is one "in which the inconsolable Orpheus, having lost his Eurydice, yearns for death."
  11. ^ p. 131
  12. ^ p. 93
  13. ^ Hughes 1974, 61
  14. ^ For instance, Malcolm Bilson issued a recording of it along with Hob. XVI/52 under the title "Two Great E Flat Sonatas", and Maurice Hinson in the preface to his edition of the sonatas says (p. 17), "The full glory of the Viennese Classical style is apparent in this work."
  15. ^ Hinson 1992, 17

[edit] References

  • Geiringer, Karl, in collaboration with Irene Geiringer (3rd ed., 1982) Haydn: A Creative Life in Music. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Hinson, Maurice (1992) Haydn: The Complete Piano Sonatas, Vol. 3, Alfred Publishing, Van Nuys, CA.
  • Hughes, Rosemary (1974) Haydn, J. M. Dent, London.
  • Robbins Landon, H. C. (1955) The Symphonies of Joseph Haydn, London.
  • Robbins Landon, H. C. and David Wyn Jones (1988) Haydn: His Life and Music, Thames and Hudson.

[edit] External link

The biography Haydn by J. Cuthbert Hadden, 1902, is available as a free downloadable text from Project Gutenberg. The biography is inaccurate and should be read with caution; however, it includes an appendix with the translated text of many of Haydn's letters to Mrs. Genzinger. Link: [1].

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