Reviving the Classic, Inventing Memory: Haydn\u27s Reception in Fin-de-Siècle France (original) (raw)

Haydn’s French reception between 1870 and 1914 reflects a central concern of the era’s music criticism: the revival of a classical aesthetic within a post-romantic context. But which, or whose classicism was intended? Examination of contemporary French periodicals reveals a tension within the élite world of the concert hall: between the socially conservative advocates of Viennese classicism – Haydn’s music representing the standard – and supporters of a nationalistic, culturally progressive nouveau classicisme designed to rejuvenate a specifically French style without merely imitating eighteenth-century forms. While most scholars have located Haydn’s reception in France logically on one side of this divide, sources suggest a more nuanced interpretation is needed. Concert reviews show that, while audiences enjoyed Haydn’s music, many critics, habituated to Beethoven and Wagner, questioned the relevance of an “old-fashioned” style redolent of the defunct milieu of the ancien régime. A...