Michael Haydn

HAYDN, (Johann) Michael. b. Rohrau, Lower Austria, 1737 (baptized 14 September); d. Salzburg, 10 August 1806. Born at Rohrau, like his elder brother (Franz) Joseph Haydn*, he was a chorister at St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna. Accounts of his life state that in 1757 he became Kapellmeister at Grosswardein (now Oradea, Roumania) to the bishop Count Firmian, though there is no evidence of his being there until 1760. There he composed 15 symphonies and 14 masses among other works. In 1763 he took up an appointment as court Konzertmeister to Archbishop Sigismund of Salzburg. In the 1770s his career flourished as the new archbishop, Hieronymus Count Colleredo, restricted the activities of...