Presenting a fresh picture of Haydn's life and work, this biography captures all the complexities and contradictions of the composer's long career.

David Wyn Jones is Professor of Music and Head of School at Cardiff University and has written extensively on music and musical life in the Classical Period. He is the author of The Symphony in Beethoven's Vienna (2006), The Life of Beethoven (1998), Beethoven: The Pastoral Symphony (1996) and is the editor of Music in Eighteenth-Century Austria (1996), all published by Cambridge University Press. His Companion to Haydn (2002) was awarded the C. B. Oldman Prize by IAML UK. He has contributed to several programmes on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4.

Preface; 1. God and country; 2. Serving princes: images of Haydn: 1776; 3. Italian opera at Eszterháza; 4. 'My misfortune is that I live in the country': images of Haydn: 1790; 5. London-Vienna-London; 6. Viennese composer, European composer; 7. 'Gone is all my strength': images of Haydn: 1809.