On the occasion of the Haydn Bicentennial in 2009 the Joseph Haydn Conservatory organised a three-year Erasmus intensive programme titled “Haydn, the progressive” with the participation of eleven music institutions from throughout Europe.
Like Arnold Schoenberg’s famous essay “Brahms, the progressive”, which in the second half of the twentieth century sparked a reappraisal of Brahms’ oeuvre, the Joseph Haydn Conservatory wanted its project to make an enduring contribution to stripping away the persistent prevailing image of “Papa Haydn” and raise awareness of the significance of the meaning of his “completely new and special way” of composing.
The special concept of “Haydn, the progressive” consisted of a theoretical and aesthetic examination of the works of Joseph Haydn and the following generation through to Franz Liszt, with direct, immediate reference to practical tonal realisation and in comparison to works of modern and contemporary music.