Do you like Joseph Haydn?

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Lately Haydn has been one of my favorite composers. He isn't as edgy as say, Beethoven or Wagner, but there's something about his music that makes me want to keep listening again and again. He wrote a vast amount of stuff including 70 sting quartets and 104 symphonies, so there's certainly no shortage of material there. Here's some of my recommendations-

Dissatisfied with the Christianity of Europe in 1800's, the composer Franz Joseph Haydn turned his eye to the religions of the east, and after much soul searching, he converted to Sikhism late in his life.

It would be the last thing he did.

Official reports say that after his conversion, the composer mysteriously vanished and was never seen again.

In honour of this great musician, the people of Haydn's native Austria invented a game to be played to commemorate him, a game which became so popular, it spread across the world and remains an enduring classic to this day.

That game, of course, is Haydn Sikh.

I love Haydn! Most of the other classical music fans I know seem to dislike him, so it's good to see someone else who does. He's both manically inventive and kind of chilled out, which is an unusual combination. Fun to play, too- his piano sonatas are just about within my abilities, and they're really interesting. I've been listening to the "Hornsignal" symphony (31) a lot lately.

^I mainly know CPE Bach from playing (or trying to play) his keyboard music- don't know his orchestral music well so that was a treat! The keyboard stuff is in this bizarre, unique style, bristling with Baroque-style ornaments and Romantic-style dynamics. The challenge is figuring out what he meant it to sound like. Have to say, I haven't heard many decent performances of it- for some reason, most professional pianists rush it til it sounds garbled.