People often ask, “Do you ‘just’ play the music of Haydn since you are called the Haydn Ensemble?”… The short answer is, no. We are named after Joseph Haydn who was an 18th century composer central to the transition from the baroque style to the classical. He developed many of the Classical music forms that we know and still perform today - including the string quartet and the symphony.

AHE specialises in performing music by Haydn, in the style and on the instruments he would have been familiar with, as well as other composers who were connected to him, either leading up to his time or following on from it.

Many of them were heavily influenced by Haydn’s music, including composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Boccherini, Schubert, Mendelssohn and other lesser-known contemporaries such as Ferdinand Ries, Fanny Mendelssohn, Wendling, CPE Bach, Benda, Vanhal, and J.C. Bach, to name a few!

WHO WERE THEY ANYWAY?