Gratuitous Musickal Posting - II

In their book Haydn, His Life And Music, H.C. Robbins Landon and David Wyn Jones neatly juxtapose two letters that illustrate a relationship I've always cherished.

The first is from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to Franz Joseph Haydn, in which Mozart dedicates a set of six string quartets to Haydn:

Vienna, 1st September 1785

To my dear friend Haydn:

A father, having resolved to send his sons into the great world, finds it advisable to entrust them to the protection and guidance of a highly-celebrated man, the more so since this man, by a stroke of luck, is his best friend. Here, then, celebrated man and my dearest friend, are my six sons. Truly, they are the fruit of a long and laborious effort, but the hope, strengthened by several of my friends, that this effort would, at least in some small measure, be rewarded, encourages and comforts me that one day, these children may be a source of consolation to me. You yourself, dearest friend, during your last sojourn in this capital, expressed to me your satisfaction with these works. This, your approval, encourages me more than anything else, and thus I entrust them to your care, and I hope that they are not wholly unworthy of your favor. Do but receive them kindly and be their father, guide and friend! From this moment I cede to you all my rights over them: I pray you to be indulgent to their mistakes, which a father's partial eye may have overlooked, and despite this, to cloak them in the mantle of your generousity which they value so highly. From the bottom of my heart I am, dearest friend,

Your most sincere friend,
W.A. Mozart

In a December 1787 letter to Franz Roth of Prague in reply to a request for a comic opera, Haydn says, in part:

... You ask me for an opera buffa. Most willingly, if you want to have one of my vocal compositions for yourself alone. But if you intend to produce it on the stage in Prague, in that case I cannot comply with your wish, because all my operas are far too closely connected with our personal circle (Esterhaz, in Hungary), and moreover they would not produce the proper effect, which I calculated in accordance with the locality. It would be quite another matter if I were to have the great good fortune to compose a brand-new libretto for your theatre. But even then I should be risking a good deal, for scarcely any man can brook comparison with the great Mozart.

If I could only impress on the soul of every friend of music, and on high personages in particular, how inimitable are Mozart's works, how profound, how musically intelligent, how extraordinarily sensitive! (for this is how I understand them, how I feel them) - wihy then the nations would vie with each other to possess such a jewel within their frontiers. Prague should hold him fast - but should reward him, too: for without this, the history of great geniuses is sad, indeed, and gives but little encouragement to posterity to further exertions; and unfortunately this is why so many promising intellects fall by the wayside. It enrages me to think that this incomparable Mozart is not yet engaged by some imperial or royal court! Forgive me if I lose my head: but I love the man so dearly. I am, &c.

- Joseph Haydn.