The art of the Classical period is by definition devoid of vague utterances. This is especially true in regards to Haydn, the patriarch of the Classical style. All the harder it is for us at the present time to create a "musical offering" to Haydn from the 21st century. After all, the field of contemporary "recomposition", the art of Nebenstueck, almost always presents itself as a conjectured sketch, marginalia on the margins of manuscripts of great masters or hermeneutics of obscure spots left to us by the geniuses of the past. In this domain, the work with the legacy of Mozart and Beethoven, pupils and contemporaries of Haydn and continuers of his style, seems to be much more fruitful. However, this is so merely upon a first glance.

The world of Haydn is immensely vast. The composer created it day after day throughout his long life, and each of these days was filled with joy of creation of a new musical universe. Haydn was destined to transform his life into a continuous assertion, on a daily basis, of a new style in which he presented himself as a father, lawmaker and sovereign master. Present day composers will never obtain that easeful, almost childlike joy of discovery of new horizons, which shows through practically every composition by Haydn, including the presently neglected ones. This joy and ease with which Haydn unearths new laws of musical form and harmony, frequently breaking them at once, in order to test their durability, has long disappeared into the past. Nonetheless, we can be imbued with the spirit of Haydn’s play, which he had regularly set up with his listeners in such works as the Abschiedssymphony and the Sixtieth Symphony, which stand at the source of contemporary instrumental theater, his Kinder Sinfonie and even in his mature works, such as the “Surprise” Symphony. This play is one of the most important components of the immense world of Haydn. It tests the sturdiness of the art which is just created, and provokes all those involved in it to create something new.

The cycle of three concerts organized by the Moscow State Conservatory’s Center for Contemporary Music jointly with the Austrian Cultural Foundation is named precisely as "Joseph Haydn. Playing at Classics." It presents in itself a logical continuation of the joint project "Moz-Art. Playing with Mozart" which was carried out in 2006. The chief difference of this cycle will be a focus on the music of young composers of Russia and Austria, which will write their compositions especially in homage to Haydn especially for this project. In addition to this music as well as rarely heard compositions of Haydn himself, the concerts will include works by Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy dedicated to Haydn. The program also provides for a few lectures on contemporary Austrian music which are to be read by Roland Freisitzer and Yulia Purgina.