This week Radio 3’s breakfast show quoted a recent poll of 1,000 people, in which nearly 90% of respondents agreed that listening to music can make them “feel perkier when they are sick or faced with hard times”. Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody was the winner in the original poll, which makes a certain amount of sense. However Radio 3 listeners called in with their own classical suggestions and I was delighted to find that Haydn is cited by many as their favourite musical ‘pick-me-up’.

It’s hardly surprising, considering the energy of so many of his symphonies and string quartets, as well as the sheer joyfulness of his music. But, in the week that the Haydn Society of Great Britain launches a fundraising campaign to put up a plaque to Haydn in London, it’s reassuring to be reminded that his music is still cherished by music-lovers across the country.

It’s something of a surprise that there isn’t already a plaque, given the extent of Haydn’s celebrity when he was here in the 1790s and the quality of the music specifically written for the London audience. Charles Burney, the great critic of the day, recorded the excitement surrounding composer’s first public appearance:

“Haydn himself presided at the piano-forte; and the sight of that renowned composer so electrified the audience, as to excite an attention and a pleasure superior to any that had ever been caused by instrumental music in England.”

How can such a man not deserve to be commemorated?

If you want to get involved with the Haydn Society’s plaque campaign or donate online, click here

More information about the campaign is available on the Haydn Society’s website.