Highly successful cooperation between the national library and the Haydneum

2024/04/18

The Haydneum – Hungarian Centre for Early Music Foundation held its annual press conference on 17 April 2024, where the results of the joint cooperation with the Hungarian National Library were presented.

The national library has the largest and most modern public collection digitisation centre in Central Europe, ensuring full digitisation of all types of documents. The digitisation centre's specialists, together with the Haydneum staff, process musical and musicological material of great cultural value from 1600 to 1850, especially the Esterházy Collection, which is of great importance for the history of music.

At the press conference, Dávid Rózsa, Director General of the Hungarian National Library, emphasized that the cooperation with the Haydneum is an excellent example of collaboration between cultural institutions with different profiles, as a performing arts organization and a public collection have joined forces for the good cause of making the treasures of the collection heard.

In the course of our collaboration, we have also digitised 344 volumes of Gregor Joseph Werner's manuscripts, the original manuscript bequests of Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and Michael Haydn, and part of the original manuscript bequests of Franz Xaver Süssmayr.
The joint work has so far resulted in nearly 53 000 digitised pages in approximately 1000 volumes, a figure previously unimaginable. The processed works have also resulted in 178 modern sheet music.

At the press conference, György Vashegyi, artistic director of the Haydneum's resident ensembles, stressed that "the Haydneum's festivals bring international world stars to concert halls in Hungary, and the institution's season ticket series will continue."

Szabolcs Szamosi, Managing Director of Filharmónia Hungary Nonprofit Ltd. and András Batta, Managing Director of the Hungarian House of Music also spoke at the event.

The partnership between the NSZL and the Haydneum is strong, and in the near future the two organisations plan to collaborate on a special volume, a facsimile edition of a sketchbook by Italian architect and set designer Pietro Travaglia.