Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven. Within the Trinity of the First Vienna School, the Founding Father is now the stepchild—though happily not in his native Lower Austria, a short hop from Vienna. “Papa Haydn,” as an overfamiliar world still calls Franz Joseph, came from humble beginnings. Born in 1732 to a village wheelwright and a mother who ran the kitchen of the local bluebloods, he lucked into a spot in the boys’ chorus of St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna at age eight, taught himself to write music mostly by means of self-study, and landed the position of court composer to the Esterházy family in Vienna’s Hungarian hinterlands. When that gig ended, he freelanced. It wasn’t long before all London and Paris fell at his feet. A pan-European celebrity, the old man died in 1809 during an occupation of Vienna by the French army, his home under the protection of a French honor guard. Today, Haydn’s birth house in Rohrau, an hour’s drive from the capital, is the epicenter for programs devoted to the sublime tradition he established. This season’s gala in a nearby estate includes his overture for a puppet opera from the Esterházy period, as well as selections by his talented kid brother Michael; Paul Wranitzy, a favorite of Maria Theresia’s; and Marianna Martines, a fascinating talent of the period just beginning to receive her due. Mozart’s “Linz” Symphony, in C Major, KV 425, crowns the program. Wolfgang Danzmayr conducts the Salzburg Hofmusik ensemble, with Wolfgang Brunner at the harpsichord. —Matthew Gurewitsch

For further details about this and related events, visit the Web site Zum Haydn, Region Niederösterreich: https://www.haydnregion-noe.at/programm.html