Haydn's Grand Piano

Haydn brought a rare 5½ octave grand piano by Longman and Broderip back to Vienna with him when he returned from England in 1795, a journey not often undertaken by any grand piano from London. Only three 5½ octave grand pianos by this maker survive today and the distinguished Haydn historian, Professor H.C. Robbins Landon, discovered this instrument in Vienna in the late 1960s. This, together with the fact that modifications to the instrument suggest it had been in Vienna since the 18th century, makes a compelling case for it having been Haydn’s instrument. Robbins Landon owned it for many years and arranged for it to come to the Cobbe Collection in 2006.