... Michael HAYDN - on RECORD!!!

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Something to consider: Michael was a hard working man (11 duties, on and off). ... Which strikes a severe blow to Leopold's famous thesis - and overly repeated a fact:

''Haydn will drink himself into a dropsy in a few years or, at any rate, he'll get lazier and lazier the older he becomes as even now he's too lazy to do anything.'' Briefe, 379-380.

Kinda clashes with later description ... '' of Michael was given by one of the monks of St. Peter, Gabriel Hutter: *His character was quiet, discreet modesty. 

As seen from the brief example of Fischietti, Colloredo did not take kindly to laziness (= non writing church music) - and Wolfgang Mozart was, amongst others, FIRED for precisely this reason.

In fact, it was Colloredo who went on and, rather unfairly, fired BOTH, Leopold AND Wolfgang when they asked for leave of absence to go on a tour (and then took them back again, the evil man). 

Michael was a calm, taciturn and compliant composer, home in tradition as well as the new wave - he was offered to take over Wolfgang's position as organist  (clever move to further aggravate ambitious Leo) 

As we know, he eventually pulled his shit together ~ and the Empress herself sang his masses - under his personal direction. ... How TOP OF THE WORLD can one get?!

... On the other hand: how deep in the muck can one be? After Colloredo, who pretty much poked fun out of him and did not take his contributions (too) seriously, Michael's last employer

was Duke of Tuscany - who had absolutely no ear for Michael's music - he not only ignored his logical promotion to Kapellmeistership - but also took away his Konzertmeister title

(Michael was left with nothing but ''cathedral organist'' at the time of his death (= pretty much suffered an indignity and shame as well as a broken heart, fell ill and died) - and that's a person

who actually WAS a Kapellmeister in his early 20's (!!!!!!!) - and whose fame reached well beyond state borders - and who had a Holy Roman Empress and Emperor under his compositional hat.)

Keep in mind that while courts offered him, a historically depicted Drunkard and a Waste Of Encyclopaedic Space, various lucrative positions - nobody offered the bitter Mozarts anything much, especially

since Leopold himself was in 1782 deeply in the game and has sent Colloredo his petition to succeed somewhat recently expired Kapellmeister Lolli. Some suggest that through smearing Michael's reputation 

regarding  (which was common knowledge anyhow) he cleverly made sure Michael Haydn was left dry too (especially since Michael too was a violin virtuoso (thus Leo's competitor) 

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