ABSTRACT
Johann Peter Salomon's failure to win the Pantheon leadership left his fortunes seemingly at a low ebb, but behind the scenes he had renewed his contact with Haydn. Salomon was also in the market for new works, very probably in the expectation of being able to present them at the Pantheon. Salomon's response – and again one detects the advice of Burney – was to approach Haydn for an original work with which to repair his reputation. Beneath his polished and deferential exterior, Salomon was evidently a man of some determination. To judge by the date of Joseph Haydn's letter to Bland, Salomon is unlikely to have received his new cantata in time to be performed during the 1790s season. Burney's plea was thus for the development of the Italian cantata, the genre best calculated to display the talents of star castrati like Pacchierotti in concerts, private and public.
