We had this album on cassette tape in the 1990s, when the kids were little. We played it at home and in the car, many times. Our nephew's 2nd son is named Hayden (spelled almost like, but doesn't sound like, Haydn), which put me in mind of the album, and I was happy to find it here on amazon.com. Was it the same one? I listened to one of the 30-second teaser clips and sure enough, it's the Real McCoy. Things we liked about it: (1) It exposed the kids to great music (Haydn's music is played throughout); (2) Haydn's story involves poverty and parental sacrifice (e.g., father skipping meals so young Joseph could have paper to write his compositions on iirc); (3) Provided a window into another time and place; (4) being brutally honest, it gave us a break and kept them entertained for a while. Our kids had a pretty good attention span, and playing this for them probably increased it.
If your kids (age 3-13?) have any interest in music at all, or in life in other lands (and other times), you really ought to take a listen to the clips. $10 to put this on your ipod -- sheesh, a single movie ticket costs that much, and your kids can listen to this one over and over again.