Over the ensuing several work days of Haydn-heavy interaction, I went a bit weird in the head. To my colleagues, I apologise for your having to sit next to this:. Symphony No. Honestly, swap a movement out for another one from Symphony No. Literally no-one would notice.
Long, uninventive and positively backwards-looking. There are flashes of inspiration elsewhere, sort-of, but generally you assume that this was being composed alongside a lot of other, more important works. Trouble is, by this point, around , Haydn was pretty much constantly knocking out symphonies with his eyes closed, which means a large chunk of that early output is pretty forgettable.
Skip over. An early sign of huge promise, but one that lacks maturity. Winsome and pleasant enough, but it suffers from another quite tawdry slow movement. Sadly, this is the latter. Almost exactly the same opening as No. The second movement is, however, an absolutely transparent whopper.
Perhaps the most fun to be had with this one is to count the five-note semiquaver runs in the second movement. Either side of that, not much. Stately, boring, fusty, disappointing.
Promising, but disappointing. Unless you look a bit more closely at the chronology of what was composed when, in which case that argument falls apart. No-one's here for accuracy. Nice melodies, the odd rhythmic tweak or structural innovation, but nothing more.
Trouble is, when he gets preoccupied with these little games, it can detract from the impact of the symphony as a whole, leaving one with little memory of the main themes. Fairly passable. Haydn phoning it in, no major stylistic tics or inventions. Not challenging technically, but to nail that lyricism is a rare and satisfying thing.
Even with only seven symphonies to his name, Haydn was using every trick in the book to extend his melodies. Though the melodies are undoubtedly fine, they are also languorous, slow, and perhaps overly dainty. Maybe a cameo from Zac Efron. Haydn eschewed the traditional three-movement structure here in place of a four-movement epic, with plenty of little intricacies to keep symphony-nuts entertained, like a finale that squashes a fugue into sonata form.
Nice enough tunes, but using mutes on the second violins when they answer the unmuted firsts is a bit of a cheap gag, even for Haydn. The character changes sometimes violently here, veering from sprightly to angry within the space of a few horn stabs.
A bit polite and ceremonial when we know Haydn was capable of much deeper, darker emotions. The third movement, the minuet and trio, takes its initial melody and then plays it in reverse, which gives the symphony its name. But is the symphony actually any good?
Not a classic, but solid enough. Great, shivery triplets in the first movement, and a power-pop finale. A little by-the-numbers, perhaps, but the numbers are quite good. The bookend movements here are strong, but the middle is a bit of a plod.
Tolerably exhausting, like a strenuous playfight with an older sibling. If you find a recording that foregrounds the continuo in that closing Presto, this is a right belter. Joseph Haydn was one of the most important people involved in the development of the style of classical music that we hear today. He was most prominent during the 18th and early 19th centuries as a musical composer, but how many symphonies did he write? As an extremely prolific composer, Joseph Haydn wrote symphonies during his active years.
A symphony is a large-scale musical composition, usually with three or four movements, intended to be played in concert halls and they were very important during the Classical and Romantic eras. According to Britannica , symphonic composition during the Classical period roughly the late 18th to the early 19th century was dominated by Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven.
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