Symphony #104
HAYDN 1732-1809
Haydn’s many successes in life were often due in part to being in the right place at the right time. He came from a family of amateur musicians living in Rohrau, Austria, who recognized the potential of Franz Joseph and sent him at age six to a school in Hainburg to obtain a better musical education than he would have received at home. Two years later he was accepted as a chorister at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna. For the next twenty years he lived in Vienna where he received a good musical education and embarked on a career as a freelance violinist, singer and composer. In 1761, he was offered one of the best music positions in Europe, that of Vice-Kapellmeister (later Kapellmeister) for the Esterhazy family, a job he was to hold for the next twenty-nine years.
Although his position with the Esterhazy family allowed him the opportunity to compose on what could only be called a grand scale (and then hear his works played by some of the finest musicians in Europe), he often longed for the freedom to be able to embark on performance and study tours outside his native land. It wasn’t until 1790, when the death of Prince Nicholas Esterhazy freed him from his obligations, that he was able to fulfill his dreams. The opportunity to travel came quickly, for during the summer of that year German-born violinist Johann Peter Salomon, active as a concert promoter in London, arrived at Haydn’s Vienna residence and bluntly announced, “I am Salomon from London and have come to fetch you!”
Haydn accepted the invitation to present concerts in England and arrived with eager anticipation on New Year’s Day, 1791. For a generous fee he was to compose six symphonies, an opera, and twenty other works to be performed at weekly concerts from March through June. The visit to London was such a success that he was asked to return for the 1794-95 concert season. During this second visit he wrote, among other works, his last six symphonies. Since they were intended for sophisticated audiences and London’s exceptionally fine orchestras, the twelve “London” symphonies brought out the best in Haydn and are his finest achievements in the style.
The twelfth of the “London” Symphonies, Symphony No. 104 “London,” was first performed on April 13, 1795. The following morning a newspaper reviewer wrote, “This wonderful man never fails; and the various powers of his inventive and impassioned mind have seldom been conceived with more accuracy by the [orchestra], or listened to with greater rapture by the hearers, than they were on this evening.” Haydn performed the work again on May 4 as part of his farewell benefit concert. Its title, which could have been appended to any of the last twelve symphonies, was added later for no apparent reason by an early publisher of Haydn’s symphonies.
Haydn could have provided his adoring London audience with catchy tunes and predictable paths. They would have been satisfied. That he chose instead to appeal to their intellect and sophisticated tastes is a measure of his greatness. A serious, almost menacing, introduction in D minor sets the stage for a first movement of unparalleled simplicity and beauty. The gentle theme of the allegro both outlines the principal harmony and serves as the secondary theme. The repeated notes in the third measure become the central feature of the development. The often surprising second movement presents a simple theme seemingly lost in a thicket of unexpected (and sometimes just plain humorous) modulations into distant keys. The minuet seems to be more of a dance for the Austrian peasants than a diversion for the aristocracy. Good humor abounds, particularly near the end of the minuet proper where a series of trilled passages in the violins stop on a high note and the entire orchestra “holds its breath” during two measures of rests before continuing the trill and leading to a conclusion. The contrasting trio section features singing scale passages in the oboes, bassoons and strings. The finale begins with a drone in the cellos and horns over which Haydn presents one of his oldest sources of inspiration- folk song. In this case, an old Croatian ballad provides the material out of which Haydn fashions one of his most endearing final movements.
by Jim Keays
Concert Performance
Orchestration
2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, Timpani, strings