Hob.I:105 Symphony in D Major Sinfonia concertante     
Originally referred to as Concertante or Sinfonia Concertante, the orchestration of this work is unique: four solo instruments (oboe, bassoon, violin, violoncello) and orchestra. Thus it is actually a quadruple concerto. Haydn wrote this piece in 1792 during his first stay in England for the second season of the Salomon Concerts. The occasion for this was likely to have been the following: Joseph Haydn already had an obligation with violinist Johann Peter Salomon’s concert enterprise. The competing enterprise to the Salomon Concerts, the Professional Concerts under the direction of violinist Wilhelm Cramer, had hired Haydn’s former pupil Ignaz Pleyel as a composer after it had failed to succeed in getting Haydn himself.  In the scope of the Professional Concerts Pleyel had given a premiere performance of a Sinfonia concertante for six solo instruments and orchestra, a musical form which was very popular at this time in Paris, Pleyel’s domain of activity. Salomon, for whom the solo violin part was meant, is likely to have suggested the composition of a “counterpart” to Haydn. With this work Haydn succeeds in blending the forms of the older concerto grosso, the modern instrumental concerto and symphony. In the first movement, for example, the solo quartet emerges from the orchestra tutti; in the second movement as well the traditional split into solo parts and orchestral ritornello were circumvented to the extent that it is more like an separate piece of chamber music (with scant support of the orchestra) than an instrumental concerto. The kehraus finale is expanded into an imaginary opera scene through the recitative of the solo violins.

Analysis of the movements

Musicians

Due to the unclear time of origin of most of Haydn’s symphonies - and unlike his 13 Italian operas, where we really know the exact dates of premieres and performances - detailed and correct name lists of the orchestral musicians cannot be given.  As a rough outline, his symphony works can be divided into three temporal blocks. In the first block, in the service of Count Morzin (1757-1761), in the second block, the one at the court of the Esterházys (1761-1790 but with the last symphony for the Esterház audience in 1781) and the third block, the one after Esterház (1782-1795), i.e. in Paris and London.  Just for this middle block at the court of the Esterházys 1761-1781 (the last composed symphony for the Esterház audience) respectively 1790, at the end of his service at the court of Esterház we can choose Haydn’s most important musicians and “long-serving companions” and thereby extract an "all-time - all-stars orchestra".

Music

Score