26

"Lamentatione"

d minor

Order by Hoboken
Hob.I: 26
Chronological order
46
Key
d minor
Title
"Lamentatione"
Period
Middle Esterház-sonfonias 1767 to 1773; „Sturm und Drang“ and the „calm“ afterwards
Date of composition
1768
Customer
Prince Nikolaus I. Joseph Esterházy
Number of movements
3
Authenticity proof
Entwurfs-Katalog
Score edition

Sinfonien um 1766-1769
Herausgeber: Andreas Friesenhagen und Christin Heitmann; Reihe I, Band 5a; 2008, G. Henle Verlag München

Symphony No. 26 in D minor ("Lamentatione")
This three-movement work is an 'Easter' symphony. The oldest surviving source is headed 'Passio et Lamentatio', and the first two movements both utilize material from traditional Austrian musical dramatizations of the Passion.' Haydn's compositional strategies are correspondingly unusual.
The Allegro assai con spirito opens with a driving syncopated forte theme in Haydn's best early 'Sturm und Drang' style, followed by several halting piano phrases. Without warning, the music then shifts to the relative (F major), where the first liturgical theme is heard fortissimo in one oboe and the second violins. This theme has three sections: a 'declaiming' forte melody, based on a rhythmic ostinato; a stepwise piano melody in longer notes; and a higher variant of the declaiming melody. These correspond, respectively, to words of the Evangelist ('Passio Domini nostri Jesu Christi secundum Marcum. In illo tempore'), of Jesus ('Ego sum'), and of the Jews ('Jesum Nazarenum'). The whole is enveloped by constant quavers in the first violins, which maintain momentum and rhythmically link the theme to the larger context.
The relatively brief development is based primarily on the opening theme (though the words of Jesus are briefly recalled). The exposition is also recapitulated without change, until a dominant pedal 'portends' something unusual which proves to be a recapitulation of the entire second group in the tonic major (D major), Passion theme and all. Not only is this effect striking in its own right, but it is highly exceptional: this is the first minor-mode sonata-form movement that Haydn ended in the major, and he did not do so again until 1782. By thus ending in the 'wrong' mode, he surely intended not merely to quote an old Passion tune, but to invoke its significance: at once gruesome and hopeful.
A further consequence of this ending is that the Adagio enters with a remote tonal relation (F major from D major); again, Haydn had never done this before. The Adagio is also based on a (different) liturgical melody, also played by oboes and second violins, again 'haloed' by a descant in the first violins. But here this melody begins straight away. It is a true 'lamentation', taken from a collection of such melodies identified by letters of the Hebrew alphabet ('aleph'. 'beth', etc.); its text begins, 'Aleph. Incipit lamentatio Jeremiae Prophetae.' Haydn's setting, with the violin curlicues surrounding the slow, melodically limited liturgical tune, all supported by a 'walking' bass (pilgrims?), invokes a strange mixture of constriction and exaltation. Two noteworthy details are the wonderful 'enhancement' as the horns enter at the beginning of the recapitulation, and a moment of tonal ambiguity near the end, which further develops the previous D/F polarities.
The minuet-finale has posed a problem for interpretation, partly because great symphonies are 'supposed' to have four movements, partly because minuets carry associations of the galant. And yet this austerely concentrated movement is in many ways the most intense of all. Right from the start, the off-tonic beginning, unstable rhythmic motives, Neapolitan harmony, and ambiguous phrase-rhythm create an oppressive mood. No root-position tonic appears until the recapitulation — and even this event is destabilized. The bass stamps out the theme one measure 'too soon', so that when the melody enters 'correctly', it engenders a remarkable rising canon, which dominates the recapitulation and seems to stretch toward the heavens, until it abruptly breaks off on a dissonant chord; the final cadences follow quietly. (Mozart is foreshadowed here, particularly the Adagio and Fugue for two pianos, K426, and the D minor Piano Concerto.) Although it would be witless to speculate how an eighteenth-century listener might have heard this movement in terms of the Passion, surely it is earnest enough to conclude this remarkable symphony.

Analysis

Analyse

Analysis of the movements

1. movement
46,1
Title of the movement
Allegro assai con spirito
Key
d minor
Form
sonataform
2. movement
46,2
Title of the movement
Adagio
Key
F major
Form
ternary songform
3. movement
46,3
Title of the movement
Menuet / Trio
Key
d minor-D major
Duration
appr. 17 min.

Musicians

Musiker

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".

Direction
Joseph Haydn
Instrumentation
0|2|0|0 – 2|0 – 0 – Str.
Cast oft he orchestra
0|2|0|1 – 2|0 – 0 – Str.
Cast
Flute Franz Sigl 1761-1773
Flute Zacharias Hirsch 1777-1790
Oboe Michael Kapfer 1761-1769
Oboe Georg Kapfer 1761-1770
Oboe Anton Mayer 1782-1790
Oboe Joseph Czerwenka 1784-1790
Bassoon Johann Hinterberger 1761-1777
Bassoon Franz Czerwenka 1784-1790
Bassoon Joseph Steiner 1781-1790
Horn (played violin) Franz Pauer 1770-1790
Horn (played violin) Joseph Oliva 1770-1790
Timpani or Bassoon Caspar Peczival 1773-1790
Violin Luigi Tomasini 1761-1790
Violin (leader 2. Vl) Johann Tost 1783-1788
Violin Joseph Purgsteiner 1766-1790
Violin Joseph Dietzl 1766-1790
Violin Vito Ungricht 1777-1790
Violin (most Viola) Christian Specht 1777-1790
Cello Anton Kraft 1779-1790
Violone Carl Schieringer 1768-1790

Medias

Medien

Music

Antal Dorati

Joseph Haydn
The Symphonies
Philharmonia Hungarica
33 CDs, aufgenommen 1970 bis 1974, herausgegeben 1996 Decca (Universal)

1. movement
46,1
2. movement
46,2
3. movement
46,3



Score

26









Haydn13

1757

1. Periode
Hob.I:1

1757-1759

1. Periode
Hob.I:37
Hob.I:18
Hob.I:2

1757-1760

1. Periode
Hob.I:4
Hob.I:27

1758-1760

1. Periode
Hob.I:10
Hob.I:20

1761/1762

1. Periode
Hob.I:36
Hob.I:33

1766

4. Periode

1771

4. Periode
Hob.I:52
Hob.I:42

1773/1774

4. Periode
Hob.I:50

1774/1775

5. Periode
Hob.I:68

1776

5. Periode
Hob.I:61

1777/1778

5. Periode
Hob.I:53 "L'Impériale"

1778/1779

5. Periode
Hob.I:71

1780

5. Periode
Hob.I:74
Hob.I:62

1781

5. Periode
Hob.I:73 "La chasse"

1787

8. Periode
Hob.I:89

-1788

8. Periode
Hob.I:88

1788

8. Periode
Hob.I:90
Hob.I:91

1789

8. Periode
Hob.I:92 "Oxford"

1791/1792

9. Periode
Hob.I:98

1793

10. Periode
Hob.I:99

1794

10. Periode
Hob.I:102

1796

1799

1801

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I. Periode
Acide
 
I. Periode
 
I. Periode
 
I. Periode
La canterina
I. Periode
 
I. Periode
Lo speziale
 
I. Periode
 
I. Periode
Le pescatrici
 
I. Periode
 
I. Periode
 
II. Periode
 
II. Periode
 
II. Periode
 
II. Periode
Il mondo della luna
 
II. Periode
 
III. Periode
 
III. Periode
La fedeltà premiata
 
III. Periode
Orlando paladino
 
III. Periode
Armida
 
III. Periode
La vera costanza II