Symphony No. 38 in C major
Whether the inspired foolery of this work owed its inspiration to the stage we cannot know; it certainly would not lose anything from the association. Like several other early Haydn symphonies in C, the opening Allegro di molto employs the otherwise unusual 'finale' metre of 2/4 in its opening movement. Perhaps it is overture-like; certainly it sounds 'stagey', faintly bombastic, with little subtlety of contrast or motivic variation. And in the middle of the development it becomes downright comic: this section has centred around A minor; at the conclusion of a long sequence, Haydn twice cadences deceptively on F (its submediant), until he tires of this game and stamps out a third cadence, in unison, to clinch A minor at last whereupon he not only substitutes F this time too, but drops to piano and begins a new episode in F major! (The 'trio'-like effect of the reduced scoring and contextual separation of the latter section is also found primarily in early finales.)
The Andante molto is a delicately farcical 'echo' movement, of the sort that notoriously offended the conservative North German critics of Haydn's day. The second violins, muted, constantly imitate the concluding motives of the unmuted firsts no matter how tactlessly in the rhythmic context, or how excessively at the end of both main sections. The minuet features a solo oboe in the trio. So does the second group of the Allegro di molto finale (now in alla breve), which in general alternates between an opening theme that prances up and down the scale over an offbeat tonic pedal, and contrapuntal passages in the transitions and the development. The effect is decidedly one of comic juxtaposition rather than organic integration.

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