Hob.I:99 Symphony in E-Flat Major     
Symphony No. 99 is the first symphony which was written for the second stay in London in 1794/95 and was completed in Vienna or Eisenstadt in 1793. It opened the 1794 season of the London Salomon Concerts with its premiere on 10 February 1794. It is also the first symphony of Haydn’s in which the composer uses clarinets because they were available in the orchestra for which he wrote it. Haydn did not have an easy time with the work’s arrangement; in the Austrian National Library in Vienna there are sketches to this symphony preserved which provide interesting glimpses into Haydn’s compositional method. Beyond the late Haydn’s technical standard of composition, the finale of this symphony is especially virtuosic, a sonata rondo (as is usual in the London Symphonies) in which the highest contrapuntal skill is tested on the thematic forms of a musical cadence shaped by the character of a merry kehraus.

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