Mr. Peabody Says:
The last movement is based around a four-note figure which sounds like the last movement of Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony: Just listen to the very beginnning: Eb F Ab G: Finale. Allegro molto. Then listen HERE: C D F E, the same theme but in the key of C. This is no accident. Mozart was intimately familiar with Haydn’s music
Adam Fischer
- Allegro molto 3:45
- Adagio cantabile in G major (cello solo) 5:51
- Menuet & Trio (Trio in G major) 5:13
- Finale. Allegro molto 3:25
Total time: 18:14
Instruments:
- one flute
- two oboes
- four horns
- timpani
- strings
Unusual problems with the score:
There is a bassoon doubling the bass-line, but it’s not heard as an important instrument.
The timpani part in the autograph score is not in Haydn’s hand, but it is quite possibly authentic: he may have written it on a separate sheet, with somebody else adding it to the score at a later date.
Cello solo:
The second movement, marked adagio cantabile (slowly, singing), in G major, features a solo cello playing a melody against simple chords from the rest of the strings. The winds do not play in this movement. The cello part would have been played by the principal cellist of the Eistenstadt orchestra, Joseph Franz Weigl.
Date:
Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 13 in D major was written in 1763 for the orchestra of Haydn’s patron, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, in Eisenstadt. It can be precisely dated thanks to a dated score in Haydn’s own hand in the National Library of Budapest. Two other Haydn symphonies are known to have been written in the same year: the Symphony No. 12 and the Symphony No. 40.
Four horns:
A typical symphony at this time was written for a pairs of oboes and horns and strings, but the Eisenstadt orchestra had recently taken on two new horn players, and Haydn wrote this symphony for an expanded ensemble of one flute, two oboes, four horns, timpani and strings (violins divided into firsts and seconds, violas, cellos and double basses), with bassoon doubling the bass-line. The timpani part in the autograph score is not in Haydn’s hand, but it is quite possibly authentic: he may have written it on a separate sheet, with somebody else adding it to the score at a later date.
Delightful. The cello with only strings sounds perfect (I’m partial to cello) – was it (is it) unusual to omit winds entirely? The minuet & trio started to be too repetitive until the flute came in and changed the whole impression, and then the energy of the instruments again gave contrast. Question: were composers somewhat limited by the minuet & trio form as it existed then. (It was Beethoven who turned that into a scherzo?)
I listened to the beginning of the Finale. Allegro Molto then compared it to Mozart’s piece. Just as you indicated it was the same theme in a different key. Haydn influenced several of the well known composers.
I liked what I heard and will listen to the other movements.