Invocation - Symphonies 19 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Whether Haydn was the father of the symphony is a question best left to musical genealogists. His career, however, spanned the period during which the classical symphony developed as the principal orchestral form. He himself certainly played a major part in this development, from his first symphony some time before 1759 to his final series of symphonies written for the greater resources of London in 1794 and 1795. The London symphonies were preceded by similar works for Paris and a much larger body of compositions of more modest scoring for the orchestra at Esterháza and at Eisenstadt, many of the last calling for a keyboard continuo, at least with the relatively smaller number of string players available.It seems that Symphony No. 32 and Symphony No. 33 may be dated to 1760, or thereabouts, to a period when Haydn was employed in Lukavec by Count von Morzin in a musical establishment that was soon to be disbanded. The first of these is a festive work, in the appropriate key of C major and using trumpets and drums. It is otherwise scored for the necessary strings, with pairs of oboes and horns, the latter presumably in C alto, and a bassoon doubling the cellos and double bass. The first movement opens in appropriate style, with a bright, celebratory first subject, leading to a second subject that is at first in G minor. There is a central development, exploring this material and leading to the inevitable recapitulation, the return of the original key and first subject, with the second subject, which has had it's turn already in the development, now omitted. The whole orchestra continues with the Minuet, with it's C minor Trio for strings alone. This is followed by the slow movement, marked Adagio ma non troppo, an F major movement scored only for strings. Wind instruments return for the final Presto, in a forceful and triumphant 3/8, a briefer version of the tripartite