Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Symphony No. 39 in G minor, Hob. I:39 (1767/68)
00:00 – Allegro assai
05:57 – Andante
11:58 – Menuet & Trio
15:40 – Finale. Allegro di molto
L’Estro Armonico, dir. Derek Solomons (1982)
“Haydn’s G minor Symphony [No. 39] is original in many ways, not only for the harshness of its language, especially of the first movement and Finale, but for its orchestration. Here Haydn uses four horns, two in B flat alto and two in G. This means, firstly, that he can create sumptuous horn chords, and secondly, that he has a pair of horns at his disposal when he modulates to the relative major. Haydn’s work had far-reaching consequences. J.B. Vanhal modeled at least one of his two G minor Symphonies on it, even to the four horns, and so, almost immediately, did J.C. Bach and, in 1773, W.A. Mozart (in K. 183, also with the four horns). It is also worth recalling that when Mozart started to compose the great G minor Symphony K. 550, he first used four horns, two in B flat alto and two in G, later reducing them to two.
The first movement of No. 39 is curiously unsettling. The main theme is announced and continued piano, and the tension inherent in its thematic layout is heightened by the extraordinary use of silence between the various sections. (This use of rests to increase the dramatic effect becomes a very important detail in Haydn’s mature style, of which we are now on the threshold; no one knew better than he how to employ the art of silence, and many of his finest effects are derived by the single expedient of inserting a pause in the right place.) To give the second part of the melody a still more individual twist, Haydn stretches the last phrase with its characteristic octave sip, so that the theme simply dies away to nothing. The structure of the three component parts (4+6+4) is also cleverly veiled by the insertion of rests. Having achieved such a restless, almost frustrated atmosphere, Haydn creates a still more unified tension by employing this one theme throughout the movement. Indeed, Haydn cannot escape the hypnotic effect of his principal subject: he modulates from the tonic to the relative major: and the first subject appears, extending itself contrapuntally. In the development he reaches a superb, five-part tutti in which the violins, in imitation, sweep through a fine sequence; and again, we see that the oboe part is based upon a tiny fragment of the main theme, the string parts being derived from a figure found at the end of the exposition which, in turn, developed out of the principal theme. The whole movement is held together by a device which we have come to know well in the previous period: a bass line constantly moving in quavers.
After the force of the first movement, the quiet little Andante, for strings only in E flat, is a throwback to an earlier style: Haydn has not yet learned the secret of maintaining tension throughout a whole work. The Minuet is a serious piece worthy of the outer movements, while the Trio, in B flat (the relative major), is again rather jovial. It is only the Finale which really reaches the inspiration of the first movement. Here we have, in a symphony in a minor key, the same highly advanced type of movement [found] in No. 38. If the two middle movements of No. 39 were on the same artistic level as the outer allegros, we would have had one of Haydn’s finest ‘Sturm und Drang’ symphonies; as it is, this flawed masterpiece is one of the most interesting of this strange interim period. What makes this Finale successful is not only the energetic drive and the nervous semiquavers which carry on the restless spirit of the opening movement, but the care with which Haydn has provided a number of dynamic contrasts; thus, the violins rush down the scale into a ‘subito piano’, while after the double bar, the first and second violins have a long passage by themselves, ‘piano’; and the rest of the development is characterized by continual alterations of ‘f’ and ‘p’.” – H. Robbins Landon
Painting: Sturm und Regen in einem Holländischen Hafen, Andreas Achenbach