Joseph Haydn / Symphony No. 52 in C minor (Kuijken)

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) Symphony No. 52 in C minor, H. I/52 (1771-72) 00:00 - Allegro assai 06:29 - Andante 16:04 - Menuetto & Trio 19:32 - Finale. Presto La Petite Bande, dir. Sigiswald Kuijken "In many respects, the outer movements of this C minor Symphony are the sternest and most uncompromising of Haydn's whole symphonic career, comparable to the G minor and F minor String Quartets of Opus 20 (1772) and the C minor Piano Sonata No. 33 (XVI:20) of 1771. This is the core of Haydn's great Sturm und Drang period, the 'storm and stress' which takes its name from a play by Klinger of 1776 but which was anticipated by an entire group of Austrian composers writing many Sturm und Drang works in the second half of the 1760s and the beginning of the 1770s -- not only Haydn but also F.L. Gassmann, J.B. Vanhal and C. Ordoñez, to name three leading Austrian contemporaries. Unison openings, wide leaps in the thematic material, rushing repeated notes in the upper strings, a bass line hammered out in quavers (8th notes) -- or in crotchets (quater notes), depending on the time signature -- are all part of this minor-key language. In No. 52 there is a strongly contrasted second subject to set off the disciplined anger of the opening material of the first movement. The development section is a dramatic crisis, closely argued, and there is a mournful coda. Haydn uses two horns, one in E flat and one in high C (C alto) which change to two horns in C basso (low C) in the second and third movements, both intended to defuse the power of the flanking movements. Returning to a device in No. 44, Haydn uses canonic imitation in the minuet of No. 52. The Finale is a whirlwind of energy, and the horns are once more pitched in C alto and E flat, rising to violently high notes on the C alto instrument, especially in the second section. The angry syncopations and the pauses look forward to Haydn's greatest pupil, Ludwig van Beethoven." - H.C. Robbins Landon