Symphony No. 28 (Haydn)

This article is about the symphony by Joseph Haydn. For the symphony by Michael Haydn, see Symphony No. 28 (Michael Haydn).

Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 28 in A major, Hoboken I/28, was written in 1765.[1]

The work is scored for 2 oboes, bassoon, 2 horns, and strings with continuo.

The work is in four movements:

  1. Allegro di molto, 3/4
  2. Poco adagio, 2/4
  3. Menuetto e Trio, 3/4
  4. Presto, 6/8

The inspiring and unusual first movement features a four-note motif with an answering 3-note one. This sounds dry but in Haydn's masterly hands the result is totally exhilarating.

The slow movement features muted strings and contrasts sorrowful legato passages with dotted staccato sections that looks forward to the slow movements of symphonies 60 and 65 where the juxtaposition of the two styles is more stark.[2]

The minuet features bariolage where the same note is heard repeated on different strings, an effect that would later give "The Frog" String Quartet, Op. 50 No. 6, its nickname.

One critic in Leipzig strongly disliked this symphony, complaining mostly about the finale.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Antony Hodgson, The Music of Joseph Haydn: The Symphonies. London: The Tantivy Press (1976): 202. The chart places "28" in boldface in the year 1765, indicating an autograph score survives.
  2. ↑ Brown, A. Peter, The Symphonic Repertoire (Volume 2). Indiana University Press (ISBN 025333487X), pp. 101-103 (2002).
  3. ↑ (Hodgson, 1976): 65. "Why a Leipzig critic of the time disliked the work so much is difficult to understand."
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