Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

Symphony No. 44 in E minor ("Funeral"), H. I/44 (1772)

00:00 - Allegro con brio
06:27 - Menuetto. Allegretto
11:07 - Adagio
19:19 - Finale. Presto

Performed by Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra.

"The name 'Trauer' ('Mourning') is said to come from Haydn himself, who expressed a desire to have the slow movement played at his funeral. The story may be apocryphal but the title is apt (for example, the work figured at a monumental funeral service in Monte Carlo for the late Princess Grace). Full of passionate fire in the outer movements and a giant contrapuntal severity in the strictly canonic minuet (offset by a radiant Trio with a shining horn solo), this is the Sturm und Drang symphony at its most characteristic. Haydn's language has darkened and a new mood of drama and rhetoric prevails. The minor key has become a vehicle for dark messages, even for fear. We have come a long way from the light, divertimento-like symphonic structures of Haydn's youth.

Haydn's symphonies until the mid-1780s were generally first published in France, and that is the case with No. 44, which first saw the light of day in published form in 'Trois Simphonies, A Grand Orchestre Composée(s) par messieurs Hayden et Vannhall, Les Cors de Chasse ad Libitum', issued by Guera of Lyon about 1780 and including Haydn's Symphonies 44 and 57 as we as Vanhal's Symphony in A. Most of Haydn's Sturm und Drang symphonies were, in fact, first performed in Paris during the 1780s, e.g. No. 45 ('Farewell') but also No. 52 and No. 49 in F minor ('La Passione')." - H.C. Robbins Landon

Painting: Les funérailles de l'Amour, Antoine Caron

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