Haydn: The Paris Symphonies

This montage from our Podcast Vault revisits a post from May 10, 2013. It can be found in our archives at https://archive.org/details/Pcast104

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Friday the 13th is your lucky day, as we dig out not only one, but three podcasts planned for our Podcasting channel over the next three days - more on the other two podcasts a little later.

As I pointed out on the original musing from nearly 7 years ago, Haydn’s sponsor for the Paris symphonies was Claude-François-Marie Rigolet, Comte d'Ogny, an aristocrat and France’s Postmaster General. The ensemble  intended  to create the symphonies was the Paris-based Concert de la loge 'Olympique' (trans. Orchestra of the 'Olympic' (Masonic) Lodge), made up of well-over 50 professional and amateur musicians  -  an extraordinary size of orchestra for the time. The performances were attended by royalty, including Queen Marie Antoinette, who particularly enjoyed the Symphony No. 85, giving rise to its nickname.

It is indeed à propos to bring this symphony up, as it is one of the three works I have programmed for today’s montage, the other two being related to this work – one by ancestry, the other one as it is part of the set of six.

Marie-Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI of France and infamous in her own right, was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and Empress Maria Theresa. Her mother was also accorded the favor of Haydn compositions: his Mass in B-Flat (the Theresienmesse, Hob. XXII:12) and his  Symphony no. 48, written some 13 years earlier.

The Symphony No. 87 in A major, the sixth and last of the set, is unremarkable at first glance - it is only one of two symphonies in the set without a nickname, and is another of the many "cookie cutter" symphonies Haydn is known for. But you may well be surprised by it...

Thus, today's podcast provides two of the six Paris symphonies. In lieu of a "bonus track" this week, I will rather bring to your attention that tomorrow and Sunday, I will share the remaining four symphonies as part of the remaining podcasts in that short arc of three. Thus:

Montage #105 - Symphonies 83 and 84
(Archive page https://archive.org/details/Pcast105)

Montage #106 - Symphonies 82 and 86

(Archive page https://archive.org/details/Pcast106)

I think you will (still) love this music too.