Following the death of Haydn’s longtime patron Prince Nikolaus Esterházy in 1790, the prince’s son and successor, Anton, curbed the family’s musical activities and reduced Haydn’s salary to a modest pension. Meanwhile, Johann Peter Salomon, a German violinist and impresario working in London, saw in Prince Nikolaus’s death an opportunity to lure the illustrious Haydn to England. Salomon offered Haydn a generous contract and, for the first time in decades, Haydn secured extended leave from his Esterházy service. Haydn composed six symphonies for his initial trip to London in 1791-92 and added six more for a follow-up visit in 1794-95.

Haydn and Salomon reached London on January 2, 1791. Haydn wrote, “My arrival caused a great sensation … I went the rounds of all the newspapers for three successive days. Everyone wants to know me.” Besides a busy schedule of socializing and teaching, Haydn prepared music for the upcoming spring concert season. Salomon’s orchestra of forty or so musicians offered mixed programs of symphonies, concertos, arias, and chamber music, appearing each Monday in London’s Hanover Square Rooms.

The Symphony No. 93, like all but one of the “London” symphonies, begins with a slow introduction. The initial unison notes and harmonic excursions into minor modes establish the symphony’s gravitas and build suspense for the arrival of the Allegro assai body of the movement, which enters with a fluid theme for strings in a three-beat meter. The music builds in intensity, through the rich counterpoint in the development section and the forceful arpeggios of the closing. The punch of the opening movement creates maximal contrast with the first sonority of the Largo cantabile, scored for just a string quartet. Surprises abound in this gentle movement, as in the shift to minor-key music graced with old-fashioned trills and dotted rhythms, or the downright flatulent blast from the bassoons in the midst of a delicate passage. (The audience demanded an encore of this movement at the first performance, proving that Haydn understood well the Londoners’ appetites for surprising, adventurous music.)

The minuet plays with a diverse palette of orchestral colors, including an unusual emphasis on the timpani, which continues into the contrasting trio section. The stomping upbeats and swooping grace-notes of the finale impart the feel of a rustic dance, but the subtle manipulations of the themes are the height of urbanity, crafted by a master at the peak of his powers for a clever audience that hung on his every move.

Aaron Grad ©2014