Symphony No. 84

Haydn achieved celebrity status during his long tenure as Kapellmeister to the Esterházy family, and in 1779 he successfully negotiated a new contract that allowed him to sell his music more freely around Europe. It soon led to lucrative commissions like the one from a young French count, Claude-François-Marie Rigolet, who requested six symphonies that Haydn composed in 1785 and 1786. These “Paris” Symphonies earned Haydn the handsome sum of 25 louis d’or each, plus additional fees for publication. (By comparison, Mozart earned only 5 louis d’or for his “Paris” Symphony from 1778.) On the success of the six original works for Paris, the same patron asked Haydn for another set of three symphonies, which became Nos. 90-92, Haydn’s last symphonies before his twelve legendary works for London.

Haydn’s “Paris” symphonies capitalized on the large orchestra employed for the Concerts de la Loge Olympique, an ensemble that far outnumbered the private Esterházy ensemble. In the slow introduction that begins the Symphony No. 84, the forte and piano contrasts would have been all the more impressive in Paris with the expanded string sections and an ample woodwind complement (albeit still no clarinets, trumpets, or timpani, which only became standard by the last of the London works). The sharp contrasts continue in the body of the movement, in which stout comments interject between phrases of the flowing primary theme. This movement is a somewhat rare example of a monothematic sonata-allegro form (meaning that Haydn used the same theme in opposing keys for both the main elements of the form), but he still created variety through the orchestration, shifting the theme from its first appearance in the violins to a transposed version introduced by oboes and bassoons.

The Andante second movement explores imaginative variations on a theme, including an unexpectedly early shift to the minor key (heralded by the delayed entrance of the winds) and a deceptive ending featuring woodwind variants of the theme intoned over plucked strings. The Menuet is a hearty specimen typical of Haydn, with the flavor of the rustic Austrian ländler intruding upon the more genteel strains of the French court dance. The finale’s examples of long, anticipatory piano passages answered by forte arrivals are made even more dramatic when the phrases run together, the last note of one also serving as the first note of the next.