program
Symphony No. 103, Drumroll
performances
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SUPPORT FOR THESE CONCERTS IS PROVIDED BY THE MARGARET KOSHLAND SLOSS TRIBUTE FUND
Event Description
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Joseph Haydn often crossed paths during their careers as composers and performers, and their creativity and genius changed history forever. Two of their late symphonies take center stage in this concert led by Bernard Labadie, as the grandeur of Mozart’s Linz Symphony meets the dynamic thrills of Haydn’s Symphony No. 103, aptly nicknamed the Drumroll.
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At A Glance
Written in just four days, Mozart’s Linz Symphony is a grandly inventive work. For the first time, he begins a symphony with a slow introduction, cannily creating suspense. The Allegro is energetic and festive, with a touch of march about it. The second movement is in a major key, but yearns always for minor harmonies. The Minuet is courtly, and the trio, with its delicious scoring for oboe, violins, and bassoon in particular, is demurely rustic. The finale brings back the first movement’s exuberance in heightened form.
Franz Joseph Haydn wrote his Symphony No. 103 during his second tour to England in 1794–5. He had been brought to London by the impresario Johann Peter Salomon after leaving his longtime service to the Esterházy princes. An extended roll on the timpani lends this symphony its Drumroll nickname.
—After notes by James M. Keller and Michael Steinberg