Joseph Haydn / Symphony No. 46 in B major (Weil)

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) Symphony No. 46 in B major, Hob. I:46 (1772) 00:00 - Vivace 05:22 - Poco adagio 11:37 - Menuet (Allegretto) & Trio 14:12 - Finale. Presto e scherzando Tafelmusik, dir. Bruno Weil (1993) “It is now thought that Symphony No. 46, in the extraordinary key of B major, might form part of a cycle, together with No. 45 ([Nos. 45, 46, & 47] all exist in Haydn’s dated autographs, and all were composed in 1772). For this work, Haydn also needed special horn crooks: he took a half-note crook and added it to a C horn, making out of it an instrument (or rather a pair) in B. There are numerous felicities in the score of No. 46 to delight that fastidious connoisseur for whom it was written: the second movement (Poco adagio) in B minor is like a rather forlorn siciliano (Haydn had written one such movement in his preceding opera, ’Le piscatrici’). Much of this music has a strangely dark-hued quality to it, and this emotion is increase