Concertante in B flat major, H I/105

In January 1792 Haydn wrote in a letter from London, “At present I am working for Salomon’s concerts, and I am making every effort to do my best, because our rivals, the Professional Concert, have had my pupil Pleyel from Strasbourg come here to conduct their concerts. So now a bloody harmonious war will commence between master and pupil. The newspapers are full of it…” Pleyel’s speciality was the sinfonia concertante - a survival in classical form of the baroque concerto grosso - and it was no doubt for this reason, presumably at the instigation of Salomon, that Haydn applied himself to a similar sort of work. His Concertante (as he called it) in B flat major for violin, cello, oboe, and bassoon was first performed at the Hanover Square Rooms on 9 March 1792 and, with Salomon himself playing the violin part, it was a great success.

Although Haydn was, as he said, “making every effort to do his best,” there is little sign of effort and every sign of the best in the Concertante. It is all very natural and disarmingly unpredictable - such as when, on their first entry, the soloists correct the orchestra for introducing the second subject in the dominant and transpose it to the tonic where, at this stage in a classical concerto movement, it conventionally belongs. Then they take up the (closely related) first subject and begin a remarkable, freely modulating and virtuoso development. Haydn’s ingenuity in avoiding the return to the tonic is inexhaustible and equalled only by the soloists’ readiness to follow him to whatever remote areas he suggests. Even when the violin does reintroduce the first subject in B flat major, the predicted return of the second subject is further delayed by a solo episode beginning in the tonic minor. Naturally, the cadenza (fully written out in Haydn’s manuscript) does not stay long in B flat either.

The F major slow movement, which is in sonata form with a little cadenza in place of development, is less adventurous in form. The scoring, however, with its variously blended duets in the first subject and its beautifully coloured cello solo in the second subject, is most resourceful. Besides, any lack of structural enterprise here is more than made up for in the Allegro con spirito. Haydn gave Salomon a chance to show who was concert master by having the solo violin interrupt the orchestra’s first theme, twice reject it in a prophetic recitative, and offer his own more joyful version of the same tune. This upsets the whole rondo construction. Indeed, if this is a rondo it is a highly irregular one, fascinatingly designed to show off not only the agility of the soloists but also the superior brilliance of the composer.