Sinfonia Concertante in B flat major, H I/105

“At present I’m working for Salomon’s concerts,” Haydn wrote from London in January 1792, “and I’m making every effort to do my best, because our rivals, the Professional Concert, have had my pupil Pleyel come from Strasbourg 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, and 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 in March 1792 and, with Salomon himself playing the solo 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 - as when the soloists make their first entry at an unexpectedly early stage, during the orchestral exposition, to re-introduce the second subject in a different key. They then set out on their own exposition, expanding the orchestral material with a virtuoso exuberance stimulated not least by the solo violin’s ambition to climb to ever higher positions and the cello’s determination not to be outshone in this respect. The soloists are inspired not only by individual enterprise but also by a joint contrapuntal ingenuity and, as the development section shows, a common interest in exploring remote key areas. Their personalities and the relationships between them are heard to best advantage in the elaborately scored four-part cadenza between the recapitulation and the coda that closes the movement.

The orchestra has little to do in the slow movement. Both main themes are introduced by the soloists, the first by violin and bassoon followed by oboe and cello, the second by the cello in its top register over an undulating accompaniment on the violin. The one item of melodic interest that passes to the orchestra is the first theme on its recapitulation after a brief central cadenza. On the recall of the second theme the solo roles are reversed, with the melodic line now awarded to the violin.

If Pleyel and the Professional Concert were not completely eclipsed by now, the extraordinary Allegro con spirito would surely have finished them off. Giving Salomon a high-profile chance to show who was concert master, Haydn has the solo violin interrupt the orchestra’s first theme, twice reject it in a prophetic recitative, and then 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 incomparable brilliance of the composer himself.