Symphony No.92 in G major (“Oxford”)

No work could have been more aptly chosen for the celebrations associated with Haydn’ s visit to Oxford for his Honorary Doctorate of Music than the Symphony No.92 in G major. Although it was originally commissioned for the Concert de la Loge Olympique in Paris in 1789 - and although it was first heard in this country in London rather than Oxford - it is always associated, through its long-standing nickname, with an evidently memorable performance in the Sheldonian Theatre on 7 July 1791. According to the Morning Herald, “a more wonderful composition was never heard.” It was that rare thing, a symphony with the structural and contrapuntal virtues to satisfy the most learned of academics and, at the same time, a personality to charm anyone with an ear for melody and the taste for an intriguing sequence of events.

Listening to the “Oxford” Symphony for the first time cannot have been uniformly easy, however. At the very beginning, if you have no idea what is coming next, the Adagio introduction is an oddly mysterious episode. It is also deceptive in that its main thematic message, a sequence of five notes in descending order, is not so much proclaimed as concealed in the violin parts in the opening bars.

It is those five notes which, as the tempo changes, are presented as the main theme of the Allegro spiritoso. But that theme is so modest in its melodic shape that, when the tonality is still so uncertain, it seems an unlikely first subject. It makes an even less likely appearance when it is presented, in counterpoint with its own inversion on oboes, just where the second subject ought to be. Haydn relaxes his economy only at the end of the exposition where, almost as an afterthought, he offers a theme of irresistible melodic charm. Having so ingeniously introduced his material, he can now develop it both vigorously and at length - not only in the middle section of the movement but also in the recapitulation and in a coda so long it makes almost a second recapitulation.

The Adagio, based on a choice example of Haydn’s hymn-like slow-movement melodies, seems at first to present no problem. But then the key changes dramatically to the minor for an intervention so war-like that it is tempting to speculate whether it might have something to do with news of the revolutionary events taking place in Paris just as Haydn was writing the work - safely out of the way in Esterhaza though he was at the time.

The Menuet seriously but reassuringly reflects the old order. Brass instruments are enlisted here not for conflict but, as the horns intone the wittily syncopated little theme of the central trio section, for civilised entertainment. As for the final Presto, it is not so much entertaining as irresponsibly playful. Its cheerful main theme is not in the least worried by the difficulty the second horn has in accompanying it and, while it is quite happy to make way for a similary inclined second subject and then to participate in an impressive display of contrapuntal skill in the development section, the only way of suppressing it is, finally, to cut it firmly off.

Gerald Larner©