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Thu 3 Nov ‘11 06.42 EDTFirst published on Thu 3 Nov ‘11 06.42 EDT
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Haydn, Symphony no. 22, 'The Philosopher' (1764)
It's thanks to Haydn that the symphony became the place where a composer's grandest, most original, and most daring thoughts were to be found. His first symphonies are more like suites, the historical form out of which the symphony developed. They were composed in Esterhazy for the court where he worked. There is a quality of having his feet on the ground that gives all of his symphonies an incredible humanist breadth. He gave his first symphonies a new sense of humour and a new sense of pictorialism, and he also composed with a new virtuosity in his wind and brass parts, as well creating some astonishing excitement in the string writing. Haydn's 22nd Symphony, the so-called Philosopher – although nobody really knows why - is an extraordinary example of the range that he gave to the form
