Symphony No.16 [28] in B flat major Hob.I:16 (1763)
B flat major – ‘cheerful love, clear conscience, hope aspiration for a better world’
– from Schubart’s ‘Ideen zu einer Aesthetick der Tonkunst’ (1806)
After the last three symphonies, which were all cast in a more traditional four movements, Haydn returns to a three movement structure with this symphony in B flat major, numbered by Hoboken as No.16 but choronogically the 28th to be written. The scoring is the usual for Haydn of this period, with pairs of oboes and horns accompanying the strings, although without bein spotlighted at any point as they had been in previous symphonies.
The opening Allegro has the feeling of a fuge about it, with counterpoint being used to grat affect. The main theme of the movement is marked staccato and appears in various subtle guises throughout the movement, insistent and nudging the listener along through the first half and into the second half with a cheerful gaiety.
The second movement Andante is again scored for strings only, with a line given to a solo cello to support, an octave lower, the first and second violins. It is a graceful andante, pure and delicate. Brahms is supposed to have made a copy of the movement for his own benefit in 1870 and wrote in a letter at the time that the movement was,
‘a paragon of beauty… no better example of the newly invented unending melody’
The problem is that the Andante is a very delicate piece and in both recordings I have heard choices seem to undermine Haydn’s skill and craft. Doráti’s recording suffers from being to big and bold, with the solo cello’s subtle involvement being drowned out by the use of a continuo. It also does help that Doráti uses what sounds like a larger body of strings than Haydn probably had at his disposal, so the balance between violins and cello is skewed. Hogwood doesn’t use a continuo, but he does use the basson to double the bass line. This is certainly something that is in the conventions of the time, and all Haydn’s scores indicate that the basson can double cellos, but again it proves a distraction to the interplay of violins and the solitary cello.
The missing movement from the conventional four movement symphonic structure is the Menuet and Trio, so from the gentle delicacies of the andante we move straight into a Presto finale. Again, while the horns and oboes are present, they mainly are there to support the argument rather than provide any character or feeling of their own. Set in 6/8 time, the Presto is a cheerful, rhythmic piece that does not outstay its welome. A nice touch is that at the start of the second half, the theme returns in piano, shorn of harmony and split between the first and second violins.
As I wrote above, I have yet to find a version of this symphony that I believe does full justice to the delicacies of the delicate Andante. But, even with that caveat, both Doráti and Hogwood and their orchestras offer performances worthy of attention.
muchwhat 