Symphonies No. 48 "Maria Theresia" - No. 49 "La Passione"

Abstract

For years, this festive C major symphony was thought to have been one of those composed to honor the empress Maria Theresa on the occasion of her 1773 visit to Esterháza, the stately rural summer palace of Haydn's employer, the Hungarian Prince Nicolaus Esterházy. But more recent research has unearthed an authenticated 1769 manuscript of the symphony in the hand of Joseph Elssler, Haydn's own copyist.

This discovery also raised a question as to the scoring of the work. There are ten different versions of the trumpet and timpani parts for this symphony, none of them authenticated. The symphony in the Elssler source is scored for two oboes, two horns (C alto and F), and strings with a bassoon doubling the bass line. There is no timpani part at all. However, in 1779, Haydn very nearly lost all of his music in a great fire at Esterháza. Fortunately he had a collection of orchestra parts in his own house, and these were spared. He took them to a publisher in Vienna to have them copied into new scores and published. The resulting parts for this symphony had both a timpani part and trumpet parts doubling the high horn parts in the fast movements. The timpani part, therefore, is surely not authentically by Haydn, but seems to have been approved by him.

The work, at any rate, should not be nicknamed for the empress, but the name has stuck and will probably continue to adhere to it. Musically, the symphony has a regal sound and dignity that does entitle it to bear an empress's name. The high horn parts in C (as written) scale to dizzying heights with audacity and daring. (For that reason, this writer prefers that the work be played without trumpets, not only so as not to obscure the horns, but also to make their parts more exposed and thus to add some nervousness to the sound.) Haydn creates a veritable drama in his alternation of mood between the brightness of the parts with high horn parts and some lengthy shadowy sections.

The symphony is remarkably unified; it truly feels like a single drama in music. The second movement is quiet but intense. The Minuet and Trio contribute to the drama as well, with the latter section of the third movement having chilling low C's in basses and cellos. The finale wraps things up at a whirling pace, but chromaticism in the inner voices continues to keep the music's ultimate message in doubt before the bright conclusion.