J. S. BACH Jonathan Berkahn - Victoria University - Victoria ...

unknown in any other Haydn fugue (although, to be sure, there are few enough minor-
key fugues in Haydn’s oeuvre). One might conceivably regard it as an extended tierce
de Picardie, but it probably has more in common with the tendency of minor-key
Classical sonata form movements to finish in the major than it does with any orthodox
fugal technique.
This enigmatic and original movement concludes one of the finest symphonies
of what was, on the whole, a relatively fallow period for Haydn. It was written for the
reopening of the Esterházy court theatre which had (along with much of Haydn’s
music) been destroyed by fire the previous year. Landon hears the kindling of the
conflagration and its gradual spread in the sinister opening of the movement, and a
reference to the auspicious occasion in its triumphant conclusion. 17 There is no way of
knowing what was in Haydn’s mind, of course, when he wrote this movement; but this
interpretation is a measure of how much more emotionally compelling it is than the
relatively timid Fuxian essays of Symphony no.40 and the baryton trios that this
movement should suggest a programmatic interpretation so vividly.
It is the last complete fugue to be found among Haydn’s symphonies. By this
time, however, a certain amount of fugal elaboration was more the rule than the
exception in his symphonies (during first and especially last movements at least). E.
Lary Grosmann identifies two of the London symphonic finales as having especially
prominent fugal sections: the symphonies no.95 and 101 (the ‘Clock’). Haydn’s late
rondos are very different to the well-known examples in his Esterházy clavier sonatas.
Although they usually begin with a regular 4 x 4 rondo ‘tune’, they seldom continue in
this manner, showing much greater fluidity and a tendency to build up impressive
sonata-related structures.
As if to demonstrate Haydn’s habitual flexibility of approach, the fugato
passages serve entirely different functions in the two movements in question. The
17 Landon, Chronicle and works, II, p.421.
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