logo
episode-header-image
Jul 2022
39m 41s

Haydn Symphony No. 94, "Surprise"

JOSHUA WEILERSTEIN
About this episode

If you want to understand how a symphony works, look no further than the works of the Father of the symphony, Joseph Haydn.

In 1790, a concert promoter and impresario named Johann Peter Solomon showed up un-announced at the Vienna home of the great composer Joseph Haydn.  He immediately told Haydn: “I am Solomon from London and I have come to fetch you.”  What Salomon and Haydn were about to embark upon would be one of the greatest successes of both of their lives.  Haydn would end up making 2 visits to London, presenting an adoring audience with 12 symphonies, almost all of which are still regularly performed today.  But the most famous one is the one we’re going to be talking about today, the 94th symphony, nicknamed “Surprise” or in the slightly drier German version: “the one with the Drumstroke.”  The piece is famous for this surprise, which is now so well known that it rarely surprises anyone, though we’ll get into just how you might be able to do that in 2022.  But the entire piece is a masterpiece in its own right, and so today we’ll discuss all of the tricks and traps Haydn pulls with his audience, leading to one of the most enjoyable symphonies of his entire catalogue.

Up next
May 1
Copland Clarinet Concerto
The commission for a new Clarinet Concerto from the great American composer Aaron Copland came from a rather unlikely source: Benny Goodman, the man known as the King of Swing. Goodman was one of the most famous and important jazz musicians of all time, but in the late 1940s, swi ... Show More
48m 13s
Apr 17
Steve Reich: Different Trains
Steve Reich, the great American contemporary composer, provided this program note about his work Different Trains: “The idea for the piece came from my childhood. When I was one year old my parents separated. My singer, song-writer mother moved to Los Angeles and my attorney fath ... Show More
52m 30s
Apr 3
Best of Frenemies: Debussy and Ravel
Debussy and Ravel are often described as the prototypical musical impressionists. It is often said that the two composers are the closest equivalents to the artistic world of Monet, Renoir, Pisarro, Degas, and others. But both Ravel and Debussy (like Monet for that matter), vehem ... Show More
52m 22s
Recommended Episodes
Apr 2024
Seasonal music by Haydn
Synopsis Haydn’s oratorio The Seasons had its premiere performance on this date in Vienna in 1801. Like its predecessor, The Creation, Haydn’s new oratorio was a great success, and, as before, Haydn received help with the text and a lot of advice from the versatile Gottfried Bern ... Show More
2 m
Jun 2024
Beethoven symphonies and 20th century politics
Synopsis No four notes in classical music are more familiar than those that open Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. Their powerful psychological resonance has often extended beyond music into overtly political contexts. For example, on today’s date in 1941, the British Broadcasting Comp ... Show More
2 m
Dec 2023
Mozart, Salieri and Beethoven in Vienna
Synopsis Oh, to have been in Vienna on today’s date in 1785! Wolfgang Mozart had just finished a new piano concerto a week earlier and quite likely performed it himself for the first time as an intermission feature at a performance of the oratorio Ester, by Karl Ditters von Ditte ... Show More
2 m
Feb 2024
Haydn's imperial anthem
Synopsis Just to show that political spin and manipulation are nothing new, consider this tune by Franz Joseph Haydn, first heard on today’s date in 1797, which happened to be the birthday of Franz II, the Hapsburg Emperor. And so an Austrian poet was commissioned to write some v ... Show More
2 m
May 2020
Beethoven's Silent Symphony
May 7, 1824. One of the great musical icons in history, Ludwig Van Beethoven, steps onto stage at the Kärntnertor Theater in Vienna. The audience is electric, buzzing with anticipation for a brand new symphony from the legendary composer. But there’s a rumor on their minds, somet ... Show More
30m 35s
Dec 2023
Harrison's 'Elegiac' Symphony
Synopsis On today’s date in 1975, the Oakland, California, Youth Orchestra gave the first performance of a symphony by a Bay area resident, American composer Lou Harrison. He began sketches for this symphonic score back in 1942 and tinkered with it off and off until the day of it ... Show More
2 m
May 2022
Beethoven's Silent Symphony (Replay)
History repeats itself this week with an episode from the HISTORY This Week archives: May 7, 1824. One of the great musical icons in history, Ludwig Van Beethoven, steps onto stage at the Kärntnertor Theater in Vienna. The audience is electric, buzzing with anticipation for a bra ... Show More
34m 41s
Apr 2024
Violin Concerto No. 2 by George Tsontakis
Synopsis A concerto, according to Webster’s Dictionary, is “a piece for one or more soloists and orchestra with three contrasting movements.” And for most classical music fans, “concerto” means one of big romantic ones by Beethoven or Tchaikovsky, works in which there is a kind o ... Show More
2 m
Oct 2015
Symphony No. 1: A Great (But Not Groundbreaking) Start
Ludwig van Beethoven wrote symphonies that introduced new musical ideas, inspired generations of composers and expanded the idea of what a symphony could be. But he started modestly. His First Symphony, written in 1800, pays tribute to his predecessors. 
13m 31s