Haydn: Symphony No. 81 in G major (with Score) 

None of Haydn’s symphonies are underrated, though due to the sheer number of very fine works, many are not as well known as they should be.

​@@elaineblackhurst1509 I play the second movement in a piano arrangement, first time I hear it in the original version. The only way the public in 1785 could know H's music was mostly through keyboard transcriptions.

@@christianwouters6764 I too have a modern reproduction of ‘Different petites pieces’ published by Haydn’s Viennese publisher Artaria in 1786, edited by Christopher Hogwood* (1986); I presume you have the same, or a copy from elsewhere, though the Artaria publication is from where it originated. Hogwood’s notes are very thorough and detailed. I suspect Haydn did not know much about it, though the collection of ten pieces does include one genuine keyboard work unknown elsewhere and possibly especially written for the collection (the Adagio in F Hob. XVII:9 which is the seventh piece in the collection). Artaria added on the original cover that they were ‘faciles et agreables’ (easy and pleasant), and were for ‘harpsichord or piano forte’ which was the usual ploy to boost sales by suggesting the pieces** could be played on either instrument. Generally speaking, the transcriptions are ok - professional, functional, and reasonably well done - but not much better than that; I have made some alterations as I think the requirement to be ‘faciles’ for sales purposes has robbed the music of the Andante from Symphony 81 for example, and some of the other pieces, of some of their richness. For example, I compared the transcription of the Andante (from which I felt something to be missing) with the original, and found that the very beautiful little imitative echo effect from the 2nd violins where they answer the 1st violins in bars 9 and 10 had been left out; I have pencilled it in on my score. I have altered one or two other bits as well. That said, it is a piece I play from time to time, and if anyone happens to be listening, they seem to enjoy it too. One thing I would be interested to know is the tempo you use; marked Andante, it needs a two-in-the-bar siciliano lilt, but not too fast to make the demisemiquavers in bar 22 for example seem rushed. * www.editionhh.co.uk ** Note for anyone learning proper English, ‘pieces’ not the ridiculous ‘songs’ (which they are not).

@@elaineblackhurst1509 It is indeed the same selection, I have it in a super cheap Hungarian edition. The andante is indeed tricky, if you would take it in siciliano tempo the fast passages become impossible. But the rhythm albeit 6/8 is not typical siciliano so it doesn't loose anything in a more leisurely pace. The tempo in this performance is a bit dragging, certainly not andante.

Very!

Both are in the very common 6/8 Siciliano rhythm, but otherwise, Gli sguardi trattieni (from Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice) and this Andante have I think little in common, and it would be very easy to find many other pieces from this period with a similar opening rhythm beginning on the upbeat.