Haydn Symphony No 52 in C minor John Eliot Gardiner BRSO

Joseph Haydn Symphony No. 52 in C minor John Eliot Gardiner conducts BRSO 1. Allegro assai con brio 00:00 2. Andante, 3/8 8:51 3. Menuetto e trio. Allegretto, 3/4 17:40 4. Finale. Presto 22:05 It is one of a number of minor-key symphonies that Haydn composed in the late 1760s and early 1770s, the others being Symphonies Nos. 39, 44, 45, and 49. The symphony was described, perhaps optimistically, by the noted Haydn scholar H. C. Robbins Landon as “the grandfather of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, also created with mathematical precision and in extreme conciseness.“. It may also have served as a model for Mozart’s Piano Sonata K. symphony has several distinct features. The first movement, written in Sonata-Allegro form, establishes a contrast between an agitated and forte opening theme in C minor, and a lyrical and piano second theme in the relative major (E-flat). Somewhat unusually, Haydn presents the second theme twice with transitional material in between it