Symphony Concert N° 4

This concert brings together two masterpieces that were both composed in 1786. Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 86 in D major is one of the six symphonies that the composer was commissioned to write by a Parisian concert organiser. According to musicologist H. C. Robbins Landon, the 86th Symphony, with its unusually free slow movement, is one of Haydn’s best works. Mozart’s Prague Symphony, written in the same year, is another pinnacle of the classical period. It is remarkably innovative, particularly in the composer’s jettisoning of the traditional minuet movement. The symphony also shares many features with the opera »The Marriage of Figaro«, which was composed at the same time.