J. Haydn – Symphony No. 104 in D major “London”

Ahhhhh... London. How amazingly appropriate amirite?

Symphony No. 104 was Haydn’s last symphony. It was the 12th of his “London Symphonies”, yet strangely titled the “London” symphony. Perhaps the previous 11 were not Londony enough, or maybe he wanted to end the series with a particularly creative name. I guess we’ll never know. Regardless I found this piece to be an enjoyable listen. One thing that I love about Haydn is his sudden shifts in dynamics. He will often juxtapose a very quiet part with a rather abrupt accented chord. For example, the very beginning of the piece has a grand chord at fortisimo played by all instruments, then it suddenly drops down to piano in only four of the instruments. These sudden shifts in dynamics are more clear in the soft to loud sections, giving the listener quite a “surprise”. I particularly like the 4th section as well. It starts off with a drone with a theme over the top and then goes through all the usual modal changes typical of a piece like this. I’m not really sure what I got out of listening to this. It was a pleasant listen, and it was certainly interesting to observe how Haydn treats his dynamics, but other than that it sounded, well, not all that interesting to be honest. Maybe I’m just not accustomed to classical music.