Wanhal, Johann Baptist (1739-1813)

The symphonies of Johann Baptist Wanhal (1739-1813), one of the most prolific and important of Haydns Viennese contemporaries, are among the most important works of their kind from the late-18th century. Bold and imaginative, powerful and lyrical, Wanhals symphonies are only now beginning to win wider recognition as the masterpieces they are. The Sinfonia C17 is one of Wanhals later symphonies, composed in all probability between 1775 and 1778. It is listed in two 18th-century catalogues and seven manuscript copies of the work have been found in private archives, including Prince Esterhzys, which means that it was performed by Joseph Haydn. Each of the movements is of superlative quality and Wanhals ability to create large-scale musical structures out of so little material is shown again to be one of his great strengths as a composer and in this he can be compared directly with Haydn. At times, however, his capacity for musical invention is if anything even more impressive and the references to important thematic material from the first and second movements in the finale of C17 brilliantly emphasize the cyclic unity of the symphony and cannot have gone unnoticed by Haydn when he directed performances of the work at Eszterhza. Paul Bryan