PhilPaine.com

The sin­fo­nia con­cer­tante is a form that sits a lit­tle uncom­fort­ably between the sym­pho­ny and the con­cer­to. Instead of a solo instru­ment bat­tling hero­ical­ly with or against the orches­tra, a con­cer­tante of var­i­ous instru­ments (usu­al­ly three or four) play solo parts in con­ver­sa­tion against the back­drop of the orches­tra. This def­i­n­i­tion has fuzzy edges, and many works might be clas­si­fied as sin­fo­nia con­cer­tante which are named some­thing else. The term is usu­al­ly asso­ci­at­ed with the late baroque peri­od, and Haydn com­posed three of them. Among them is his Sin­fo­nia Con­cer­tante in B‑flat, Hob. I/105, com­posed in 1792, which is a fine exem­plar. Vio­lin, cel­lo, oboe and bas­soon per­form the “solo” roles in this one. The “con­ver­sa­tion” seems like a pleas­ant one, as if the instru­ments were relax­ing with brandy and cig­ars after a fine din­ner. The vio­la’s voice, par­tic­u­lar­ly, comes across as mel­low, but nev­er maudlin. In fact, I think the best time to lis­ten to this would be pre­cise­ly in those phys­i­cal circumstances.