Sinfonia in C minor

The symphonies of Johann Baptist Wanhal (1739-1813), one of the most prolific and important of Haydn’s Viennese contemporaries, are among the most important works of their kind from the late-18th century. Bold and imaginative, powerful and lyrical, Wanhal’s symphonies are only now beginning to win wider recognition as the masterpieces they are. The Sinfonia c2 is one of a number of impressive minor-key works composed by Wanhal in the mid-1760s and early 1770s. In one extant source the work is misattributed to Joseph Haydn who coincidentally was a great admirer of Wanhal’s symphonies and performed a number of them with the Esterházy orchestra. The larger than usual orchestration and the manner in which the horns-oboes quartet and the trumpets-timpani trio are employed suggest that the symphony might have been written for a special occasion. The entire work shows Wanhal’s early fascination with the minor mode and it is, in fact, the only one of his symphonies in which all the movements are in the minor mode.