Sinfonia in F

Though Joseph Martin Kraus (1756-1792) became the most influential Swedish musician of the 18th century, he was born and educated in Germany and lived only eight years in Stockholm before his early death at the age of 36. Yet in that brief period he had taught composers and created the Swedish school of opera. The Sinfonia in F(VB 145) is one of three works in this genre where the question of authorship has, until recently, been somewhat ambiguous. An attribution to Cambini in a set of parts published in Paris by Boyer does not stand up to closer examination when the work is compared with Cambini’s authentic symphonies. Two other works in the same set have since been identified as symphonies by Kraus and the present work is consistent with them on many structural and stylistic levels. The works were most likely composed during the period 1784-1786 when Kraus was resident in Paris. The symphony is in a three movement form, with an unusual slow introduction and a second movement that bears a cross formal structure between a gavotte and a short rondo. It is an unusual piece with harmonic surprises, extreme textural contrasts, and careful orchestration. The lone flute in the slow movement is particularly effective.