Finale from Symphony No. 86 in D Major, Hob I:86

First performed in 1787, Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 86 is one of the “Paris” symphonies commissioned at the end of 1784 or the beginning of 1785 by Count Claude-François-Marie Rigoley d’Ogny. D’Ogny ran a fashionable concert series known as the Concert de la loge Olympique (Concert of the Olympic Lodge), connected to the secret society of the Freemasons. The orchestra of the Loge Olympique was huge for its day, featuring 40 violins, ten double basses, and doubled woodwinds, and its audience included Marie Antoinette and her ladies-in-waiting. The musicians dressed accordingly, wearing sky-blue brocaded coats, lace ruffles, and swords. The “Paris” symphonies were extremely well-received; a Mercure de France critic particularly praised "this vast genius … very different from those sterile composers who pass continually from one idea to another for lack of knowing how to present one idea in varied forms.”

Many consider the Symphony No. 86 the best of the “Paris” Symphonies. While Haydn scored the works for strings, one flute, and pairs of oboes, bassoons, and horns, Nos. 82 and 86 also feature timpani and trumpets. This expanded scoring contributes to the work’s intensity. Featuring the usual four movements, the third movement—a Minuet with a lighthearted Trio that sounds like an Austrian ländler—sets up the Finale. Marked Allegro con sprito (Energetic, with spirit), the movement begins with quick, repeated eighth notes from which everything else proceeds. As the Mercure de France critic noted after the performance, Haydn’s genius with “the most rich and varied developments” from simple beginnings is seemingly endless.