Symphony No.98 in B-flat major, "London"

In early 1792, midway through his first visit to London, Haydn wrote the B-flat major Symphony No. 98. This was the sixth of the twelve 'London Symphonies' (the series from Nos. 93 to 104), first performed at the Hanover Square Rooms in London on March 2^nd, 1792, with Haydn conducting the orchestra from the harpsichord. The concertmaster was Johann Peter Salomon, for whom Haydn wrote vivid solo episodes, and he himself, according to the recollections of contemporaries, performed the long piano solo with skill and precision, with an 11-bar fast passage in the coda of the finale. The composer noted in his London notes that at the premiere the first and fourth movements were encored. This symphony is distinguished from the surrounding opuses by its more serious, brooding character, and its finale is the longest among the finales of Haydn's symphonies. While working on the symphony, the composer learned of Mozart's death on December 5^th, 1791 and was deeply distraught. Not surprisingly, some scholars have interpreted the work as an epitaph for his beloved friend - in the slow, chiming Adagio, the main theme in strings, marked cantabile, is a quotation from Mozart's Agnus Dei from the Coronation Mass, and then a quotation from Mozart's last Symphony No. 41, Jupiter, appears.