No 4: Haydn - Symphony No 52, Menuetto - Telegraph Haydn made good use of that freedom, by becoming one of the great originals of classical music. But he didn't achieve it in one go, like a Romantic genius. It wasn't in his nature, and besides the era wasn't right for it. You couldn't be a Romantic genius in the mid-18th century, in the gold-and-blue uniform of an Esterhazy court official. Haydn did it by working away at his musical language for decades, moving step by cautious step from Rococo prettiness to something truly astonishing. "There was no one to confuse or torment me, so I was forced to become original," as Haydn put it. Two forms Haydn made his own - the string quartet and the symphony. Among his 104 symphonies are some neglected masterworks. No 52, written around 1772, is one of them. Like all Haydn's mature symphonies, it has a movement which consists of a pair of dances in triple time (ie with three beats in the bar). First we hear a Menuetto, then a contrasting Trio, then the Menuetto again. The Menuetto's minor key gives it a stern quality, but it's also elegant, and sometimes uncanny. But none of these words seem quite right. Best to describe it as an aloof play of shapes and rhythms, with sometimes a faint smile or frown on its face. To listen to the music below you need to open a Spotify account at www.spotify.com 00.00 I like this performance by the Heidelberger Sinfoniker because they point up the music's rhythmic oddities, without overdoing them. The first phrase begins with a little kick on the first note, so it sounds like ONE-two-three, ONE-two-three. Keep counting like that and you'll soon stumble, because the tune actually begins on the weak third beat (stressing weak beats was one of Haydn's favourite ways of throwing us off balance). Count THREE-one-two-three ONE-two-three, and keep going. The music will try to throw you out, but eventually the rhythm untangles itself, after a weirdly ambiguous moment at around 00.08. 00.16 The whole first half of the Menuetto is repeated. 00.31 The second half begins. More rhythmic oddities pile in at 00.34, and things don't sort themselves out until the music reaches the home key at 00.53, where the music performs a repeated formal bow to end the phrase. 1.02 The second half is repeated. 1.32 The sun comes out in the Trio, with a turn to the major mode - and some shepherds and shepherdesses, too, if those pastoral oboes are to be believed. As with the Menuetto, both halves are repeated, with the second half beginning at 1.59. 2.35 The aloof Menuetto comes back. Haydn's ending is sternly matter-of-fact, but the performers soften it just a touch. Symphony No 92, Menuet Haydn presented this symphony to Oxford University, to qualify for the degree of Doctor of Music. It too has a Menuet (Haydn uses this French spelling instead of the more common Italian form, as the symphony was originally written for Paris). It's much more genial than the one you've just heard, but even more outlandish in its rhythmic jokes. The Menuet itself is not so odd , though it has some surprising silences in the second half, such as the one at 00.35. It's the Trio, which begins at 2.03, which is really weird. It's impossible to figure out where the first beat falls until we're almost at the end. String Quartet Op 77, Andante This is my Desert Island Haydn choice. It's one of his typically innocent melodies, which first of all unfolds in just two parts, the bareness adding to the innocence. The moment when the other two instruments enter at 00.55 is pure heaven. On it goes, imperturbable, like the slow ticking of a celestial clock. Listen out for the moment at 4.13 when the long melody comes back in the cello with a new violin decoration draped over the top. String Quartet Op 76 No 5, Finale In his travels around the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and especially during his long sojourns in the endless flat plain of central Hungary, Haydn must have encountered a lot of folk musicians. The drones and hectic rhythms of folk bands turn up increasingly often in his music, most famously in the last movement of his last symphony. Less well-known but even more exciting is this piece, the Finale of his 64th quartet.