Sinfonia in Eb

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 Eb1 is unique among Wanhal’s works. The descriptive title la Tempesta which is written at the beginning of the last movement of Eb1, together with its style and content, sets the movement and the symphony apart from any of Wanhal’s other symphonies. The la Tempesta finale (176 bars) can be analyzed as a movement in truncated sonata form. Its title, however, demands a more imaginative interpretation, and it is possible that it represents a storm in four episodes. The other three movements also differ from their counterparts in other symphonies and, together, they give the impression that the entire work may have been intended to represent a ‘theme’. They do not have descriptive titles, but, like the finale, are treated differently from conventional sonata form; e.g. the mid-point repeat bars are lacking from both the first and second movements. Moreover, all movements prominently feature the rising semiquaver ‘storm’ figure from the finale which gives the entire work a cyclic sense.