Haydn's Miracle Symphony No.102

They call Joseph Haydn the father in music. He is considered to be, indirectly, the father of both the symphony and the string quartet, having contributed to both genres the elements that made them the way we know them today. Haydn was also known for being brave in widely using humour in his works, at the time when classical music had little room for non-serious behaviour and monkeying around (examples: the out-of-the-blue loud chorus in the “Surprise” symphony, false endings in the quartets No.2 (Op.33) and No.3 (Op.50)).

A chandelier

Out of the 106 symphonies composed by J. Haydn, there is one that might not be the brightest in terms of musical style but it’s the one that definitely has a beautiful story connected with it. It is Haydn’s Symphony No. 102 in B Major composed in 1794 as one of his “London Symphonies”. The curious story took place at the premiere of the work. According to the scholars, at the end of the performance a huge chandelier (and you can visualize the size of it in the concert hall) broke and fell from the ceiling. By a lucky coincidence, no one got hurt during that almost-tragic incident: the crowd was marveling over the new composition and rushed altogether to the stage to cheer the orchestra with heavy applause. Therefore, no one remained at the place of the chandelier’s crush, and the work itself immediately got its popular nickname – “Miracle Symphony”.

It was mistakenly believed for a pretty long time that the incident took place at the premiere of Haydn’s Symphony No. 96. But research proved otherwise.

Strauss' Radetzki March on Real Guns

Johann Strauss composed his famous march in 1848 dedicating it to the Field Marshal Joseph Radetzky. Unlike the traditional march that is intended first of all for military bands to march to, Strauss’ composition was rather celebratory. According to an assumption, it was inspired by the singing of Radetzky’s soldiers that entered Vienna after winning the Custoza battle. It is this battle that Strauss was commissioned to write a commemoration to.

Vitaly Kryuchin 'shoots' Radetzky March

It is believed that Radetzky March incorporates the elements from some of Strauss’ earlier works, particularly Jubel-Quadrille. A similarity with Haydn’s Symphony No.100, as well as with the old folksong Alter Tanz aus Wien can also be noted. So, as a result, we have a not-very-traditional representative of the military music genre.

The characteristic rhythmic pattern of the work (3 anapaests and a iamb) made it popular for various interpretations among contemporary performers. But perhaps the most ‘military’ one, to my mind, belongs to the one below. In fact, you can’t get more military than that – Radetzky March was played with guns, Russian shooter Vitaly Kryuchin as ‘soloist’: