The three symphonies show witty and playful experimentation with form, rhythm and motif, which are only typical of Haydn’s later works. In the words of Charles Rosen: ”One cannot find a single bar in these works (…) that would be devoid of Haydn’s wittiness: this humour serving as an inexhaustible source of passion and creation and arching over all his works seem to determine all his pieces written after 1780.”
The recording was made on Fertőd-Eszterháza, in the Marionette Theatre of the Esterházy Castle, where the pieces were composed.