Stamitz

Glendale Noon Concerts Classical works for viola d’amore, basset horn and viola by Stamitz, Krumlovsky and Haydn.

From Stamitz and Bach’s sons onwards, though, symmetry became paramount - much as it was for late-eighteenth-century buildings.

While a Stamitz mini-tune might be made up of a handful of notes, Haydn extended the phrase, testing the short-term memory of his listener, then coaxed a slightly altered or ornamented second phrase from it.

Haydn had learnt about the symphony from pioneers like Wenzel Birck, Georg Wagenseil and Johann Stamitz, all now virtually unknown.

Stamitz, who was born 120 kilometres from Prague and baptised Jan Stamic, has probably the greatest claim to being the inventor of the symphony as we know it, though posterity has largely forgotten him nonetheless.