Kevin Sutton at [log in to unmask] wrote:

>The representation was very dissonant for its day.  The opening oboe solo
>which begins as a chromatic scale would have sounded very strange indeed to
>early nineteenth century ears.  We are accustomed to that sort of thing now
>so it doesn't sound strange, but it did at the premier!

You were there? If it sounded so bleeding strange and dissonant - why was
it an instant popular hit? Haydn had had to alter works which were too
dissonant for "learned ears".  The 19th century wrote about the rain and
snow at Mozart's funeral - the 20th seems to have its elaborate myths as
well...

Stirling Newberry
http://www.mp3.com/ssn
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