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For Haydn, the challenge of the length of the movements
was all the greater in that he had to avoid the feeling of
repetitiousness inherent in seven sections at uniformly
slow tempos. It will be recalled that he did not have the
right to alter the basic scheme. He skilfully dosed his
effects, for example by alternating between major and
minor keys, and thus succeeded in averting the risk of
the monotony in the score, preparing the listener for the
final Terremoto. The constant changes of metre, the play
on timbre, everything that to us today seems obviously
pre-Beethovenian, culminates in the intervallic leaps
simulating the earthquake in the last movement, with its
conclusion marked
fff
. If the listener remains sufficiently
concentrated, he or she can easily imagine, in this stirring
passage, the entry of the trumpets and drums of the
orchestral version.
The quasi-symphonic force of this work for just four
instruments opened up completely new perspectives for
the composers of the first half of the nineteenth century.
We know what the outcome was . . .