The solo group consists of a sextet of the woodwind instruments which are normally doubled with more regular members of the orchestra: these six strangers now brought to the fore are piccolo alto flute cor anglais clarinet inEb bass clarinet in Bb and contrabassoon. They make a motley group diverse in colour as in register and one of the tasks of the piece sets itself is to have them blend and cohere both together as an ensemble and in partnershipwith the string orchestra (which itself is used with unusual variety and subtlety). Another evident task of the work is to provide fine solos for each member of the woodwind sextet: bright dances for the piccolo recitativesfor the alto flute a stoical song from the contrabassoon in the extreme bass. The work is cast as a single movement which begins in the composer's first-movement style of rapid regeneration. This is interrupted by slowinterventions including one for divided strings which gives rise to a sextuple cadenza for the soloists. Out of this comes a slow movement or sequence of short slow movements followed by a dancing finale with its own slowepisodes. Altogether this is music of songs and dances heavily tinged with Scottish rhythms and tonalities: one might think of a magic bagpipe having six chanters and a drone of variegated string texture.

LOurs-This is the first symphony in the Paris cycle and it was composed in 1786. The nickname The Bear stems from the bagpipe-like theme of the final movement. The composition?s outer movements often described as examples of 'brilliance' and 'splendour' surround the alternating major and minor variations of the slow movement.The simplicity of this movement rings true to Rousseau?s characterisation of 'natural' music.- Large format parts.- Informative Preface (German/English).- Urtext of the Haydn Complete Edition.- Complements the already available Paris symphonies nos. 85 and 87.