According to Merriam-Webster: "Sturm und Drang comes from German, where it literally means "storm and stress." Although it’s now a generic synonym of "turmoil," the term was originally used in English to identify a late 18th-century German literary movement whose works were filled with rousing action and high emotionalism, and often dealt with an individual rebelling against the injustices of society. The movement took its name from the 1776 play Sturm und Drang, a work by one of its proponents, dramatist and novelist Friedrich von Klinger. Although the literary movement was well known in Germany in the late 1700s, the term Sturm und Drang didn’t appear in English prose until the mid-1800s."
Franz Joseph Haydn was influenced by this German literary movement, especially in the symphonies he composed during the late 1760s and early 1770s. His Symphony No. 49 in F minor dates from 1768, and it is one of the high points of his symphonic writing during this time period. The form he chooses for the work is somewhat archaic, following the layout of the baroque church sonata, with four movements in slow-fast-slow-fast ordering. This produces a wonderfully ominous effect, with the intense and dark first slow movement lasting some 8 minutes, before the outburst of the Allegro second movement. The work is scored for 2 oboes, bassoon, 2 horns, and strings.
The symphony's nickname - La passione (not originating from Haydn) - derived from a performance of the work given during Holy Week in the Northern German city of Schwerin in 1790. The nickname has stuck with the work for good reason.
Here's a performance of the second movement of the Symphony No. 49 by l'Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, with Barbara Hannigan conducting.
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