WFCC

Classical Fact

In one mischievous episode of young Franz Joseph Haydn's life, he and a few of his choir-mates were caught playing high upon the scaffolding of Vienna's Schonbrunn Castle. None other than the Empress Maria Theresa ordered that the group of wayward youths be whipped for their trespass. Haydn and the Empress would reminisce about this incident years later during the Empress's festive visit to the summer palace of Haydn's employer, Prince Nicolaus Esterhazy, in September of 1773. The Empress joked that the thrashing "bore good fruit". Haydn and his orchestra may have included his Symphony number 48 as part of that command performance. It was thought for many years that Haydn had composed the C major symphony specifically for the occasion. But more recent research has dated that work four years before the Empress's visit. Correct or not, the name has stuck and will likely remain Haydn's "Maria Theresa" Symphony.