Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 11
Composed ca. 1779; Duration: 11 minutes
First performance of this work by the BPO.
Joseph Bologne was the son of a wealthy plantation owner in Guadeloupe and an enslaved Creole woman. He is a rare—or perhaps lone—example of an 18th-century European composer of color, but the contemporary fascination with this multitalented gentleman is saturated with the era’s dramatic politics. A celebrated violinist with an interest in composition, his equally impressive skills as a fencer, rider, and dancer allowed him to navigate Parisian high society with ease. Even as a volunteer citizen-soldier during the French Revolution, he couldn’t avoid the political fallout of his status.
During the 1770s, Saint-Georges was first a soloist with, then the leader of, the Concert des Amateurs, a concert-producing organization. He would later turn his attention to opera, but so long as he was working in the concert scene, he composed several violin concertos, symphonies concertantes, and two symphonies published as Op. 11. While Haydn was expanding the Classical symphony to the lengthy, four-movement affairs modern audiences are most familiar with, Saint-Georges’ short D major symphony is formulated in three movements and is representative of the brief, genteel symphonies most common in this early portion of the Classical era.