Haydn composed his Symphony no. 76 at the same time as his Symphonies nos. 77 and 78 for a planned trip to England that never took place. Nonetheless, H. C. Robbins Landon calls these works the English symphonies as they arestylistically closely linked to the London Bach , Johann Christian Bach. Haydn himself, in a letter of 1783 to his Parisian publisher Charles-Georges Boyer, described the symphonies as Leicht und nicht vil Concertirend , meaningthat they were light in spirit and did not contain extensive solo passages but rather a clear sense of classical form.
Continuing the cooperation between Bärenreiter and the G. Henle publisher regarding Haydn s large-scalechoral works, operas and symphonies, this edition is based on the G. Henle Complete Edition of the Works of Joseph Haydn . The Bärenreiter catalogue now includes the complete performance material for several Sturm und Drang symphonies as well as all the London and Paris symphonies.
