While the dating of many of Haydn's symphonies is subject to debate, it is fairly certain that the little D major work designated as No. 1 is the eldest sibling that commences the long march of the 100-plus works. The composer himself declared this with certainty, and manuscripts in the Von Fuernburg and St. Florian Monastery libraries would seem to bear this out. The work dates from between 1757 and 1759, placing it in the Lukavec court era, and is scored for strings, two oboes, two horns, and continuo.

While there is a looking back to established Baroque models in the terraced dynamics of alternating forte and piano, the symphony commences with a Mannheim-like crescendo (said to have been borrowed from a D major work by Stamitz), which is virtually the only progressive feature in this staid yet charming work. The sonata form that binds this movement together is binary, with the development worked into the variety of the exposition rather than the former being a mid-section in itself; indeed, the plethora of themes that emerge in this movement would seem to call for an immense development were this the case. The slow movement is for strings and continuo and is in the nature of a gavotte. The finale in 3/8 time is cast in the most basic sonata, the second subject so slight as to seem an embellishment. Overall, this symphony's spirit and ease of utterance makes for a fine beginning for the man who was to become the father of the idiom.

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