Symphony No. 71 in B flat finds Haydn at the top of his game, and looking forward while keeping an eye to the past, a perspective perhaps nurtured by the happily brief period of Esterházy's disapproval with certain of the composer's "boldness." The water was now under the bridge and in addition, Haydn's rising star could be seen beyond the Austro-German border. The publication by Hummel of No. 71 with several other Haydn symphonies on Christmas 1781 enhanced the Austrian composer's growing international reputation.

No. 71 commences with a very brief slow introduction (seven measures) in which a nervous rhythmic device is thrice tested with a different melody before settling upon the dominant; it then disappears without a trace for the work's duration (it has been hazarded that a lengthy break in the composition at this point ensued). A more traditional but quite enjoyable sonata allegro in 3/4 follows. The following slow movement is a theme and variations, more pensive than idyllic in nature. The minuet, however, breathes the fresh open air, some of its pastoral nature attributable to the isolation of the winds; by the same token the trio is reduced to an awkward trio of two violins and a double bass. Was Haydn good-naturedly drawing a bead on bucolic musicians in a manner premonitory of Mozart's musical joke and Beethoven's Sixth? This too seems to reemerge toward the end of the otherwise mercurial finale with a bumptious wind-band effect.

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