Franz Josef Haydn had served as Kapellmeister, or court composer, for Prince Nikolaus I Esterházy for 28 years by the time the Prince died in 1790. Nikolaus' successor, his son Anton, was not a great music fan and largely disbanded the family's musical establishment. Haydn moved to Vienna and quickly received many employment offers, the most exciting of which came from the violinist-impresario Johann Peter Salomon, who offered Haydn a considerable sum of money to come to England to present several new compositions in a series of concerts. Haydn arrived in England (his first trip ever outside Austria) on January 1, 1791, and the first of Salomon's three wildly successful concert seasons got started in March. The Symphony No. 94 was premiered under Haydn's direction on March 23, 1792, in the middle of the second season.

The symphony opens tenderly, with a genial, gently rocking main theme that builds up quite a head of steam as it is developed. As is the case so frequently with Haydn, the recapitulation of the opening themes is really more of an extension of their development. There is a nice passage for the woodwinds just before the movement's ending.

The symphony's nickname derives from the justly famous second movement, which is a set of variations on a sweet, naïve little tune. As the melody spins itself out, it gets quieter and quieter, dying to near silence—and then there is a sudden loud chord from the entire orchestra. There are several theories as to why Haydn inserted that "surprise" (which was actually an afterthought, and doesn't appear in his original manuscript). One account tells us that Haydn may have said, "This will make the ladies jump!" He may also have been thinking of the elderly gentlemen he saw in his audiences who, lulled by their heavy dinners and a few too many drinks, routinely dozed off once the music had begun. Also, with the overwhelming success of the Salomon/Haydn concerts, a rival concert series under the direction of composer Ignaz Pleyel (one of Haydn's former students) had begun. On one occasion Haydn admitted that he included the "surprise" not to startle the audience, but simply to make the work memorable in the face of his competition. Whatever the reason, the "surprise" is just one of the delights of this movement, which features a series of variations on the main theme—one stormy and dramatic, another sweetly decorated by the woodwinds, another propelled forward by trumpets and timpani. The movement's quiet, poignant conclusion is rather a surprise in itself.

An aggressive little minuet follows, with a graceful middle section for strings joined by a solo bassoon. The symphony concludes with a sparkling Allegro di molto finale; this, and other finales in the 12 "London" symphonies, calls for truly virtuosic playing from the strings—Salomon's players in London must have been a formidable group indeed.

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