This is an excellent symphony in pure Classical-era style. An exuberant work and formally beautifully balanced, it is worthy to stand comparison with the best symphonies being written at the three-quarters-mark of the eighteenth century, not excluding contemporaneous symphonies by Franz Joseph Haydn.

Luigi Boccherini (1743 - 1805) was, at the time he wrote this music, far removed from the European musical mainstream. He was attached to the court of the Don Luis of Bourbon, the Spanish Infante, or brother of the reigning King. Don Luis paid Boccherini quite well and treated him fairly; Boccherini had married a star singer of the Madrid Opera, and Boccherini enjoyed the companionship of fellow musicians in Don Luis' establishment who, to judge from the quality of difficulty of Boccherini's music, must have been high-caliber players, indeed.

But isolation in Spain (which increased when Don Luis married without the King's approval and thenceforth had to move his own residence to the small city of Las Arenas) meant that Boccherini could only become well-known in the rest of Europe through his publications.

This symphony is part of a group of six published in Paris in 1776 under Opus 12, and titled "Six Concertos for Full Orchestra." In fact, they are symphonies in form, though most of them abound with solo parts as well as Boccherini's trademark division of the cello section into two sections, a device that gives his music unusual richness.

This symphony, though, is the most conventional in ideas and scoring. It is scarcely distinguishable on those accounts from Haydn's symphonies, aside from a characteristic richer sound and the use of a pair of flutes instead of the more customary pair of oboes. Moreover, there are moments when the horns are given a soloistic role.

The symphony also has the most slender proportions of the six, at 19 minutes.

Some commentators remark that the reluctance of this symphony to depart from the sound, form, and gestures of a standard Germanic symphony of the period results in this being the least individual of the six Opus 12 symphonies. However, this writer is not among them; Boccherini's artistic voice has more to it than his propensity towards coloristic devices and amorous melodies.

The opening movement starts straightaway in an Allegro con spirito, without a slow introduction. The mood of the movement is rollicking, with frequent witty ideas in the more vigorous theme, and a nicely contrasting lyrical second subject.

The second movement, Adagio ma non tanto, is stately and alternates melodies between horns and strings. Typically for Boccherini, the higher horn part is frequently stratospheric. The minuet movement balances two phrases neatly and includes a flute solo in the trio, while the concluding movement, Prestissimo, frolics with a main theme featuring invigorating triplets and alternating lyrical measures.

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