Haydn's Symphony No. 14 in A major finds the composer happily plying his craft courtesy of a generous and understanding patron. A product of the early Esterházy years, the concise little work is believed to date from sometime between 1761 and 1763, and reflects Haydn's pleasure in utilizing an orchestra with expanded sonorities. Here may be divined a masterly hand, the composer reveling as much in subtle blending as in bolder contrast.

The opening movement, in athletic triple time, features an angular, leap-laden main theme. The following andante has something of the nature of a brisk pilgrim's march and features a cello obbligato, the composer taking delight in this subtle coloration. The delightful minuet which follows finds Haydn taking further pleasure in blending the winds into the main melody while a piquant solo oboes carries the trio. The finale, also in triple time, is highly contrapuntal. Yet in the midst of this brief essay in academia, we get a glimpse of the future jokester Papa Haydn; the recapitulation is delayed by a measure in the tonic, much like the premature delivery of a punch line from an audience heckler.

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