Surprise Symphony

In Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s season closer, guest conductor Bernard Labadie leads the ensemble in Haydn’s Symphony No. 94, a.k.a. the “Surprise” Symphony.

Haydn’s “Surprise” Symphony gets its nickname from a fortissimo chord placed where it has no business being, at the end of the second go-round of a quiet little ditty that sounds like a nursery game played on tiptoes.

The National Philharmonic brought another solidly played but unadventurous program to Strathmore on Saturday — favorites by Haydn and Mozart — that delighted the audience, particularly the many children scattered around who visibly recognized and reacted to the “surprise” second movement of Haydn’s “Surprise” Symphony.

His recorded version of Haydn's famous "Surprise" symphony, for example, has more surprises than the composer ever intended.

One piece in his piano repertory was a reduction of Haydn’s “Surprise” Symphony, and when he was 8, his father gave him a copy of the full orchestral score.