Feather-light flights of fancy

A hen, a swan, the nightingale and other birds come together here: Haydn had anything but poultry in mind when he wrote his Symphony No. 83, but because of the "cackling" theme in the second movement, a clever contemporary gave the work its famous nickname - "La poule". Hindemith, on the other hand, used some themes from folk songs in his viola concerto, including in the third movement. "Seid ihr nicht der Schwanendreher" is heard there - and the...