Haydn composed his Symphony no. 76 at the same time as his Symphonies nos. 77 and 78 for a planned trip to England that never took place. Nonetheless, H. C. Robbins Landon calls these works the “English symphonies” as they are stylistically closely linked to the “London Bach”, Johann Christian Bach. Haydn himself, in a letter of 1783 to his Parisian publisher Charles-Georges Boyer, described the symphonies as ‘Leicht und nicht vil Concertirend”, meaning that they were light in spirit and did not contain extensive solo passages but rather a clear sense of classical form.

Continuing the cooperation between Bärenreiter and the G. Henle publisher regarding Haydn’s large-scale choral works, operas and symphonies, this edition is based on the G. Henle Complete Edition of the “Works of Joseph Haydn”. The Bärenreiter catalogue now includes the complete performance material for several “Sturm und Drang” symphonies as well as all the London and Paris symphonies.