The three Haydn symphonies here included are relatively early works. Symphony No. 27, with its so-called ‘rocket’ opening, has traces of the Mannheim style. Symphony No. 28 was composed for his new patron Prince Nicolaus Esterházy at Eisenstadt in 1765. Symphony No. 31, known as the Hornsignal, is unusual in its use of four horns and in the emphatic horn signal with which the work opens and ends. The three symphonies show the variety Haydn was always able to achieve even at this early stage of the development of the genre.