The composer and horn player Othon Vandenbroek (1758–1832) wrote this symphony between 1790 and 1793. The first edition was published in 1792/93 at Vandenbroek's own expense. Its title reads:
LA PRISE DE LA BASTILE | ou | SIMPHONIE | A GRAND ORCHESTRE | DEDIÉE | à la Nation | Composée Par | Othon VanDenBroek
It remains unclear whether the misspelling “Bastile” was an error by the engraver.
The second edition
A revised second edition appeared shortly afterwards, probably after Vandenbroek joined the Paris Opéra National in 1793. It names him as a horn player of the Opéra National and was apparently taken over by the Paris publisher Cochet. A few small corrections were made to the engraved plates, such as additional or altered dynamic markings.
Questions of instrumentation
The scoring raises a number of questions:
Oboes or clarinets in C are specified, yet the slow movement clearly requires clarinets in B-flat.
In the first movement the horns change crooks to a different pitch. This was not necessarily common at the time, as changes were normally made from one movement to the next.
At the change to the E-flat crook the part is marked “ou Dix”. The engraver evidently made a mistake here; “Dis” (the German name for D-sharp) is clearly what was meant.
Reception
Around the time of the first edition, a Mr. Barbieri published an arrangement for piano or harpsichord with the accompaniment of a violin and a bass (cello or double bass), in effect a version for domestic music-making. Vandenbroek's symphony must therefore have enjoyed a certain popularity, although no specific performance has been documented so far.
In 1989 Capriccio released a recording by Concerto Köln – inexplicably credited to Dittersdorf.
