François-Joseph Gossec, one of various musicians and composers from Wallonia - the French-speaking part of what is now known as Belgium - who settled in Paris. He was educated as a violinist and bass player in the orchestra of Le Riche de La Pouplinière, who for many years was the patron of Rameau. This had a lasting influence on his development as a composer as he came into contact with other composers and other styles. It was especially the performances of Johann Stamitz, one of the main representatives of the 'Mannheim school' which inspired him to compose symphonies. In 1769 he founded the concert society Concert des Amateurs whose orchestra was quite large in comparison to what was common at the time. In 1773 he took over the direction of the Concert Spirituel.

The Bohemian composer Johann Stamitz, a versatile performer on a number of instruments, is chiefly known for his work with the Mannheim orchestra, which he built into what a later visitor, the English Dr Burney, described as an army of generals. He seems to have joined the musical establishment of the Elector Palatine, whose capital was at Mannheim, in 1741 as a violinist, and by 1750 had become director of instrumental music. The Mannheim orchestra became famous for its discipline, evident in particular in the ‘Mannheim crescendo’, an effective increase in volume and following decrease that became a feature of music written for the orchestra. It had other characteristic traits, too, including the ascending melodic figure known as the ‘Mannheim rocket’.

The bold opening chords and immediately following crescendo of the D major Symphony, Op.3/2 (from the early 1750s) immediately established its Mannheim credentials, as do the elegantly sophisticated scoring of the Andantino and the effective use of horns in the Minuet and Trio. E flat Symphony, one of the composer’s last, follows a similar pattern, but the three earlier works (from the 1740s), which are actually designated as ‘Mannheim’ Symphonies are altogether simpler, each with only three movements.