Many accounts of Op. 50 have begun by commenting on the two bars of repeated Bbs for cello that begin the whole set. These are generally taken to be either a compliment to the cello-playing dedicatee of the set, or, as Rosen says in view of the extreme simplicity of this ‘solo’, a ‘charming joke’. On a larger scale, much has been made of the nature of the cello part, a perspective challenged by Somfai:

Of course we can never know the precise chronology of Haydn's intentions with respect to the dedication, although Somfai's claim is supported by the surviving correspondence. It is still possible that Haydn had the Prussian monarch in mind from the very outset. In any case, surely the most significant part of the story is how little Haydn felt he needed to accommodate the works themselves to this fact.