Mozart: The Symphonies

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Along with No. 25, Symphony No. 29 is one of the better known of Mozart’s “early” symphonies. The opening movement features a brilliant theme, graceful yet insistent. In the second Andante movement Mozart shows shows marked improvement from his earlier symphonies, shifting around the melody, keeping the slower stuff intriguing. The short Minuetto is not his strongest but the Allegro con Spirito makes up for it, passing melodies around the strings and daring shifts in tone to keep it exciting. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart raised the symphony to heights that in many respects remain unsurpassed. Of his 50-odd symphonies, produced between 1764 and 1788, the earliest ones are conventional but precocious, reflecting influences of Johann Christian Bach, Giovanni Battista Sammartini, and Joseph Haydn. An invigorating first movement predominates, followed by a light cantabile movement and a fast finale or minuet (minuets in his symphonies date mostly after 1767). The Symphony in B-flat Major, K 22 (1765; “K” or “Köchel” numbers—named for Ludwig, Ritter (knight) von Köchel, the scholar who catalogued Mozart’s musical corpus—are the standard way of identifying Mozart’s works) contains a lovely chromatic slow movement in the key of G minor.

The first and second movements together constitute the overture to the opera Il sogno di Scipione, K. 126. The third movement is listed separately as K. 161/163. Erich Leinsdorf is best known in the United States from his RCA recordings of Romantic and 20th century repertoire with the Boston Symphony from the 1960s, but he also recorded – here released anew by Universal – the first integral cycle of Mozart’s Symphonies in the late 1950s with the “Philharmonic Symphony of London”, actually Sir Thomas Beecham’s Royal Philharmonic under a different name. Central Europe in the mid-18th century was going through a period of transition. The remnants of the Holy Roman Empire had divided into small semi-self-governing principalities. The result was competing rivalries between these municipalities for identity and recognition. Political leadership of small city-states like Salzburg, Vienna, and Prague was in the hands of the aristocracy and their wealth would commission artists and musicians to amuse, inspire, and entertain. The music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods was transitioning toward more full-bodied compositions with complex instrumentation. The small city-state of Salzburg would be the birthplace of one of the most talented and prodigious musical composers of all time. Concert chamber music has grown in popularity in recent years, despite the fact that symphonies were originally composed for large orchestras. The reasons for this are simple: orchestral music is louder, and listeners are more easily able to identify individual instruments. The chamber music, on the other hand, is frequently subtler and allows the performer to fine-tune their technique. Favorite Moment:The fourth movement is one of Mozart’s greatest symphonic compositions and on the whole is incredible. My favorite moment is probably the building up to and first appearance of the movement’s shattering fortissimo theme.Symphony No. 28 is, in my opinion, the most overlooked of his symphonic works. I admit on the surface nothing looks remarkable: the piece is in C, features Mozart’s typical instrumentation and is in a basic four movement structure. While nothing jumps out as genius, it is consistently engaging the listener with clever melodic writing, each movement making the most of it’s brief runtime. Interestingly, although recordings are much less frequent than his later symphonies, I find the 28th to have the most variation in interpretation. There are the typical Mozart differentiations, like inclusion of repeats and tempo, but most noticeable is the approach taken towards appogiaturas. The opening of the brilliant K133 (No 20) has a splendid swing, with its prominent trumpets, and a real sense of a big, symphonic piece. K184 (No 26) is duly fiery and its accents are neatly judged. K201 and K202 (Nos 29 and 30) are both very impressively done: an eloquent rather than a fiery account (though something of that too) of the opening movement of K201, with a particularly euphonious and shapely Andante.

The symphony numbers in the range 42 to 56 are sometimes used for symphonic works that were not numbered in the 1-41 sequence. They have been included for completeness, although they are out of chronological sequence. In addition, some authentic symphonies were never given numbers. The symphonies in the 1-41 chronological sequence have been listed first; the symphonies that were given the numbers 42-56 are listed next; and lastly are listed the remaining symphonies. The symphonies given numbers past 41 are sometimes listed with "GA" preceding the number, because these numbers were from the Favorite Moment:Building off the comment on appogiaturas above, the third movement, the Minuet, can either be one of my favorite Mozart movements or a forgettable let down. In the Krips version I linked above, the appogiaturas are played as eight notes on the beat giving the lilt necessary for a dance piece and the rousing momentsa sense of grandeur (compare to this performance where the appogiatura are played as grace notes.) This cycle is amazing. As other reviewers have noted, this is propulsive Mozart in its outer movements and minuets – it’s far removed from the Karl Bohm Memorial Mortuary. But musicality is not ditched in the slipstream: Leinsdorf never forgets to sing. O yes indeed: there’s no substitute for imaginative phrasing in this domain and you’ll find it here aplenty. It’s lithe enough to quell the objections of the Period Practice Taliban. The first and second movements based on music from the opera Il re pastore, K. 208. The third movement is listed separately as K. 102/213c. The second movement is incomplete.The most notable breakout for orchestration in Mozart’s development. Not only did he include an extended wind section but pushed it to the forefront, even over the strings in many sections. The symphony is in 3 movements, taking inspiration from older examples. The opening movement is a beast, with a lengthy, slow introduction and into endlessly repeating themes. The Andante is tame but clever with terrific melodies sliding across measure lines, between major and minor. The Presto is a wild, staccato movement, juggled between winds and strings. Many people probably think this is ranked too low, and it’s certainly one of the most important, it doesn’t speak to me the way of those ranked higher. Favorite Moment:While I the opening theme is a simple genius and I love the violin interplay in the fourth movement, my favorite section is this blending of winds and violins in the Andante; a precursor for the masterful orchestration in the Andantes of the later symphonies. The first and second movements together constitute the overture to the opera La finta giardiniera, K. 196. The third movement is listed separately as K. 121/207a.

Excerpt from the third movement, “Presto,” of Mozart's Symphony No. 38 in D Major, K 504 ( Prague); from a 1950 recording by the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Otto Klemperer. (more) Despite his success with the compositions, Mozart was growing discontent with his position as assistant concert master and the confining environment of Salzburg. He was ambitious and believed he could do more somewhere else. Archbishop von Colloredo was becoming impatient with the young genius’s complaining and immature attitude. In August 1777, Mozart set out on a trip to find more prosperous employment. The archbishop wouldn’t give Leopold permission to travel, so Anna Maria accompanied Wolfgang on his quest to the cities of Mannheim, Paris and Munich. There were several employment positions that initially proved promising, but all eventually fell through. He began to run out of funds and had to pawn several valuable personal items to pay traveling and living expenses. The lowest point of the trip was when his mother fell ill and died on July 3, 1778. After hearing the news of his wife’s death, Leopold negotiated a better post for his son as court organist in Salzburg and Wolfgang returned soon after. Making it in Vienna The first, second, and fourth movements together constitute the overture to the opera Lucio Silla, K. 135. The third movement, a minuet, is listed separately as K. 61h No. 3; it is this movement whose authorship is doubtful. Mozart’s dislike of Salzburg can be seen in his letters and in his music. It appears that he only accepted the position there because of the town’s lucrative income, and that he never mentioned it to anyone favorable. Mozart frequently voiced his dissatisfaction with the restrictions placed on him as a result of the restrictions imposed by the Archbishop. Favorite Moment:I have a couple favorite moments in this symphony, both in the incredible first movement. The first is when after repeating the opening motif many times, Mozart twists it into a series of tensing chord changes. The second is the climactic fake out and race to the finish.It’s no secret that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the greatest, most prolific composers of all time. While he excelled in many different types of composition, including opera, chamber and piano works, it’s his symphonic work that best shows his musical genius. The symphonies spanned his entire career, from ages 8 to 32, showing his range and development, originally numbered as brilliant 41 works. Although some have since been identified as falsely attributed, the remaining number still ranks him as one of the most impressive of all the major symphonists, behind only Haydn who wrote an astonishing 106.