Symphony No. 38 (Mozart)

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed his Symphony No. 38 in D major (the "Prague"), K. 504, in late 1786. It was performed in Prague on January 19, 1787, a few weeks after Le nozze di Figaro opened there.

Other works written by Mozart about contemporary with this symphony include the twenty-fifth piano concerto and the piano trio in B-flat (K. 503 and K. 502,) the former also written in December 1786, the latter written in November. The aria scena and rondo Ch'io mi scordi di te? K.505 for soprano and piano, regarded by Girdlestone in his book on Mozart and his Piano Concertos as a work on the same level, also dates from the same period. This work would be called No. 37 if the K. 444 work was removed from the numbering.

[edit] Prague

Although Mozart’s popularity among the Viennese waxed and waned, he was consistently popular among the Bohemians and had a devoted following in Prague. A piece appearing in the Prager Neue Zeitung shortly after Mozart’s death expresses this sentiment: "Mozart seems to have written for the people of Bohemia, his music is understood nowhere better than in Prague, and even in the countryside it is widely loved." The Prague Symphony was written in gratitude for their high esteem. It had its premiere in Vienna, on December 6, 1786, and was performed in Prague a month later.

[edit] Form

The early classical symphony of the 18th century would either have three movements or four (or one movement in three recognizable sections, like the 26th or the 32nd - the latter possibly intended for Zaide), the four-movement symphonies having a minuet in addition. By the time Mozart wrote his Prague symphony, however, the symphony was no longer a step away from the opera overture, no longer bound to this tradition, so that the symphony without a minuet could be, and was similar in weight to his other symphonies, different mostly in the lack of that minuet and not in overall specific gravity. (These points are explained in more detail by Alfred Einstein in his Mozart: His Character, His Work.) The Prague symphony was scored for full orchestra with the notable absence of clarinets but with the powerful backing of timpani and trumpets.

The work has the following three movements:

Adagio—Allegro D major. Sonata form, preceded by introduction Adagio. 4/4
Andante G major. Sonata form. 6/8
Finale (Presto) D major.

The first movement begins with an Adagio introduction, which is atypical for Mozart — he only does this in two of his other symphonies, No. 36 (“Linz”) and No. 39. The introduction gives way to the main portion of the movement, in which six melodies are developed and recapitulated in a very contrapuntal example of sonata-allegro form.

The second movement's structure is not far removed from one in a typical Mozart symphony dating around this period although the music veers off into the minor-key in a movement of contrasting moods. Though it is structurally similar, harmonically it is unstable (as another G major slow movement, that of the 16th piano concerto, had been earlier, as Girdlestone points out, and for somewhat similar reasons), and there are several polyphonic surprises.

The third movement is an exuberant piece where the flute plays a prominent role in balancing the main melody in the development section.

[edit] References

Einstein, Alfred. Mozart, his Character, his Work. London: Oxford University Press. 1945. Translated from the German by Arthur Mendel and Nathan Broder. LCCN 45001487.
Girdlestone, Cuthbert. Mozart and his Piano Concertos. New York: Dover Publications. 1964 republication. "An unabridged and corrected republication of the second (1958) edition of the work first published in 1948 by Cassell & Company, Ltd., London, under the title Mozart's Piano Concertos." Translation of Mozart et ses concertos pour piano. ISBN 0-486-21271-8 (pbk.)