Symphony No. 39 (Mozart)

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The Symphony no. 39 in E-flat major of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, K. 543, was written along with symphonies 40 and 41 in a very brief period in the summer of 1788. The work is scored for flute, pairs of clarinets, bassoons, horns and trumpets, timpani and strings, and consists of four movements:

Besides the other members of the last symphonic trilogy, and according to the same catalogue, Mozart was writing his piano trios in E and C major, his sonate facile, and a violin sonatina in the same summer.

The first movement opens with a majestic introduction with fanfares heard in the brass section. This is followed by an Allegro in sonata form, though while several features - the loud outburst following the soft opening, for instance - connect it with the galant school that influences the earliest of his symphonies. The independence of the winds and greater interplay of the parts in general, and the fact that the second theme group in those earlier symphonies was (to paraphrase Alfred Einstein) practically always completely trivial, which is not the case here, combine with the second group which contains several themes, including a particularly felicitous "walking theme". These are just a very few of the points that distinguish this movement from those works, from which it has more differences than similarities.

The slow movement, in abridged sonata form, i.e. no development section ([1]), starts quietly in the strings and expands into the rest of the orchestra. Quiet main material and energetic, somewhat agitated transitions characterize this movement. Comparison with the fifth symphony of Franz Schubert suggests the latter may have had this work at the back of his mind.

The forceful Menuetto is set off by the trio's unusual tint of the 2nd clarinet playing arpeggios in its low chalumeaux register.

The finale is another sonata form whose main theme, like that of the later string quintet in D, is mostly a scale, here ascending and descending. The development section is dramatic; there is no coda, but both the exposition, and the development through the end of the recapitulation, are requested to be and often are, repeated.