Symphony No. 39 (Mozart)
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The Symphony no. 39 in E-flat major of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, K. 543, was completed 26 June, 1788.[1]
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[edit] Composition and premiere
The 39th Symphony is the first of a set of three (his last symphonies) that Mozart composed in rapid succession during the summer of 1788. No. 40 was completed 25 July and No. 41 10 August. [2] Around the same time, Mozart was writing his piano trios in E and C major, his sonate facile, and a violin sonatina.
It is not known whether the 39th Symphony was ever performed in the composer's lifetime. According to Deutsch, around this time Mozart was preparing to hold a series of "Concerts in the Casino", in a new casino in the Spiegelgasse owned by Philipp Otto. Mozart even sent a pair of tickets for this series to his friend Michael Puchberg. But it seems impossible to determine whether the concert series was held, or was cancelled for lack of interest.[3]
The work is today part of the core symphonic repertoire and is frequently performed and recorded.
[edit] Instrumentation and movements
The symphony is scored for flute, pairs of clarinets, bassoons, horns and trumpets, timpani and strings, and consists of four movements:
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 work has a very interesting minuet and trio. The trio is an Austrian folk dance called a "landler" and features a clarinet solo. The forceful Menuetto is set off by the trio's unusual tint of the second clarinet playing arpeggios in its low (chalumeau) 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.
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Deutsch, Otto Erich (1965) Mozart: A Documentary Biography. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
[edit] External links
- Sinfonie in E-flat KV 543: Score and critical report (German) in the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe
- St. Louis Symphony Program Notes on Mozart Symphony No. 39
- Symphony No. 39 was available at the International Music Score Library Project.
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