Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): Symphonies Nos. 36 & 38 CD Track Listing
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Symphonies Nos. 36 & 38
Mozart married Constanze Weber i 1782 and settled in Vienna. The following year he made the journey to Salzburg (his last visit to his native town) to introduce his young wife to his father. On the journey back he composed the Symphony No. 36, K. 426, called the "Linz" after the town in which he was staying. "The old Count Thun" welcomed them with open arms, as he wrote in a letter to his father. He profited from the occation by giving a concert in the local theatre: "I have no symphony with me, so I am in the middle of writing one with all speed." In five days, the new work was finished. It carries no trace of the speed with which it was composed. It is the first in the final series of great symphonies to have a slow introduction, albeit still quite a short one. It also has the unique trait of using trumpets and timpani in the Andante, without flutes os clarinets, one of Mozart's favourite instruments. The work, laid out in the four traditional movements, has a spacious and solemn atmosphere radically opposed to that of the "Haffner" that preceded it. Mozart was to go even further down the route of the "grand symphony" with No. 38, the "Prague" Symphony, K. 504, which opens the magnificient cycle of his last works in this genre. It is also the last composed in D major, a key often used by Mozart. It was completed in Vienna i 1786 and first performed on 19 January 1787 in Prague (hence its nickname), in the wake of the success there of Le nozzie di Figaro. For it was in the Bohemian capital that Mozart in his last years was to find his most faithful and enthusiastic audience. A remarkable feature of the symphony is that is has only thre movements. It is not known for what reason the traditional minuet is absent. However compact the symphony may be as a result, the slow introduction to the "Prague" is the longest in any of Mozart's symphonies, already foreshadowing Don Giovanni, whise first performance was to take place in Prague the following Octover. "In it alone, the latemt polyphonic tension which the broad introdyction carries within itself leads the listener into a world where the influence of Joseph Haydn circulates and one senses the struggle at the heart of Mozart's inspiration" (H.Becker). But as often in the later symphonies, this almost heroic element allies itself with lighter ones without any sense of hiatus. Thus reminiscences of opera buffa are discernible in the marvellous presto finale. Mozart was to wait almost a year and a half before devoting himself once again to writing symphonies. The sublime final triptych, also composed a very short time interval, constitute his last words in this genre, where he had fully appropriated all the influences in order to transcend them in the creation of a style which was absolutely individual and definitive.\n\n(R
Category
: Music
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: music songs tracks classical
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) - Adagio - Allegro spiritoso (08:10)
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) - Poco Adagio (07:03)
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) - Menuetto (03:33)
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) - Presto (07:39)
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) - Adagio - Allegro (10:51)
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) - Andante (08:58)
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) - Finale. Presto (07:29)
