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Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgang Gottlieb Mozart composed the D-major symphony late in 1786 for the city of Prague. The score calls for two each of flutes, oboes, bassoons, horns, and trumpets, plus timpani and strings.
The Prague symphony exists because of the long and happy relationship between Mozart and the music-loving citizens of the Bohemian capital during the last years of the composer’s life. Almost a year before composing Don Giovanni for Prague, Mozart wrote a symphony for intended for that city (true, it had its premiere in Vienna, but it was heard in Prague a month later). Like the later opera, it is in the key of D and begins with slow and powerful opening music in the minor, with tension building almost to a breaking point through dissonance and chromatic harmonies. Mozart had evidently learned a great deal from Haydn’s symphonies, because the first movement of the symphony, built out of arrangements and developments of motivic figures more than “themes” per se, is almost monothematic. Mozart avoids any hint of monotony by his brilliant reworking of all the ideas throughout th
e movement. The Andante is also based on motivic structures to an unusual degree, and its sweetly lyrical character sometimes seems on the verge of being overwhelmed with more tensions like those of the introduction to the first movement, until the chromatic harmonies disperse and the sun reappears from behind the clouds.There is no Minuet movement in the Prague Symphony. In any case, it is unusual for Mozart to write a symphony with only three movements, and we do not know exactly why he did so. The very first idea of the lively and brilliant finale carries with it the suggestion of operatic comedy; the theme seems to evoke physical gesture on the stage. The first audiences can hardly have failed to imagine that Figaro and Susanna, favorite characters from the Mozart opera they had loved so much, were back again, here in a purely instrumental guise.
Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgang Gottlieb Mozart composed the D-major symphony late in 1786 for the city of Prague. The score calls for two each of flutes, oboes, bassoons, horns, and trumpets, plus timpani and strings.
The Prague symphony exists because of the long and happy relationship between Mozart and the music-loving citizens of the Bohemian capital during the last years of the composer’s life. Almost a year before composing Don Giovanni for Prague, Mozart wrote a symphony for intended for that city (true, it had its premiere in Vienna, but it was heard in Prague a month later). Like the later opera, it is in the key of D and begins with slow and powerful opening music in the minor, with tension building almost to a breaking point through dissonance and chromatic harmonies. Mozart had evidently learned a great deal from Haydn’s symphonies, because the first movement of the symphony, built out of arrangements and developments of motivic figures more than “themes” per se, is almost monothematic. Mozart avoids any hint of monotony by his brilliant reworking of all the ideas throughout th
e movement. The Andante is also based on motivic structures to an unusual degree, and its sweetly lyrical character sometimes seems on the verge of being overwhelmed with more tensions like those of the introduction to the first movement, until the chromatic harmonies disperse and the sun reappears from behind the clouds.There is no Minuet movement in the Prague Symphony. In any case, it is unusual for Mozart to write a symphony with only three movements, and we do not know exactly why he did so. The very first idea of the lively and brilliant finale carries with it the suggestion of operatic comedy; the theme seems to evoke physical gesture on the stage. The first audiences can hardly have failed to imagine that Figaro and Susanna, favorite characters from the Mozart opera they had loved so much, were back again, here in a purely instrumental guise.The 38th Symphony was a temporary return to the three-movement, Italian-style symphony, but it is imbued with some of the musical ideas of The Marriage of Figaro, which was about to be staged in Prague. It is considered one of Mozart’s greatest symphonies. Several steps more advanced than anything in that genre he had composed before, it was wildly appreciated by audiences in Prague when it was premiered.
2 comments:
Quite a lot of details .. but I can hardly recall what I read. I have not heard them before thats why I find it tough to relate the journal ....may be you would explain me some other time..
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
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