So a bit of a computer technicality kept me from being able to post this past week and a half. I've also been unable to do a lot of things. This speaks that maybe it's time for a new computer, but with money as it is right now, that being a viable option isn't really...well viable.

Anyway, after much delay the final installment of Symphonic Mozart is at hand. It is no surprise that as it is the last Mozart symphony to be updated for awhile...couple of months at least, it should be one of the most important and enigmatic of the group of 38.

While many believe that Mozart actually wrote 41 symphonies, myself included (here), I've since learned that only 38 of them have historically been attributed to Mozart. Of the three that have been linked elsewhere: The Symphony in B-flat Major (No.2) is believed to have been written by Mozart's father, Leopold Mozart. The Symphony in E-flat Major (No.3, not attributed to Beethoven!!) a work of Carl Friedrich Abel, and the Symphony in G Major (No.37) belongs to a close friend of Mozart, Michael Haydn.

In the previous post on Mozart, I discussed the Prague Symphony No.38 (in D Major, K.504) and its importance as one of the final five symphonies Mozart wrote. This week's symphony is among that group, it is the penultimate in the genre Mozart would ever compose and is probably the most recognized among his symphonies, that being Symphony No.40 in G Minor, K.550

This symphony is among a lonely group of two written in a minor key. The post on Mozart's 25th Symphony in G minor, has that symphony coined as the "little g minor" work as it is the Fortieth, completed five years later in the same key that is considered the "Grand G minor" symphony. The work was completed during the summer of 1778, a particularly busy period for the composer as that summer he produced his final three symphonies (39: June 26; 40: July 25; and 41: August 10).

1. Molto Allegro


Very little is known of the premise for this symphony's composition. While many guess at the history behind this, speculation also exists surrounding the thematic material of this work and how it is to be interpreted. One universally known subject is that the circumstances of Mozart's life when he wrote the piece were devastatingly grim. Mozart was falling deeper into poverty, his popularity was of equal recession among the Viennese public and marital strains were tense, including the reaction to the death of one of Mozart's children shortly near time of composition. In a letter written to a close friend begging for a loan, all the emotion seemed to perpetuate itself in the text Mozart wrote. "Black thoughts...often come to me. Thoughts that I push away with a tremendous effort."

2. Andante

Part I

Part 2

With all the expression that appears to be embedded within the symphony, Alfred Einstein noted the two outer movements "plunge into the abyss of the soul," while Charles Rosen called the work a "supreme expression of suffering and terror," Mozart was strictly planted in the classical tradition, he never intended his composition to be stem from the bank of his personal emotions.

3. Menuetto: Trio


While that classical tradition may have been upheld personally by Mozart, it is easily arguable and disagreed with nowadays. The symphony displays such innovation in its unusual harmonic tension that it foreshadows 20th century musical exploration by three centuries. This can be seen in the opening of the first movement, which could easily be described as dark. While this is not necessarily true of the melody, the dark color is provided from the accompanying strings in pulsing strategy. Of this technique, which became popular among Romantics, the opening to Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto is a considerable example.

The athletic chromaticism of the first movement is mirrored in a more subtle way in the Andante. The movement opens stately, presenting an idea that seems almost familiar and safe before breaking into a series of short two-note figures, called Seufzer (sighs) in Mozart's day. The violins add a counter melody that rises in unexpected directions as the movement explores various chromatic relationships against an insistent, but reserved, ostinato background. The forceful Menuetto drops the Symphony into its path of urgency once more. The style of the movement may follow the form and rhythm of that of the courtly dance its labeled but its impression is anything but courtly and decorous. Critics have come to uniformly describe the movement's powerful polyphony as "fierce," and "stern." The mild G major trio offers a brief respite and joyous trivial moments from the main effect of the "grim" Minuet.

4. Allegro assai

Part I

Part II

The Finale (Allegro assai) begins with a brief, rising two-bar gesture that quickly becomes the thematic material. For Mozart especially, the Finale movement of this work is deep with difficult harmonic passages. One could argue that the harmonic exploration of the symphony extracts another element out of the movement, which was composed in a purely classical style, eight bar phrases expressing a sense of rhythmic squareness. One notable part is found at the beginning of the development section in which a remarkable modulating passage occurs that strongly destabilizes the key. The passage sees every tone but one in the chromatic scale played, suitably the one note left out is a g-natural (the tonic).

True to the Mozart standard, he embarks on an unusual voyage, but in the end his musical language still achieves a balance, order, and resolution.

Of popular mention: Ludwig van Beethoven was particularly fond of this symphony, once having sketched 29 measures from the score into his workbook. The fourth movement alone is shown to have inspired Beethoven the most. It's inspiration can be seen in the third movement of his Fifth Symphony, and in addition the opening motive of his Piano Sonata in F minor, Op.2, No.1. The harmonic tension of the Andante movement could also be argued as being present in the second movement of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony.

Other reading for more on the Symphony:

1. Mozart and the treatment of the Classical Orchestra in Symphony No.40 and his extension of the orchestral colors of Stamitz and CPE Bach. Here

2. Program and historical analysis of the Symphony in a program for the Redwood Symphony. Here

Of the video:
Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at the Suntory Hall, Tokyo, Japan in November 11th, 2006. a truly fantastic performance