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A Note from Sir Charles Mackerras  

The four symphonies presented here show Mozart at his most diverse, both in musical content and in orchestral colouration.  At least two of them have a distinctly operatic flavour.  The ‘Prague' Symphony No 38, K.504, performed in that city at the height of the 'Figaro mania', contains many of the sounds and moods we associate with that opera and perhaps even more with Mozart's later Prague opera, Don Giovanni.  Consider the solemn slow introduction which ends with a poignant chromatic passage in D minor so like a cry of pain.  This gives way to an ingenious three part Allegro theme which is repeated over and over again in different contrapuntal combinations (though never once identically).  This is perhaps the most intellectual movement of any of Mozart's symphonies, save perhaps the last pages of the ‘Jupiter'.  The Andante and the mercurial Finale present so many shades and moods, changing continually from major to minor, that they remind one irresistibly of the big finales in Figaro and Don Giovanni. 

Similarly, the next symphony, Symphony No 39 in E flat, K.543, has an orchestral colour unique in Mozart's symphonies.  This comes from his use of clarinets rather then traditional oboes as the main woodwind instrument.  Mozart had already used the clarinet in the key of E flat to gorgeous effect in both da Ponte operas (consider much of the music associated with the Figaro Countess and Donna Elvira). He had also used the softer colours of the clarinet in his E flat Piano Concerto, K.482. However, the instrument pervades the whole symphony and there is hardly a phrase where its limpid quality does not add entirely new colours to Mozart's symphonic palette.  The immense range of the clarinet (because of its cylindrical bore) is used to great effect in the trio of the minuet in which the first plays a serene melody high up in its register, while the 2nd chortles away on an accompaniment two octaves lower. 

The Symphony No 40 in G minor, K.550, has been described severally as "frantic, anguished neuroticism" (H.C Robbins Landon) and of "Grecian lightness and grace" (Robert Schumann). The outer movements indeed express a nervous quality not present in Mozart's minor key piano concertos or in his earlier 'Sturm und Drang' 'little' G Minor Symphony, K.183.  Note how the consoling second subject in the relative major key sinks to the depth of despair in the recapitulation, as it refuses all comfort in the home minor key.  This is especially true of the Finale where the development section starts off with an almost Schönbergian tone row and then leads the listener through a bewildering number of foreign keys until finally it lands back in its original G minor. 

Mozart first composed this tragic work featuring the plangent tones of the oboes against the throbbing of the strings. However, he re-wrote the woodwind parts to include his favourite clarinets.  In the slow movement we again hear the clarinets in the key of E flat, while in the trio of the minuet the oboes are allowed to come to the fore in a sunny G major.

Mozart's last symphony, Symphony No 41 in C major, K.551, later dubbed ‘Jupiter',  probably because of its majestic opening movement or its 'jovial' and 'Titanic' finale, seems to sum up Mozart's whole symphonic production with its subtlety and grandeur. But amidst the fanfares of trumpets and drums of those outer movements, Mozart still has one new colour up his sleeve: the muted violins of the slow 2nd movement. Mozart hardly ever used this colour in a symphony and yet the Master says ‘farewell' to the symphonic form by means of a gorgeous veil over the sound, investing a special quality in it which even pervades the great C Major climax in the second part of the movement.  A truly original colour in this final symphony of endless tonal variety.  

© Sir Charles Mackerras, 2007