Mozart wrote only one symphony for Paris, not six like Haydn.  But, unlike his older contemporary and friend, he got to spend time in the French capital himself, and enjoy the opulent sound of the French orchestras in person.  (The Loge Olympique, for which Haydn wrote his Paris symphonies in 1785-86, was not founded until 1781; Mozart’s work, written in 1778, was performed by a different group, the orchestra of the Concert spirituel.)

Mozart took full advantage of the instrumental forces available to him in Paris, just as Haydn did a few years later.  For the first time in his life, Mozart used clarinets in the symphony.  Later on he used either clarinets or oboes in his symphonies, but rarely both as he did here.  The result was a fuller, richer sonority, fitting a work that, similarly to Haydn’s “Bear,” is an extroverted, festive work. 

We know from Mozart’s letters to his father that he went out of his way to please the French audience.  He kept his style simple and avoided any unusual harmonies or unconventional structural solutions.  He omitted the minuet which he used in most of his other symphonies, observing current Parisian customs. 

The first movement opens with a sweeping orchestral gesture, followed by a string of engaging melodies, to conclude with a series of energetic fanfares.  In the central Andante, Mozart omitted the clarinets, brass and timpani, creating a more intimate sound, a respite from the two high-spirited outer movements.  The concluding Allegro contains frequent hints at counterpoint, but no full-fledged fugues ever develop.  Instead, the music dissolves into a series of brilliant figurations, all the way to the exuberant conclusion.

The symphony was performed twice:  once at a private concert on June 12, 1778, and then publicly six days later.  In a letter to his father, dated July 3, Mozart gave a detailed report about the rehearsals, which had not gone well at all, and then about the performance which was extremely successful against all expectations.  He also told his father that after the concert, he had treated himself to a good ice cream at the Palais Royal. 

Mozart’s mother passed away the very same day when the composer informed his father about the performance of the symphony a few weeks earlier.  Trying to prepare his father for the shock, Wolfgang only said in this letter that she was very ill, describing her symptoms in great detail.  Only after this somber introduction did he begin to talk about the symphony, before moving on to other topics and finally returning to his mother’s illness. 

In the end, the success of the symphony did not lead to a Parisian job worthy of Mozart’s talents.  The five months spent in Paris were ultimately a professional fiasco and ended with a family tragedy, after which Mozart had no choice but to return to his native Salzburg.  Three years later, he moved to Vienna where he lived for the last decade of his life; he never had another chance to spend such an extended period of time in a foreign country.

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