Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Born: January 27, 1756, Salzburg, Austria
Died: December 15, 1791, Vienna, Austria

Symphony No. 36 in C Major, K. 425, Linz

• Composed: 1783
  
• Premiere: November 4, 1783 in Linz
• Instrumentation: 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings
• CSO notable performances: First: December 1943, Eugene Goossens conducting. Most Recent: November 2010, Sir Roger Norrington conducting.
• Duration: approx. 26 minutes

In 1780, Mozart was granted a leave from his duties in the Salzburg court of Archbishop Colloredo to travel to Munich, where he was commissioned to write and oversee the production of his new opera, Idomeneo. He was happy to be away from the frustrations of his life in Salzburg, where his status as a court musician and composer placed him between the valets and the cooks in the staff hierarchy. In Munich, he was welcomed as a celebrated opera composer and invited to dine with royalty as an honored guest.

Following the premiere of Idomeneo, Mozart was summoned directly from Munich to Vienna, where Colloredo had traveled with his entire household to attend the crowning of Emperor Joseph II to the Habsburg throne. Mozart was miserable from the moment he arrived in Vienna and grew increasingly irritated with the restrictions put on him by the Archbishop. He was forced to dine with the servants and was not allowed to earn extra income by playing concerts in the city. Tensions ran high between Mozart and his employer, and Mozart’s request to be discharged from his court duties was denied. He continued to act out until his firing became inevitable. Mozart wrote to his father, Leopold, on June 9, 1781, that he had been released from service “with a kick in the ass.” Against his father’s stern objections, Mozart stayed on in the city as a free man, finally able to pursue a life and career of his own making.

Mozart quickly began establishing himself as a teacher, pianist and composer in Vienna. He rented a room from Frau Weber, the mother of his first love, Aloysia, whom he had met during his earlier travels in Mannheim. Now widowed, Frau Weber had moved to an apartment with her three unwed daughters—Aloysia had married and become a successful singer—and was earning money by taking on lodgers. Leopold was livid and worried that his son would become distracted from his career by these young women. Mozart tried to persuade his father otherwise but in reality, he was falling in love with one of them: Aloysia’s younger sister Constanze.

After the pair married, Mozart felt a growing obligation to visit his family in Salzburg and appease his father’s resentment toward his new wife and their life in Vienna. Leaving behind their newborn baby, the couple traveled to Salzburg and ended up staying there for three months. Leopold and Nannerl, Mozart’s older sister, never completely warmed to Constanze, but the visit was successful in many ways. The day before they left, Mozart premiered his unfinished Mass in C Minor, K. 427, with his former colleagues in the court orchestra performing and his wife singing the soprano part.

On their way home, the Mozarts stopped in Linz, the midway point between Salzburg and Vienna. They had planned to stay at an inn, but as Mozart wrote in a letter to his father, “When we reached the gates of the city, we found a servant waiting there to drive us to Count Thun’s, at whose house we are now staying. I really cannot tell you what kindnesses the family is showering on us.” Count Johann Thun-Hohenstein was an old family friend with an exceptional orchestra in his employ, and he was eager to host a concert in honor of his guests. Mozart continued in his letter to Leopold: “On Tuesday, November 4th, I am giving a concert in the theatre here and, since I have not a single symphony with me, I am writing a new one at break-neck speed, which must be finished by that time.”

Within four days, Mozart not only composed his grandest symphony yet, but he also copied the parts and rehearsed the orchestra for the performance. Although written with apparent haste and under pressure to appease his host, the Linz Symphony shows no sign of a rushed deadline. In fact, for the first time in his symphonies, Mozart opens with a slow introduction, reflecting a growing trend among Viennese composers at the time.

Similar to the tradition of a Baroque French overture, the Linz begins with stately dotted rhythms in a declamatory, grand gesture. This is quickly followed by a yearning melody in the strings with the bassoon and oboe adding a soulful response. The Allegro spiritoso that follows begins with a quiet energy before fully embracing its festive character. The delightful theme gains an off-kilter buoyancy as the first two phrases, made up of symmetrical four- and six-bar phrases, are answered by an uneven seven-bar phrase. This captivating irregularity is an early signal of the original and mature style that Mozart displays in this work. A soft, arching violin phrase transitions seamlessly from the exuberant exposition in C major into the development section in A minor. A lyrical and chromatic descending scale in the woodwinds soon brings the music back to C major and the recapitulation of the opening theme.

The Andante second movement is a graceful siciliano in 6/8 time. Its home key is F major yet the harmonies continually lean toward minor realms. The timpani and trumpets bring a tinge of somberness to the otherwise light mood with their interjections of pulsing notes. A strikingly sparse section features delicate scales rising in the basses and violins before the opening theme returns. 

The Minuet is a courtly dance with a trio section that features oboe and bassoon interacting in a playful counterpoint. The instrumentation is characteristically witty: Mozart has the oboe play the melody an octave above the strings followed by the bassoon an octave below the strings. The effect is both charmingly rustic and elegant. 

The finale begins softly, but with vigor, and soon bursts forth with uncontainable energy and an abundance of joyful themes. In a darker passage, a quick three-note motif travels through the strings against sustained and chromatic woodwind harmonies. The development section takes a descending arpeggio fragment from earlier and tosses it around the orchestra in a brilliant display of color. A standard recapitulation of the opening material rounds out the movement. 

Mozart was 27 years old when he completed the Linz Symphony. He wrote four more symphonies before falling ill and dying at the early age of 35. As was the custom at the time, he was buried in an unmarked grave with few mourners at his funeral. During his lifetime, Mozart did not concern himself with the idea of a legacy nor the notion that his work would obtain immortality. Yet his music did just that, and centuries later he is celebrated as the greatest composer of all time.

—Catherine Case