World Premiere: January 19, 1787
Last HSO performance: October 23, 2018
Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons,
2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings
Duration: 26’

“No work has ever created such a sensation as the Italian opera The Marriage of Figaro,” reported the Prague Oberpostamtszeitung on December 12, 1786. “Word of this triumph must have reached Mozart himself, for rumor has it that he will come here to see the performance.” The rumor proved to be correct — Mozart and his wife, Constanze, left Vienna on January 8, 1787, and arrived in the Bohemian capital three days later. As well as witnessing performances of Figaro in Prague, Mozart also hoped to present a concert of his instrumental music during his stay, so he organized a program on January 19th at the local opera house. He introduced a new D major Symphony he had brought with him from Vienna, played some concerted works, and offered a half hour of improvisation at the keyboard, but the audience demanded more, so he extemporized a dozen brilliant variations on Non più andrai from Figaro. When Mozart left Prague in mid-February, he took with him not only the unstinting praises of the city and a substantial cache of earnings, but also a contract for a new opera for Prague’s fall season — Don Giovanni.

The D major Symphony Mozart premiered at his Prague concert opens with an introduction whose turbulent moods presage the darker pages of Don Giovanni. Mozart was positively profligate with themes in the Allegro that comprises the main body of the movement. Musicologist Alfred Einstein counted “almost a dozen” motives welded into an expansive sonata form. The Andante is one of those pieces of Mozart’s maturity that exquisitely balance an ineffable serenity with a world of poignant emotions. The quicksilver finale was a particular delight at its premiere to Figaro-mad Prague, since Mozart borrowed its theme from the opera’s Act II duet of Susanna and Cherubino, Aprite presto.

©2024 Dr. Richard E. Rodda