Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria, on January 27, 1756, and died in Vienna, Austria, on December 5, 1791. The Symphony No. 40 is scored for flute, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, and strings. Approximate performance time is thirty-five minutes.

Mozart completed his final three Symphonies – No. 39 in E-flat Major, K. 543, No. 40 in G minor, K. 550, and No. 41 in C Major (“Jupiter”) K. 551 – over the brief span between June 26 and August 10, 1788. Even more remarkable is the fact that these glorious Symphonies, among Mozart’s crowning achievements, were the product of a particularly challenging period in the composer’s life.

Mozart’s career in Vienna as a composer, teacher, virtuoso pianist, and impresario reached its apex in the mid-1780s. However, the exhilaration of those triumphant years soon yielded to profound frustration and unhappiness. Mozart experienced a sharp decline in the demands for his services in Vienna. In time, Mozart was reduced to begging for money from acquaintances – principally, Michael Puchberg, a fellow Mason and ardent music lover. Several of Mozart’s letters to Puchberg have survived, and they are heartbreaking to read.

Mozart completed his G-minor Symphony, K. 550, on July 25, 1788 (the work is often referred to as the “Great,” to distinguish it from the 1773 “Little” G-minor Symphony, K. 183). There exists no specific documentation that the G-minor – or, for that matter, any of the final three Symphonies – was performed during Mozart’s lifetime.

This fact has led some to theorize that Mozart composed these Symphonies not for monetary gain, but out of an overwhelming need to express himself in music. In this context, the G-minor becomes a manifestation of the despair Mozart experienced during this difficult period in his life. Such a theory, of course, fails to explain what autobiographical elements are expressed in the high spirits of the E-flat Symphony, or in the heroic grandeur of the “Jupiter.”

Further, Mozart almost always composed large-scale works (such as piano concertos and symphonies) for specific, upcoming concerts. Correspondence from Mozart refers to subscription concerts scheduled for the summer of 1788. It is not certain whether these concerts took place. But there is documentation of concerts conducted by Mozart in Germany in 1789 and 1790. The concert programs include Mozart symphonies. While the specific works are not designated in the programs, it is reasonable to assume that they would have included his most recent efforts; i.e., one or more of the final symphonic trilogy.

A further clue is found in the fact that Mozart’s autograph of the score for the G-minor Symphony contains modifications of the original version’s Andante, as well as a revised version of the entire work, adding clarinets to the orchestration (the latter is performed at this concert). Such modifications would not have been made without the existence of previous performances, and the promise of new ones.

Of much greater importance, of course, is the music itself. As with any masterpiece of such depth and profundity, Mozart’s G-minor Symphony has inspired glowing, but quite varied, responses. Robert Schumann praised the work’s “impassive beauty,” while Hector Berlioz characterized the G-minor Symphony as a “model of delicacy and naïveté.” Pianist and historian Charles Rosen found “passion, violence and grief.” 

Mozart biographer Alfred Einstein termed the work a “fatalistic piece of chamber music,” in which he encountered “plunges into the abyss of the soul, symbolized in modulations so bold to Mozart’s contemporaries they must have seemed to lose their way entirely, and so distant that only Mozart himself could find the path back from them into the light of day.”

The G-minor Symphony is in four movements. The first (Molto allegro) is highly dramatic, featuring a terse development section that anticipates the music of Beethoven in its arresting manipulation of the briefest rhythmic motifs. The slow-tempo movement (Andante) provides some lyrical repose from its predecessor, but there are also episodes that reinforce the angst and turmoil found throughout much of the Symphony. The third-movement Minuet (Menuetto: Allegretto) is curt and foreboding, with the central Trio providing an elegant contrast. The Finale (Allegro assai) is a stormy affair, propelling relentlessly to the Symphony’s abrupt final bars.