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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Symphony No. 39 in E-flat Major
Composed: 1788
Premiered: ca. 1791, Vienna
Duration: 29 minutes

Mozart’s last three symphonies were composed over the incredibly short time of about three months in the summer of 1788. He recorded their dates of completion: June 26, July 25, and August 10. The fact that there is no clear evidence that any of them were performed during Mozart’s lifetime has led to speculation that they were not intended for any specific occasion, but that he composed them for his own satisfaction, dedicating them to posterity. This seems very unlikely. Mozart was a practical 18th-century craftsman, not given to wasting his time on unproductive endeavours. Anything he composed, he undoubtedly knew, or at least confidently expected, would shortly be performed. By 1788, Mozart’s financial state had deteriorated to the point where he was starting to write abject, begging letters to various friends; they make uncomfortable reading. He may have intended these three symphonies for a concert series. Plans for the performances must have been advanced because the orchestral parts were copied out. The scores were eventually published after his death. The richness and complexity of Mozart’s last symphonies puzzled many listeners at early performances around the end of the 18th century. To most listeners today, these works represent the pinnacle of the music of their era, each in its own way defining its own musical universe, each a deeply serious statement of its own kind of truth.

The Symphony in E-flat Major is less often played than the other two. Perhaps the fact that it is less outgoing accounts for this relative neglect. Its sound is gentler – there are no oboes, only the mellower clarinets, and in E-flat (and even more in A-flat, the key of the slow movement) the strings have a more subdued sound. It has been suggested that the key of E-flat was connected to Masonic ritual in Mozart’s mind. It is the central key of The Magic Flute and other Masonic works. More than the other two, the E-flat Symphony is akin to Haydn’s late symphonic works: the brooding slow introduction to the opening movement, the bucolic trio (the clarinet still had rustic associations in the minds of Mozart and Haydn), and the oddly spiky melodies of the finale all have Haydn-esque resonances.

Program note by the late Dr. C.W. Helleiner.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Symphony No. 39 in E-flat Major
Composed: 1788
Premiered: ca. 1791, Vienna
Duration: 29 minutes

Mozart’s last three symphonies were composed over the incredibly short time of about three months in the summer of 1788. He recorded their dates of completion: June 26, July 25, and August 10. The fact that there is no clear evidence that any of them were performed during Mozart’s lifetime has led to speculation that they were not intended for any specific occasion, but that he composed them for his own satisfaction, dedicating them to posterity. This seems very unlikely. Mozart was a practical 18th-century craftsman, not given to wasting his time on unproductive endeavours. Anything he composed, he undoubtedly knew, or at least confidently expected, would shortly be performed. By 1788, Mozart’s financial state had deteriorated to the point where he was starting to write abject, begging letters to various friends; they make uncomfortable reading. He may have intended these three symphonies for a concert series. Plans for the performances must have been advanced because the orchestral parts were copied out. The scores were eventually published after his death. The richness and complexity of Mozart’s last symphonies puzzled many listeners at early performances around the end of the 18th century. To most listeners today, these works represent the pinnacle of the music of their era, each in its own way defining its own musical universe, each a deeply serious statement of its own kind of truth.

The Symphony in E-flat Major is less often played than the other two. Perhaps the fact that it is less outgoing accounts for this relative neglect. Its sound is gentler – there are no oboes, only the mellower clarinets, and in E-flat (and even more in A-flat, the key of the slow movement) the strings have a more subdued sound. It has been suggested that the key of E-flat was connected to Masonic ritual in Mozart’s mind. It is the central key of The Magic Flute and other Masonic works. More than the other two, the E-flat Symphony is akin to Haydn’s late symphonic works: the brooding slow introduction to the opening movement, the bucolic trio (the clarinet still had rustic associations in the minds of Mozart and Haydn), and the oddly spiky melodies of the finale all have Haydn-esque resonances.

Program note by the late Dr. C.W. Helleiner.