Mozart Symphony in C Major, K. 425, “Linz”

Symphony in C Major, K. 425, “Linz”

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

In the summer of 1783 Mozart, who had recently married his wife Constanze in the teeth of strong opposition from his father Leopold, set out on a trip from Vienna to return to his hometown, Salzburg, hoping to bring about reconciliation with his father. This proved unsuccessful, and a rather dejected Mozart returned to Vienna a few months later. En route he stopped in the Austrian city of Linz, arriving on October 30^th to a hearty welcome from a local dignitary, Count Thun. Cheered by this reception, and learning that there was to be a concert presented on November 4^th (less than a week away!), Mozart plunged into action and composed a new symphony by November 3^rd, which was warmly received in its first hearing the Following Day! Even for such a quick worker as Mozart, the creation of the “Linz” Symphony over a single weekend seems all but miraculous---most musicians would be hard-pressed to COPY the score in four days, much less Compose it!

The Linz” Symphony in many respects belongs in the company of the other great later Mozart symphonies (Nos. 38-41), although it has tended to lag far behind those works in popularity and frequency of performance.

Like the “Prague” Symphony (No. 38), and the E-flat (No. 39), this work begins with a slow introduction, in this case one echoing the “French” style, with its dotted rhythms and majestic manner. More intimately “Mozartian” are the touches of melting chromatic lyricism which steal into the the musical texture midway. The principal subject (as is the case with No. 39) is at first deceptively quiet, unobtrusive, only to burst out in a full-throated fanfare-like melody heard over a driving bassline, which moves into the dominant key. Thus the first subject merges seamlessly with the second, the latter taking on a clear identity only when it unexpectedly steps into E Minor (the relative minor of the dominant key), for an assertive passage which presses on, becoming a closing section of great brilliance and energy. A thread of unaccompanied melody in the violins heard at the end of the exposition quite unexpectedly becomes the focus for the rather brief development, which quickly moves into the recapitulation. This is quite regular, at first steering the “merge” with the second subject in the direction of F Major, only to quickly swing back to the proper home key of C Major. The E Minor section returns in A Minor, quite smoothly leading back to the tonic key. The melodic “thread” forms the basis of a brief coda, at first gentle and quiet, then concluding with assertive closing gestures.

Although compact and modest in scope, the slow movement is in fact a thoroughly worked-out sonataform, with a lilting opening theme in the violins, and with a hushed transition leading to a more richly textured secondary theme, which steps briefly into C Minor, with characteristic chromatic inflection in the winds to round out the exposition. The development section is, if anything, more far-reaching than that of the first movement, with darker tones added with chromatic touches in the winds and violins, and a mysterious passage “on tiptoe, ” with hushed, yet restless figures passed between lower and upper instruments. The recapitulation lays out the basic elements very much as before.

The Menuetto is one of those “formal” minuet movements typical of Mozart---in contrast to the breezier, more “outdoors” character of many of Haydn’s symphonic minuets. The opening slurred two-note figure permeates the main minuet section, punctuated with a majestic fanfare-figure. The Trio section, marked Sempre Piano is a murmuring, meditative contrast, with doublings in the winds above and below the main violin melodic line.

The Presto finale, yet another sonataform, sets off at a whisper, interspersed with loud unison outbursts, leading to a bold transition theme which hammers its way into the dominant key for a graceful secondary theme, one which soon becomes an extensively worked-out Fugato. The closing section comprises no fewer than three themes (Mozart always tends to be a spendthrift with melodic ideas): first a buzzing, Pianissimo passage in sixteenth notes, blossoming into a whirling, legato passage (also in rapid notes), then a Fortissimo echo of the principal theme to round out the exposition. The development is brief, and memorable for its forcefulness, in which the transition theme sails around the orchestra from one instrumental voice to another. Once again the recapitulation is quite regular (perhaps the only hint that the composer was working against the clock!), with the closing section extended somewhat to wheel forward to end in jubilation.

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