Classical Works Spotlight #619--Mozart 14

[erik]

An early symphony by W.A. Mozart, from when he was still an unrecognized teen wunderkind in his hometown, is in this week's Classical Works Spotlight.

Mozart: SYMPHONY NO. 14 IN A MAJOR, K. 114

From a very early age, Mozart displayed an uncanny knack for creating highly original music, though influenced by past composers, and a composer of his time who was to become a close friend, Franz Joseph Haydn. This was particularly true when it came to the symphonies of his teenage years. The 14th Symphony was a case in point. It is known that he composed this work during a single day, December 30, 1771, just twenty-five days after having turned fifteen years old, and a fortnight after the death of Archbishop Sigismund von Schrattenbach. The period of composition came in-between the composer’s second and third trips to Italy, where he absorbed some of the Italian style of composition, as well as the equally Italian-influenced styles of Johann Christian Bach. Relatively small in scale, as were most of the symphonies he composed while still a resident of Salzburg, his birthplace that, however, held little if any affection for the local wunderkind, the work is in the soon-to-be-standard four-movement symphonic form, with scoring for two flutes, two oboes (in the second movement only), two French horns, and the full string compliment. Even at this early stage, Mozart was aiming for a place in the Vienna music circle by combining the symphonic form as was being perfected by Haydn (in the employment of Nicholas Esterhazy) with the Italian cantabile style. This desire eventually led him to Vienna, where of course he would be the subject of some controversy, and, in the case of the resident court composer Antonio Salieri, some jealousy as well (though not to the homicidal level shown by Peter Shaffer in his play Amadeus).



Boston Symphony Orchestra/JAMES LEVINE (Boston Symphony Live)

Included:
SYMPHONY NO. 18 IN F MAJOR, K. 130
SYMPHONY NO. 20 IN D MAJOR, K. 133
SYMPHONY NO. 39 IN E FLAT MAJOR, K. 543
SYMPHONY NO. 41 IN C MAJOR, K. 551 (JUPITER)

[egoodstein]

Sounds nice recording in general. Levine was a decent 'Mozartian' conductor I think. These early symphonies by WAM have a lot of charm, and even early on show his desterity with melody and 'showmanship, if not the depth of later ones it's true. And as you say, also nice examples of how he absorbed the 'Italian' style, and other contemporary styles to use in his own work. No question Haydn and he pushed the symphonic form and arrangements forward towards what they would be later too.

[erik]

Mozart was clearly working his way through the symphonic form, as he had been doing (and would continue to do) through his mastery of the piano concerto, and then to his famous operas. But the 14th Symphony is also noted for having been completed in a sudden and singular white-hot streak of inspiration, if the composer had indeed sketched and orchestrated it all out in one day. Haydn may have been the only other composer to have been able to do this, though his methodology was obviously different from his much younger contemporary, and soon-to-be great friend.