ExclusiveComplete Performance: Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550

【Classical music and nature 古典音樂小站】Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony no. 40 in G minor, K. 550. This beautiful piece was played by Musopen Symphony. It has Creative Commons license (PDM 1.0 DEED, Public Domain Mark 1.0 Universal) and is provided through www.musopen.org.

"Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550, was composed in the summer of 1788.

The year 1788 was a dark one for Mozart. Viennese audiences were proving less eager to hear his concerts and recitals, bills were piling up, and his infant daughter Theresia had just died. Letters to friends reveal that he was finding it difficult to look beyond the shadows, and some have suggested that this fact influenced this unusually anxious symphony.

Yet there is more at work here than one man’s daily sorrows. At this time in history, German and Austrian composers were increasingly drawn to the pre-Romantic Sturm und Drang movement, a school of thought that also affected artists and writers such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller. In response, composers began producing works that were the audible expression of angst. Haydn wrote Sturm und Drang symphonies, frequently in the key of G minor that Mozart uses here. So did the London-based Johann Christian Bach, youngest son of the great Johann Sebastian, and this younger Bach had strongly influenced the pre-teen Mozart during that youth’s extended visit to England. In this atmosphere, it is no surprise that Mozart, too, turned, at least occasionally, to minor keys. Symphony No. 40 proves that this man whose music could so easily provoke delight could also spur tears." Source: britannica.com

"Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550, symphony by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, sometimes known as the Great G Minor Symphony. Composed in the summer of 1788, it was finished at about the same time as his Symphony No. 39 and Symphony No. 41, marking a period of productivity exceptional even by Mozart’s standards. It is one of only two symphonies he wrote in minor keys and reflects his interest in the artistic movement known as Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress), in which darker and stronger emotions were showcased. Mozart soon revised the piece to include clarinets and make other changes to the instrumentation, and it is this version that is often performed today—and that is considered one of the greatest of Mozart’s works." Source: britannica.com

"Mozart wrote only two symphonies in a minor key, one in 1773 and the other in 1788. Both are dramatic; both are written in G minor, a key the composer used for tragedy and angst; both forecasted things yet to come: the first in the future work of a young composer, the second as harbinger of future musical compositions derived from emerging Romanticism. Richard Wagner called K. 550 “pivotal to the romantic world.” This symphony was written within the remarkable period between June 28 and August 10 wherein he composed his last three symphonies: 39, 40, and 41.

K. 550 has always attracted attention and comment. Mozart’s biographer Neal Zaslaw remarked, “No symphony of Mozart’s, not even the ‘Jupiter’, has aroused so much comment as this one.” The eminent musicologist, Charles Rosen, added more clarification to the symphony’s prominence saying, “In all of Mozart’s supreme expressions of suffering and terror, there is something shockingly voluptuous. Nor does this detract from its power or effectiveness: the grief and the sensuality strengthen each other and end by becoming indivisible, indistinguishable one from the other. In his corruption of sentimental values, Mozart is a subversive artist. ” We are not used to Mozart’s confessional side, and when it emerges, we are fascinated by the potency of his personal stress, feelings, and their revelation. In this regard, Otto Jahn, Mozart’s 19th century biographer commented that it was “a work of pain and grieving.” Noted for its intensity, high chromatic nature and turbulence, Symphony No. 40 nonetheless remained corseted in classical decorum and structure." Source: indianapolissymphony.org

The video was filmed at Burgseeli and other beautiful places in Switzerland by Christian and Simone Schlegel and edited by Wenjing Ma.


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