Symphony No. 4 (Mozart)

Symphony No. 4
by W. A. Mozart
1763 portrait of Mozart at age seven, painted before he composed the symphony
KeyD major
CatalogueK. 19
Composed1765, London
PerformedLittle Haymarket Theatre, London
Durationc. 12 minutes
Movements3
ScoringOrchestra with continuo

The Symphony No. 4 in D major, K. 19, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composed in London during the Mozart family's Grand Tour of Europe in 1765, when Mozart was nine years old.[1]

Background

Even though the original of Mozart's manuscript has not survived, the set of parts written in the hand of his father, Leopold Mozart, is preserved in the Bavarian State Library in Munich.[1] It is known today that the early symphonies by young Mozart were performed at the public concerts in the Little Haymarket Theatre in London. It is therefore possible that these parts were written for one of these public performances,[1] although Neal Zaslaw concludes that the work was composed or at least completed in The Hague.[2]

Structure

The work is scored for two oboes, two horns in D, strings, and basso continuo.

There are three movements, as was standard in the early classical music era in which the child Mozart wrote, in the typical fast–slow–fast configuration. They are as follows:

  1. Allegro, D major, common time (Common time), 78 bars
  2. Andante, G major, 2
    4    , 45 bars
  3. Presto, D major, 3
    8    , 106 bars
\relative c' { \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"string ensemble 1" \key d \major \tempo "Allegro" \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t \tempo 4 = 144 d4~\f d8. a16 d4( fis8.) a,16 | d4~ d8. a16 d4( fis8.) a,16 | d8[ r b''\p] r a[ r g] r | fis8[ r g] r fis[ r e] r | <d, d'>4\f }

Discography

Below is an incomplete list of recordings of the symphony:

Year Conductor Orchestra Label
1973 Neville Marriner Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Philips Classics
1991 Charles Mackerras Prague Chamber Orchestra Telarc
1995 Nicholas Ward Northern Chamber Orchestra Naxos
2013 Ádám Fischer Danish National Chamber Orchestra Dacapo Records
2018 Ian Page The Mozartists Signum Records

References

  1. 1 2 3 Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (2005). Die Sinfonien I. Translated by Robinson, J. Branford. Kassel: Bärenreiter. p. X. ISMN 979-0-006-20466-3.
  2. ↑ Zaslaw, Neal (1991). Mozart's Symphonies: Context, Performance Practice, Reception. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 44–45. ISBN 0-19-816286-3.
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