Symphony No. 5 (Mozart)

Symphony No. 5
by W. A. Mozart
Mozart at the time he composed the symphony
KeyB♭ major
CatalogueK. 22
ComposedDecember 1765, The Hague
Duration8 minutes
Movements3
ScoringOrchestra with continuo

The Symphony No. 5 in B♭ major, K. 22, was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in The Hague in December 1765, at the age of nine, while he was on his musical tour of Western Europe.[1] Mozart fell seriously ill during his stay in The Hague, and he wrote this symphony probably while he was convalescing from his illness.[1]

It is Mozart's shortest symphony, lasting only 8 minutes – one minute less than his 32nd which lasts 9 minutes.

Music

The symphony is scored for two oboes, two horns in B♭, strings, and basso continuo.

The form is that of a three-movement Italian overture:

  1. Allegro, common time
  2. Andante, 2
    4     (in G minor)
  3. Molto allegro, 3
    8

All three movements are coloured especially prominently by horns. A rousing first movement in the key of B♭ major opens the symphony, followed by a more solemn, mournful movement in the relative key of G minor. A short, boisterous finale closes the work. The opening theme to the finale is borrowed from the finale to keyboard concerto by Johann Christian Bach whom Mozart had met the previous year in London.[2] The same theme would also appear in a much later, more mature work of Mozart's: the act 2 finale of his 1786 opera buffa, Le nozze di Figaro, K. 492.[3]

\relative c'' { \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"string ensemble 1" \override Score.NonMusicalPaperColumn #'line-break-permission = ##f \key bes \major \tempo "Allegro" \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t \tempo 4 = 144 <bes d,>2. d8.\trill( c32 d) | es8 r d r es r d r | f2\fp( d8) r d8.\trill( c32 d) | es8 r d r es r c r | bes2 }

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

References

  1. 1 2 Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (2005). Die Sinfonien I. Translated by Robinson, J. Branford. Kassel: Bärenreiter-Verlag. p. X. ISMN M-006-20466-3
  2. ↑ Brown, A. Peter, The Symphonic Repertoire (Volume 2). Indiana University Press (ISBN 025333487X), pp. 347–348 (2002).
  3. ↑ Sadie, Stanley. Mozart: The Early Years, 1756–1781, p. 105, New York: W. W. Norton (2006) ISBN 0-393-06112-4.
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