Mackerras
Adagio, – Allegro spiritoso, C major
Instrumentation:
The symphony is scored for 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings.
Mozart wrote the Symphony in 1783. He was 27.
The first movement starts with a slow, minor intro, which is usually a sign that Mozart is about to show his best work. From there is just unfolds in a typical way for Mozart
The second movement has a sound of siciliano, a slow dance in 6/8 or 12/8 time. He used it in the Paris, Prague and Great G Minor symphonies. Although the movement is technically in F major, it wanders into minor several times. The very full orchestration makes it unusually serious and somber.
The Minuetto is simple emotional relief providing a contrast to the serious 2nd movement and the very energetic last movement.
The last movement alternates between very light and strongly accented. Rather than using a rondo form this is sonata form.
It was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart during a stopover in the Austrian town of Linz on his and his wife’s way back home to Vienna from Salzburg in late 1783.
Supposedly the entire symphony was written in four days to accommodate the local count’s announcement, upon hearing of the Mozarts’ arrival in Linz, of a concert.