Mozart Symphonies - Best Recordings and Favorite Symphonies

Mozart's symphonies can be broken into several different categories:

• Childhood (1764–1771), Symphonies 1-13.
• Salzburg (1771-1777), Symphonies 14-30.
• Late Symphonies (1778–1791), Nos. 31-41.

Wikipedia has a great list of Mozart's compositions that goes into more depth about these symphonies, as well as the many other compositions.

Most composers change and grow in noticeable ways over their careers, but Mozart changed in particularly noticeable ways.  I find Mozart's early works fun, but sometimes frivolous.  But his later works are among some of my favorite works of classical music of all time: much more dramatic, complex, and deep.

What happened?  If you listen to Mozart's music chronologically, there's a turning point around 1782-83: Mozart discovers Bach.  This coincides with about when Mozart was writing symphony No. 35 (Haffner).  J.S. Bach, who composed music just before Mozart's time, wrote heavily contrapunctal music characteristic of the Baroque period.  This music was highly structural, and characterized by a lot of different melodies being played at once, by different voices, in ways that wove together to form complex harmonies.  This style was mostly abandoned by Mozart's time.

But when Mozart discovered Bach, he began incorporating elements of this contrapunctal style into his own music.  The result is a beautiful and brilliant synthesis of the baroque structures of fugues and counterpoint with the melodic and lighthearted character of the classical period.  Below is a video and recording of the final movement of Mozart's 41st and final symphony, a piece which is chock-full of the complex counterpoint characterizing his style later in life.  I think this symphony shows the heaviest Bach influence of all Mozart's symphonies.

Mozart's Symphony No. 35, often called the Haffner symphony, was a commissioned work, that, in my opinion, was the first symphonic work to show Mozart's true genius, although I like a lot of his earlier works for other instruments equally much.  Although Mozart is often hailed as a child prodigy whose genius was evident from a young age, I think that his true genius only became evident as he developed musically.

This symphony has a grandiose character and variation in texture, character, and mood which is completely absent from most of Mozart's early symphonies, and which only becomes commonplace in later, Romantic-era music.  In many respects, this piece embodies what I like most about the symphonies of the romantic era (starting with Beethoven and continuing through later symphonic composers like Brahms and Dvorak), while retaining the concise and neat character of classical music.  It is dramatic, emotionally intense, variable, and captivating, without ever coming across as trite or long winded.

Mozart is mostly known for writing cheerful music, with a few exceptions, including his requiem.  In the symphonies, all but two of the 41 symphonies are in major keys.  The two exceptions are Nos. 25 and 41, both of which are in the same key G minor.  When referencing these works, it's not sufficient to say "Mozart's G Minor Symphony"!  But in general, when people reference "the" G minor symphony, they are usually referencing No. 40.

• Symphony No. 25, the "Little G Minor Symphony" - I would describe this piece as gut-wrenching, dramatic, and intense, acharacteristic of Mozart.  It was popularized in the film Amadeus.  While I find this interesting, in that I love classical music in minor keys and Mozart wrote precious few pieces in minor keys, I find this piece a bit flat and lacking the sort of depth found in Mozart's late works.
• Symphony No. 40, the "Great G Minor Symphony" - I think this is a masterpiece.  It retains the dark, dramatic character of the little G minor symphony, but adds great subtlety and musical maturity, including changes in key, mood, and character, beautiful orchestration and more textural variability, and more counterpoint.  I find this piece ultimately much more emotionally moving to listen to, much more beautiful and interesting.  Like most late Mozart, I find it also grows on me--although I enjoyed this piece the first time I heard it, with each subsequent listen I kept hearing more interesting things in it.

There are many recordings I like, but I am a particularly big fan of the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell.  These recordings come from a time period recent enough to have good audio recording quality after remastery, yet are old enough that they are available for bargain prices.  The recording below of symphonies 35, 40, and 41 is my absolute favorite.

I also recommend old recordings of the Berlin Philharmonic.  Featured below is a recording under the conductor Herbert von Karajan.  These recordings have a smooth character to them and seem to emphasize the modern nature of the symphonies, how they were beginning to break out of the mold of the classical period just a little bit.  The two CD set below for under $10 is a steal!

Thank you for visiting my page!  Please share any feedback or recommendations below.  I'm always eager to include more perspectives and I'd like to spark dialogue especially if you have any recordings you particularly like.

I'm still looking for a favorite recording of Symphony #37; you can see I don't have one on display here, so if you have any recommendations, I'd love to hear them.