Wolfgang penned the fifth symphony in The Hague in December and it was first performed in Amsterdam the following January. Adhering to models established by Johann Christian Bach and Karl Friedrich Abel, both established, mature composers, the symphony is actually a sort of three part overture and sounds somewhat Italian. The first movement is the simplest of the three, with a pair of contrasting melodies and rudimentary counterpoint. Of note is that Mozart has moved beyond the terraced dynamics found in Baroque music and the movement is dynamically rich considering its tiny scope. The middle movement, a three minute andante, features a plaintive minor key motif and the counterpoint is more than elementary. Once again, young Mozart uses dynamic enhancements in the form of crescendos and accents to push the work toward the future. The finale, brisk and brief at just over one minute, is eerily prescient of later Mozart and heard alone would not betray itself as the work of a nine year-old. Upon hearing this work, we might forgive Leopold Mozart the hyperbole with which he described Wolfgang at that time: "... my boy ... at his age of eight knows all that can be expected of a man of forty ... he who does not hear and see this cannot believe it." Indeed.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Litanies and Vespers | Smaller Sacred Works | Oratorios and Cantatas Arias with Orchestra | Songs | Operas and Stage Music | Serenades and Divertimenti | Piano
Concerti | Violin
Concerti Concerti for Wind Instruments | String
Quartets | String Quintets | Piano Sonatas | Piano Variations Sonatas
for other Instruments | Other Piano Works | Other Chamber Music | Picture
Gallery | List of
Works
This project was created by Ahmed Farid.
� July 2001
