Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Symphony No.25, KV 183 (KV 173dB)
Key: G minor
Further Information
The use of minor keys in symphonies was rare in the eighteenth century. (Mozart composed only one other, the Symphony No.40 in G minor, K. 550, and the use here of a key later identified with some of Mozart's most troubled and agitated music (the Symphony No. 40, the Piano Quartet, K. 478, and the String Quintet, K. 516) has excited much comment. In fact, rather than being viewed as a forerunner of Romanticism, K. 183 is more satisfactorily regarded as being part of a sudden wave of minor-key symphonies which appeared in the late 1760s and early 1770s. Among others, Vanhal, Ordonez, and Joseph Haydn produced during this period a number of minor-key works characterized by stormy drama and restlessness of spirit, attributes which have led some to refer to them as "Sturm und Drang" (storm and stress) pieces. (The name comes from that of a literary movement which was so called slightly later.) In particular, attention has been drawn to the relationship of K. 183 to Haydn's Symphony No. 39 in G minor (late 1760s), with which it shares not only its key but also an orchestration that unusually includes four horns in addition to pairs of oboes and bassoons, and strings. Mozart's opening Allegro con brio and closing Allegro betray characteristics typical of the Sturm und Drang style -- nervous drama articulated by considerable use of tremolando and restless, angular melodies. Between these two large-scale sonata-form movements come an Andante in E flat which gives vent to more introverted passions, and a terse and stern Minuet which strays far from the courtly origins of the dance; its Trio section in G major is scored for wind instruments alone.
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This project was created by Ahmed Farid.
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