Classical Music - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Symphony No.31, KV 297 "Paris"

Key: D Major
Dedication:
Orch: 2 Fl., 2 Ob., 2 Cl., 2 Bsn. / 2 Hrn., 2 Tpt. / Timp. / Str.
Approx.: 19 Min.
Composed:
Autograph:

Further Information

It was to have been a time of triumph. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, just twenty-two years old and chaperoned by his mother, had traveled to Paris early in 1778 seeking fame for himself and for his music. He dreamed of building a reputation that would allow his jubilant escape from the dreary backwaters of Salzburg, and at first, victory seemed in sight. Letters to his father at home bragged of the enthusiasm with which he was received, and of the patrons and commissions that quickly came his way. However, the jaunty tone of the letters concealed less fortuitous circumstances. Parisians had proven largely immune to yet another composer in their midst. Other composers, fearful of competition from the young genius, began to conspire against Mozart. Compositions scheduled for performance were struck from programs. Other works did reach the stage, but Mozart was neither credited nor paid for his efforts. The young composer, angry and disillusioned, could not bring himself to reveal the extent of these failures to his father.
Regrettably, even one of his rare successes in Paris was tainted by tragedy. On June 18, 1778, the composer conducted the premiere of his Symphony no. 31 to frequent and extended applause from the rarely amenable Parisians. Indeed, so well received was the work that it earned more performances in future weeks. "I was so happy," Mozart wrote to his father Leopold a few days later, "that as soon as the symphony was over, I went off to the Palais Royal, where I had a large ice, said the Rosary as I had vowed to do, and went home." But the Rosary was not in thanks for a successful premiere. It was, rather, a prayer offered for the composer's mother, who at the time of the concert was suffering badly from a fever. By the time that Mozart managed to sit down to write the letter about the symphony and the Rosary, her illness had already proven fatal. Yet he wrote only of her sickness, not of her death, and even expressed a belief that she would soon recover . Perhaps he could not bring himself to write those fateful words, or he may have been attempting to gradually prepare his father for the worst of news. On the same day that he wrote with deceptive optimism to his father, Wolfgang also wrote to a Salzburg priest, telling the whole sad story, and asking that the priest gently break the news to Leopold. Before long, the young composer returned to Salzburg, defeated and bereft. It must have been peculiarly wrenching for him that this symphony, inextricably bound up in days of sorrow, would continue to be in popular demand throughout his life, thus constantly recalling to him those dreadful days in Paris.

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