Symphony No. 40, K. 550

The violas set up an accompaniment in repeated notes. Over it the violins repeat a note and fall a semitone, then repeat the figure. There is no opening chord before the theme.

Strings and woodwinds exchange the second theme in B♭ major, the relative major. Its phrases are longer than those of the opening, and chromatic semitones run through the melody.

In June 1788 Mozart moved to cheaper lodgings outside central Vienna. In a letter to Michael Puchberg he wrote that he welcomed having fewer visitors, more time to work and a garden. When business called, he could still hire a carriage into town.

The development opens with the violin theme in F♯ minor, a remote key after the B♭ major close of the exposition. Soon only its first few notes remain. Strings and winds pass these fragments between them, each entry starting before the previous one has finished.

The opening theme returns in the violins over the moving viola accompaniment. Mozart expands the transition and continues to work the short fragments between the first and second themes.

In the recapitulation the second theme is in G minor, so both themes are now in the same key. Strings and winds still exchange its small, winding phrases, with some notes altered from its first appearance.

Near the close, the winds hold quiet chords above the strings. The orchestra then returns to forceful chords and running notes for the last G minor cadences.

The violas repeat a note. Second violins enter above them, then first violins higher still, each part starting before the previous one has finished. A melody grows out of these overlapping entries, and the woodwinds add replies.

Mozart entered his last three symphonies in his own catalogue on 26 June, 25 July and 10 August 1788. They were the E♭ major, this G minor work and the “Jupiter”, all dated within forty-five days.

In bars 20–⁠32 short, quick figures pass between the strings and woodwinds, filling the spaces between the longer notes.

On 27 June 1788 Mozart wrote to Michael Puchberg from his new lodgings in Vienna: “In the ten days I have lived here I have worked more than in two months at the other place.” He asked his friend to visit, adding that he was always at home.

The development takes up the repeated notes and the quick string figures. The harmonies grow sharper, and the wind play strong chords. The tempo stays at Andante.

The repeated-note phrase returns in E♭ major, and the melody is built up again through the strings. The quick interjections also return.

Mozart later revised the symphony, adding two clarinets and rewriting the oboe parts to accommodate them. Both versions survive. The string writing of the Andante is the same in each, and only the wind scoring differs.

Musopen is a nonprofit that Aaron Dunn founded in 2006. In 2010 it raised more than $68,000 on Kickstarter to record public-domain classics that anyone may use freely. This movement was one of the recordings that resulted, and Commons credits the players only as “Musopen Symphony”.

The strings begin with a rising, strongly accented phrase, reinforced by winds and horns. The minuet keeps three beats in the bar, and the melody is accented across them.

In the minuet’s second strain, bars 15–⁠42, the string parts enter in imitation with fragments of the tune. The lower strings play against the violins above them.

The Trio moves from G minor to G major. The strings play a phrase and the winds reply, with the horns joining the exchanges.

The middle dance is called the Trio because in the seventeenth century it was usually scored for three instruments. The name remained in use after the practice ended. Mozart scores his Trio for strings and winds in changing groups.

On 25 July 1788 Mozart entered this G minor symphony in his catalogue. The E♭ symphony had been entered on 26 June, and the C major “Jupiter” followed on 10 August.

At the end of the Trio, Mozart marked “Menuetto da capo”, and the orchestra repeats the minuet, bars 1–⁠42. G minor and the heavy accents return at once.

In April 1791 the Vienna Tonkünstler-⁠Societät gave its concerts, and the programme announced “A Grand Symphony composed by Herr Mozart”, with Antonio Salieri conducting that part. This G minor symphony later gained a second version with clarinets. Both versions survive.

The strings rise through a G minor chord. The orchestra follows with a forceful rushing figure. Mozart alternates the spare rising phrase with the fuller, crowded reply throughout the opening.

The second theme is in B♭ major, shared between violins and winds. It moves in longer note values than the material around it. The accompanying pulse continues underneath.

The pianist and critic Charles Rosen wrote: “In all of Mozart’s supreme expressions of suffering and terror … there is something shockingly voluptuous.”

At the development, the opening leap returns in unison, with chromatic notes added. The strings then pass fragments of it between them in overlapping entries.

The whole symphony is scored for horns, woodwinds and strings. Mozart left out trumpets and timpani, and the finale’s loudest passages are played by this comparatively small orchestra.

The rising figure returns piano in G minor, followed as before by its loud reply. After the chromatic passages of the development, it again outlines the notes of the tonic chord.

The second theme, first heard in B♭ major, returns in G minor in the recapitulation. The movement stays in G minor to the final chords.

Neal Zaslaw wrote of K. 550: “No symphony of Mozart’s, not even the ‘Jupiter’, has aroused so much comment as this one.” In the nineteenth century Otto Jahn heard in it “sorrow and complaining”, and in the finale “a wild merriment that seeks to drown sorrow”.