Symphony No. 39 in E-flat, K.543

Joannes Chrisostomus Wolfgang Gottlieb Mozart, who began calling himself Wolfgango Amadeo around 1770 during his first trip to Italy and switched to Wolfgang Amadè in 1777 (he used “Amadeus” only in jest), was born in Salzburg, Austria, on January 27, 1756, and died in Vienna on December 5, 1791. He completed all of his last three symphonies (39, 40, and 41, the so-called Jupiter) in the summer of 1788, perhaps for a series of subscription concerts that seem not to have taken place. The Symphony No. 39 is dated June 26, 1788; Mozart entered No. 40 into his own catalogue on July 25; and the Jupiter was completed on August 10. Nothing is known about the early performance history of No. 39.

The score of Mozart’s Symphony No. 39 calls for 1 flute, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings (first and second violins, violas, cellos, and double basses).

Mozart entered the opening measures of the Symphony No. 39 into his thematic catalogue on June 26, 1788; on the same day he entered “a little march,” the famous C major piano sonata “for beginners,” and an adagio introduction for string quartet to precede the C minor fugue that he had already composed. The last entry before June 26 in the thematic catalogue is that of a piano trio in E major (K.542) noted on June 22. It seems hardly likely that even Mozart composed an entire large symphony plus other tidbits in just four days. More likely, all the works had been in progress for some time and were simply finished more or less together.

Mozart reinforced the striking differences in mood within his last three symphonies—from mellow lyricism (No. 39 in E-flat) to darkly tragic grace (No. 40 in G minor) to festive formality (No. 41 in C)—with simple but significant differences in the instrumentation of each. In Symphony No. 39 he employed clarinets instead of oboes, whereas in No. 40 he preferred the sharper “bite” of the oboes but completely omitted trumpets and timpani, since their heroic gestures could play no role in so dark a work. Then in No. 41 he returned to the normal complement of brass, as in No. 39, while again including oboes rather than clarinets. (He would later add clarinets to No. 40.)

Although long since a standard component of Mozart’s opera orchestra, clarinets were relatively new in the symphony orchestra, so it was by no means a foregone conclusion that they would be included in symphonies at that time. His conscious choice of clarinets instead of oboes in the Symphony No. 39 produces a gentler woodwind sonority especially appropriate to the rather autumnal lyricism of that work.

The first movement opens with a stately slow introduction with dotted rhythms providing a nervous background for scale figures (which recur in the body of the movement), culminating in a grindingly dissonant appoggiatura. Just as we seem about to settle onto the dominant, ready to begin the Allegro, the activity decelerates and we are confronted with a stark, hushed chromatic figure recalling some of the “uncanny” moments in Don Giovanni. The melodic line of the introduction only comes to a close in the opening phrase of the smiling Allegro theme in the violins (with echoes in horns and bassoons), a calm pastoral scene following the tension of the preceding passage. The development section is one of the shortest in any Mozart symphony, never moving far afield harmonically. Following a passage on the nearby key of A-flat, a vigorous modulation seems to be leading to C minor, but at the last moment a wonderful woodwind extension brings it around to the home key and ushers in the recapitulation.

The slow movement, in A-flat, opens with deceptive simplicity; it is, in fact, a richly detailed movement, with progressive elaborations of the material throughout. Among these delicious moments are the woodwind additions to the main material in the strings at the recapitulation of the opening theme. The main theme ends with a momentary turn to the minor just before the cadence; at the corresponding point in the recapitulation, this generates a surprising but completely logical passage in C-flat minor (written, however, as B minor) before the imitative woodwind theme returns in the tonic. The hearty minuet provides a strong contrast to the delicacies of the Andante; its Trio features a clarinet solo with little echoes from the flute.

The finale is often called the most Haydnesque movement Mozart ever wrote, ­largely because it is nearly monothematic. The principal theme, beginning with a group of scurrying sixteenth-notes followed by a hiccup, produces a series of motives that carry the bulk of the discourse. The scurrying turn reappears alone or in combinations, turning to unexpected keys after a sudden silence; the “hiccup” often comes as a separate response from the woodwinds to the rushing figure in the strings.

Steven Ledbetter

Steven Ledbetter, a freelance writer and lecturer on music, was program annotator of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1979 to 1998.

The first American performance of Mozart’s Symphony No. 39 took place on January 9, 1847, with Henry C. Timm conducting the Philharmonic Society of New York. The symphony reached Boston five years later, in a performance by the Germania Musical Society under Carl Bergmann on February 7, 1852, at the Melodeon.

The first Boston Symphony performance of the Symphony No. 39 was given by Georg Henschel on January 26, 1884.