Freiburg Baroque Orchestra: Mozart. The last three symphonies

Program:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Symphony No. 39 in E flat major K. 543
Symphony No. 40 in G minor K. 550
Symphony No. 41 in C major K. 551 "Jupiter"

Freiburg Baroque Orchestra
Gottfried von der Goltz, violin & conductor

Plagued by financial worries and personal crises, Mozart composed three symphonies within a few weeks in the summer of 1788, which are now regarded as his final symphonic works. There is no evidence that they were performed as a cycle during his lifetime. It is possible that they were intended for a planned Viennese concert series that never materialized.

The three works are fundamentally different in character. The Symphony in E flat major dispenses with oboes and replaces them with clarinets, which gives the sound a special warmth. The Symphony in G minor is hauntingly tense and is one of Mozart's few works in a minor key. The C major symphony, which the London impresario Johann Peter Salomon later gave the nickname "Jupiter", concludes with a finale in which Mozart interweaves five themes simultaneously in counterpoint. He could hardly have devised a bolder conclusion.