Leopold was a devoted and task-oriented teacher to both his children. He made the lessons fun, but also insisted on a strong work ethic and perfection. Fortunately, both children excelled well in these areas. Recognizing their special talents, Leopold devoted much of his time to their education in music as well as other subjects. Wolfgang soon showed signs of excelling beyond his father’s teachings with an early composition at age five and demonstrating outstanding ability on harpsichord and the violin. He would soon go on to play the piano, organ and viola. Symphonies and operas were a lot more interchangeable in Vienna in 1767 than they are now. Mozart even rips off one of his themes from an opera he wrote that year, Apollo et Hyacinthus, in the second movement. You might be forgiven for thinking the symphony sounds a bit like an opera overture with Mozart’s fast shimmering strings and trademark fluttering flutes - it shares some of its lively characteristics with The Marriage of Figaro, composed 19 years later.

Alte Mozart-Ausgabe, the full name of which was the "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts Werke: Kritisch durchgesehene Gesamt ausgabe". There are no symphonies "GA 49" and "GA 53". It’s no secret that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the greatest, most prolific composers of all time. While he excelled in many different types of composition, including opera, chamber and piano works, it’s his symphonic work that best shows his musical genius. The symphonies spanned his entire career, from ages 8 to 32, showing his range and development, originally numbered as brilliant 41 works. Although some have since been identified as falsely attributed, the remaining number still ranks him as one of the most impressive of all the major symphonists, behind only Haydn who wrote an astonishing 106. The first and second movements together constitute the overture to the opera Il sogno di Scipione, K. 126. The third movement is listed separately as K. 161/163.Favorite Moment:While I the opening theme is a simple genius and I love the violin interplay in the fourth movement, my favorite section is this blending of winds and violins in the Andante; a precursor for the masterful orchestration in the Andantes of the later symphonies. Along with No. 25, Symphony No. 29 is one of the better known of Mozart’s “early” symphonies. The opening movement features a brilliant theme, graceful yet insistent. In the second Andante movement Mozart shows shows marked improvement from his earlier symphonies, shifting around the melody, keeping the slower stuff intriguing. The short Minuetto is not his strongest but the Allegro con Spirito makes up for it, passing melodies around the strings and daring shifts in tone to keep it exciting. Recording by Leonard Bernstein conducting the Vienna Philharmonic. A little slow for my taste but one of the best available on Youtube. The symphonies K. 19b, 66c, 66d, 66e, Anh.C 11.07, and Anh.C 11.08 are lost, and it is uncertain whether they are Mozart's work: they have not been included in the list below.

Beethoven, who was born in Germany in 1707, is best known for the nine symphonies he composed (often regarded as the greatest of all symphonists) of which the ninth (Choral, 1824) includes a mixed chorus and parts for soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone in its The Two Giants Of Symphonic Composition: Haydn And Beethoven Erich Leinsdorf is best known in the United States from his RCA recordings of Romantic and 20th century repertoire with the Boston Symphony from the 1960s, but he also recorded – here released anew by Universal – the first integral cycle of Mozart’s Symphonies in the late 1950s with the “Philharmonic Symphony of London”, actually Sir Thomas Beecham’s Royal Philharmonic under a different name. These last three symphonies, all completed in the summer of 1788, are not only his most famous symphonies but some of the most flawless orchestral works of all time. There are moments in each that make me think I’m listening to the greatest music ever composed. However, thanks to the release of recordings by some of the world’s most renowned orchestras, symphonies have begun to gain popularity in recent years. There is no longer a need to limit music listening to live performances; it is now possible to listen to the music whenever and wherever you want. Who Wrote Many Symphonies? Unfortunately, Mozart has written a lot of symphonies that were either destroyed, unfinished, unpublished, or lost but, some are fortunately included in his list of symphonies. It was actually discovered that Mozart had written 52 symphonies.Excerpt from the third movement, “Presto,” of Mozart's Symphony No. 38 in D Major, K 504 ( Prague); from a 1950 recording by the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Otto Klemperer. (more) In December 1769, Mozart, then age 13, and his father departed from Salzburg for Italy, leaving his mother and sister at home. It seems that by this time Nannerl’s professional music career was over. She was nearing marriageable age and according to the custom of the time, she was no longer permitted to show her artistic talent in public. The Italian outing was longer than the others (1769-1771) as Leopold wanted to display his son’s abilities as a performer and composer to as many new audiences as possible. While in Rome, Mozart heard Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere performed once in the Sistine Chapel. He wrote out the entire score from memory, returning only to correct a few minor errors. During this time Mozart also wrote a new opera, Mitridate, re di Ponto for the court of Milan. Other commissions followed and in subsequent trips to Italy, Mozart wrote two other operas, Ascanio in Alba (1771) and Lucio Silla (1772). Between 1790 and 1791, now in his mid-thirties, Mozart went through a period of great music productivity and personal healing. Some of his most admired works -- the opera The Magic Flute, the final piano concerto in B-flat, the Clarinet Concerto in A major, and the unfinished Requiem to name a few -- were written during this time. Mozart was able to revive much of his public notoriety with repeated performances of his works. His financial situation began to improve as wealthy patrons in Hungary and Amsterdam pledged annuities in return for occasional compositions. From this turn of fortune, he was able to pay off many of his debts.

Favorite Moment:I love the falling, juggled motifs in the Andante and the woodwind textures of the third movement’s trio but the greatest moment has to be the game changing opener. Not only is it one of his most recognizable melodies, the unassuming entrance of the work was unprecedented and would be copied by many over the next hundreds of years, including Mendelssohn and Rachmaninoff in their greatest works.The “Paris” symphony, as it is known, is one of Mozart’s most invigorating and “noisy” as Mozart’s father put it, fitting for the French. The first movement is among his greatest, building tension to an exciting finish. The second movement is usually an Andantino, but there are actually two different second movements for this piece, one in 6/8, one in 3/4. Atypically, it is only three movements, omitting a classical Minuet and moving straight into an Allegro. This is less of a show of Mozart’s melodic prowess and more of a demonstration of his dramatic powers. In 1762, Mozart’s father took Nannerl, now age eleven, and Wolfgang, age six to the court of Bavaria in Munich in what was to become the first of several European "tours." The siblings traveled to the courts of Paris, London, The Hague, and Zurich performing as child prodigies. Mozart met a number of accomplished musicians and became familiar with their works. Particularity important was his meeting with Johann Christian Bach (Johann Sebastian Bach's youngest son) in London who had a strong influence on Mozart. The trips were long and often arduous, traveling in primitive conditions and waiting for invitations and reimbursements from the nobility. Frequently, Mozart and other members of his family fell seriously ill and had to limit their performance schedule. Budding Young Composer Having failed to deliver my promised review of the Sony Bruno Walter – The Complete Columbia Collection (Sony 19075923242, Leinsdorf and the RPO play with fast tempos in Allegro movements especially, and the sound, though clear and up front, is rather dry. Sometimes the woodwinds may seem a bit sloppy in articulation – the bassoon solo in Symphony 3: III, is one prime example, but the overall result is very musical, graceful, and well: Mozartean. Repeats are almost never taken, even in 1st movement Allegros which are in Sonata-Allegro form: the custom of the mid-late 1950s when these recordings were made in London.