Programme note
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Symphony No 25 in G minor, K183 (1773)
Allegro con brio
Andante
Menuetto
Allegro
Though the Symphony No 29 in A major is traditionally hailed as the eloquent turning-point among Mozart’s symphonies - most of its predecessors being interesting juvenilia, most of its successors increasingly sublime masterpieces - the so-called “little” G minor symphony, No 25, dating from the previous year, is filled with perhaps even more startling foretastes of things to come.
Its key is conspicuously assertive. G minor, both instrumentally and operatically, meant much to Mozart and he reserved its use for occasions when he had something specially passionate to say. The orchestration is bold, with four horns, such as he would use later in Idomeneo, instead of the customary two. The music’s agitation, right from the first note, is strong. This was the period - the 1770s - of the German literary movement known as Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress), which had Goethe among its leaders, and which for a time influenced the symphonies of Haydn and of Bach’s musically edgiest son, Carl Philipp Emanuel. In these works (Haydn’s early Symphony No 39 being a vehement example) surges of feeling are unleashed with exceptional minor-key intensity. Though young Mozart remained on the fringes of the trend, his flair for G minor - a Sturm und Drang key if ever there was one - was a consistent presence, leading eventually to the greatest of all his G minor utterances, the Symphony No 40, K550.
In comparison, the 'little' G minor symphony, K183, is by no means as slight as it was once thought to be. Its four movements have scope to express themselves, and nobody should underrate the ardent message the music delivers. The first movement is all agitation and syncopation. The E-flat major andante, with its prominent bassoons, is less peaceful, more plaintive, than it initially seems. Indeed, it is one of the first manifestations of Mozart’s incomparable ability to make his music sigh, something he could do to the end of his life.
The G minor minuet is decidedly not for dancing. With its foretastes of of the minuet of K550 and that of Schubert’s Symphony No 5 (another G minor movement) it is stark and chromatic - though with a lovely woodwind-soaked trio section in the major, again prophetic of these later works. The finale brings back the storm and stress of the first movement, along with further agitations and syncopations. From start to finish, K183 is a keen-edged, marvellously unified and often sombre score, its violin tone frequently darkened by violas, its quartet of horns invariably justifying their unexpected presence.
© Conrad Wilson
