Favorite Moments in a Mozart Symphony

[springrite]

The trio from the third movement (minuet and trio) from Symphony #39. Exquisite!

[paulb]

uhh, Böhm actually WORKED with Bruno Walter, and in fact, it was Bruno Walter who gave him his first big break.

I like it when one great conductor acknowledges his predecessor's approach to a  composer and just follows his foot steps. Nothing wrong with that at all, provide the approch is outstanding, as was Walter with the Colubmia.

[Gustav]

I like it when one great conductor acknowledges his predecessor's approach to a  composer and just follows his foot steps. Nothing wrong with that at all, provide the approch is outstanding, as was Walter with the Colubmia.

I liked it too, have you heard the one recording of Walter conducting the Linz symphony? there is a rehearsal thrown in there too, i find it most fascinating.

[paulb]

I liked it too, have you heard the one recording of Walter conducting the Linz symphony? there is a rehearsal thrown in there too, i find it most fascinating.

I never bought the release with the Linz rehearsal. Now if it were on DVD, that would interest me enough to buy.
The only thing that strikes me different between the 2 recordings, is that Bohm allows for more spot light on individual soloists. Some of the Berliners are simply amazing in their tech skills with their instruments, and Bohm gives them the liberty to *shine through*.. Walter takes a  more wholeistic/sweeping approach. Though more often the dif is too little and subtle to notice between the 2.

[FideLeo]

Opening movements in both g-minor symphonies.  Those (natural) horns!

[karlhenning]

Please, don't call valves "unnatural" 

[FideLeo]

Please, don't call valves "unnatural" 

However Mozart himself may call them "unnatural" - no joking!   

[karlhenning]

Well, that Wolferl was a wag 

[FideLeo]

Well, that Wolferl was a wag 

But I will listen to his music and not yours! 

[karlhenning]

But I will listen to his music and not yours!

No doubt.

[FideLeo]

No doubt.

[karlhenning]

Look, you've said your point, Mozart as a composer is a god, I as a composer am not even worth your consideration.  Just what I did to provoke the insult is a mystery to me, but no matter.

Let's let the thread move on.

[Topaz]

I've always found slight trouble with most if not all Mozart symphonies in that that they're not consistently good throughout all movements.  Several have supremely good individual movements but are then followed by relatively pedestrian ones (by Mozart's extemely high standards).  Perhaps the most consistently good Mozart symphony is No 41, and the best movement for me is the second, ie Andante.  In most symphonic works I tend to prefer the slow movement the best.

Rather off subject, I think there are few symphonies that are consistently very good throughout.  I'd place Schubert's Unfinished as the very best of the bunch, although with only two movements it's a rather unfair comparison.  Next to that, for consistently high quality, I'd place Beethoven 5, 6, 3, 7, 8, 9 in that order  After that Dvorak 9, then Brahms 4, then Schumann 4, Tchaikovsky 6, and possibly Sibelius 2 and Bruckner 8.  Beyond these, I can't think of any others that are brilliant throughout. 

I must admit that I left regular listening to symphonies by any of these guys behind ages ago.  The only symphonies I tend to listen to even remotely regularly these days are some of the earlier Haydn ones, in which lie some treasures.   

[Jupiter]

Anything from the 39th. Sends me into raptures  0:) (I especially like Bohm conducting this one)

[hopefullytrusting]

Well, I'm TOTALLY serious.
Mozart symphonies are boring, in the extreme.
When any of them is performed at a concert I might attend, I hope they're the last items on the program so that I can leave before I hear a note of that drudgery while missing nothing else.
But their are things that are worse than any Mozart symphony. And that is ANY Mozart opera.

Yes, this post is ancient, but I didn't want to start a new thread if an old one already existed (plus, I got to quote the ultimate curmudgeon).

I am struggling to enjoy any of Mozart's symphonies, as I find them all to be snoozefests, so today I was like I'm going to find a 41 I can at least get through.

Tried Bohm et al.
Tried HIP (Hogwood; Koopman; Marriner)
Tried the No. 1 sounding orchestra from YouTube.

I cannot make it through the first movement. I find it incredibly boring to the point that it quite literally pulls me to sleep.

Mozart symphonies are asmr to me, and I didn't get it, and I am trying - you cannot say I'm not trying.

[Wanderer]

Have you tried the Riccardo Minasi/Ensemble Resonanz version?

[DavidW]

Yes, this post is ancient, but I didn't want to start a new thread if an old one already existed (plus, I got to quote the ultimate curmudgeon).

I am struggling to enjoy any of M

ozart's symphonies, as I find them all to be snoozefests, so today I was like I'm going to find a 41 I can at least get through.

Tried Bohm et al.
Tried HIP (Hogwood; Koopman; Marriner)
Tried the No. 1 sounding orchestra from YouTube.

I cannot make it through the first movement. I find it incredibly boring to the point that it quite literally pulls me to sleep.

Try Krips/RCO, my favorite. You might benefit from reading liner notes to learn why the 41st is so highly regarded. It might help you by either shifting your perspective or giving you something specific to listen to.

[DavidW]

Anyway, my favorite moments:

Close to the end of the first movement of the 35th. The tension mounts, and then the strings play this section FAST, and it is so catchy but also eruptive. Now some conductors will just hush the orchestra down right at the moment, and some will go in guns blazing. But it is phenomenal either way!

I like the mysterious, dark opening of the 38th that then switches to a fast, zippy, sunny melody. The melody in the slow part AND the melody in the fast part are BOTH favorites of mine, and I've never tired of hearing it.

And then, of course, the five-voice fugal section in the 41st.

[hopefullytrusting]

Have you tried the Riccardo Minasi/Ensemble Resonanz version?

I've not, but will give it a shot.

Try Krips/RCO, my favorite. You might benefit from reading liner notes to learn why the 41st is so highly regarded. It might help you by either shifting your perspective or giving you something specific to listen to.

I'll give that one the good, college try. I have read up on the symphony - that is the only reason I am still trying to listen to it.

[DaveF]

I am struggling to enjoy any of Mozart's symphonies, as I find them all to be snoozefests, so today I was like I'm going to find a 41 I can at least get through.

I'd be interested to know whose symphonies you don't find boring - do you prefer Haydn, for example, often bracketed with Mozart but really a very different composer?  Or is your ideal symphony Webern's Op.21 or Brian's Gothic? (Extreme examples, but my question, and interest, are serious.)  I'm intrigued because, until relatively recently, I considered Mozart, much as I enjoy his music, to be a sort of second-rate Haydn who just wasn't very concerned with symphonic development.  I'm now slowly getting the point that a typical Haydn symphonic movement is a discussion, one by Mozart more like a brilliantly-illustrated story.

And as far as a favourite moment goes: first movement of the Linzer, 2nd subject - angry E minor statement, very Beethovenian, answered by deep C major Harmonie chords - lovely.