W.A. MOZART Symphonies 38 'Prague' & 41 'Jupiter'

Freiburger Barockorchester / René Jacobs

 

Conducting Freiburger Barockorchester, resident harmonia mundi archaeologist René Jacobs rediscovers two symphonies of 'classic' status.The guiding principle of his interpretation is clarity of texture, with the aim of bringing out the inherent drama of the works.

The Symphony in D major K504 was probably written for the subscription concerts, known as 'academies', that Mozart hoped to organise in Vienna for Advent 1786; he completed it on 6 December of that year. However, the first known performance took place not in Vienna, but in Prague, a circumstance that has earned the symphony its popular nickname. Mozart conducted it at an academy in the Prague National Theatre on 19 January 1787, two days after witnessing a performance there of his opera Le nozze di Figaro - and seeing for himself the great success this work was then enjoying with the citizens of Prague.

Mozart completed the most splendid and demanding of his symphonies on 10th August 1788.As early as 1819 the piece was already being performed under the name 'Jupiter' in Edinburgh, and by the early 1820s it crops up with the same title in London concert programmes.

 

Harmonia Mundi HMC901958