Mozart - Symphony No. 35 in D Major "Haffner" - Mov. 2/4

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791)

Symphony for orchestra and timpani in D major K385 "Haffner"

2. Andante

Performed by The English Concert
Directed by Trevor Pinnock

*Symphony No. 35 in D major, K. 385 was composed in 1782 and is also called the Haffner Symphony. It was commissioned by the Haffners, a prominent Salzburg family, for the occasion of Sigmund Haffner's ennoblement. The Haffner Symphony should not be confused with the Haffner Serenade, another piece Mozart wrote on commission from the same family. The Haffner Serenade, K. 250, is in eight movements and was composed six years earlier in 1776.

The Haffner Symphony did not start its life as a symphony, but rather as a serenade to be used as background music for the ennoblement of Sigmund Haffner. The Mozarts knew the Haffners through Sigmund Haffner's father, also Sigmund Haffner, who had been mayor of Salzburg and who had helped them out on their early tours of Europe. The elder Haffner died in 1772, but the families remained in contact. In 1776, the younger Haffner commissioned a serenade for the wedding of Marie Elizabeth Haffner to Franz Xavier Spath. This work became the famous Haffner Serenade which was so successful that, when the younger Sigmund Haffner was to be ennobled, it was only natural that Mozart was called upon to write the music for the occasion. The request to write music actually came via Mozart's father on 20 July, 1782 when Mozart had no spare time. Mozart was "up to his eyeballs with work" (Steinberg 1995, p. 386). Not only was he teaching, but he also had to rearrange the score in his opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail before July 28. In addition to these demands, his proposed marriage to Constanze Weber was threatened by a number of complications, including moving to a house on the Hohe Brücke in Vienna (Boerner 1997; Boynick 1996). Nevertheless, Mozart worked on the music, and sent it through section by section to his father. What Mozart wrote at this time was a new serenade - a completely different work from the serenade presented four years earlier - with an introductory march and two minuets. According to historical evidence, it is quite possible that Mozart did not actually meet his father's deadline to have the music completed by Sigmund Haffner's ennoblement. As shall be seen in the following discussion, Mozart later reworked this music into what we now know as the Haffner Symphony.

At the end of December 1782, Mozart decided to present music from the new Haffner serenade at a concert. After asking his father to send the score of the serenade back again, Mozart was amazed at its quality, given the fact that it was composed in so short a time (Boerner 1997; Landon 1996). He set to work to make a number of alterations to the score in order to convert the new Haffner serenade into the Haffner symphony. These alterations included dropping the introductory march (K. 385a) and one of the minuets. In addition, the repeat signs were removed from the end of the first movement's exposition. Mozart also gave the Haffner Symphony a fuller sound by adding two flutes and two clarinets to the woodwind section of the first and last movements. These added woodwind parts are not new melodic material, but simply a doubling of octaves with the woodwinds (Wilson 1969; J.A.W. 1972).

The Haffner Symphony, as we know it today, received its first performance on March 23, 1783 at the Vienna Burgtheater (Steinberg 1995, Sadie 1985). At the concert, Mozart opened matters with the first three movements of this symphony, an aria from Idomeneo (described in his letter to his father of March 29 that year as his Munich opera), a piano concerto, a scena (a genre related to the concert aria), the concertante movements of one of his recent serenades, his piano concerto K. 175 (with a new finale)— and another scena (from an opera he'd composed for Milan); at this point he improvised a fugue "because the Emperor was present" and then two sets of variations (K. 398 on an aria by Paisiello and K. 455 on an aria by Gluck). After this, Madame (Aloysia) Lange sang his new rondo (K. 416?) and then to finish the concert, the last movement of the Haffner Symphony. (Landon 1996; Ledbetter 1997; Boynick 1996).

The performance of the Haffner Symphony at this concert, nonetheless, proved very successful. Cuyler (1995) classifies the Haffner, the Linz (No. 36) and the Prague (No. 38) symphonies, as "three symphonies that transcend all his former symphonic works."

The Manuscript of this Symphony currently resides in the archives at the Juilliard School.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• classical
• jupiter
• linz
• prague
• paris
• sinfonia

[2009xellos]

he was literally born to write music. He could build an entire symphony in his head and say "the piece has been composed, I just need to write it down on paper." There were, of course, times when Mozart couldn't think of any good musical idea, and when that was the case, he stopped composing for a while, but returned whenever he conceived great ideas in his mind.

[polymath7]

God, this recording so far is absolutely superb. Pinnock's as good with classical as he is baroque.

[Belbenoit1974]

listen 05:15

[Belbenoit1974]

listen 02:30, thanks so much HARMONICO101!!! Ezequiel from Argentina

[Belbenoit1974]

listen 00:38

[MrConvivator]

Danke, habe Link gesetzt

[cBedny]

Writer Thomas Bernhard loved this piece.

[polymath7]

@krystpan

What led you to conclude I don't know this? I mention the baroque because that is what Pinnock is better known for; hence, "Pinnock's as good with *classical* as he is baroque*".

[krystpan]

@polymath7 Mozart is not baroque composer... Bach is from baroque

[jdbrown371]

Good ornaments, some parts indistinct, overall this is unimportant because this IS the correct feel for the music. A lot of conductors turn this piece into a complete joke and here it is treated with respect.