# The first symphony you like by Mozart from start to end?



## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

For me it's probably Symphony in F KV App 223 / 19a composed around 1765.


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## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

When I sit down to listen to Mozart's Symphonies I usually start my listening with Symphony No. 1...and I like that one from start to end.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I'm not sure I've found one yet, but I like No. 39 a lot if the 3rd movement is played fast enough.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I got MacKerras' set of early Mozart symphonies just to see what someone that young could write. I was not expecting to listen to them much. I was rather surprised that I enjoyed them all. There are several that I listen to regularly. The K19a above is very nice, but I especially enjoy No. 6 K 43 and No. 55 K45b. I can't comment on how well written they are, but every time I hear one of those I am simply stunned that anyone so preposterously young could have written something I enjoy so much.


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

The first one that I personally liked from start to finish is the Hafner symphony. #35


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

His first one. The outer movements are fine but I love the slow movement as much as I love a lot of his adult stuff...


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## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

I've always liked the first movement the most from the 1st.


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

I like Symphony 1 from start to end.


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## Ondine (Aug 24, 2012)

The first one from start to end? The very first was # 4 KV 19, but immediately comes number 5 KV 22. 

And yes, of course # 1, too.


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## IBMchicago (May 16, 2012)

I think it starts with 39 of the final trilogy, with each subsequent symphony exceeding the previous.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

I think the first one I heard at 4 or 5 was No 40 and I liked i quite all right, still do, have heard most of them since (complete boxes by Charlie Mackerras on Telarc and Chris Hogwood on L'Oiseau Lyre'), don't think that the natal stuff is much to phone home about, but most of them are quite if not very enjoyable!

/ptr


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## ProudSquire (Nov 30, 2011)

Perhaps the 40th was the first Mozart symphony that I truly enjoyed from beginning to end, followed by the 41st "Jupiter", the '_autumnal_' 39th and of course the 38th "Prague". the 33rd I enjoy quite a lot, and the same can be said for the 30th, 29th, 28th, and the 34th. Almost forgot the 36th, which I think was best interpreted by Mr. Kleiber. Plenty of Mozart can never be a bad thing for you. :]


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

No. 31

Is the first but I also like 39, 40 & 41. All great works. My favourite is No. 40, though.


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## BlackDahlia (Aug 12, 2013)

I just finished Symphony No. 41 In C Major. :clap:


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

That would have been the "Prague". I always found the first movement reminded me of the overture to "The Magic Flute", but I liked the other two movements as well. I know I had the Klemperer LP, but it was a different version that I really got into, and now I can't remember which one it was. (This is answering your question as if you were asking - 'first in my experience')

If you're asking for the first KV# symphony, that would have been #18 KV130.


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## Feathers (Feb 18, 2013)

The first one I like (in the order of numbering) is probably No. 5. The first one I like (in the order of my introduction to Mozart's symphonies) is No. 25.


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## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

Vesteralen said:


> That would have been the "Prague". I always found the first movement reminded me of the overture to "The Magic Flute", but I liked the other two movements as well. I know I had the Klemperer LP, but it was a different version that I really got into, and now I can't remember which one it was. (This is answering your question as if you were asking - 'first in my experience')
> 
> If you're asking for the first KV# symphony, that would have been #18 KV130.


Yes I mean by Mozart chronology. If it's by listener chronology then I think that's just random chance in a way and so less interesting.

I love 18, all of it like you though the last movement in particular is amazing. But I think he did good consistent pieces before that.

The opening of the Prague may relate more to Don Giovanni perhaps. Though I know there are contrapuntal aspects to the allegro.


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## michael5150 (May 24, 2015)

I like very few mozart symphonies from start to finish. Mozart felt the first movement was the most important. This is clear by his efforts. Slow movements are often disappointing. Menuet and trios stereotypical and finales impatient to come to an end.
I have a love for number 27. It achieves a balance and synthesis lacking in symphonies deemed greater. 29 is also a masterpiece from start to finish

Mozart is the absolute master of composing in the key of D minor. The D minor piano concerto together with the D minor of bach are in my opinion the greatest piano/keyboard concertos in the repertory. The don giovanni overture is in my opinion again the greatest overture to an opera. Then there's the requiem. In my opinion greater from introitus to lacrymosa than the matthew passion.

The fantasia in c minor is very disappointing for me. Mozart was reputed to have been a marvellous improvisor on the piano yet this fantasia shows his weakness in writing without a solid formal structure. Mozart and bach especially for all their greatness were strongly reliant on form almost as a compass. Beethoven too but less so.

By the way the great mass by mozart is only great in its kyrie and christe. The rest of this work is quite wooden sounding. I dislike very few mozart works but the credos of the great mass and especially the coronation I really do not like. By the way does anyone hear the wrong penultimate note in the violins in bachs b minor mass credo? What is it about the credo that seems so uninspiring to the composers. Beethovens credo in the missa solemnis is likewise poor in my opinion.


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

listened through the first 22 on telarc with mackerras (IMO best set of M symphonies) and had some enjoyment but probably not intending to revisit

my first truly enjoyable sy from start to finish is no 24


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

michael5150 said:


> The fantasia in c minor is very disappointing for me. Mozart was reputed to have been a marvellous improvisor on the piano yet this fantasia shows his weakness in writing without a solid formal structure. *Mozart and bach especially for all their greatness were strongly reliant on form almost as a compass.* Beethoven too but less so.


What does it mean to say that a composer is "strongly reliant on form"? That suggests some sort of recipe book for turning out a well-done musical meal. Look more closely at Bach's forms, for example. As you may know, fugue and related polyphonic procedures do not imply a fixed form, and they allow a composer much freedom in shaping his material. Inasmuch as counterpoint pervades Bach's works, the development of his material is not formulaic but highly instinctual, full of invention and imagination, and the results are not at all preconceived. That freedom is exercised within limits, of course - sections of free counterpoint may be framed by ritornelli, and certainly his suites, arias, chorales and other works utilize conventional forms. But there is great freedom within the outer structural boundaries. Then there are toccatas, fantasias, and dramatic narrative such as we find in the passions, where freedom is of the essence, and these Bach handles with perfect confidence that a satisfying form will result. I must say I have never caught Bach consulting his formal "compass" in order to know which way to sail. If he uses an established formal principle, he uses it for his own purposes; he, not it, is sailing the ship.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

First chronologically is probably A major No. 28. Don't know the first personally, but favorites are Prague, Jupiter, and Haffner in that order.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

It's actually no. 40 for me.

I love Mozart but I've never been a big fan of his symphonies.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

To be honest, there is not one symphony out of the sixty or so that Mozart wrote I don't enjoy from start to finish. Every single note, whether apparently childhood pieces or final years, were flawless Classical symphonies with a purpose showing off their aesthetics of their times. Perfection.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

isorhythm said:


> It's actually no. 40 for me.
> 
> I love Mozart but I've never been a big fan of his symphonies.


The symphony was never Mozart's favorite genre. Far from it. He loved the opera, the piano concerto the most.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

The first Mozart symphony I listened to in earnest was the 'Prague' and it remains my favourite


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## Lord Lance (Nov 4, 2013)

Despite everyone's criticism, I most certainly do not find the youthful symphonies as lesser works or compositional exercises. Just as enjoyable as his Thirty-Eighth or Fortieth. So, for me, all of them.



ArtMusic said:


> The symphony was never Mozart's favorite genre. Far from it. He loved the opera, the piano concerto the most.


Sources?


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I like number 1 from start to end, but I _love_ no. 7


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

ArtMusic said:


> The symphony was never Mozart's favorite genre. Far from it. He loved the opera, the piano concerto the most.


I don't know if it was 'far from' his favourite genre....but I do know he was a man of the theatre and he took the genre of the piano concerto to be his own. I think that much of the reason that his symphonies as a whole don't get as much praise as his piano concertos or operas is because the bulk of his symphonic writing was composed pretty much in the 60s and early 70s before the real emergence of his mature style. His most celebrated operas and the vast majority of his piano concertos were written in the last decade of his life.


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