Mozart's World: The Last Symphonies

Through the summer of 1788 Mozart was consumed in a burst of inspiration. The result was the three remarkable symphonies that turned out to be his last. Rarely heard together, Robin Ticciati takes us inside Mozart’s bold, stormy and divine creations.

The exact purpose for composing the trio of symphonies, like so much with Mozart, remains something of a mystery. One theory is that he intended them to be new-style ‘Grand Symphonies’ as the centrepieces for concerts he was planning for Frankfurt (in 1790) and Vienna (1791). They are certainly grand in tone and scale for the time, undoubtedly placing Mozart alongside Haydn as a master of the symphonic form, and setting a new standard that paves the way for composers such as Beethoven in the following decades. Collectively, these works reflect an invincible spirit and optimistic drive that inspired Mozart to continue creating brilliant music, despite the gloomy personal circumstances he faced.

"...the greatest triumph of instrumental music"

- Franz Xaver Mozart on the finale of Symphony No. 41

Whether by chance or design the sense of the three symphonies belonging together is enhanced by their contrasting dispositions and subtle tonal relationships. No. 39 (in E flat major) with its majestic opening and courtly ambience contrasts with the darker ‘sturm und drang’ era energy of No. 40 (something it shares with his earlier G minor symphony, No. 26). According to Franz Xaver Mozart it was Peter Salomon (the impresario of Haydn’s London residency) who named Symphony No. 41 “Jupiter”. It seems fitting for what is not only Mozart’s longest symphony with the largest orchestration, but also its sheer magnificence. In the finale we find Mozart at his most confident and dramatic, commanding his powers in that inimitable way that blurs the line between humanity and divinity.

Robin Ticciati is Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera, where the OAE is a resident orchestra. He was Music Director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin from 2017 to 2024 and Principal Conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra between 2009 and 2018.