I have two treasures for you today:
First is the music of Mozart! And second is my favorite conductor, the late Carlos Kleiber, who directs the performance in a recording below.
Mozart was on his way back to Vienna from a trip when he and his wife stopped at the city of Linz, in Austria. Mozart sent a letter to his father and wrote: “On Thursday, the Fourth of November, I am going to give a concert in the theater here and, as I have not a single symphony by me, I am writing away over head and ears at a new one, which must be ready by then…”
The Symphony in C major composed for that occasion, apparently in the incredibly brief period of four days, is clearly one of Mozart’s finest works in this form up to that time; it marked the beginning of a new and magnificent phase for him as a symphonist.
The mellowness, the self-confidence, and all-round maturity of this music reflect the therapeutic effect of the elegant hospitality and cheerful surroundings in Linz following the dispiriting time in Salzburg. It need not surprise us, perhaps, that Mozart would respond to his contrasting experiences in that city and in Linz by producing a masterwork in a fury of inspiration, by way of reassuring both himself and his father of his stature as an artist.
And here is conductor Carlos Kleiber directing the Vienna Philharmonic in the delightful work:
