In the summer of 1783, Mozart made his return trip home to Vienna from Salzburg. He stopped at the city named Linz, where Mozart’s patron, Count Thun, offered him his hospitality.
During his time in that city, Mozart was asked to play a public concert, but he wrote to his father that “as I have not a single symphony with me, I am writing a new one at breakneck speed. . . Well, I must close, because I really must set to work.”
Within six days, Mozart evidently composed the symphony, had it copied, and — perhaps — had at least one rehearsal, all in time for its premiere on November 4. The following April, he presented the same work in Vienna.
Perhaps it is not surprising that a hastily written symphony by Mozart is an inspired and brilliant work, but it is interesting that he was able to introduce some innovations.
It is the first of his symphonies to begin with a slow, expressive introduction. The lyrical second movement “Andante”calls at times for trumpets and timpani, an unusual feature for that era, even though we may be used to hearing them in later slow movements by Beethoven and in a few late Haydn symphonies.
The brilliant finale is in the spirit of Mozart’s previous symphony, the “Haffner,” in which he asked for the last movement to be played as fast as possible.
Here is the greatest conductor of the 20th century, Carlos Kleiber, leading the Vienna Philharmonic in Mozart’s Symphony #36:
