Classical Music Discoveries

For this month’s Classical Essentials broadcast we are pleased to bring to you Mozart’s masterpiece - Symphony No. 21 in A Major, K. 134

Between 1769 and 1773, the teenage Mozart, in the company of his father, Leopold, made three trips to Italy, which were the culmination of his career as a child prodigy and had an dramatic impact on his musical development. Between the second and third trips — from December 1771 to October 1772 — Mozart was back home in Salzburg, where, apparently, there was some pressing need for new symphonies. During these months he composed eight symphonies, the last of which was K.134. Just fifteen, he was already a young composer on the make, with at least 20 symphonies to his credit, and perhaps more.

K.134 is an ambitious work of superb craftsmanship as well as great imagination and ingenuity. It is in four movements, with a genial minuet placed before the finale, which is a spirited, witty, but also substantial movement with a bourrée-like gait. The first movement, according to the musicologist Stanley Sadie, is “the most densely worked of Mozart’s symphony movements to date”; the development of the vigorous opening motif is particularly insistent, giving the movement a monothematic cast more characteristic of Haydn.

The orchestra for K.134 is conventional in size for that era — two woodwinds, two horns, strings — though Mozart calls for flutes rather than the more typical oboes, and the result is a more radiant palette of tone colours. Typically for his works in A Major (which include two other symphonies, Nos. 14 and 29), the music has a sensuous, serenade-like beauty and a special richness of texture — particularly in the spacious slow movement, whose main theme may have been inspired by a famous aria from Gluck’s opera “Orfeo”, which Mozart had seen in Vienna as a child.

This symphony, performed by the CMD Philharmonic of Paris, is available to all of our listeners as a free download thanks to a generous donation from Dennis Loeffel.  To download, please visit our special website at: www.CMDEssentials.com

Please click on the link below to support Classical Music Discoveries.  
Your kind donation of ANY amount is greatly appreciated!

You can purchase our recordings by visiting our online store at: www.ClassicalRecordings.co 

The new CMD Portable Digital Recording System was designed specifically for Classical Music Discoveries for recording classical music. This system is also used by the CMD Grand Opera Company of Venice, the Southwest Symphony Orchestra and the CMD Philharmonic Orchestra of Paris. 

To learn more about this system please click HERE.

Show your support for Classical Music Discoveries by becoming a Friend!
Click HERE to become a Friend of Classical Music Discoveries 

Our Sponsors: 
La Musica International Chamber Music Festival 
Southwest Symphony Orchestra
Dennis Loeffel - Classical Essential Series

Advertisers in this show are: 
Advertise on CMD for Only $5! 
Southwest Symphony Orchestra
La Musica International Chamber Music Festival
Classical Recordings Store
A FREE Gift for Our Listeners 
Sousa Fundraising - please donate $1 today! 
Anne Vanschothorst 

Play My Music

Our next edition of Play My Music broadcasts on January 21, 2015
To have your music played on this show, please visit our submission site below: 
CMDPlayMyMusic.com