Jupiter program notes

By the s, with the mystique of the child prodigy waning, Mozart turned to composition in earnest with the hope of securing a leading musical position at a European court.

He never received the court appointment he sought Kapellmeister , but as a free-lance musician in Vienna in the s, he composed mostly on commission taught, performed, and published. His two sources of steady income were now the imperial court, for which he wrote mostly dance music, and the Gesellschaft der Associierten Cavaliere, a group of noblemen led by Baron Gottfried van Swieten who sponsored concerts in Vienna.

Mozart was commissioned to arrange Handel oratorios as well as direct Gesellschaft concerts, beginning with their first concert which featured C. During the summer of , Mozart completed three symphonies, the last of which, Symphony No.

Mozart had not composed a symphony since and the reason he now wrote three in quick succession is uncertain. Mozart may have intended to present them at an upcoming concert series as well as an anticipated, but unfulfilled, trip to London.

Mozart did not refer to his Symphony No. In , the title was printed in a program for the Edinburgh Music Festival; about 2 years later the name was again used in the program for a Philharmonic Society of London performance.

Why the symphony was nicknamed Jupiter is even less certain. In the first movement, Allegro vivace, Mozart places an assertive, ascending motive played forte loudly and in unison back-to-back with a lyrical, ascending melody plus accompaniment played piano softly. Each of these components—and the rests which are interspersed among them—will be manipulated throughout this movement and the symphony as a whole.

The opening echoes the first movement with short motives separated by rests. Mozart continues relating the movements with the Menuetto, which floats in an elegant dance until dramatic interruptions displace the natural flow.

The last movement returns to the energy and power of the first, then just as this movement supposedly comes to a close, Mozart refocuses our attention by incorporating five different themes in an astounding contrapuntal section, a fugue. All of this adds up to a symphony of tremendous power and beauty.

Symphony No. Ivor Keys calls it: the apotheosis of the ornate song which bewitched Mozart since his Italian days. Mozart's syncopations and unexpected accents add to the effect. Variations on an Original Theme Enigma , Op.

Explore Concerts. Plan Your Visit. Know Before You Go. For Students and Youth. For Families. For Groups. Community Programs. Civic Orchestra. Symphony Chorus. First Coast Nutcracker. Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestras. JSYO Conductors. JSYO Ensembles. JSYO Auditions. Field Trip Opportunities. Symphony Supporters. Friends of the Symphony. Institutional Partners. Special Events. The Mirror Ball: Symphony Gala. Patron Programs. The greatest miracle of all is that Mozart makes all this formidable intricacy sound perfectly wonderful.

His extraordinary complexity and superb craft reach their peak in the magnificent coda, where all five principal themes are interwoven in one of music's greatest triumphs. The three autograph scores barely span six weeks. What an astonishing level of productivity, even for Mozart! Ironically, there is no record of any of them being performed during his lifetime. The score calls for flutes, oboes, bassoons, horns, and trumpets in pairs; timpani, and strings. Mozart's Jupiter. James MacMillan b.

The Confession of Isobel Gowdie. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphony No. Explore Concerts. Plan Your Visit. Know Before You Go. For Students and Youth. For Families.

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