I. Allegro vivace II. Andante di molto III. Finale. Allegro vivace
This is the last symphony Mozart wrote before his move from Salzburg to Vienna, the main turning point in his life. At the time of writing this work, the composer was at a crossroads: he had been making enormous strides as a composer but was stifled in his job in the service of the unsympathetic Archbishop Colloredo in Salzburg, then hardly a musical center. He had been trying to get away for years, without success. In 1780, he secured a commission from the Court Theatre in Munich for the opera Idomeneo, his most prestigious project to date. Although this commission did not result in permanent employment, it contributed greatly to his growing reputation.
Many features of Mozart's mature style are anticipated in Symphony No. 34, completed in Salzburg in the summer of 1780, just three months before Mozart left for Munich to write Idomeneo. The symphony opens with a gesture that will follow Mozart for years: we find it in the Overture to Idomeneo, written the same year, but also in such later works as the “Prague” (No. 38) and “Jupiter” (No. 41) symphonies, as well as in the overture to Mozart's last opera, La clemenza di Tito, written in the last year of his life. It is no coincidence that this fanfare appears in two operatic overtures as its rhythmic shape unmistakably suggests a procession entering the stage.
The present symphony has only three movements, lacking a minuet. Mozart did plan to write a minuet for the symphony, intending it as the second movement. Most of it was, however, torn from the manuscript, leaving only the first 14 measures which had been written on the back of the last page of the first movement. The reason why Mozart decided to delete the minuet is unclear: perhaps he wanted (or was prevailed upon) to adhere to the earlier, three-movement symphony scheme. In 1780, the minuet was still a new addition to multi-movement instrumental works, and not one that was welcomed by everyone. Many musical authorities of the day were vehemently opposed to the inclusion of minuets in symphonies, on the grounds that they were “inimical to the symphony's unity,” introducing an incongruous dance element into an otherwise “serious” composition. Mozart used the three-movement scheme even as late as his Symphony No. 38 [“Prague”] of 1787.
The basic musical elements Mozart uses in Symphony No. 34 are fairly simple in themselves, but their sophisticated handling makes them highly complex. The repetition of part of the fanfare theme in minor adds an unexpected twist to the festive opening only seconds into the first movement. Similarly, the lyrical second theme, which starts in fairly regular metric groups of 4+4 measures, becomes utterly unpredictable at the repeat, as the end of the phrase is repeatedly delayed by added measures. A new melodic idea begins before the previous one has been brought to a satisfactory close; as a result, we listeners are left in suspense, waiting for a cadence we know must be coming, but clueless as to how long we will have to wait.
The cadence does come eventually; however, the reassurance it brings is soon cancelled out by a new kind of instability, namely a series of modulations that take us to the darker region of the flat keys (C minor, A-flat major, F minor) for almost the entire duration of the development section. The recapitulation does what its name suggests, yet there is another twist: the opening fanfare is substantially shortened and Mozart quickly turns to the lyrical second theme. To our surprise, however, he returns to the fanfare material at the end of the movement (minor-key extension and all) and fashions it into a highly effective coda. Movements in sonata form don't usually end exactly the way they began. This one does, and that is another theatrical gesture: the festive procession that entered at the beginning of the movement is now leaving the stage.
Mozart designated the second movement as “Andante di molto” (which could be translated, roughly, as “Moving right along”). He must have found that performers interpreted the “Andante” as a slow movement, for he entered a remark in one of the violin parts advising that the tempo should be “Allegretto, rather” (piů tosto allegretto). The movement is scored for strings alone, plus bassoons playing along with the cellos and double basses. The first measures of the movement are played by first and second violins, at first unaccompanied and in parallel motion. Later the two violin sections go their separate ways, receiving support from the lower strings. Throughout the movement, unaccompanied violin passages alternate effectively with the sound of the full string orchestra.
Like the first movement, the finale seems to evoke a scene from an opera. The themes — in the tempo and meter of the quick Italian tarantella dance — follow on one another's heels like actions and situations in a quick-paced, surprise-filled opera buffa. One characteristic harmonic progression (an extended sequence of alternating dissonances and consonances) will return almost verbatim in the last movement of Mozart's “Linz” Symphony (No. 36), written in the same key of C major three years later.
When Mozart arrived in Vienna in the spring of 1781, this symphony was his most recent representative work. As he reported to his father on April 11, 1781, “the symphony went conducted by Bono [Imperial conductor Giuseppe Bonno] went magnifique, and had great success. Forty violins played — the wind instruments were doubled — ten violas, ten double-basses, eight violoncellos, and six bassoons.” This instrumentation seems enormous for the time; six bassoons would be a luxury even today. It goes to show that the composition of an orchestra could vary considerably according to the availability of musicians and personal tastes.
This performance certainly helped to strengthen Mozart's reputation in Vienna, the capital of the Habsburg Empire. He was acquiring friends and supporters, and could therefore face the final showdown with the Archbishop, which took place in Vienna in May. The die was now cast: Mozart had been quite literally kicked out by Count d'Arco, a member of the Archbishop's retinue. He did not return to Salzburg but remained in Vienna instead as one of the first major composers not on the payroll of any royal court, aristocrat, or church. It was a bold experiment that met with a varying degree of success over the decade to follow.