Symphony No. 38 (Mozart)
The Symphony No. 38 in D major, K. 504, was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in late 1786. It was premiered in Prague on January 19, 1787, a few weeks after Le nozze di Figaro opened there. It is popularly known as the Prague Symphony. Mozart's autograph thematic catalogue bears December 6, 1786, as the date of composition.
Other works written by Mozart about contemporary with this symphony include the twenty-fifth piano concerto and the piano trio in B-flat (K. 503 and K. 502, respectively) the former also written in December 1786, the latter written in November. The aria scena and rondo Ch'io mi scordi di te? K.505 for soprano and orchestra with piano obligato, regarded by Girdlestone in his book on Mozart and his Piano Concertos as a work on the same level, also dates from the same period. This work would be called No. 37 if the K. 444 work (mostly by Michael Haydn, except for the slow introduction, which is by Mozart) was removed from the numbering.
Famous quotes containing the word symphony:
“The truth is, as every one knows, that the great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom even ordinarily respectable. No virtuous man—that is, virtuous in the Y.M.C.A. sense—has ever painted a picture worth looking at, or written a symphony worth hearing, or a book worth reading, and it is highly improbable that the thing has ever been done by a virtuous woman.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)