Sinfonia in G

Dwarfed by the reputation of his peerless son and the recipient of much spiteful and ill-informed criticism over the past 200 years, the reputation of Leopold Mozart (1719-1787) has suffered more than that most of his professional contemporaries. He was an acute and sardonic observer of men and morals, a superlative critic and teacher and a fine composer whose works circulated well beyond the confines of Salzburg and made the name Mozart famous before it became immortal. The symphony G8 (=K6 Anh. C11.09) is one of six symphonies by Leopold Mozart also attributed to Wolfgang. The composition itself is probably among Leopold’s later works. With respect to formal design, phrase structure (including a prominent flattened seventh in the opening phrase of the principal first-movement theme) and scoring, it most closely approximates the so-called ‘New Lambach’ symphony, almost certainly composed by the early 1760s and possibly as late as 1767, after the Mozart family’s return from the ‘Grand Tour’ of 1763-1766. The clever exploitation of the limited orchestral forces proves one of the most fascinating aspects of the work while the internal musical organization of the four movements is similarly sophisticated and the symphony as a whole compares favourably with those of virtually any of Mozart’s immediate contemporaries.