Symphony No. 38 in D Major, K. 504 (Prague)

The “Prague” Symphony was one of Mozart’s final compositions. In late 1786, The Marriage of Figaro debuted in Prague, where it was so successful that Mozart traveled to the city in January 1787 to see what was rumored to be an impressive production. From the first day of his visit, enthusiasm for his music was palpable. As he wrote to a friend of his first evening in Prague,

At six o’clock, I drove with Count Canal to the so-called Bretfeld Ball, where the cream of the beauties of Prague are wont to assemble. That would have been something for you, my friend … As for me, I didn’t dance, and I didn’t flirt. The first because I was too tired, the second because of my native bashfulness. But with the greatest joy, I watched all the people hopping around to their heart’s content to the music of my Figaro turned into Contratänze and Teutsche. For here they talk about nothing but Figaro; they play nothing, sing nothing, whistle nothing but Figaro; they go to no opera but Figaro and forever Figaro. Truly this is a great honor for me.

During his stay in the city, Mozart capitalized on his fame with a concert featuring a series of free improvisations on Figaro’s aria “Non più andrai” and a work possibly written for the excellent Prague orchestra (although it had premiered in Vienna a few months before): the Symphony No. 38 in D Major, K.504, later known as the “Prague” Symphony. As one listener gushed,

The theater had never been so full as on this occasion; never had there been such unanimous enthusiasm as that awakened by his heavenly playing. We did not, in fact, know what to admire most, whether the extraordinary compositions or his extraordinary playing; together they made such an overwhelming impression on us that we felt we had been bewitched. When Mozart had finished the concert, he continued improvising alone on the piano for half-an-hour. We were beside ourselves with joy and gave vent to our overwrought feelings in enthusiastic applause … The symphonies which he composed for this occasion are real masterpieces of instrumental composition, which are played with great élan and fire, so that the very soul is carried to sublime heights. This applied particularly to the grand Symphony in D Major, which is still [in 1798] always a favorite in Prague …

The “Prague” Symphony consists of three movements rather than the customary four. Despite this seemingly truncated form, the symphony holds boundless treasures. In the first movement, the dramatic, slow introduction in the minor mode is a glorious contrast to the principal theme, a buoyant, major-mode phrase strikingly like what would later become the well-known theme of the Overture to The Magic Flute. After the sensuous, serious Andante, Mozart begins the third movement with an opening theme based on a duet from The Marriage of Figaro, which must have delighted its appreciative audience. The energy, humor, and depth characteristic of Mozart’s comic operas provide fuel throughout.