Mozart Symphony 40I will take a number of short extracts from this piece
and give performance suggestions for each.
Mozart wastes no time here. We are stright into a driving, restless movement.
The predominance of G - Bb - G, and the use of the minor 6th perhaps suggests even anguish.
This opening wants all of those qualities. Though soft the stings must play into the
string with a slow moving bow to produce depth of sound, which alone can give the
necessarily painful character. Also, a small swell up and down (especially to 7 and away to 9)
points the required rhetorical question and answer structure.
 2. 1st Movement: Bar 58
We have been in Bb for the second subject (from bar 44). Suddenly Mozart drops
to an Eb7 chord, with a prominent Db, draining away all the colour that has just gone past.
The unusual repetition of this bar four times in a row gives a feeling of despair. Hence a diminuendo
to the softest possible dynamic seems appropriate.
 3. 1st Movement: Bars 72f
A simple-as-you-like example of a 4-3 suspension. Crescendo on the first Bb, diminuendo
on the second, and shorten the length of the A slightly.
 4. 1st Movement: Bars 298f
The final two bars of the movement. Mozart is certainly fond of tagging
little ending formulae onto movements, but this one is more than that. It contains
G - Bb - G, the very essence of the movement. The violins (third stave) should play their chords
so that this three note progression is melodically clear.
  7. 2nd Movement: Bar 31f
The many pairs of demisemiquavers in this movement could be tripped off
in a light Mendelssohnian manner. But in the piece's context they contribute
to the restlessness. They need playing with serious intent, and almost always
as leading to the following bar. They shouldn't sound too 'easy'.
 6. 2nd Movement: Bar 53
Here is the Cb again. Quiet, with a sense of foreboding - which is
enhanced if the notes are played long.
 Here there is a sense of heroic protest against the anguish of the world.
We are again in G minor. Therefore I feel this should be felt just in three in
a bar, and played with the utmost seriousness. The arch shape of the main phrases
can be mirrored successfully in dynamics.
 Dissonances abound in the second section, making it a welcome relief
when the section dies away quietly. If the wind here play the arch shape dynamics,
and the violins go for their top notes, these dissonances will come out nicely (if
that's the right word for a dissonance!).
 10. Trio: 9-11
The woodwind get this dotted slur phrasing. A friend of
mine calls these 'sticky notes'. Play the notes as if completely tied, and then introduce
a squeeze onto each one.
 One of few genuinely lighter bits in this symphony. The second bar is
like an upbeat to the third bar, so should crescendo. The minims
should also be light - i.e. not played through.
 12. 4th Movement: Bars 174ff
a) The violins become a background pedal note at this point and should
play softer (thought with energy) when they reach the G sharp,
so that the wind can come to the foreground.
b) Just a few bars later the violins can come up after the wind and bass parts
have finished their melodies to point the dissonance in the second bar shown here.
 13. 4th Movement: Bars 186f
Just a few bars later we have an interrupted cadence, which when played in tempo (as it too often is) sounds rushed - it needs just a hair's breadth of time.  14. 4th Movement: Bars 202-204
With a perfect cadence in Mozart I often like the final chord to have less
weight than the preceding dominant. This 'weakens' a lot of final chords. Here,
by contrast, the chord is diminished and so a crescendo to it is in order.
 15. 4th Movement: Bars 307f
The last two bars of the piece. 1 - 3 - 1 again, just like the
first movement (see point 4 above). With this, Mozart takes leave of what
Deryck Cooke has called 'This last and finest of his G minor protests against
life's terrible sadness.' Little could one guess what a storm of optimism
was coming in his next symphony!
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