Symphony no. 35 in D major, K. 385 ("Haffner") WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) The “Haffner” Symphony did not originate as a symphony, but as a serenade. In the summer of 1782 Mozart received a commission for a serenade in honor of Sigmund Haffner der Jü ngere’s elevation to the nobility. It was not the first work Mozart had composed for the Haffners, an important noble Viennese family: six years earlier he composed the D major serenade K. 259 (known today as the “Haffner” serenade) for the marriage of Maria Elisabeth, Sigmund’s sister. When the new commision arrived, Mozart was busy with writing new works, arranging selections from “Die Entführung aus dem Serail” for wind ensemble, apartment moving and his upcoming marriage to Constanze Weber. Nevertheless, he accepted the commision. In a short time he wrote a serenade of six movements, including a march and two menuets, which he sent to his father. A few months later Mozart asked his father for the score in order to rearrange the serenade as a symphony for his concert series in Vienna. He was thrilled to get the score back: he had written the work so fast that he completely forgot the music, and was surprised by its extraordinary quality. He made some minor changes in it: ca. 21 mins. he omitted the march and one of the menuets and added flutes and clarinets to the outer movements. The symphony was first performed on 23 March 1783. The first three movements were performed at the beginning of the evening, the Finale closed the program, and other works by the composer were played in between. The symphony met with great success: even the emperor stayed for the entire concert. The first movement's theme opens with two long notes at an interval of two octaves - two notes which encompass the energy for the entire movement. A contrasting, lyrical idea is played at the sixth bar, but the burning octaves soon return, as the theme is played by different instruments in close succession. The orchestra plays the theme in many different ways throughout this movement: for example, when in the development section it is played by the violins as a background to an intimate dialogue of the oboe and the bassoon. The second movement is the longest one in the symphony, and it has the most chamber orchestration. The strings play the majority of the musical ideas, while the oboe and the bassoon echo their dialogue from the previous Allegro con spirito Andante Menuetto Presto
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