Mozart's Symphonies : Context, Performance Practice, Reception

This is the definitive guide to the study of Mozart's symphonies. Professor Zaslaw examines each symphony associated with Mozart, places it in its musical and cultural context, and addresses such questions as how and why they were written, and who paid, played, and listened to them.

First published in hardback, in 1989, Mozart''s Symphonies is the first serious attempt in any language to survey the entire panorama of Mozart''s symphonic works. Accounting for every symphony associated with Mozart involved the identification and evaluation of nearly a hundred symphonies. Professor Zaslaw placed each symphony in its musical and cultural context, and addressed such questions as how and why the symphonies were written, how they were disseminated, who paid for them, who played them, who listened to them, and what those involved thought of them. The role of the symphony in Mozart''s creative life and his contribution to the genre was also examined.The result is a classic of Mozart scholarship, which offers an outstanding contribution to Mozart literature in this generation. This paperback edition makes that contribution more widely known in this year, the bicentenary of Mozart''s death.