What is your favorite Mozart symphony?

To Lowrider,

The only recording I have for fair comparison would be the Requiem KV. 626 by Bohm recorded in 1971. The first one was released in 1983 as single CD and the second one was released earlier this year under the collection titled "Karl Bohm: Late Recording". By my personal perception, the newly release represents more live "music hall" experience which some claim it's fake.

Again it depends on your personal taste. Tone comes first as Furtwangler once commended on the topic of performance. For my daughter (a conservatory student)Bosendorfer piano sounds dull but for me Steinway piano sounds bright.

Hope it helps.

Yes, you have said what I mean but it seems apparent only
to SERIOUS listeners and musicians . Only a complete fool would think Mozart did not work to his limit, the difference is he could make his work sound as it just fell whole from heaven .
Schubert did not always have that, but his originality is overwhelming ,to me anyway . I've read long tomes
comparing Mozart and Schubert outputs to age 31 where acknowledged masterworks count fell in Schuberts favor .
At 8 years old the top teacher in Wein threw up his hands
saying he was learning more from the boy than he from him.
I've heart several of the worlds most famous pianists praise Schubert's late Pn. Sonatas to the skies, one said
to me personally they were the greatest in the canon .



I don't know if the most tragic early demise was Schubert
or Mozart but for sure they are the top two disasters .

Hi Schubert - let me clarify something I said. I did not mean that Schubert's Piano Sonatas are not great - they are! I meant that they do not show that seeming ease of composition we are speaking of with Mozart, and with Schubert's own songs. Schubert's late piano works are very complex in a similar manner to Bach. It takes a great deal of concentration for even a very serious listener to follow them, so in this sense the craft is very obvious, though of course fantastic. Hope this makes sense - it is really only in his song composition that Schubert has that "falling from Heaven" quality you describe, though personally I think that is a poor description which belittles the composer and his craft. That is one of the only bad things about the movie Amadeus, that it perpetuates this notion that God did it, not Mozart.

When speaking of his music the one that "falls from heaven" to me at least, is Symphonia Concertante K364 for Violin/Viola written when he was 23 years old. The interplay between the violin and viola in the 2nd movement is just brilliant, I never tire listening to this piece.

I'm glad you mentioned that piece, Tubegroover. May I describe it as "heavenly?"
It just might be my favorite Mozart composition of all.