What is your favorite Mozart symphony?

Right, I didn't think you meant anything else ,that's why
I said serious listener.I must have heard D.960 live at least 20 times and I only bothered with the top-rank players. I've listened to it hundreds of times at home and have the score, and I think I still have a way to go but thank God for the journey .
God helps some composers , not in some mystical way, but by the fact that really devout composers don't waste much energy in worry, the most useless activity we humans engage in .
Poulenc wrote about this effect after his conversion .
Bach writing" To the Glory of God" on every work was no empty gesture .


I have a lot or respect for Symphony players, not least because I listened to a conversation where a half-dozen
Players from the Berlin RIAS Orch were bemoning the fact
they had a hard time just listening to music because they
were listening to technical matters in general and their parts in particular .



.

Yes, sometimes it is very difficult for professional musicians to turn off the critical side of themselves when listening to music. Fortunately, I can usually do this when I am sitting down to listen for pleasure, in the sense that I don't necessarily listen just to my own part. But, as my teachers all said, one can and should learn something every time you hear anyone play - even if it is only one more way not to do it - so that side of our listening is really never turned completely off.

We also have to spend so much time listening for study that there is often not a big block of time available to listen for pleasure. For me, this generally happens in the summertime, and perhaps during the holiday season, when most musicians do get some vacation time, around and after all the holiday concerts.

The thing is, as I have preached on this site many times before - the more study one does of music, the more one enjoys it when one is listening for pleasure. The knowledge always increases the pleasure of listening, and this can often more than balance out the inability to turn off the critical ear.

Amen !

No. 41, performed by Klemperer/Philharmonia and Szell/Cleveland, though I pefer the Piano Concertos, Clarinet Concerto, Sinfonia Concertante and a number of his chamber works over the Symphonies. My favorite Mozart piece is the String Quartet No. 20, the "Hoffmeister".