Review

Author(s): A. Peter Brown

Review by: A. Peter Brown
Source: Music & Letters, Vol. 72, No. 2 (May, 1991), pp. 277-283
Published by: Oxford University Press
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 As Wiesend remarks, there was scarcely another composer so distinguished in his lifetime
yet so little performed today. Perhaps this new series will help to put things right.
RAYMOND MONELLE

Mozart's Symphonies: Context, Performance, Practice, Reception. By Neal Zaslaw. p

+ 617. (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1989, ?50. ISBN 0-19-315240-1.)

To the non-specialist, nothing seems more secure than our knowledge of Mozart. The
'sixth' edition of Kochel, two complete editions of the works, the collection and publication
of the documents, the careful re-examination of every important composition many times
over, and the institutionalization of research for 150 years certainly justify this view. Yet this
situation also creates the tendency to accept these resources as the last word. For example, a
place in the Kochel chronology for a given work assumes its authenticity even when its pater-
nity may not be securely identified. The methods used by Einstein and others to evaluate a
composition's authenticity and date are now in disrepute. In some of the recent and more
convincing work by Wolfgang Plath and Alan Tyson on Mozart's handwriting and papers,
the deficiencies of connoisseurship and the like for ascertaining such vital data have been
revealed many times over.
Authenticating Mozart's symphonies exemplifies this problem. If one establishes a source
hierarchy for authenticity, a significant number in the old Breitkopf & Hartel Mozart
Gesamtausgabe (GA) and the Barenreiter Neue Mozart Ausgabe (NMA) can be questioned.
Up to K. 114 (December 1771), in the GA more symphonies were published under Mozart's
name without strong source traditions than those transmitted in autographs or authentic
copies. Even in the first two symphony volumes of the NMA (IV/Il/i & ii), dating from
1984 and 1985, eleven works are known from autographs, four from authentic sources, and
eight from copies of less than certain origin. With such basic 'facts' in question, any book
that attempts to re-examine the symphonies is a welcome addition to the literature.
The advantages that Neal Zaslaw brings to this undertaking are strong. As musicological
adviser to the Schroder/Hogwood recording of the complete Mozart symphonies, he has had
the opportunity to hear these works in a laboratory atmosphere that attempted to recapture
both the sounds and playing techniques of Mozart's time. Since these records also included
symphonies of questionable paternity, they afforded an opportunity to compare those
known only from problematical sources with those that are verifiably authentic works.
Zaslaw attempts to include every symphony ever attributed to Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart. Thus, while the old GA numbered the symphonies up to 41 and then added several
'early' ones to the supplements, the symphonies considered here go far beyond the bounds of
both the GA and NMA. Added to the traditional lists are symphonies that had double lives
as serenades (a more than four-movement work reduced to the symphonic movements) and
overtures adapted as symphonies (either used in their original three-movement layout or
with movements added so that they could exist independently of their operas).
Given this situation and the current revisions in the chronology, Zaslaw invokes a bold
policy: he avoids using the familiar numberings of the old GA in which the Jupiter' Sym-
phony K.551 is known as No. 41. While this is a correct approach, it will leave many readers
with another problem: dealing with the less familiar multiple designations resulting from
the different editions of the Kochel catalogue. As a result, one is confronted by 'Symphony
in B-flat major K.Anh.216 = 74g = Anh.C11.03' or 'Symphony in D major K. I I I + 120
= II la'. If the past editorial policies of K6chel are maintained in a seventh edition, these
bibliographic quagmires will only be deepened. Again, Zaslaw does the best one can hope
for by including incipits for the 79 symphonies and related works discussed.
If anything, the author casts his net too widely as to what might be considered a Mozart
symphony and leaves the reader somewhat confused. Granted, 'sinfonia', 'symphony', 'over-
ture' and other terms might have been the title of a work called 'symphony' today. But how
can one justify including the Maurerzsche Trauermusik, K.477/479a, in a book on the sym-
phonies, when it is in one movement and at one time included voices singing a cantus fir-
mus? Or why include such one-movement overtures as those to Die Schuldizgkezt des ersten

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Gebots, Apollo et Hyacinthus and Bastien und Bastienne, and not those to Idomeneo, Le
nozze di Figaro etc.? Or what about Galimathias musicum, which Zaslaw labels as 'not a
true symphony' but includes as part of his narrative? If works are to be included or excluded,
both the author and the reader need to know what constitutes the genre, even if there is
disagreement as to how widely or narrowly it is to be delineated.
Still more difficult to establish are the authentic Mozart symphonies. Surely some with
cross-attributions are so securely identified as works by other composers that they are hardly
deserving of discussion, for example Joseph Martin Kraus's Symphony in C minor and
Michael Haydn's P.16 and 23. I would have preferred less about the Kraus and Michael
Haydn symphonies and more about those with weak source traditions but no conflicting at-
tributions. Others, from the late 1760s to about November 1771, are weak in terms of both
sources and style and might be best excluded from the Mozart canon: K.76/42a, K.81/731,
K.74g/Anh.C11.03, K.75 and K.96/11 lb. That Zaslaw does not take a clear stand for some
such works is disappointing, and by avoiding comparative analytical remarks on the sym-
phonies themselves he misses an opportunity to delineate Mozart's output more tightly. In
the last two decades viable methods have been developed by Jan LaRue, Eugene K. Wolf,
Barry S. Brook and Scott Fruehwald to use style for determining attribution when external
evidence is inconclusive. The clear designation of these symphonies as authentic, plausible,
doubtful or spurious remains a desideratum.
Since doubtful and spurious symphonies are not excluded from the main discussion, the
book's organization is adversely affected. Throughout, the reader encounters questionable
symphonies among the authentic ones. Thus, the author has allowed a central problem of
Mozart scholarship - the chronological placement of a given work regardless of its status - to
control the discussion unduly. At times in the 'chronological' narrative more space is
devoted to the doubtful and spurious compositions than to the undeniably authentic ones.
Would it not have been more effective to deal with the problem of authenticity and
chronology at the outset, argue the questions, and then proceed only with those pieces the
author believes authentic? It is not until Appendix A that such a list is provided, but it is
neutralized by only considering the works according to the status of their sources rather than
offering a hierarchical synthesis of both sources and style.
At the outset Zaslaw states his goals: to demonstrate that these works are essentially
Gebrauchsmusik, to gather and evaluate previous research and to reveal how the sym-
phonies were performed. Exactly what he means by Gebrauchsmusik is never made clear.
The term, in my experience, is music for use by amateurs in informal settings, with a
straightforward style, without technical difficulties and with non-specific instrumentation.
There is also the implication, when the term is applied to the eighteenth century, of works
commissioned for immediate consumption. I would agree with Zaslaw that Mozart's sym-
phonies apparently were meant for the immediate future, but for the most part they were
played by professionals in formal settings with specified instrumentation. Additionally, the
late works were difficult both stylistically and technically. The symphonies written for or
during the tours have little to do with traditional patronage; just like the tours themselves,
they were mostly entrepreneurial, that is, for the Mozarts' own concerts. In fact, Nannerl
Mozart's account of her brother's earliest exploration of the genre is that it was a self-
motivated composition. As for the Salzburg symphonies, we have little documentation as to
whether particular works were used in the chamber, church or theatre. Most of the Viennese
symphonies are also entrepreneurial. If one uses the term Gebrauchsmusik for Mozart's sym-
phonies, then even those by Berlioz would fall under this rubric. If the term is being used in
a new fashion, it must be clearly redefined.
For the second goal-to gather and evaluate previous research-Zaslaw provides an ex-
haustive review. He has read everything and recycled it into clear prose. For one wishing to
learn the essential facts and something of the evaluations of other writers, this is where the
book clearly excels. While the author is correctly quick to condemn the often intuitive ap-
proaches of Einstein, Wyzewa and Saint-Foix, at other times one might have wished for
more incisive thinking. For example, he speculates about the hypothetical first symphony
and searches for it in the so-called London Notebook, where 'a few of these pieces are writ-
ten in quasi-orchestral style and possibly may have been drafts for a symphony' (pp. 18-19).

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I find little in the pieces cited (K. 15kk, 15dd and 15x) that is orchestral. Particularly in
Mozart, such searching among the keyboard music for orchestral works is a questionable ac-
tivity. A substantial portion of Mozart's keyboard music has orchestral qualities; yet would
we want to speculate that some of the later solo sonatas (e.g. K.284/205b, first movement)
were intended to be symphonies?
The third goal - to reveal how the symphonies were performed - prompts Zaslaw to
another of the most accomplished aspects of his study. We are given information about the
strength of the orchestras available to Mozart in various locations, seating plans, unnotated
parts, instruments, playing techniques, tempos, repeats, standards, leadership and inter-
pretation. Not only is this required reading for preparing the performance of Mozart's or-
chestral music, it is also essential to anyone interested in performance practice during the
second half of the eighteenth century. Unfortunately, this material is found partly in the
penultimate chapter and also scattered throughout the rest of the book. Thus one is forced
to search in the general discussions and in the specific discussions for a given work, as well as
in the performance-practice chapter itself. For example, if one wishes to consult Zaslaw's
helpful exposition on the use of the alto- versus basso-pitched horns, one finds that it is
located with K. 132, leaving the reader interested in a similar problem in K.130 and
K. 183/173dB to search elsewhere. At times, issues concerning individual works are ignored.
For example, there is the question of tempo relationships in symphonies with connected
movements and with slow introductions. In K. 74 Mozart leaves the first two movements in
4/4 and 3/8 without tempo markings; the former concludes and the latter begins with a sur-
face activity of semiquavers. Should the speed of the semiquavers remain constant, should
there be a retardation just before the beginning of the second movement, or should there be
some other adjustment? And what about the slow introduction to K.543, which contains a
descending demisemiquaver scale duplicated in semiquavers during the Allegro -are these
to move at the same speed?
The bulk of the study is organized according to the usual chronological and geographic
divisions. Substantial portions of this material come from two sources: the notes Zaslaw
wrote for the Schroder/Hogwood recording of the complete Mozart symphonies; and his
more musicologically orientated journal articles. For their individual environments, both
are representative of the best of their type. When they are juxtaposed, however, the reader is
not certain to whom the book is addressed. We are informed (pp. 173-4) in a passage taken
almost verbatim from the record notes:

The first movement of K. 73m, an Italian overture in style and spirit, is in sonata form with no repeated sec-
tions. A brief development section touches on G major, E minor, and B minor, before re-establishing the home
key. The Andante, a binary movement in G major with both sections repeated, exhibits an attractive kind of
mock-naYvete. The twenty-four-bar Minuet certainly satisfies Wolfgang's preference (documented above) for
brevity, with its sixteen-bar G major Trio omitting the wind.
The Finale is a jig-like movement in sonata form, with a brief but well-wrought development section. Its
'short' metre can only have been intended to speed along the Presto tempo, as the movement's phrase structure
and placement of dissonance and consonance would work perfectly in 6.

At the other stylistic extreme is a seventeen-page previously published source study of the so-
called 'Odense' Symphony, K.16a (pp. 265-81). The description of K.73m appears to be in-
tended for a relatively unsophisticated reader, while the 'Odense' section contains carefully
reasoned arguments for a scholarly audience.
If an author has not adapted and updated them, the incorporation of previously published
articles into a book can cause difficulties. One glaring instance is Chapter 6, 'Lambach and
Salzburg (1769)'. Here the controversy regarding the 'Old' (K.45a) and 'New Lambach' sym-
phonies is discussed. In 1964, Anna Amalie Abert proposed that the two symphonies at-
tributed to Wolfgang and Leopold owned by Lambach had been confused. She found that
the one attributed to Wolfgang belonged to an older style than the one attributed to
Leopold. At the end of his discussion, Zaslaw writes (p. 138):

The text of Chapter 6 to this point was, in its essentials, written in the autumn of 1981. In February 1982 new
evidence was published confirming the correctness of arguments in favour of Wolfgang's authorship of, and an
earlier date for, K.45a. The Munich Staatsbibliothek had acquired the recently discovered, original set of parts
for K.45a. They comprise first and second violin parts apparently in the hand of a professional copyist, a basso

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 part in Nannerl's hand, and the other parts in Leopold's hand. (This division of copying duties may bespeak
haste or the desire to save on copying expenses, but it also confirms that Leopold's instructions to Wolfgang in
his letter of 15 October 1777 represented their practice while on tour.) The title-page of the rediscovered
manuscript, also in Leopold's hand, reads: 'Sinfonia / a 2 Violini / 2 Hautbois / 2 Corni / Viola / et / Basso / di
Wolfgango / Mozart di Salisburgo / a la Haye 1766'. K.45a therefore forms a pendant to the Symphony in B
flat, K.22, also composed at the Hague, where-as demonstrated in Chapter 3-the reception granted the
Mozarts appears to have been enthusiastic. K.45a may have been written (along with the Galimathias) for the
investiture of Prince William, in which case it would have been part of what Leopold referred to in a letter to
Hagenauer when he said that Wolfgang 'had to compose something for the Prince's concert', an occasion for
which Niemetschek thought Wolfgang had composed 'several symphonies'.

This discovery in 1982 (seven years before the copyright date of Zaslaw's book) did not
prompt the author to reorganize his material; K.45a, according to its new dating, now
belongs in Chapter 3, 'The Grand Tour (II): Holland-France-Switzerland-Bavaria
(1765-1766)' and is an important indicator of Mozart's chameleon-like ability to cha
style. Coming in 1766 after a series of works bearing traits of the 'scientific style' of C
Friedrich Abel and Johann Christian Bach, its radically different posture is even m
astonishing than if it had been written in 1769.
Chapter 4, 'The Sinfonia da chiesa, and Salzburg (1766-1767)', is also derived from a
previously published study, entitled 'Mozart, Haydn, and the Sinfonia da chiesa'. While I
have no problem with what Zaslaw writes in the first part of the chapter, its chronological
justification is a single statement regarding a performance of a Mozart symphony in
Salzburg Cathedral on 8 December 1766 that the author admits may have been of
something other than a symphony. At any rate, the 'symphonies' discussed are the one-
movement overtures to K.35 (Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots) and K.38 (Apollo et
Hyacinthus), the three-movement symphony K.Anh.214/45b, and the four-movement sym-
phony K. 95/73n; none of these has been linked either in style or by documents to a da chiesa
environment. Thus, we are given a somewhat incongruous graft: a useful discussion of the
sinfonia da chiesa with examples from theatre and chamber works. Bringing what in reality
are two separate chapters under one title only confuses.
The opening chapter deals with Mozart's first eight years in Salzburg, a period before he
wrote any symphonies. It begins with a provocative statement. 'In the middle of the eigh-
teenth century the symphony (in the modern sense of the word) was still a new idea, a few
decades old' (p. 1). What is meant by 'modern sense of the word', and how does this square
with the preface's characterization of Mozart's symphonies as Gebrauchsmusik? In my view,
the 'modern sense' begins with Haydn's and Mozart's symphonies of the 1780s, when works
were composed that eventually achieved repertory status. Overall, Zaslaw provides a well-
rounded survey of musical life in mid-century Salzburg. More detailed comment on sym-
phonies by Leopold Mozart, Cristelli, Seidl, Adlgasser and Michael Haydn could have
provided a stronger background for some three dozen symphonies that Wolfgang composed
in, or intended for, his home city.
In each of the survey chapters that follow, relevant documentary information in mostly
chronological order is provided for almost every symphony. Here the reader is generously ex-
posed to relevant portions of letters, memoirs etc., summaries of existing research, com-
ments on the works themselves, and Zaslaw's own considerable discoveries. For example, in
Chapter 2, after speculation about some sketches and incipits for lost compositions, the
author takes up Mozart's so-called first symphony, K. 16. Its incipit, its instrumentation, the
location of the autograph and other principal sources, information about facsimiles, and
the location of the scores in the GA and NMA are given in catalogue fashion. Each move-
ment is then described, and the discussion closes with a paragraph pointing out how K.16
compares with the contemporary symphonies of J. C. Bach's Op. 3 and Abel's Op. 7. A
similar format is adhered to for each work throughout most of the book.
Chapter 9 is devoted to Mozart's time in Mannheim and Paris (1777-8), during which he
composed only one symphony, K.297/300a. Since 1978, studies by Tyson, Angermiiller and
Zaslaw himself have reappraised this period as a result of a new view of Mozart's cor-
respondence with his father; they question his truthfulness concerning his reception in the
French capital and his output. With Leopold in Salzburg and Wolfgang and his mother on
the road, their experiences are now reflected through different eyes. What followed the

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death of his mother in Paris on 3 July 1778 must have been a critical period in Mozart's life;
total independence had been unexpectedly thrust upon him. His father's epistolatory exhor-
tations were to haunt him for the remainder of his journey. This chapter's subtitle, 'Frustra-
tion', certainly understates Wolfgang's feelings.
The final chapter of the survey series, 'Vienna II: Independence (1780-1791)', spends less
time with the works themselves (K.385, 425, 504, 543, 550 and 551) and more on their con-
text. I have difficulty understanding why the Symphony in F K.98/Anh.233b/Anh.C11.04
and the Symphony in D K.291/Anh.109xi/Anh.A52 (= P.43) are placed here; if they have
any claims to authenticity, they must be earlier works. Equally perplexing is the conclusion
of this section with the Maurerzsche Trauermusik, K.477/479a, after the 'Jupiter' Sym-
phony, K.551.
A portion of this chapter is devoted to trying to set aside the idea that Michael Haydn
have affected Mozart in the composition of his Symphonies Nos. 39 (K.543) and 41 (K.55
Others have seen connections: H. C. Robbins Landon (K.551 to P.31), Charles Sherman
(K.543 to P.17) and the not-cited Hans Jancik (K.543 & 551 to P.7 & 31). While Zaslaw is
correct in thinking it unlikely that P.31 possibly affected K.551, there do exist some strik-
ing similarities in one thematic idea and in the manner in which sonata and fugal pro-
cedures are brought together. However, the works by Michael Haydn that Mozart could
possibly have known during his Vienna residence can be provisionally determined through
the 1799 Traeg catalogue and the distribution of his works available beyond the heavily cir-
cumscribed boundaries of the Salzburg copies of his symphonies, which seem to have travelled
no further east than Lambach or Kremsmiinster. Table I provides this data. Although
Mozart could have known P.17 without any Salzburg connection, some believe that Mozart
became acquainted with it during his visit to Salzburg in 1783 and brought back a copy to
Vienna. Unlike Zaslaw, I find the Viennese sources for P.17 and stylistic similarities between
P.17 and K. 543 convincing enough to speak of influence; key, metre, style, character and
thematic parallels all converge at the beginnings of their first two movements. Similarities of
a less striking nature between P.19 and K.551 could also be argued. That Mozart's work is
quite different should not surprise anyone; in the symphonies and other works he pervasively
and persuasively adapted different styles and saturated them with his own personality. If one
grants Zaslaw his view, I find an inconsistency in his approach. If we must reject a relation-
ship between Michael Haydn and Mozart's last symphonies, then it seems to me that the
traditional statement about the relationship of the minuets in Mozart's K.550 and
Schubert's Fifth Symphony (p. 437) must also be rejected, even though we know that
Schubert had a deep admiration for K.550 and quoted from it in ways that cannot be
denied. The only similarities of Mozart's and Schubert's minuets are key and mode;
thematic materials, texture and orchestration are all deeply different.
Zaslaw concludes with an essay entitled 'Meanings for Mozart's Symphonies'. Here, the
title only obliquely prepares one for its content; it is an essay on the aesthetics and theory of
the eighteenth-century symphony in general and how Mozart's works fit into this context.
One might also have expected the author to find subtexts for some or all of Mozart's sym-
phonies, but instead such material is only given for the 'Jupiter' Symphony; this might more
effectively have concluded the earlier survey chapter, 'Vienna 1780-1791'. I find the result
unfocused and at times lacking in sophistication. For an example of the latter (all paren-
theses mine):

Many composers of the second half of the eighteenth century wrote more than fifty symphonies; this can be
compared to the nine symphonies completed by Beethoven, Dvorak, Bruckner [sic], and Mahler [sic?], eight by
Schubert, six by Mendelssohn [szc], four by Schumann and Brahms, and so on [with a footnote to a 1979 text-
book, The Symphony, by Preston Stedman].

A paragraph later we read a quotation from an essay by Alexander Ringer (p. 522):

Well over a half a century ago Werner Sombart made the useful distinction between quantitative and
qualitative luxury as basic categories of socio-economically determined cultural behaviour. Quantitative
luxury, he held, was typical of post-Renaissance European nobility, whereas qualitative luxury reflected the in-
termittent desire for better, rather than more numerous, products, a desire found throughout history, it is true,
but especially so among the rising middle classes of the late-eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. That

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 these two 'ideal' types may coexist at any given time, goes without saying. Conversely, history has known situa-
tions, particularly in the eighteenth century when the nobility of Europe was in a stage of incipient decadence,
in which quantitative luxury assumed almost grotesque proportions. To cite but one of Sombart's many ex-
amples, 'On 25 February 1732 the court of Saxony ordered 910 pieces of porcelain figures and vases for a single
floor of the royal palace'.

TABLE I

Traeg 1799 Key Perger Date of Viennese

composition sources

184 B flat 18 March 1784 CS-KRa

Artaria Op. 1
185 D minor 20 December 1784 CS-KRa
Artaria Op. 1
186 C 19 September 1784 Artaria Op. 1
203 E flat 17 August 1783 CS-KRa
204 D 38? or August 1764 or A-Wn (38)
41? 1765 A-Wgm (41)

ABBREVIATIONS

A- Wgm Vienna, Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde

A- Wn Vienna, Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek
CS-KRa Kromerfz, Zamecky hudebnf archfv

Zaslaw comments:

Symphonies were no different than [sic] porcelain. Some patrons wanted a new symphony for each eveni
entertainment; and what other explanation can there be for thousands of symphonies composed in the las
decades of the eighteenth century? But other patrons must have come to want a few superior symphonies, ea
heard several times.

Ringer's gloss on Sombart does not say the porcelain was looked at but once, nor were sym-
phonies necessarily given only one hearing. Music patrons wished to have something special
created for their own use. Moreover, I would doubt if a patron knew in advance if the result
was to be fit enough to survive his time; I doubt if symphonies were even considered in these
terms before the 1 790s. Zaslaw tells us also that the change in the status of the symphony h
something to do with the middle class, that Mozart is an enlightened man in his political
views, that he is too artful and that his last three symphonies are 'irrational and illogical in a
number of their harmonic details or the sequences of their ideas' (p. 531). This last state-
ment, which is taken from an article by Rose Rosengard Subotnik, leads to a collocation of
cliches with psychological explanations:

Subotnik speculates that Mozart's allowing these 'illogical' sounds to remain in his last symphonies has to do
with something in his world-view, although she does not suggest what that something might be. The foregoing
discussion, however, demonstrates Mozart's profound dissatisfaction with aspects of the society of the Austrian
Empire and Catholic Church in which he found himself, as well as his awareness that other possibilities existe
in the world. (This last is important, for rejection of the status quo might have taken the form of inchoate rage
or blank despair rather than artistic boldness, had no other type of society been imaginable.) And as Mozart'
various dissatisfactions chronicled thus far are social and philosophical, his lack of professional and financia
comfort, which might by itself have motivated rebellious thoughts, has yet to be reckoned into the calculus o
his anomie. Mozart was, in any case, something of an outsider wherever he was. (p. 532)

The remainder deals with the Jupiter' Symphony, K.551. Zaslaw points to its topics and
the quotation of the aria K.541 in the first movement, but fails to note that the Andante
cantabile is a saraband - the most elevated of dances - or that the Minuet is a solemn one,
with its downbeat beginning, its descending chromaticism and its accompanimental figures.
And, of course, he discusses the counterpoint of the finale. He attempts to connect the
finale's opening theme to the Credo of the Missa brevis K. 192/186f except that their only
common feature is the first four pitches. His underlay of 'in unum Deum' for the fifth and
sixth bars hardly makes for happy declamation. Ex. 13.3 (p. 540) gives the 'six themes' (even

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though those bracketed asf and g are a's consequent) of the finale labelled by letters. Table
13.1 (p. 541) shows the 'permutations of themes in the coda', except here they are referred to
by numbers, and there are only five of them. The table is credited to Leonard Ratner, but a
similar representation of the final bars was done earlier by Gerd Sievers (in Die
Musikforschung, vii (1954)). Just before this final fugato, which 'presents an apotheosis in
which a contrapuntal motive representing faith and four of the movement's other themes
are presented simultaneously in strict style', Zaslaw finds a 'seventh theme' (bars 350-56); for
him it evokes the galant style of Leopold Mozart and demonstrates the inclusivity of
Wolfgang's own language. But this theme is hardly recognizable, for unlike the incomplete
example (p. 544), it includes Zaslaw's theme d as its most prominent feature. This 'new
theme' is merely another background to the 'fourth theme' and little more.
Mozart's Symphonies luxuriates in a wealth of information (much of it in tabular form)
and spacious design, adorned with twenty plates, which should be of particular interest to
performers, and 31 tables ranging from source information to minuet tempos. A series of
appendices deal with the authenticity of the symphonies, a concordance of numberings,
Leopold Mozart's description of the Salzburg archbishop's court music, a history of the
Kochel catalogue, tempo indications from Czerny for early symphonies, and missing bas-
soon parts for K.297/300a. A comprehensive bibliography and indexes conclude the
volume. The publisher should be congratulated, since unlike in many other scholarly books,
the notes are where they belong: at the foot of the page. However, cross-references are given
by chapter rather than page number, making them difficult to use.
The many cross-references, both in the notes and the text, also underline this
monograph's primary flaw: many ideas are presented that would rest more comfortably in
other parts of the book. If all the materials regarding sources and authenticity, performance
practice, and reception resided either exclusively under their topic or with the work to which
they apply, the volume would be more focused and easier to use.
In sum, this considerable study has problems of organization exacerbated by its trifocal
attention to context, performance practice and reception, and its conscious determination
to avoid questions of style and analysis except in the most perfunctory way. On the other
hand, one must acknowledge its essential contribution to Mozart scholarship and its mass of
information brought under control and made available to those whose only access is to
English-language publications. Among its competitors are Stanley Sadie's BBC Guide and
Robert Dearling's survey. While Sadie's little book gives a clearer view of Mozart's develop-
ment as a symphonist, neither it nor Dearling's can compete with the comprehensiveness of
Zaslaw's tome.
A. PETER BROWN

I viczni di Mozart. Ed. by Maria Teresa Muraro & David Bryant. 2 vols. pp. ix + 707
(Olschki, Florence, 1989, L.11O,000. ISBN 88-222-3685-8.)

This book is the result of a conference held in Venice at the Cini Foundation in Septem
1987. The 30 contributions (26 in Italian, three in English and one in German) are organiz
into two substantial volumes; the first treats a variety of issues arranged chronologi
from Metastasio to early Rossini, while the second consists of eleven essays on the Venet
farsa, a genre which became popular in the early 1790s and to which the young Rossini co
tributed a number of examples. The vast majority of the essays in both volumes
primarily with questions to do with librettos from either a literary or a socio-poli
perspective, and in both volumes there is a dominant concern with questions of genre. In
dividual composers considered in some detail include Cherubini, in Pietro Spada's 'Le mess
toscane di Luigi Cherubini', Claudia Colombati's ' "Les Deux Journe'es" di Cherubini: d
idee rivoluzionarie allo stile neoclassico', Giovanni Carli Ballola's 'Dal Termidoro
impero: le escursioni di Elisa' and Jacques Joly's 'Riscrittura di melodrammi per Salie
Cherubini: Tarare/Axur e Demofoonte/De'mophoon'; Salieri in Jacques Joly's article j
mentioned and in two essays on his Falstaff by Sergio Martinotti and Francis Claudon; Pa
in Gian Paolo Minardi's 'Paer semiserio'; Siissmayr in Helen Geyer's 'Franz Xaver Siissmayr

283

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