Salzburg born Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was a musical child prodigy who started composing at age five. His father, himself a musician and minor composer, took Wolfgang and his gifted sister on tours throughout Europe, where they performed for European royalty. In 1773 he became court musician in Salzburg but left his position after four years. After several years of travel and unsteady employment, Mozart settled in Vienna in 1781, where he befriended Joseph Haydn. He worked mostly as a freelance musician until 1787, when Emperor Joseph II appointed him “chamber composer.” Highly productive during his short life, Mozart composed more than 800 works in all genres of Western classical music, significantly shaping the Classical period.

Featured here is the first movement (Adagio – Allegro Spirituoso) from his Symphony No. 36, nicknamed the Linz Symphony. According to his correspondence, Mozart wrote the symphony in November 1783 while he was staying with a noble family in Linz, who invited him to give a concert. Since he hadn’t brought any music, he wrote this symphony in three days, finishing it the day before his performance. Scholars have pointed to the noticeable influence of Haydn in this symphony, with whom Mozart had struck up a friendship in Vienna two years earlier.