Mozart had much to do with raising the Vienna orchestra, particularly in the wind instruments, to its highest pitch of perfection. Among contemporary composers, who strove to turn to the best account the advantages of a fuller instrumentation,
Haydn undoubtedly claims the first rank. It is his incontestable merit to have opened the way in his symphonies to the free expression of artistic individuality in instrumental music, to have defined its forms, and developed
them with the many-sidedness of genius; he did not, how-I ever, bequeath to Mozart, but rather received from him the well-appointed, fully organised, and finely proportioned orchestra of our day. In his old age Haydn once complained to Kalkbrenner that death should call man away before he has accomplished his life-long desires: "I have only learnt the proper use of wind instruments in my old age, and now I must pass away without turning my knowledge to account."[43]
The first of the seven Vienna symphonies is in D major (part 5, 384 K. (likely 385 K. DW)), and was composed by Mozart, at his father's wish, for a Salzburg fête in the summer of 1782. He wrote it under the pressure of numerous engagements in less than a fortnight, sending the movements as they were ready to his father (Vol. II., p. 211). No wonder that when he saw it again he was "quite surprised," not "remembering a word of it." For performance in Vienna (March 3, 1783) he reduced it to the usual four movements by the omission of the march and of one of the minuets, and strengthened the wind instruments very effectively in the first and last movement by flutes and clarinets.
A lively, festive style was called for by the occasion, and in the treatment of the different movements the influence of the old serenade form is still visible. The first allegro has only one main subject, with which it begins; this subject enters with a bold leap--[See Page Image]
and keeps its place to the end with a life and energy enhanced by harsh dissonances of wonderful freshness and vigour. The whole movement is a continuous treatment of this subject, no other independent motif occurring at all. The first part is therefore not repeated, the working-out section is short, and the whole movement differs considerably from the usual form of a first symphony movement. The andante is in the simplest lyric form, pretty and refined, but nothing more; the minuet is fresh and brilliant (Vol. I., p. 219).