Jupiter Symphony - Definition

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote the Symphony No. 41 in C major (K. 551), along with the immediately preceding symphony, No. 40 in G minor (K. 550), in the space of a few weeks in 1788. It was, as far as can be determined, never performed in Mozart’s lifetime. Its movements display the typical classical symphonic form:

1. Allegro vivace
2. Andante cantabile
3. Menuetto: Allegretto - Trio
4. Molto allegro

Though the title “Jupiter” is not Mozart’s—it may have been added by the impresario Johann Peter Salomon in an early arrangement of the work for piano—the symphony carries an Olympian weight to it, marked out immediately by the boldness of the first subject of the first movement. A remarkable characteristic of this symphony is the five-voice fugato at the end of the fourth movement.