Mozart finished his Jupiter Symphony on a single August day in 1788
On 10 August 1788 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completed Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551—his longest and final symphony. It closed a summer burst that also produced Nos. 39 and 40. Later nicknamed Jupiter, the work packs about thirty-three minutes of Classical brilliance culminating in a famously intricate finale.
Nos. 39, 40, and 41 were finished on 26 June, 25 July, and 10 August respectively. Around the same stretch Mozart also wrote piano trios in E and C and the so-called Sonata facile. Whether No. 41 sounded in his lifetime remains uncertain; Otto Erich Deutsch notes plans for Casino concerts that summer that may never have happened. The autograph manuscript survives in the Berlin State Library. Elaine Sisman has even floated a patriotic reading tied to grand Austrian C-major scoring with trumpets and drums.
The four movements follow Classical order. The Andante is a French-type sarabande in F major—Mozart's only symphonic slow movement with a muted first-violin line throughout. The menuetto leans toward a Ländler. The finale introduces five themes and, in George Grove's words, reserves Mozart's deepest craft: near the end all five sound together in invertible counterpoint. The four-note head motif echoes plainchant going back at least to Thomas Aquinas's Pange lingua, and scholars hear close paraphrase of Michael Haydn's Symphony No. 28 coda.
Franz Xaver Mozart said Johann Peter Salomon coined the Jupiter nickname after settling in London around 1781; a Bath Journal advertisement of 19 April 1813 already billed a Grand Sinfonia (Jupiter). Brahms later ranked Mozart's last three symphonies above the public awe for Beethoven's First. Early Victor Talking Machine discs from the World War I years abridged the piece across two records under Walter B. Rogers—among the first symphonies committed to commercial disc.
Source: Symphony No. 41 (Mozart)
