Mozart's Last Three Symphonies

1788

In six weeks of the Viennese summer, broke and unwell, Mozart composed Symphonies 39, 40, and 41. He may never have heard any of them performed. Together they are one of the peaks of classical music - the great G-minor minor, the 'Jupiter' closing in a blazing five-voice fugue. No composer before or since has produced three works of such sustained genius in so brief a span.