Mozart composed his first symphony at the age of eight, and what’s remarkable is not only that it is a perfectly competent work, which could be played to good effect at any concert, but that it already shows many distinctly Mozartian features. It already has the sense of playful invention, of twisty-turny, peekaboo surprise that Mozart preserved in even his most serious works until the end of his life. It was composed on a visit to London, and it shows the distinct influence of Johann Christian Bach, who was also in London at the time. Influence, not mere copying, all the more remarkable because it was only his sixteenth work. It is not, as some assumed, the work of Mozart’s controlling and ambitious father, Leopold, passed off as the boy’s. While this seven minute symphony is no masterpiece, it’s impossible to listen to it without wondering how the hell this stuff could be in the mind of an eight-year-old.
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