Symphony No.32 in G major, K.318

Allegro spiritoso - andante - allegro spiritoso

Mozart would have been surprised to see the score he knew as his Sinfonia in G major classified among his symphonies in three or four movements. As far as he was concerned, “Sinfonia” could mean either overture or symphony and, clearly, this one-movement work - basically a quick movement interrupted by a slow section in the middle - is not a symphony. So it must be an overture. But an overture to what? The consensus of expert opinion is that it was intended for Zaide, an opera he was working on in Salzburg between 1779 and 1780, but never completed. The arguments against this theory are that Mozart is not very likely to have written the overture before he finished the opera itself and, moreover, that it reflects nothing of the Turkish background in which Zaide is set: the overture to Die Entführung aus dem Serail, an opera with a similar story in the same setting completed only two years later, is abundant in exotic local colouring.

The so-called Symphony No.32 in G major would, on the other hand, have been very suitable for a French comic opera. Mozart had just returned from Paris when he wrote it and he obviously knew both the form and the style of the opéra-comique overture. The dramatic opening flourish of the Allegro spiritoso, with the whole orchestra playing in unison, is characteristically Parisian - he had recently done much the same thing at the beginning of his “Paris” Symphony in D major - and the playful second subject quietly introduced by violins some time later is characteristic comic-opera material. A central slow movement was not uncommon in the Parisian context either. In this case a graceful Andante section makes its entry just at the point where the recapitulation of the Allegro spiritoso would otherwise have begun. When the quick material eventually makes its dramatic return it is to re-introduce the gentle second subject and only then to recall the flourishes and fanfares from the opening of the work.