SYMPHONIC SPLIT

In the 1980s I attended concerts in which Mozart’s Haffner Symphony was wrecked by breaking it to perform other works – on one occasion between the Second and Third movements, and on another between the Third and Fourth. So, it is infuriating, three decades later, to read of a new recording, The

Vienna Concert, which purports to re-create Mozart’s grand concert of 23 March 1783 (reviewed by Michael Tanner, February) in which, in the name of historical practice, the work is broken again.

All that Mozart said when writing to his father was that the

Haffner was played at the start of the concert and the finale of the symphony was played (presumably for a second time) at the end. There is no reason to infer that the symphony was not performed in its entirety at the start of the concert. On the contrary, to repeat the brilliant finale of the symphony, heard at the start, was simply an elegant way to round the event off. John Stone, London