A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Jupiter

by George Grove

JUPITER. A sobriquet bestowed—whether by J. B. Cramer or not is uncertain—on Mozart's 49th and last Symphony in C major (Köchel, 551), and now to some extent classical, since even the conservative Mendelssohn uses it in his letter of March 7, 1845. The symphony is quoted in Mozart's autograph catalogue, with the date Aug. 10, 1788. The autograph is on oblong paper, 91 pages of 12 staves each, and belongs to Julius André, Frankfort. Mendelssohn was the first to notice the fact that a favourite passage near the close of the Andante was an afterthought. (See the letter above quoted.) The symphony was published as a P.F. duet by Breitkopf & Härtel, with the Finale of the Quintet in C (composed 1787) substituted for its own last movement.

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