Harnoncourt: Mozart’s Last 3 Symphonies Are An Oratorio

“I have just discovered that the last three Mozart symphonies are an instrumental oratorio,” Nikolaus Harnoncourt told interviewer Tom Service, who explains: “[A]ll that he had time to tell me was that it’s because the 39th Symphony is the only one with an introduction, and the 41st, the Jupiter, the only one with a proper finale; and that there are thematic connections across all three symphonies – and not just the four-note tag that dominates the finale of the Jupiter.”