Finale of a Symphony in C major, K. 102
von Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart’s Finale of a Symphony in C major (K. 102) is a standalone surviving movement from Salzburg in 1775, written when the composer was 19. The Presto assai is best understood as a fragment: the rest of the symphony is lost or otherwise unidentified, and the movement has long circulated on its own.
What Is Known
Only a single fast movement—marked Presto assai—survives under the title Finale einer Sinfonie in C major, K. 102 (also catalogued as K.⁶ 213c). The principal source is Mozart’s autograph, preserved in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (Mus.ms.autogr. Mozart, W. A. 102), and the piece is generally dated to 1775 (often conjectured as spring or August) in Salzburg.[1][2]
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Modern scholarship connects K. 102 with materials around Il re pastore (K. 208): the New Mozart Edition notes evidence in the autograph that links the finale to an instrumental version of the aria “Intendo amico,” whose complete orchestral form is no longer extant.[2] In practical terms, however, K. 102 remains a self-sufficient concluding movement, detached from any securely reconstructible full symphony.
Musical Content
K. 102 is an exuberant Presto assai in C major (about 347 bars), scored for a concise Salzburg orchestra: Winds: 2 oboes; Brass: 2 horns, 2 trumpets; Strings: violins I & II, viola, cello, double bass.[1] The writing is bright and athletic, propelled by quick-fire unison gestures and clear tonic–dominant rhetoric, with trumpets lending a ceremonial edge. Even as a fragment, it shows the 19-year-old Mozart refining the Salzburg symphonic idiom into something tauter and more theatrical—music that feels designed to end an evening with a confident flourish.
[1] IMSLP work page: source information, scoring, movement details (Presto assai; autograph in Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin).
[2] Digital Mozart Edition (NMA Online), English preface/critical context discussing dating and the connection of K. 102 (K.⁶ 213c) with Il re pastore materials and the lost instrumental aria version.