Symphony No. 55 in B♭ major (doubtful), K. 45b
av Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The Symphony in B♭ major (K. 45b), sometimes numbered “Symphony No. 55,” is a short four-movement work traditionally dated to 1768, when Mozart was 12. Its attribution remains uncertain, and it is frequently discussed among Mozart’s symphonies of doubtful authenticity.
Mozart's Life at the Time
In 1768, the 12-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was moving between courtly ambition and practical apprenticeship, working in and around Vienna while producing a steady stream of orchestral and theatrical music. The B♭-major Symphony, K. 45b, is usually placed in this Viennese context, though the surviving documentation is not firm enough to exclude other scenarios, and the work is often treated as doubtful or even spurious.[1][2]
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Musical Character
What survives under the name K. 45b outlines a conventional early-Classical symphony in four movements (Allegro; Andante; Menuetto – Trio; Allegro), lasting roughly a quarter of an hour.[3][2] The scoring is modest—pairs of oboes and horns with strings—typical of the teenage Mozart’s symphonic soundworld (and, just as importantly, typical of many competent contemporaries).[2][3] Heard on its own terms, the piece reads as a bright, functional B♭-major Sinfonia—music that could have served concert use or theatrical preliminaries—yet its uncertain authorship makes it best approached as a document from Mozart’s milieu rather than secure evidence of his personal symphonic voice in 1768.[1]
[1] Wikipedia — overview list of Mozart symphonies of spurious or doubtful authenticity (includes K. Anh. 214/45b).
[2] Wikipedia — article on Symphony, K. 45b (instrumentation, context, and source history as a doubtful work).
[3] IMSLP — Symphony No. 55 in B♭ major, K. Anh. 214/45b: basic work data (movements, scoring, date).