What is it about Mozart and g-minor?

It must have had some deep emotional significance for the composer, since if profundity of feeling was called for, it seems to be – more often than not – his choice of key. Here, for instance, is the distraught Pamina in The Magic Flute sobbing her heart out in g-minor:

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… also, there’s the tragic tone of the opening movement of the late g-minor string quintet K. 516.

(not too sure about the graphic score;
an interesting idea, though)

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There are two symphonies in the key: the first (No. 25, K. 183), written when Mozart was 17, is an example of the dramatic Sturm und Drang [Storm and Stress] style which was popular at the time:

00:15 Allegro con brio
10:22 Andante
14.30 Minuet
17:31 Allegro

Score

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…the second is the g-minor symphony (No. 40, K. 550), written in 1788 when the composer was 32:

I. Molto allegro 00:26
II. Andante 08:11
III. Menuetto. Allegretto – Trio – Menuetto 15:08
IV. Allegro assai 19:22

Score

These two works are the only symphonies that Mozart wrote in minor keys.

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