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MOZART'S PIANO QUARTETS
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KV 478 & 493
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Mozart’s two Piano Quartets come from a period where the composer was at his peak and in the midst of his great series of piano concerti. In that respect they are almost miniature concerti in themselves and are framed by the D minor Concerto (K466) and the C major Concerto (K467) written just before the first of the Quartets, the A major Concerto (K488) and that in C minor (K491) in the middle of them and the C major Concerto (K503) which follows. In the midst of all this activity centred on the years 1785 and 1786, Mozart was also to produce his great masterpiece “The Marriage of Figaro” - one of the most enduring operas of all time. It is a period where the composer had found the perfect balance between music which may be both good humoured and sadly elegaic, qualities which will be found in abundance in the two Piano Quartets.
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The original impetus for the Piano Quartets came from a commission from Mozart’s great friend and fellow composer Franz Anton Hoffmeister who asked for a series of three Piano Quartets, the first of which he published himself at the end of 1785. Public reception to the work was such that the first of the series was considered to be too difficult a work for general consumption and Mozart agreed to release Hoffmeister from his contract and gave up the idea of the series. Indeed Hoffmeister agreed to Mozart’s retaining his advance payment on the condition that the other works were not completed. Nevertheless, a second Quartet was completed in June 1786 and was accepted for publication by the House of Artaria. The idea of the Piano Quartet was a new one at the time and Mozart had not even begun his series of great Piano trios which were to follow at a later date. In effect, the idea of the Piano Quartet was merely a scaling down of that of the Piano Concertos for soloist and strings that Mozart had worked on. The exception which perhaps went even further in its daring combination instruments was the Piano Quintet for winds which preceded the Quartets by a year.
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Despite the contemporary feeling that works such as the two Piano Quartets on this disc would normally have been seen as chamber reductions of piano concertos, Mozart managed to produce two works which are masterpieces of chamber music, not scaled down concertante works in the manner of the Bach sons. Indeed, the G minor work is a particularly earnest, sombre and passionate piece of chamber music in its own right. Although the solo part (that of the piano) is as virtuoso as anything of the period, the additional string players are asked to contribute much more than just the usual accompaniment: this is certainly not a piece written for amateur musicians as much of the chamber music of the time. The very key signature of the piece foretells the earnestness of the piece for G minor is the key that Mozart relates to the vagaries of fate and there are even references here looking forward to the very “so-called” fate motive of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
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The two Quartets are separated by only a year and show once again that Mozart was ready to take up a form and then abandon it after he felt (or circumstances dictated) that he had contributed enough to it. The first of the two works is the more intense and more complicated although both are roughly the same in length. The G minor Quartet opens in unison and that Allegro movement has an inexorable feel about it that shows up in the fate motive suggested earlier, maintaining the mood to its close. There follows an Andante which is sombre and sad in mood before the lightening of mood that characterises the final Allegro Rondo in the major key, although even here the tension and the unquiet of the first movement is never fully dissipated. The second Quartet in E flat major is dated only weeks after the completion of “Figaro” and echoes some of the brighter aspects of the opera, together with a consciously more simple style from the earlier G minor work. The Allegro opens with a fresh melody which sets the mood for the whole movement. A central Larghetto follows in A flat major, one of Mozart’s great profound inspirations full of subtle sonorities and harmonies. The work concludes with the usual Rondo (Allegretto) movement which substitutes any idea of a cadenza by a simple trill and brings to an end one of Mozart’s masterpieces for chamber ensemble.
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Dr. David Doughty
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