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Mozart had written his set of six String Quartets K168-K173 probably in the hope of
getting work at the Court in Vienna in 1773. Although the attempt to obtain work
was unsuccessful, the visit was highly significant in other ways: Mozart came under
the influence of Haydn, and his skills as a composer increased partly due to the
practise Mozart had in writing these six quartets.
Mozart's search for work took him to Mannheim where he fell under the influence of
the Mannheim School built around the superb orchestra of the County Elector as
well as Paris and Vienna, where he eventually settled in 1781, well away from the
unhappy pressures of his native Salzburg and his patron Archbishop Colloredo.
The following period from 1782 was an enormously significant one for Mozart: he
married Constanze Weber, wrote the first of his "Haydn" Quartets, and his first child
was born in 1783. Around this time, he also became more and more deeply involved
with Freemasonry.
In the gap between finishing K168 to K173 and composing the set of six string
quartets dedicated to Haydn (published by Artaria in 1785), Mozart was not idle: he
visited Munich where he was commissioned to write his opera ‘La Finta Giardiniera',
which brought him success and accolades (‘wonderful genius' amongst others.)
He returned to Salzburg, which, after his visits to Italy and Vienna, and particularly
the adulation he received as a child prodigy, must have seemed provincial in the
extreme. Most confining of all was the post of Concert-master for the Archbishop of
Salzburg, Hieronymus Colloredo. Mozart's father encouraged him to refine his violin
playing, resulting in the composition of several violin concertos around that time.
However, the recently invented ‘pianoforte' fired Mozart's imagination rather more
than the violin, and he wrote a number of piano concertos, as well as organ sonatas,
symphonies and masses, as well as many soprano arias, and his opera ‘Die
Entführung aus dem Serail'.Mozart finally settled in Vienna in 1781, and in the
ensuing ten years, he composed his most mature works, married Constanze Weber,
his children were born and he became more involved with Free Masonry, all of which
added to his inspiration.
The first of Mozart's six String Quintets dates from the period of the Quartets
mentioned above and must be considered apart from the other Quintets, all of which
come from Mozart's final years. Like the Quartets, KV174 was composed on Salzburg
and in the Spring of the year 1773. Despite this, by December of that year, Mozart
had revised the work considerably by substituting a new trio into the Minuet and by
altering the final movement considerably. The reason for the composition of the
piece, like so many works of Mozart, is unknown although it is possible that both
Haydn and Boccherini may have been an influence in this beginning of composition
on a new form (the Italian composed well over one hundred such Quintets).
The first Quintet is in B flat major and consists of four movements. The first
movement is an Allegro moderato which at times seems to veer towards being a
simple Quartet where the cello part is often silent although Mozart seems to enjoy
writing for his viola part in particular. This is followed by an Adagio in which the
violins and violas remain muted throughout and the cello remains always "sempre
piano". The Minuet and Trio that follows makes use of echo effects and the final
Allegro is an example of sonata form with extensive contrapuntal episodes.
The second of the Quintets (KV406) on this CD is the one in C minor and dates
from a whole thirteen years after the first; technically it would be referred to as the
Fourth Quintet, following KV515 and 516. Not that Mozart had been idle in this time
but it is perhaps surprising that KV406 (or as it has been latterly reassigned KV516b)
is not an original work, but a rescoring of the wind Octet (KV388). The transposition
was a simple one and it allowed Mozart to add a third Quintet to the two he had
been writing in 1788 without the effort of starting from scratch - whenever the
original wind version proved problematical, such as with some of the horn writing,
Mozart merely deleted the offending passage. Despite the success of the original wind
version, this new Quintet had little success originally and was published until 1792. It
is again in four movements with two outer Allegros framing an Andante and a
canonic Minuet.
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