This recording is the second part of an eventual triptych that will contain the six string quartets dedicated to Haydn: no.14 in G major, K387, the first of them, was composed in 1782, when Mozart had just arrived on the Viennese musical scene; no.15 in D minor K421, the second, is the only one in the minor mode and was completed in 1783 while his wife Constanze was in labour – she related that the rising intervals of the second movement recalled her cries from the room next door as he composed.
Having concluded its Haydn cycle, the Doric String Quartet plunges into Mozart, beginning late in the composer's career with the three so-called "Prussian" string quartets. These are noted for having been written at the behest of a cello-playing nobleman, for whom Mozart wrote especially elaborate cello parts. Those are placed in the service of dense contrapuntal webs that pose unusual challenges for the performers. Should these quartets be severe? Light-hearted? There is quite a range, probably more than for the other Mozart quartets.
This may well be the most fantastic recording I’ve ever heard of Mozart’s two piano quartets, and coming from someone who prefers his Mozart on modern instruments and has railed regularly against period instruments in music of this vintage, this is beyond high praise; it borders on glorification. Both the Quatuor Festetics, which began as a Read more Sturm und Drang of the G-Minor Quartet’s resolute and deeply tragic first movement. The instrument, of course, postdates though not by much the year in which the piece was written.
The Emerson String Quartet stands alone in the history of string quartets as musicians of unrivalled eminence with an incomparable list of great recordings over three decades. For its debut on Sony Classical, the Quartet has selected Mozart’s last three string quartets, the “Prussian” quartets. Having recorded Mozart's six "Haydn Quartets" as well as the flute quartets, the Emersons have long desired to add more Mozart to their discography. This new album sees them recording Mozart quartets for the first time in 20 years.
Though Mozart claimed to dislike the flute, he wrote for it with skill and these quartets, written between 1777 and 1787, are not pot-boilers – pace the late Hans Keller, who wrote that they “show Mozart’s hate for the instrument”, but didn’t bother to explain how. These players, two from the Hagen Quartet, are big names, Gidon Kremer’s not least, and play well as an ensemble, the excellent flautist performing with authority but not overbearingly. Indeed, they give the music love, which entirely redeems some inevitable conventionalities, as for example in the C major with its rather obvious melody and harmony – even Mozart didn’t write a towering masterpiece every day.
These quartets were recorded in sumptuous sound from December 1967 to the middle of ’68. Remastering can lead to shrillness which undermines intonation – but not here. This sounds fabulous above the stave.
This series of performances dates from between 1966 (when the six quartets Nos. 14-19 dedicated to Haydn were recorded) to 1973 and was rightly saluted on its completion as a fine achievement. The playing of the Quartetto Italiano has a freshness, range and subtlety that vividly realizes the music in all its variety, while technical problems seem to have been solved so that the music-making can be both spontaneous-sounding and thoughtful throughout.