Mozart: Piano Quartets, K. 478 And K. 493

Description

Wolfgang AmadeusMozart (1756-1791) Piano Quartet in Gminor, K.478Piano Quartet in Eflat major, K.493Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg in 1756, the son of a courtmusician who, in the year of his youngest child's birth, published an influentialbook on violin-playing. Leopold Mozart rose to occupy the position ofVice-Kapellmeister to the Archbishop of Salzburg, but sacrificed his owncreative career to that of his son, in whom he detected early signs ofprecocious genius. With the indulgence of his patron, he was able to undertakeextended concert tours of Europe in which his son and elder daughter Nannerlwere able to astonish audiences. The boy played both the keyboard and theviolin and could improvise and soon write down his own compositions.Childhood that had brought Mozart signal success was followed by a lesssatisfactory period of adolescence largely in Salzburg under the patronage of anew and less sympathetic Archbishop. Like his father, Mozart foundopportunities far too limited at home, while chances of travel were nowrestricted. In 1777, when leave of absence was not granted, he gave upemployment in Salzburg to seek a future elsewhere, but neither Mannheim norParis, both musical centres of some importance, had anything for him. HisMannheim connections, however, brought a commission for an opera in Munich in1781, but after its successful staging he was summoned by his patron to Vienna.There Mozart's dissatisfaction with his position resulted in a quarrel with theArchbishop and dismissal from his service.The last ten years of Mozart's life were spent in Vienna in precariousindependence of both patron and immediate paternal advice, a situationaggravated by an imprudent marriage. Initial success in the opera-house and asa performer was followed, as the decade went on, by increasing financialdifficulties. By the time of his death in December 1791, however, his fortunesseemed about to change for the better, with the success of the German opera TheMagic Flute, and the possibility of increased patronage.The piano quartet, which reached its eighteenth-century apogee in thetwo quartets of Mozart, had its origin in the keyboard concerto, here in thereduced instrumentation of a chamber concerto, as in the work of Mannheim composersor of Johann Christian Bach, some of whose keyboard sonatas Mozart had, as aboy, transcribed as chamber concertos, accompanied by two violins and bass. InVienna he wrote two piano quartets. The first of these, the Piano Quartet inG minor, K.478, bears the date 16th October 1785 and was completed on that datein Vienna, to be published there by Franz Anton Hoffmeister. By 20th NovemberMozart was writing to Hoffmeister with some urgency, seeking money. By 2ndDecember Leopold Mozart, in a letter to his daughter, gives news of the receiptof the work, together with copies of the quartets Mozart had recently dedicatedto Haydn. In the following August he included the quartet in a list ofcompositions sent to Sebastian Winter in