Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Quartet in G Minor, K. 478 in The

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Quartet in G Minor, K. 478 In the mid-1780’s Mozart was a darling in Viennese social and musical circles. Viennese cultural life was fertile ground for the young composer. He was a darling in social and musical circles: popular, respected, and adored. Banking on this adulation, Franz Anton Hoffmeister, Mozart’s friend and publisher, offered Mozart a commission in 1785 for three piano quartets. Mozart, as always, needed money to support is lifestyle and fancy clothing; Hoffmeister saw a lucrative market: more music for the nobility and royalty to play in their salons. The populace was filled with musical amateurs. The genre was new to the scene: piano trios had been standard fare. The cello adding support to the lower base notes, the violin adding coloration in the higher registers. The piano was the star. A piano quartet was a novelty, a combination which would bear fruit in the 19th century. “ The G minor Piano Quartet can be cited as the single piece that led to the establishment of the piano quartet as a popular, viable genre of chamber music.” (A. Robert Johnson). Mozart seized upon the commission with enthusiasm. He liked the Viennese pianos, such as those by Stein and Roseberger with their light action, vocal clarity, and dynamic abilities. As a pianist, he had dazzled salon and concert audiences with his singing tone and dexterity: a new setting for this new instrument would be splendid. Quite naturally, perhaps thinking this could be a vehicle for his own keyboard prowess, Mozart wrote his first piano Quartet with virtuosity in mind, a feature which some have assessed resulted in this case to be a mini- concerto for the instrument. The interplay between piano and strings displayed K. 478 set a standard. Now, the strings assumed a new role, united more or less as a unit vis-à-vis the keyboard. And the discourse between the two units (strings and keyboards) was more specialized and intense. The devil as usual, lay in the details. Mozart produced an amazing work, but with a piano part which was too difficult for most of the amateurs of Vienna. The Journal des Luxus und der Moden, published in Weimar in June 1788 noted that “As performed by amateurs, it (the Quartet) could not please: everybody yawned with boredom with the incomprehensible tintamarre (sea of ink) of four instruments which could not keep together and whose senseless concentus never allowed any unity of feeling.” Hoffmeister immediately saw the problem and advised Mozart “Write more popularly or else I can neither print nor pay for anything more of yours!” What he meant was, write something easier to play. Mozart responded, “Then I will write nothing more, and go hungry, or may the Devil take me.” He did allow Mozart to keep the advance on the commission, however. And, eventually the Devil did “take” Mozart in the declining years. On December 31, Mozart finished his First Piano Quartet: devilishly hard, a huge piano part, and a strange key choice of G minor. The music begins with high passion in a dramatic opening with piano and united strings offering up serious thought. January 25, 2006, pianist Uchido Mitsuko spoke in an NPR interview about the “darkness, the tragedy, and the tense opening” of the Quartet. She found in this a “great musical opportunity” but not “entertainment.” “It is all so dark,” she said. This was not the sunlight and fun which Viennese audiences expected and desired. K. 478 begins with tight collaboration between the two forces: strings and keyboard. The motives and scales found in the exposition find a presence throughout the movement. A lyrical second theme introduced by piano alone offers respite, but the turbulence is unrelenting. The second movement is an elegant Andante in B flat. Solo piano opens the scene, and the strings soon join in with a lyrical melody. Melodic adornment and textural change (contrapuntal treatment) add enchanting dimensions to the intimacy of the movement. His final movement emerges in G major, a fine romp for all instruments. Now, the fun begins, and Mozart lets the ‘entertainment” feature shine in a stunning, joyful rondo marked Allegro. All those at the final party converse, dance, display virtuosic For those interested in detailed analyses: Mozart: His Music in his Life (Ivor Keys,) Mozart Studies 2, (Cliff Eisen,) Mozart and His Times (Eric Schenk, Richard Winston, Clara Winston) Mozart, His Character His Work (Alfred Einstein) The Mozart Companion (H.C. Robbins Landon) A Mozart Diary (Peter Dimond) Wolfgang Mozart: Essays on His Life and His Music (Stanley Saide) and the Cambridge Companion to Mozart (Simon P. Keefe) are good beginning points. Notes by Marianne W. Tobias .

Load more