![Igor Stravinsky - Epitaphium [With score] @DamonJHK](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/rVd4R8lNdOQ/maxresdefault.jpg)
Uploaded June 2017 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
-Composer: Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (17 June 1882 – 6 April 1971)
-Performers: Kraft-Thorwald Dilloo (Flute), Sepp Fackler (Clarinet), Hildegar Heckel (Harp)
Epitaphium, für das Grabmal des Prinzen Max Egon zu Fürstenberg [Epitaph for the tombstone of Prince Max Egon zu Fürstenberg], written in 1959
Stravinsky had been the honored guest of Prince Max Egon zu Fürstenberg, patron of the Donaueschinger Musiktage, during the 1957 and 1958 festivals. When the prince died in April 1959, Stravinsky was asked to write a short composition in his memory. The result was 'Epitaphium', which received its premiere on 17 October 1959, on one of that year’s three concerts, each of which included a newly composed musical tribute to the prince. In the history of Stravinsky's compositional style, the Epitaphium is important as the first work in which he ordered the harmony serially throughout.
[More information: wikipedia.org]
-Composer: Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (17 June 1882 – 6 April 1971)
-Performers: Kraft-Thorwald Dilloo (Flute), Sepp Fackler (Clarinet), Hildegar Heckel (Harp)
Epitaphium, für das Grabmal des Prinzen Max Egon zu Fürstenberg [Epitaph for the tombstone of Prince Max Egon zu Fürstenberg], written in 1959
Stravinsky had been the honored guest of Prince Max Egon zu Fürstenberg, patron of the Donaueschinger Musiktage, during the 1957 and 1958 festivals. When the prince died in April 1959, Stravinsky was asked to write a short composition in his memory. The result was 'Epitaphium', which received its premiere on 17 October 1959, on one of that year’s three concerts, each of which included a newly composed musical tribute to the prince. In the history of Stravinsky's compositional style, the Epitaphium is important as the first work in which he ordered the harmony serially throughout.
[More information: wikipedia.org]
![Igor Stravinsky - Epitaphium [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/rVd4R8lNdOQ/mqdefault.jpg "Igor Stravinsky - Epitaphium [With score]
-Composer: Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (17 June 1882 – 6 April 1971)
-Performers: Kraft-Thorwald Dilloo (Flute), Sepp Fackler (Clarinet), Hildegar Heckel (Harp)
Epitaphium, für das Grabmal des Prinzen Max Egon zu Fürstenberg [Epitaph for the tombstone of Prince Max Egon zu Fürstenberg], written in 1959
Stravinsky had been the honored guest of Prince Max Egon zu Fürstenberg, patron of the Donaueschinger Musiktage, during the 1957 and 1958 festivals. When the prince died in April 1959, Stravinsky was asked to write a short composition in his memory. The result was Epitaphium, which received its premiere on 17 October 1959, on one of that year’s three concerts, each of which included a newly composed musical tribute to the prince. In the history of Stravinskys compositional style, the Epitaphium is important as the first work in which he ordered the harmony serially throughout.
[More information: wikipedia.org]")
![Francis Poulenc - Métamorphoses [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/rrQ2No0_L0I/mqdefault.jpg "Francis Poulenc - Métamorphoses [With score]
-Composer: Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (7 January 1899 – 30 January 1963)
-Performers: Catherine Dubosc (Voice) Pascal Rogé (Piano)
Métamorphoses for Voice and Piano, FP 121, written in 1943
00:00 - I. Reine des mouettes {Queen of the gulls}
01:04 - II. Cest ainsi que tu es {Thats how you are}
03:11 - III. Paganini
This is a quick and breezy cycle of three songs by Francis Poulenc (1899 1963). If the opening and especially the last song are too rapid and breezy, the middle song is one that rises to the standards Poulenc set as one of the greatest of French song composers.
It is not unusual that the poetess was a friend of Poulencs early in his career he decided to write songs to texts of living poets whom he knew personally. His biographer Benjamin Ivry points out that like Schubert he sometimes set works of minor poets because he liked the particular writer.
Poulenc wrote three song cycles and one separate song on poems by Louise de Vilmorin. This poet was one of Poulencs favorite people, as he wrote in Journal de mes melodies (Diary of My Songs), his invaluable commentary on almost all his songs, ...because she is beautiful, because she is lame [she had a limp], because she writes innately immaculate French, because her name evokes flowers and vegetables, because she loves her brothers like a lover and her lovers like a sister. He also liked, in her poetry, its qualities of sensitive audacity,...wantonness,...avidity which extended into song....
Others were not so kind. She is ranked as a minor poet, and the British novelist Evelyn Waugh called her an Hungarian countess [she was French but had married a Hungarian count] who pretended to be a French poet.
This cycle takes just four minutes. Part of Poulencs motivation was to recapture his own memories of her, for she and her husband were trapped in Hungary at the outbreak of World War II and Poulenc did not know if he would ever see her again. (He did she returned to Paris, where she ended her days as the companion of writer André Malraux.)
Poulenc does not seem to hold the cycle in very high regard. I have not a great deal to say about these, he begins his uncharacteristically brief and generally unhelpful notes about this song in the Journal.
Reine des mouettes (Queen of the Seagulls) is unpretentious, with airy gracefulness. Pierre Bernac (Poulencs greatest song interpreter) points out that it is not about an actual bird but a charming and elegant young woman blushing behind gray muslin veils. Short and light, it serves well as an introduction to the next song, but does not stand well on its own.
Cest ainsi que tu es (It Is Thus That You Are) is very beautiful, quite romantic, and highly lyrical. Do not ...fear to surrender to it, advises Bernac; Poulenc simply says to sing it without affectation. This is the one song of the set that works well in its own right.
The conclusion, Paganini, consists of some dazzling word play, rapid singing, and a perfunctory ending. Poulenc actually thought of it as a transitional song rather than as a concluding one, so it brings the cycle to a poor ending. He was right.
[allmusic.com]")
![Edvard Grieg - Four Songs, op. 21 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/sB5GVZmXG34/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - Four Songs, op. 21 [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performers (Songs 1, 2, 3): Marianne Hirsti (Voice), Rudolf Jansen (Piano)
-Performers (Song 4): Kjell Magnus Sandve (Voice), Rudolf Jansen (Piano)
Four Songs from Bjørnsons Fiskerjenten for Voice and Piano, op. 21, written in 1870-72
00:00 - I. Det første Møde {The First Meeting} (For original Text turn on subtitles)
01:52 - II. God morgen! {Good Morning!}
02:48 - III. Jeg giver mit digt til våren {To Springtime my Song Im Singing}
04:41 - IV. Tak for dit råd {Say What you Will}")
![Maurice Ravel - Sur lherbe [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/sSeJtcJ-uOA/mqdefault.jpg "Maurice Ravel - Sur lherbe [With score]
-Composer: Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937)
-Performers: Gerard Souzay (baritone), Dalton Baldwin (piano)
Sur lherbe [On the grass], poem by Paul Verlaine, written in 1907
[Translation]*
The abbot rambles. - And you, Marquis,
You have put your wig on askew.
- This old wine from Cyprus is exquisite
Less, Camargo, than the nape of your neck.
- My love... Do, mi, sol, la, si.
- Abbot, your darkness reveals itself.
- May I die, Ladies, if
I fail to unhook a star for each of you!
- I would like to be a little dog!
[We] embrace our shepherdesses, the one
After the other. - Gentlemen, well then?
Do, mi, sol. - Hey! good evening, moon!
translation on [lieder.net]
Sur l’herbe returns to the conversational tone of Histoires naturelles, but retaining all mute ‘e’s. The courtly, pseudo-eighteenth-century atmosphere is Ravel’s home territory, suggested by Phrygian modality with chromatic alterations. Needless to say, the ‘Do, mi, sol, la, si’ and ‘Do, mi, sol’ of the poem are treated as they deserve.
[description by hyperion]")
![Francis Poulenc - Mass in G Major [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/sXJson0oiLU/mqdefault.jpg "Francis Poulenc - Mass in G Major [With score]
Composer: Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (7 January 1899 – 30 January 1963)
Choir: RIAS Kammerchor
Conductor: Marcus Creed
Mass in G Major [Messe en sol majeur], for mixed choir, written in 1937
00:00 - I. Kyrie
03:17 - II. Gloria
07:24 - III. Sanctus
09:58 - IV. Benedictus
13:37 - V. Agnus Dei
In 1936, attempting to overcome his reputation for musical flippancy, Poulenc began studying Monteverdis motets with Nadia Boulanger. Around the same time, his close friend Pierre Octave Ferroud, a composer and critic, was killed in an auto accident. This triggered a personal crisis that led Poulenc back to the Catholicism of his youth. This confluence of spiritual and musical interests led directly to an a cappella mass for soprano solo and choir. The work, dedicated to Poulencs father, is generally serene and confident and follows the usual sequence of Latin movements, although it omits the Credo. Poulencs musical language here gives the impression of austerity, thanks to its firm, no-nonsense melodic writing, but the harmony is actually lush though occasionally mildly dissonant. The outer sections of the Kyrie are strongly rhythmic and affirmative, with a more meditative Christe eleison section at its center. The Gloria not to be confused with Poulencs full-scale, jubilant late work of that name for chorus and orchestra changes melody, harmony, and inflection from phrase to phrase, with solo voices often emerging over a firm bass foundation. The brief Sanctus is light, loving, and cheerful, broadening out near the end for sonorous statements of Osanna in excelsis. The Benedictus naturally emerges from those measured osannas; it is slow, patient, ethereal, and dominated by the highest voices. This time, the concluding homophonic Osanna in excelsis section resembles the stately, antiphonal brass chorales of the Italian Renaissance. The solo soprano introduces the concluding Agnus Dei. The chorus echoes the soloists haunting melismas in unison octaves, breaking into harmony only upon the striking, hushed appearance of the words Miserere nobis (have mercy on us). The harmony now is Romantic, lush, and comforting, but soon the chorus is reduced to ethereal pedal tones as a cushion for the sopranos final, serene utterance of Dona nobis pacem (give us peace).
[allmusic.com]")
![Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), K. 620 {Act II} [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/srPYIQn5zjY/mqdefault.jpg "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), K. 620 {Act II} [With score]
-Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791)
-Libretto: Emanuel Schikaneder
-Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker
-Choir: RIAS Kammerchor
-Vocal Soloists: Fritz Wunderlich (Tamino), Evelyn Lear (Pamina), Dietrich Fischer-Diskau (Papageno), Lisa Otto (Papagena), Roberta Peters (Königin der Nacht), Friedrich Lenz (Monostatos), Franz Crass (Sarastro), Hildegard Hillebrecht (1. Dame), Cvetka Ahlin (2. Dame), Sieglinde Wagner (3. Dame), Rosl Schwaiger (1. Knabe), Antonia Fahberg (2. Knabe), Raili Kostia (3. Knabe), Hubert Hilten (1. Priester), Martin Vantin (2. Priester), Manfred Röhrl (3. Priester), Hans Hotter (Sprecher)
-Conductor: Karl Böhm
Die Zauberflöte [The Magic Flute], Opera, K. 620, written in 1791
Act II
00:00 - IX. Marsch der Priester
03:43 - X. O Isis und Osiris
08:36 - XI. Bewahret euch vor Weibertücken
09:44 - XII. Wie? wie? wie? Ihr an diesem Schrekkenort?
13:48 - XIII. Alles fühlt der Liebe Freuden
15:29 - XIV. Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen
19:14 - XV. In diesen heilgen Hallen
25:04 - XVI. Seid uns zum zweiten Mal willkommen
28:00 - XVII. Ach, ich fühls, es ist verschwunden, ewig hin der Liebe Glück
32:29 - XVIII. O Isis und Osiris, welche Wonne!
36:08 - XIX. Soll ich dich, Teurer, nicht mehr sehn?
40:19 - XX. Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen wünscht Papageno sich
45:14 - XXI. Bald prangt, den Morgen zu verkünden (Finale)
Despite its whimsical libretto and obviously emblematic characters, Mozarts singspiel The Magic Flute is regarded as one of the greatest operas of the entire repertoire. In fact, as music historian Philip Downs has noted, many holds that The Magic Flute is among the greatest human documents, worthy to stand beside Bachs St. Matthews Passion. In this story about good and evil, Sarastro, the high priest of an enlightened brotherhood, abducts Pamina, whose mother is the evil Queen of the NIght. The Queen sends Prince Tamino to save Pamina. Tamino not only falls in love with Pamina, but also accepts Sarastro as the incarnation of truth and goodness. Taminos counterpart is Papageno, the Queens bird catcher, whose earthiness counterbalances Taminos idealism. Predictably, love and goodness triumph, Sarastro overcomes the Queen of the Night, Tamino and Pamina are united after many trials, and Papageno finds Papagena, a female version of himself. The possible sources of Emanuel Schikaneders libretto include Jakob August Libeskinds story Lulu or the Magic Flute, published in Wielands Dschinnistan, a collection of fairy tales.
The Magic Flute was written in 1791, the year of Mozarts death. Although overwhelmed by many adversities, Mozart found great joy in working on an opera for Schikaneders Theater auf der Wieden, in the suburbs of Vienna, which catered to unsophisticated audiences. The Magic Flute has been called a Masonic opera: both librettist and composer were Masons, and the opera abounds with Masonic symbolism, culminating in the triumph over light over darkness. Although the Masonic flavor of The Magic Flute is undeniable, what makes it a great work of art is Mozarts unique ability to translate his humanistic ideals into music of extraordinary beauty and evocativeness. The fundamental theme of this opera is love, a theme to which Mozart fully dedicates his entire genius. To the listener, Mozarts ode to love brings eighteenth century opera in its full splendor. Not only is the music, which includes sparkling arias, charming buffo scenes, and ensembles of transcendent beauty, enchanting and invigorating, but it also effectively coalesces with the story to create a powerful, convincing work of art.
[allmusic.com]")
![Maurice Ravel - Rêves [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/trwdNflvikA/mqdefault.jpg "Maurice Ravel - Rêves [With score]
Composer: Joseph-Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 28 December 1937)
Performers: Claire Brua (mezzo-soprano), David Abramovitz (piano)
Librettist: Léon-Paul Fargue
(From The Ravel Edition)
Written in 1927")
![Edvard Grieg - Holberg Suite (Piano), op. 40 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/uCvE1HPEcoU/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - Holberg Suite (Piano), op. 40 [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performer: Gerhard Oppitz
Fra Holbergs tid {From Holbergs Time} or Holberg Suite for Piano, op. 40, written in 1884
00:00 - I. Praeludium
02:34 - II. Sarabande
07:10 - III. Gavotte
10:45 - IV. Air
19:59 - V. Rigaudon
Despite the fact that Ludvig Holberg (1684 - 1754) lived most of his life in Denmark and was considered the father of Danish literature, his birthplace was Bergen, Norway, and for the bicentenary of his birth, Norwegians celebrated heartily. Even as a resident of Denmark, Holberg recalled in his works his childhood and celebrated the time that he spent there. Made a baron in 1747, his was an imposing reputation. Educated at the universities of Copenhagen and Oxford, Holbergs writings are regarded as having established Danish as a literary language. Prior to his time, Danish was employed only in ballads and hymns; plays were presented in French or German. Besides more than a dozen successful plays (several of them comedies), he wrote a history of his adopted country and published a collection of philosophical treatises.
Notwithstanding his stronger relationship to Denmark, Norwegians were pleased to acknowledge Holberg, and Grieg, also a Bergen native, was one of those who directed the planning for the event. As early as 1878, he contributed a fee from his publisher to the erecting of a Holberg statue in Bergen. Further, he wrote two works, the first for male voices, a Cantata for the Unveiling of the Holberg Memorial, and a second (of more lasting consequence) entitled From Holbergs Time: Suite in Olden Style. Grieg himself, a more than capable pianist, premiered the piano suite just days after the dedication of the memorial. Its great success led Grieg to score it for string orchestra the following year. Both versions enjoy enduring popularity.
The suite in five sections was intended by Grieg to recall the dance suites from Holbergs lifetime, which corresponded to the period of the Baroque. The Praeludium which opens the work is a section of such simple radiance that it imprints itself unforgettably on the listeners consciousness. The contrasting Sarabande moves soberly, reflectively, and with unfailing elegance. The Gavotte which forms the third section trips beguilingly over the course of its three minutes, yielding to the Andante religioso tempo of the Aria. The final section, a Rigaudon, returns the listener to the buoyant mood of the beginning prelude. Through each of the five sections, the level of invention is matched by a refinement and purity of feeling that marks this as among the most cherishable short works of the late nineteenth century.
[allmusic.com]")
![Robert Schumann - 12 Gedichte (Kerner-Lieder) [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/uLfQ0GupJgw/mqdefault.jpg "Robert Schumann - 12 Gedichte (Kerner-Lieder) [With score]
Composer: Robert Schumann (8 June 1810 29 July 1856)
Performers: Peter Schreier (Tenor), Norman Shetler (Piano)
Years of recording: 1972/73
Zwölf Gedichte op. 35, Liederreihe nach Kerner, written in 1840
00:03 - I. Lust der Sturmnacht
01:22 - II. Stirb, Lieb und Freud!
07:26 - III. Wanderlied
10:30 - IV. Erstes Grün
12:46 - V. Sehnsucht nach der Waldgegend
14:27 - VI. Auf das Trinkglas eines verstorbenen Freundes
18:06 - VII. Wanderung
19:24 - VIII. Stille Liebe
22:18 - IX. Frage
23:37 - X. Stille Tränen
27:47 - XI. Wer machte dich so krank?
29:40 - XII. Alte Laute
Schumann wrote many of his first songs to Kerners poetry when he was just 17, and in May 1840, his most prolific year, he began to think about writing settings for other Kerner texts, writing this cycle in November and December.
Even though written during a happy time in his life, its dominant emotions are longing and grief rather than contentedness. The fifth song, Sehnsucht nach der Waldgegend, (Longing for the forests) expresses an almost aching yearning with its arching vocal phrases, which rise in longing and fall back dejected and unappeased, and with the quiet resignation of the piano chords as the vocal lines become more earth-bound, murmuring rather than exclaiming. (This song was one of Claras favorites.) The tenth, Stille Tränen, (Silent weeping) is one of his most passionate expressions, with its outbursts of grief shared between voice and piano. However, in the sixth song, Auf das Trinkglas eines verstorbenen Freundes, (To the drinking glass of a dead friend) the loss is sublimated in mystical thoughts, expressed with a sonority reminiscent of Mozarts Masonic music, and the seventh, Wanderung, is one of his most effectively jubilant pieces, comparable to An meinem Herzen from Frauenliebe und Leben, with an easy melodiousness that shows no signs of forcing, and where there are no hints of impending grief.
In the second song, when the woman prays with the words of the title Sterb, Lieb und Freund (Die, love and joy), the music uses a refrain from the final chorale from St. John Passion, an allusion to Schumanns attendence at a performance of Bachs work earlier in the year. The first song, Lust der Sturmnacht, (The joy of a stormy night), is noteworthy for the masterful way that it maintains a musical consistency while remaining faithful to the text. It opens with pounding chords from the piano and an equally turbulent vocal line, vividly painting the image of the storm. When the texts mood changes to describe the joy of being indoors with a loved one, the music becomes softer and the key changes suddenly, but the rhythm continues the pounding effect. This way, the effect of the storm is maintained, emphasizing the sense of the poem. However, a similar textual transition in the third song, Wanderlied, is less successfully carried out; the change is as sudden as that in the first song, but here it jars somewhat.
Another point of interest is in the concluding two songs, Wer machte dic so krank? and Alte Laute (Who made you so ill? and Old sounds), in which he uses the exact same melody for two different poems. This presents a challenge to performers, who must provide two different interpretations of the same music, to fit the different texts and moods.
[allmusic.com]")
![Edvard Grieg - Lyric Pieces (Volume III), op. 43 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/v7sSDzWH4RQ/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - Lyric Pieces (Volume III), op. 43 [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performer: Håkon Austbø
6 Lyric Pieces Book III, op. 43, written in 1886
00:00 - I. Sommerfugl (Butterfly)
01:39 - II. Ensom vandrer (Lone wanderer)
03:18 - III. I Hjemmet (In my native land)
05:05 - IV. Småfugl (Little bird)
06:55 - V. Erotikk (Erotikon)
09:10 - VI. Til våren (To spring)
Grieg quickly discovered that his greatest talent was for short, evocative compositions. Naturally, a shift in the emphasis of his music from longer and more abstract pieces to shorter pieces took place. Even when he wrote short pieces, he tended at first to give them abstract (tempo marking) titles; his first forty piano compositions (in five sets) were titleless. He first assigned titles in 1867, in a suite he called Lyric Pieces. This came to be Book 1 of ten sets. Each was a great success and thus delighted his publisher, particularly beginning around 1885, when Grieg turned out a set about every two or three years. Each sold out upon publication.
The first two or three movements were written while Grieg was staying in Denmark. It is At Home, which was actually composed while longing for home: Grieg had written to his friend Frants Beyer about his wish to go out in a boat on a quiet morning. The other day I was so full of this longing that it turned itself into a gentle song of thanksgiving. There is nothing new in it, but it is genuine and as it is really nothing other than a message to you, I enclose it here. He wrote the other four movements, including Solitary Wanderer (where expressed the longing he alluded to in his letter), back in Norway. Erotikon was inspired by his love for his wife, Nina. The final movement, To Spring, stands as the programmatic representative for the whole set, for, as Grieg wrote to his publisher, all six pieces comprise a set of spring songs.
[allmusic.com]")
![Edvard Grieg - Landkjending, op. 31 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/vqMEXEJlpBM/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - Landkjending, op. 31 [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Orchestra: Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
-Vocal soloist: Håkan Hagegård
-Choir: Bergen Philharmonic Choir
-Conductor: Ole Kristian Ruud
Landkjending {Land-Sighting}, cantata for baritone, male chorus, orchestra and organ ad lib, op. 31, written in 1872")
![Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - String Quartet No. 20, K. 499 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/w6YQM87WgR8/mqdefault.jpg "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - String Quartet No. 20, K. 499 [With score]
-Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791)
-Performers: Amadeus Quartet
String Quartet No. 20 in D Major, K. 499 Hoffmeister, written in 1786
00:07 - I. Allegretto
07:24 - II. Menuetto. Allegretto
10:40 - III. Adagio
19:25 - IV. Allegro
Between 1782 and 1785, Mozart composed six string quartets, which were subsequently published late in 1785 with a dedication to Joseph Haydn. They represent the pinnacle of Mozarts contribution to the form, a group of works that not only solve the problems of this difficult medium, but which also represent his tribute to the pioneering quartets of his friend and colleague. Thereafter, Mozart would compose only four more string quartets, including this one, subsequently turning his attention to the string quintet.
This isolated D major Quartet (scored for the normal disposition of two violins, viola and cello) was entered in his own thematic catalogue on August 19, 1786, less than two months after the premiere of Le nozze di Figaro. It owes its nickname to the Viennese publisher Franz Anton Hoffmeister, who first issued the quartet in the same year it was composed. Nothing is known of the circumstances of its composition, although it has been suggested that it was commissioned by Hoffmeister, who was also a friend of Mozarts.
Shortly before the composers death in December, 1791, the quartet was the subject of a review in the journal of the German Philharmonic Society. The reviewer, who was also considering the Piano Quartet in E flat, K. 493, notes that Both these quartets are written with that fire of the imagination and that correctness, which long since won for Herr M. the reputation of one of the best composers in Germany. The first [the string quartet] consists of four, the second of only three movements, and even the Minuet in the former is composed with an ingenuity (being interwoven with canonic imitations) that one not infrequently finds wanting in other such compositions. It is the Minuet (the second movement) that has subsequently excited particular comment from Mozarts biographers, being described by H. C. Robbins Landon as one of the most original in eighteenth century music and by Alfred Einstein as unique. While the quartet is generally recognized as being less complex than the six Haydn Quartets, it remains a work of great beauty, with an Adagio of great profundity, and a final Allegro which treads the ambiguous line between tragedy and comedy that so often characterizes Mozarts later works.
[allmusic.com]")
