Mozart: String Quartet No. 19, Dissonance | Gewandhaus Quartet

Mozart with dissonances in a Baroque castle: The Gewandhaus Quartet played the String Quartet No. 19 in C major (K. 465), the “Dissonances Quartet” in the stylish ambience of the Rammenau Baroque Castle in 2005.

(00:00) I. Adagio - Allegro
(10:00) II. Andante cantabile
(17:30) III. Menuetto - Allegretto
(22:44) IV. Allegro molto

To this day, the epithet “Dissonance Quartet” may be off-putting to some, but it may arouse curiosity in others. Some of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s contemporaries (1756 - 1791) thought that the String Quartet No. 19 in C major (K. 465) was faulty: either the notes were set incorrectly or the musicians simply were not playing it properly. Yet Mozart had composed the slow introduction of his 19th string quartet, to which the epithet refers, with the greatest sophistication. Before the main key of the quartet (C major) appears, the strings are “searching” for their actual target key, starting from C minor and wandering through transpositions and tonal frictions.

Mozart completed this unusual string quartet on January 14, 1785. It is one of the six “Haydn Quartets” that were written between 1782 and 1785 and were all dedicated to Joseph Haydn, whom Mozart admired. Haydn’s string quartets Op. 33 had inspired Mozart to write his six quartets. Haydn was even invited to the private performance at Mozart’s home – and is said to have been very impressed by his skill as a composer.

Mozart wrote a total of 23 string quartets, which, although not the focus of his immense oeuvre, remain among the most popular of their genre to this day. The Dissonance Quartet in particular is considered by connoisseurs to be a high point of European chamber music.

The Gewandhaus Quartet (also named Leipzig Gewandhaus Quartet) was founded in 1808 and is considered one of the first professional quartets in the world. It is composed of the soloists and concertmasters of the Gewandhaus Orchestra. Numerous premieres of quartets by renowned composers have been performed by the Gewandhaus Quartet.

Playing at this concert:
Frank-Michael Erben (1st violin)
Conrad Suske (2nd violin)
Volker Metz (viola)
Jürnjakob Timm (cello)

© EuroArts Music International

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