String Quintet No. 6 (Mozart)

The String Quintet No. 6 in E-flat major, K. 614, was completed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on April 12, 1791. It is Mozart's last major chamber work. Like all of Mozart's string quintets, it is a "viola quintet" in that it is scored for string quartet and an extra viola (two violins, two violas and cello.)

Movements

The work is in standard four movement form:

I. Allegro di molto ⁶
₈ in E-flat major
II. Andante in B-flat major
III. Menuetto: Allegretto ³
₄ in E-flat major, with trio in E-flat major
IV. Allegro ²
₄ in E-flat major

Reception

This quintet, along with the contemporary string quintet K593, are often dismissed as second-rate works reflecting the composer's straightened circumstances towards the end of his life. However, Eisen makes the point that rather than reflecting the "Classical" ideal, they are a new path for Mozart, one which eschews surface variety for the exploration of a single motivating idea that determines both the surface and structure of the work.^[1] While the slow movement is apparently a theme and variations, Eisen points out that it also takes on the characteristics of a rondo and of a sonata.

References

^ Eisen, Cliff, ed. (2008). The Cambridge Mozart encyclopedia (Repr ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-521-85659-1.

Melvin Berger, "Guide to Chamber Music", 2001, Dover

External links

Quintett in Es: Score and critical report (in German) in the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe
String Quintet No. 6: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
Performance of String Quintet No. 6 by the Musicians from Marlboro from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in MP3 format

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[1] Eisen, Cliff, ed. (2008). The Cambridge Mozart encyclopedia (Repr ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-521-85659-1.

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