String Quartet in D minor K.421 (1783)

String Quartet in D minor K.421 (1783)

Allegro

Andante

Menuetto: allegretto

Allegretto ma non troppo

According to Haydn, Mozart had “taste and … the most profound knowledge of compositon.” If by “taste” he meant sensitivity, there is no better example than K.421, the second of the six quartets Mozart dedicated to him. The opening Allegro is poised on the most delicate emotional balance, while the Andante, a perfectly symmetrical ternary construction, is another serious rather than sentimental inspiration. After an entertaining demonstration of “knowledge” in the vigorously contrapuntal Menuetto, the finale, four variations on a siciliano melody borrowed from Haydn, resolves the long-sustained emotional ambiguity in a last-note decision in favour of D major.

Although he would obviously have been delighted to be declared by Joseph Haydn “the greatest composer known to me either in person or in name,” Mozart must have been even more pleased to be reassured that he had “taste and, what is more, the most profound knowledge of composition.” Other musicians recognised the “knowledge” but were dubious about the “taste.” The very same string quartets which inspired Haydn’s testimonial - the set of six Mozart dedicated to him in 1785 - were considered by a rival publisher to be in “very peculiar taste.” A distinguished composer colleague, Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, disliked their “overwhelming and unrelenting artfulness.”

If by taste Haydn meant sensitivity, there is no better example than the second of the six quartets Mozart dedicated to him, the one in D minor, K.421. The opening Allegro, which Mozart was inclined at one time to describe as Allegro moderato, is poised on a particularly delicate emotional balance. Take it too quickly and it seems petulant; take it too slowly and it seems sentimental. In fact, the gracefully serious first subject is too subtly characterised to be defined in such plain terms. It leads quite naturally, though not without hesitation, to a more cheerful second subject in the relative major. No less naturally - after a development section featuring a tasteful display of the composer’s knowledge of counterpoint - that same theme leads on its recapitulation to a not at all cheerful recall of the second subject in D minor. The movement ends in that key with no hint of a move towards a major resolution.

The Andante in F major is another serious rather than sentimental inspiration. A perfectly symmetrical ternary construction, it incorporates a lovely passage in A flat major - separated from the preceding chords of C minor by only a short silence - at the heart of the middle section. As for the vigorously contrapuntal Menuetto in D minor, while the likes of Dittersdorf might have been overwhelmed by its “unrelenting artfu

lness,”they would surely have been charmed by the apparently artless simplicity of the trio section in D major.

The last movement is a set of four variations on a minor-key version of a siciliano melody borrowed from the finale of Haydn’s Quartet in D major, Op.33, which is also in variation form. Mozart’s variations, as Haydn must have observed, are the more imaginative but, with the possible exception of the complex cross rhythms of the second of them - which was evidently of great interest to Beethoven - they contain nothing which would have overwhelmed his contemporaries. The final resolution of the long-sustained emotional ambiguity of the work is a literally last-note decision in favour of D major.

Gerald Larner©

Although he would obviously have been delighted to be declared by Joseph Haydn “the greatest composer known to me either in person or in name,” Mozart must have been even more pleased to be reassured that he had “taste and, what is more, the most profound knowledge of composition.” Other musicians recognised the “knowledge” but were dubious about the “taste.” The very same string quartets which inspired Haydn’s testimonial – the set of six the younger composer dedicated to him in 1785 – were considered by a rival publisher to be in “very peculiar taste.” A distinguished composer colleague, Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, disliked their “overwhelming and unrelenting artfulness.”

If by taste Haydn meant sensitivity, there is no better example than the second of the six “Haydn” quartets, the one in D minor K.421. The opening Allegro, which Mozart was inclined at one time to describe as Allegro moderato, is poised on a particularly delicate emotional balance. Take it too quickly and it seems petulant; take it too slowly and it seems sentimental. In fact, the gracefully serious first subject is too subtly characterised to be defined in such plain terms. It leads quite naturally, though not without hesitation, to a more cheerful second subject in the relative major. No less naturally – after a development section featuring a tasteful display of the composer’s knowledge of counterpoint – that same theme leads on its recapitulation to a not at all cheerful recall of the second subject in D minor. The movement ends in that key with no hint of a move towards a major resolution.

The Andante in F major is another serious rather than sentimental inspiration. A perfectly symmetrical ternary construction, it incorporates a lovely passage in A flat major – separated from the preceding chords of C minor only by a short silence – at the heart of the middle section. As for the vigorously contrapuntal Menuetto    in D minor, equal in its severity to that of the later Symphony in G minor, while the likes of Dittersdorf might have been overwhelmed by its “unrelenting artfulness,” they would surely have been charmed by the apparently artless simplicity of the Tyrolean trio section in D major with its yodelling first violin joined at the end by the viola an octave below.

The last movement is a set of four variations on a minor-key version of a simple siciliano    melody borrowed from the finale of Haydn’s Quartet in D major, Op.33, which is also in variation form. Mozart’s variations, as Haydn must have observed, are the more imaginative but, with the possible exception of the complex cross rhythms of the second of them – which was evidently of great interest to Beethoven – they contain nothing which would have overwhelmed his contemporaries. After a brief recall of the theme in its original form but at a quicker tempo, the final resolution of the long-sustained emotional ambiguity of the work is a literally last-note decision in favour of D major.

The one quartet of the Haydn set in a minor key was completed on the same day as Constanze gave birth to the Mozarts’ first son Raimund Leopold.