String Quartet in E flat major, K.428

String Quartet in E flat major K.428 (1783)

Allegro non troppo

Andante con moto

Menuetto: allegretto

Allegro vivace

While Haydn praised Mozart’s “taste” and “knowledge” others were not so sure. Listening to a work like K.428, the fourth in the Haydn set, it is not difficult to understand how such doubts arose. The introduction of the main theme in the opening bars of the first movement is harmonically baffling while the bitonal event in the development is startling even now. The Andante con moto is so adventurous that it offers an extraordinary anticipation of the Tristan Prelude in the second subject. The Menuetto, however, is a clear tribute to Haydn, whose example no doubt also inspired the witty sonata-rondo finale. were not so sure. Listening to a work like K.428, the fourth in the Haydn series, it is not difficult to understand how such doubts arose. The introduction of the main theme in the opening bars of the first movement is harmonically baffling, while the Andante con moto is so adventurous that it offers an extraordinary anticipation of the Tristan Prelude in the second subject. The Menuetto, on the other hand, is a clear tribute to Haydn, whose example no doubt inspired the witty sonata-rondo finale.

In this progressive context it is surprising to find Mozart reverting in the second part of the Menuetto to a theme he wrote eleven years earlier in his Quartet in F, K.158. The first part of the minuet, with its theme echoing the opening of the equivalent movement of Haydn’s Op.33, No.2 (also in E flat), and the trio, with its delightfully rustic scoring, are an obvious tribute to the dedicatee of the work.

There is also something of Haydn in the playful main theme of the sonata-rondo finale, where Mozart has as much fun with the two opening phrases, and the rest between them, as the older composer would have done. If his long-term prudence, in making a thematic link between the second subject of this movement and that of the first, is unsensational in comparison with the wittily elaborate preparation for the last return of the main theme, it is no less effective for that.

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 condemned by his distinguished composer colleague Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf for their “overwhelming and unrelenting artfulness.”

Listening to a work like the Quartet in E flat, K.428, the fourth in the Haydn series, it is not difficult to understand how such doubts arose. The introduction of the main theme in the opening bars of the first movement is harmonically baffling and, although the basic E flat tonality is established in the meantime, the second subject has a similar harmonic ambiguity on its first entry. What must be the earliest example of bitonality, presented not as a joke but in all seriousness, occurs at the beginning of a development where the harmonies move so far from the tonic as to make the re-entry of the first subject in E flat major sound almost wrong.

The A flat major Andante con moto is another highly adventurous, harmonically prophetic movement, as Beethoven clearly appreciated when writing the Adagio molto of his Op.59 No.1. But Mozart is more radical even than Beethoven in that he offers no distinct, detachable melody and relies instead on unheard-of harmonies and voluptuous sonorities to seduce the ear. While it is not an unmelodious piece, the effect of the movement is to create and sustain harmonic tensions, not least by means of an extraordinary anticipation of the Tristan Prelude in the second subject. The beginning of the recapitulation is not a thematic event so much as a return to the security of A flat major in the intimacy of the lower registers of the four instruments.

In this progressive context it is surprising to find Mozart reverting in the second part of the Menuetto to a theme he wrote eleven years earlier in his Quartet in F, K.158. The first part of the minuet, with its theme echoing the opening of the equivalent movement of Haydn’s Op.33, No.2 (also in E flat), and the trio, with its delightfully rustic scoring, are an obvious tribute to the dedicatee of the work.

There is also something of Haydn in the playful main theme of the sonata-rondo finale, where Mozart has as much fun with the two opening phrases, and the rest between them, as the older composer would have done. If his long-term prudence, in making a thematic link between the second subject of this movement and that of the first, is unsensational in comparison with the wittily elaborate preparation for the last return of the main theme, it is no less effective for that.

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.”

Listening to a work like the Quartet in E flat, K.428, the fourth in the Haydn series, it is not difficult to understand how such doubts arose. The opening of the first movement - with all four instruments rising quietly in unison through an octave, falling through a tritone, rising again through three semitones - is harmonically baffling. There is no unequivocal chord of E flat major for seven bars. In the twelfth bar the opening theme is presented fully harmonised and only then is the tonality of the work fully apparent. The second subject has a similar harmonic ambiguity. It is preceded by a modulation to the dominant but when the new theme enters, the tonality is uncertain and not confirmed as B flat major for as long as seven bars.

What must be the earliest example of bitonality, presented not as a joke but in all seriousness, occurs at the beginning of the development - the first subject on the two violins in B flat in canon with viola and cello in E flat. It is only because of the vague tonal implications of the theme itself that the clash is not more evident. Though apparently much concerned with a figure from the second subject, the interest of the development is mainly harmonic, the tonality moving so far from the tonic as to make the re-entry of the first subject in E flat major almost wrong.

The A flat major Andante con moto is another highly adventurous, harmonically prophetic movement. Beethoven was so impressed by it that his own quartet slow movements in the same key echo it in one way or another, and there is a particularly close relationship between it and the F minor Adagio molto of his Op.59, No.1. But Mozart is more radical even than Beethoven in that he offers no distinct, detachable melody and relies instead on unheard-of harmonies and voluptuous sonorities to seduce the ear. It is not an unmelodious piece: one of its great qualities is the free melodic development in the four voices within a daringly fluid texture. But the effect of the movement is to create extraordinary harmonic tensions, including an extraordinary anticipation of the Tristan Prelude in the second subject. The beginning of the recapitulation is not a thematic event so much as a return to the security of A flat major in the intimacy of the lower registers of the four instruments.

In this progressive context it is surprising to find Mozart reverting in the second part of the Menuetto to a theme he wrote eleven years earlier in his Quartet in F, K.158. The first part of the minuet, with its theme echoing the opening of the equivalent movement of Haydn’s Op.33, No.2 (also in E flat), and the trio, with its delightfully rustic scoring, are an obvious tribute to the dedicatee of the work.

There is also something of Haydn in the playful main theme of the sonata-rondo finale, where Mozart has as much fun with the two opening phrases, and the rest between them, as the older composer would have done. If his long-term prudence, in making a thematic link between the second subject of this movement and that of the first, is unsensational in comparison with the wittily elaborate preparation for the last return of the main theme, it is no less effective for that.