String Quartet in G major, K.387

Mozart’s joy in the quartet medium was never to be more intense than in the first of the set of six he dedicated to Haydn. An extraordinary aspect of both the first two movements of K387 is the detail of the dynamic colouring, which is particularly striking where note-by-note alternations of forte and piano contradict the metrical rhythm. The Andante cantabile is so resourceful in its scoring and its harmonic enterprise that melodic interest is a secondary consideration. Integrating fugue and sonata form to an extent neither Mozart nor Haydn had achieved before, the Molto allegro is a structural triumph. without a single memorable melodic idea.

The same technique is applied to the opening theme of the Menuetto, where the regular alternation of p and f crotchets creates a kind of duple time within the basic triple time. The situation is further complicated when the viola joins the second violin in one of these phrases and starts on the wrong foot. The Trio section escapes such distortion until shortly before the end, where the second violin suddenly attempts to shift the emphasis onto the second beat.

The first subject, for example, consists of little more than a series of elegant gruppetti on the first violin over repeated notes in the other parts. The point of this apparently conventional C major material becomes clear later. In the meantime, after a violin cadenza leading into an eerie modulation into G minor, the attention is occupied by a second subject where mere fragments of melody float under rippling arpeggios on viola and first violin. It is on its reappearance in C major that the first subject, contrary to all expectations, is diverted into harmonic areas so remote that, although it eventually finds its way back to the home key, the whole movement is unsettled by the experience.

The Finale, integrating fugue and sonata form to an extent neither Mozart nor Haydn had achieved before, is a structural triumph comparable only to the last movement of the “Jupiter” Symphony. Mozart does it here by interleaving and sometimes overlapping pages of what could almost be two separate structures, a fugue on the one hand and a sonata movement on the other. He first presents a fugal exposition on a Jupiter-like theme in G major and then interrupts it with a vigorous homophonic first subject in the same key. Both fugue and sonata movement have their second subjects and, most brilliantly, they are developed simultaneously. In the recapitulation, however, they are separated, the homophonic first subject reappearing first but in the wrong key of C major - which makes the combined re-entry of the two fugue subjects, as though in a double fugue in G major, the climax of the movement and of the whole work.

The earliest of Mozart’s mature string quartet is also one of the greatest. As the first of the set of six dedicated to Haydn, it is a little self-conscious perhaps but the joy in the medium, the interest in the four-part texture and the delight in the available range of colour, were never to be more intense.

One of the more extraordinary aspects of the first two movements is the detailed dynamics of their scoring. The main theme of the Allegro vivace assai, for example varies between forte and piano with every one of its four bars. Later, the transition to the closing theme of the exposition, in which the first violin’s dramatic upward and downward leaps are emphasised by    p and f dynamics in direct contradiction of the natural metrical stresses, offers something quite unheard of up to that time. The same technique is applied to the opening theme of the Menuetto, where the regular alternation of p and f crotchets creates a kind of duple time within the basic triple time. The Andante cantabile is so fascinating in its scoring and its harmonic colouring that any memorable melodic idea would only be a distraction. The closing Allegro molto, integrating fugue and sonata form to an extent neither Mozart nor Haydn had achieved before, is a structural triumph comparable only to the last movement of the “Jupiter” Symphony.

The earliest of Mozart’s mature string quartets, dated 31 December 1782, is also one of the greatest. As the first the set of six dedicated to Haydn, it is a little self-conscious perhaps but the joy in the medium, the interest in the four-part texture and the delight in the available range of colour, were never to be more intense.

One of the more extraordinary aspects of the first two movements is the detailed dynamics of their scoring. The main theme of the Allegro vivace assai, for example varies between forte and piano with every one of its four bars. The second subject, introduced piano by the second violin and repeated forte by the first violin, is obviously not particularly remarkable in this respect. But the transition to the closing theme of the exposition, in which the first violin’s dramatic upward and downward leaps are emphasised by p and f dynamics in direct contradiction of the natural metrical stresses, offers something quite unheard of up to that time. The effect of these dynamic syncopations is explored in the development where they provoke an outburst of rhythmic syncopations so disorientated by further contradictory dynamic emphases that the whole passage threatens to lose touch with metrical reality.

The same technique is applied to the opening theme of the Menuetto, where the regular alternation of p and f crotchets creates a kind of duple time within the basic triple time. The situation is further complicated when the viola joins the second violin in one of these phrases and starts on the wrong foot. The Trio section escapes such distortion until shortly before the end, where the second violin suddenly attempts to shift the emphasis onto the second beat.

The Andante cantabile is so resourceful in its scoring and its harmonic colouring that it survives without a single memorable melodic idea. The first subject, for example, consists of little more than a series of elegant gruppetti on the first violin over repeated notes in the other parts. The point of this apparently conventional C major material becomes clear later. In the meantime, after a violin cadenza leading into an eerie modulation into G minor, the attention is occupied by a second subject where mere fragments of melody float under rippling arpeggios on viola and first violin. It is on its reappearance in C major that the first subject, contrary to all expectations, is diverted into harmonic areas so remote that, although it eventually finds its way back to the home key, the whole movement is unsettled by the experience.

The Finale, integrating fugue and sonata form to an extent neither Mozart nor Haydn had achieved before, is a structural triumph comparable only to the last movement of the “Jupiter” Symphony. Mozart does it here by interleaving and sometimes overlapping pages of what could almost be two separate structures, a fugue on the one hand and a sonata movement on the other. He first presents a fugal exposition on a Jupiter-like theme in G major and then interrupts it with a vigorous homophonic first subject in the same key. Both fugue and sonata movement have their second subjects and, most brilliantly, they are developed simultaneously. In the recapitulation, however, they are separated, the homophonic first subject reappearing first but in the wrong key of C major - which makes the combined re-entry of the two fugue subjects, as though in a double fugue in G major, the climax of the movement and of the whole work.