Luogo e data di registrazione		Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Roma (Italia) - 1-10 luglio 1952
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer / Engineer		John Culshaw, Victor Olof | Gil Went
	Matrici 78rpm		Decca - IAR 545-50 (KV 590) Decca - IAR 551-52 (KV 155)
	Prima Edizione LP		Decca - LXT 2852 - (1 LP) - (p) 03/1954 - Mono London - LL 665 - (1 LP) - (p) 06/1954 - Mono
	Prima Edizione CD		Paragon/Amadeus - AMP 007-013 - [7 CDs - (5°, 5-8; 4°, 5-7)] - (p) 2009 - ADD
	Note		I riferimenti a date e codici sono stati desunti dal libro "Decca Classical, 1929-2009" di Philip Stuart.

STRING QUARTET No. 23 IN F MAJOR (K.590) In the spring of 1789 Mozart visited Berlin in the company of Prince Carl Lichnowsky who, two years his junior, was later to become one of Beethoven's principal patrons. Mozart hoped that the visit to the Prussian capital might bring him more lucrative employment than Vienna offered. In effect, he received from King Frederick William II a sum of money, which soon melted away, and a commission to compose a set of six string quartets and a set of easy pianoforte sonatas for one of the Princesses. The first quartet was composed within a month of his return to Vienna in June. Two more were completed by June of the following year, the second of these being the Quartet in F, which was destined to be his last composition in this form. He never completed the set. The F major Quartet and its companion in B flat (K.589) follow in the catalogue of Mozart's works immediately after Così fan tutte, which was produced in Vienna with little success in January, 1790. The lapse of five months without any serious work being done is the measure of Mozart's depression under the weight of his debts, his wife's ill-health and his general lack of success in Vienna. Yet this depression nowhere shows itself in the quartets, which are full of the joie de vivre that informs the wittiest of Mozart's Italian operas. The F major Quartet is the most capricious in mood of all. Another characteristic which this work shares with the other two composed for the Prussian King in the prominence given to the 'cello. Mozart's royal patron himself played that instrument and the composer was courtier enough to ensaure that the King should have an important part to play. The opening Allegro moderato has as its principal subject a typically Mozartian theme, which moves upwards in minims quitly, suddenly changes to forte and then rushes downwards in a helter-akelter of semiquavers. The second subject is a variant of this, so that the interest of the movement lies in its ingenuity and fine craftsmanship rather than in any diversity of contrast of themes. The development, after giving some attention to a subsidiary idea, consists of a contrapuntal treatment of the main theme. Presently, the toni key returns for the recapitulation, which is, however, far from being an exact replica of the exposition. The movement is completed by a coda of a dozen bars which reverts to the playful mood of the beginning. The second movement bears the indication Andante in the manuscript, though in the first published edition issued shortly after Mozart's death it is marked Allegretto. The change which has been perpetunted in most editions of the work, may or may not have had the composer's authority, but at least it indicates accurately the spirit of the movement, which accords with the humorous character of its predecessor. The simple theme in C major, has the thythm of a siciliano. As it proceeds it spreots a number of surprising and flowery branches, the 'cellist having a prominent share of the interest. The Minuet is in the manner of the "German Dance" from which the Waltz was to evolve in the nineteenth century. Its peculiarity is that the main theme has a seven-bar rhythm - a feature more often found in Haydn than Mozart, whose themes usually tend to be four-square. Similarly the Trio has a theme in five-bar rhythm. In the finale, as so often happens in Mozart's later works, a typical rondo is given greater substance by being subjected to development in the manner of a first movement. The influence of Haydn is apparent in the sudden pauses which punctuate the progress of the movement and in the comical, rustic drone-basses. The D minor episode, which casts a momentary shadow on the gay proceedings, and the polyphonic working-out are purely Mozartian. The finely woven texture of this finale makes it a worthy ending to Mozart's quartet-composition. STRING QUARTET NO. 2 IN DI MAJOR (K.155) In 1772 Mozart, then aged sixteen, was commissioned to compose an opera, Lucio Silla, for Milan. On his way there he composed at Bozen (Bolzano) and Verona the first of a set of six string quartets, which are his first important essays in the form. The D major Quartet seems to have been begun at the end of October and finished in the first week in November. There are only three movements, though its successor in G major, like some of the others in the series, has a Minuet. The style of the Quartet approximates to that of the divertimenti which occupied Mpzart during these early years. But there is already an appreciation of true quartet texture, especially in the independence of the viola-part. In the opening movement the interest centres mainly in the second subject, which is intrinsically more striking than the conventional opening. A new idea treated in canon opens the short development which is mainly concerned with the second subject. The recapitulation is rounded off with a bried coda. The slow movement has two distinct themes, of which the second is played by the two violins in alternation. The finale is a rondo with a lively Haydnesque subject, between whose several appearances a number of brief episodes intervene. This record embraces, then, the first and last of Mozart's string Quartets, for though some earlier essays in the form exist, K.155 in D major in the first that shows genuine individuality. Apart from its youthful charm it provides, when set beside the Quartet in F major, a measure for the stature of Mozart's genius in maturity. LXT 2852 (rectus)