Luogo e data di registrazione		La Tour-de-Peilz (Svizzera) - 20-30 luglio 1971 (K. 499 & 575) - 14-17 gennaio 1972 (K. 589 & 590)
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer / Engineer		Vittorio Negri
	Prima Edizione LP		Philips | 6770 042 | 2 LPs
	Prima Edizione CD		Philips | 416 419-2 | 8 CDs (7°, 1-4, 5-8; 8°, 1-4, 5-8) | (c) 1990 | ADD
	Note		Ripubblicazioni in cofanetto degli ultimi quattro quartetti di Mozart tra cui i tre cosiddetti "Prussiani".

MOZART’S LAST FOUR STRING QUARTETS Although in early literature Mozart’s contretemps with Archbishop Colloredo of Salzburg is readily seen as proof that he was the first independent artist in the history of music and a man who proudly turned his back on court service, the truth is that throughout his life he strove to obtain an appointment at a prince’s court. He made his last attempt in this direction in 1789, when on April 8, at the invitation of and in company with Prince Karl Lichnowsky, he travelled to Berlin where the music~loving King Frederick William II of Prussia was supposed to be expecting the musician from Vienna. But the monarch was by no means in a hurry and at first referred the new arrival to Jean Pierre Duport, his famous cellist and director of chamber music. It was only at the end of April, after Mozart undertook an excursion to Leipzig, again at the suggestion of Lichnowsky, that he finally played for the king. However, Mozart’s hopes for an appointment in Berlin were not to be fulfilled. In a letter to his wife Constanze of May 23, he wrote; "...when I return you will have to be looking forward to me rather than to money." Nevertheless, the king had provided him with two musical commissions. Besides six easy piano sonatas for Princess Friederike, he requested six string quartets - he prided himself on his skill as a cellist. Even though at that time Mozart was living in very reduced circumstances, he only completed a small part of each commission. Of the six sonatas he composed only one, that in D, K. 576, which is anything but “easy,” and which probably never reached its addressee. Half of the quartet commission was honoured, though only the first quartet, K. 575 in D, composed in Vienna in June 1789 and specifically described in Mozart’s work catalogue as having been written “for His Majesty the King of Prussia,” actually reached Berlin and is believed to have brought Mozart a reward of 100 Friedrichs d`Or in a gold snuff-box. The other two quartets, Mozart’s last works in the genre, were published without any dedication to the king shortly after Mozart’s death in a very careless and seemingly hastily prepared edition by the Viennese publisher Artaria. This edition also included the first quartet. Artaria seems to have obtained the three works very cheaply, for we know that in one of his begging letters to his fellow-Mason Puchberg Mozart wrote in May 1790: “I am now obliged to give away my quartets on which I worked so assiduously for a trifling sum simply in order to get cash in hand for my present circumstances.” It is not known why Artaria waited until after Mozart’s death before publishing. Common to all three of the so-called “Prussian” Quartets is the prominent role given to the cello part, which is often written in its higher register and hence very tellingly. In including this characteristic feature, Mozart was bearing in mind the ability of the king and above all of his famous teacher Duport. It brings into play a slightly concertante style which distinguishes these last quartets from the six more tightly-knit quartets of 1782-85 that Mozart dedicated to Haydn. Their lucid yet enigmatic cheerfulness recalls the almost contemporaneous “Cos' fan tutte.” Finally the three works share a proclivity towards "singing," melodiously written themes. This is apparent right from the start of the Quartet in D, K. 575: the song-like main theme of the Allegertto may have been a product of Mozart’s stay in Milan during 1773, but the artistry of his later reworking, using suspensions and rapid quavers, reveals the compositional mastery of Mozart’s final years. The same is also true of the development section with its condensation of the exposition's wealth of material into constantly varying combinations. Characteristically, the secondary theme of the exposition is given out by the cello. The melody of the A major Andante is not difficult to recognise as a variant of the song “Das Veilchen," dating from 1785. This same movement, with its inward-looking tunefulness, is a triumphant example of the mature Mozart’s technique of variation, which in the central section evolves development-like structures without thereby affecting the music’s lyrically expressive character. The D major minuet has virtually nothing in common with the traditional dance movement; powerful sforzati give it a highly energetic stamp. The trio is the preserve of the royal cellist, who is here given a broad-ranging melody to play which seems to anticipate Schubert and is ultimately taken over by the violin. Extreme independence of thought is shown in the finale, a kind of rondo in which at each reappearance the memorable theme - once again of an exceedingly song-like nature - is shownin a fresh light, embellished, and reworked in a different counterpoint. Although avoiding strict polyphonic writing, Mozart makes use of the technique of thematic inversion. The consummate writing of this movement is highly characteristic of Mozart’s late style: the density of the construction is so completely integrated that the listener is scarcely aware of the complexities. The Quartet in B flat, K. 589, dates from May 1790. The lengthy time he took to write the six “Haydn” Quartets and remarks he made in letters about the composition of quartets are not the only evidence we have that Mozart, for all his facility and speed in other kinds of composition, found it hard work when it came to quartet writing. In the case of the B flat Quartet, there even exists a fragment of a finale (K. 589a) which Mozart then rejected. The first movement, with its violent dynamic contrasts, culminates in a very imposing development section which is worked out in an exceptionally concentrated way. In the Larghetto in E flat, the cello again has the main say, alternating with the first violin in its thematic presentation, whose cantabile melodic flow is enlivened by dotted rhythms. In the reprise, which is still further animated by nimble demisemiquavers, the duet between the cello and the violin returns in the reverse sequence. The minuet is of unusual dimensions: though appearing to start rather conventionally, it proceeds to a broadly designed trio whose agitated opening on the cello, penetrating semitone steps, and abrupt change of key, open up extremely original worlds of sound and expression. The theme of the finale, too, written in a swift 6/8 metre, makes out to be innocuous and reminiscent of Haydn, but quickly becomes involved in contrapuntal complexities which ultimately characterise the entire movement, above all the development section, again an extremely masterly one. The theme is brilliantly set off against its own inversion, while fragments of it appear interspersed as subsidiary and answering contrapuntal voices. Mozart’s “assiduous work” is more noticeable here than in the finale of the D major Quartet. We know that the work was played in Mozart’s home shortly after he had completed it. Mozart’s last string quartet, the F major, K. 590, dates from June 1790. In working on it he seems more and more to have forgotten about the king who had commissioned it, as the cello is now given a soloistic role only in the first two movements. The first movement is an Allegro rnoderato which evolves from a rising-triad theme whose continuation once more produces a dialogue between cello and first violin. And in the subsidiary idea developed from the opening theme the cello is still given pride of place. The development section again leads into stretches of polyphony and the recapitulation emerges as a considerably modified version of the exposition. The Allegretto in C derives its special feeling from the lively counterpoints with which all four instruments decorate the melancholy striding theme. Einstein rightly called this strangely twilit movement “one of the most sensitive movements in the whole literature of chamber music." Unusually luxuriant harmonic modulations contribute to the impression of a music that eludes definition in emotional terms. The minuet and finale appear to salute Haydn. The extremely brilliant sonata-form finale can be classed among those quartet movements of Mozart’s in which compositional procedures of the utmost complexity are concealed beneath what seems a smooth surface: the “assiduous work” which must have gone into the important development section in particular remains largely inconspicuous, even though it calls upon some of the heaviest of contrapuntal artillery in the shape of inversions and contrary motion. Whereas the three “Prussian” Quartets were Mozart’s last utterance as a quartet composer, the D major Quartet, K. 499 of four years earlier is in many respects still a puzzling special case. The score announces its date of composition as August 19, 1786, and is most unusual for that period in being an isolated work. There is a strong suggestion that Mozart wrote the work for the Viennese publisher Franz Anton Hoffmeister - who did indeed publish it - as a means of paying off some of his debts to him. We possess a begging letter from Mozart to Hoffmeister, dated November 20, 1785, in which the composer begs the publisher to “just assist me meanwhile with some money as at the moment I am direly in need of it.” If in many respects the “Prussian” Quartets are close to "Così fan tutte," the “Hoffmeister” Quartet calls to mind “Figaro.” The unison theme of the first movement is once more reminiscent of Haydn, as too is the fact that the movement shows signs of being monothematic, namely that unlike the finale it lacks a contrasting subsidiary idea. Once again Mozart typically introduces contrapuntal subtleties that the listener will scarcely notice as such, as for example the canonic interplay between the first violin and the cello and the tricks of thematic inversion which play their part in the development section. In this work the minuet is the second movement. The dance-like outer sections contrast with the trio which moves to the minor, and shows off brilliant effects of fragmentation; here, the subsequent theme of the finale is anticipated in a minor-key variant. The expressively singing G major Adagio, one of Mozart’s most impressive slow movements, is entirely bathed in euphony of lyrical radiance. The mainspring of the sonata-form finale is the contrast between the whirling triplet motion of the opening theme and the march-like strides of the secondary theme, forming a rhythmic counterpoint which is audibly carried to extremes, notably in the brief development section. Together with the six quartets dedicated to Haydn, written between 1782 and 1785, Mozart’s last four string quartets represent a peak of the art of quartet composition beyond which it was not possible to go. For late Beethoven and late Schubert went along different routes. By Alfred Beaujean

Illustration: Anonymus "Friedrich Wilhelm II. von Preußen" (Nationalgalerie, Berlin)