String Quintet No. 6 (Mozart)

The String Quintet No. 6 in E-flat major, K. 614, was completed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on April 12, 1791. It is Mozart's last major chamber work. Like all of Mozart's string quintets, it is a "viola quintet" in that it is scored for string quartet and an extra viola (two violins, two violas and cello.)

Movements

The work is in standard four movement form:

I. Allegrissimo ⁶
₈ in E-flat major
II. Andante ²
₂ in B-flat major
III. Menuetto: Allegretto ³
₄ in E-flat major, with trio in E-flat major
IV. Allegro ²
₄ in E-flat major

Reception

This quintet, along with the contemporary string quintet K593, are sometimes dismissed as second-rate works reflecting the composer's straightened circumstances towards the end of his life. However, Eisen makes the point that rather than reflecting the "Classical" ideal, they are a new path for Mozart, one which eschews surface variety for the exploration of a single motivating idea that determines both the surface and structure of the work.^[1] While the slow movement is apparently a theme and variations, Eisen points out that it also takes on the characteristics of a rondo and of a sonata. Simon Keefe points out that, in contrast to the string quintets that preceded it, "The first movement of K. 614 takes us back to the world of Mozart’s concertos, reinforcing the impression […] of stylistic cross fertilization from the final piano concertos to the late string chamber music".^[2] Leonard Ratner comments on the originality of the writing in the first movement coda: "three levels of action—paired violas in a middle register, high violins paired, and the low cello—create the texture. […] the briliance and drive of this passage have a physical impact that would better be described as counteraction rather than counterpoint.^[3]

References

^ Eisen, Cliff, ed. (2008). The Cambridge Mozart encyclopedia (Repr ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-521-85659-1.
^ Keefe, Simon P. (2007). Mozart's Viennese instrumental music: a study of stylistic re-invention. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK ; New York, NY: Boydell Press. p. 132. ISBN 978-1-84383-319-2. OCLC 124977095.
^ Ratner, Leonard G. (2001). "Mozart's Parting Gifts". The Journal of Musicology. 18 (1): 200. doi:10.1525/jm.2001.18.1.189. ISSN 0277-9269.

Melvin Berger, "Guide to Chamber Music", 2001, Dover

External links

Quintett in Es: Score and critical report (in German) in the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe
String Quintet No. 6: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
Performance of String Quintet No. 6 by the Musicians from Marlboro from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in MP3 format

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[1] Eisen, Cliff, ed. (2008). The Cambridge Mozart encyclopedia (Repr ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-521-85659-1.

[2] Keefe, Simon P. (2007). Mozart's Viennese instrumental music: a study of stylistic re-invention. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK ; New York, NY: Boydell Press. p. 132. ISBN 978-1-84383-319-2. OCLC 124977095.

[3] Ratner, Leonard G. (2001). "Mozart's Parting Gifts". The Journal of Musicology. 18 (1): 200. doi:10.1525/jm.2001.18.1.189. ISSN 0277-9269.

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Authority control databases
National	France BnF data
Other	MusicBrainz work