Mozart: Last String Quartets

If it is a cliché to refer to Mozart’s last four string quartets as ‘unjustly neglected’, they have nonetheless been overshadowed not only by Mozart’s own ‘Haydn’ quartets but also by his quintets and the late quartets of Joseph Haydn. The neglect robs us of better acquaintance with some extraordinary music in Mozart’s rich late style. The composer’s contemporaries, by contrast, were quick to recognise the special virtues of these quartets. On 30 November 1791 – just six days before Mozart’s death – one commentator wrote of the String Quartet in D K499 (the other three are K575, 589 and 590): ‘[This quartet is] written with that fire of the imagination and that correctness which have long since won for Herr Mozart a reputation as one of the best composers in Germany. [It is in] four movements, and even the minuet is composed with an ingenuity (being interwoven with canonic imitations) that one frequently finds wanting in other such compositions, even by famous masters.’ Mozart’s last string quartet, K590 in F, furnishes an exuberant conclusion to the composer’s writing in this genre, and even more than the others exhibits many features of Mozart’s late style, not least in its dazzlingly elegant counterpoint. In these classic 1970s recordings, the Juilliard String Quartet explore in depth the intricate emotional power and beauty of this sublime music.