Mozart - K. 478 - Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor (1785)

[W.A. Mozart]

Mozart composed this piece in 1785, when he was 29 years old.
He received a commission for three quartets in 1785 from the publisher Franz Anton Hoffmeister. Hoffmeister thought this quartet was too difficult and that the public would not buy it, so he released Mozart from the obligation of completing the set.
Hoffmeister's fear that the work was too difficult for amateurs was borne out by an article in the Journal des Luxus und der Moden published in Weimar in June 1788. The article highly praised Mozart and his work, but expressed dismay over attempts by amateurs to perform it:

"[as performed by amateurs] it could not please: everybody yawned with boredom over the incomprehensible tintamarre of 4 instruments which did not keep together for four bars on end, and whose senseless concentus never allowed any unity of feeling; but it had to please, it had to be praised! ... what a difference when this much-advertised work of art is performed with the highest degree of accuracy by four skilled musicians who have studied it carefully."

The assessment accords with a view widely held of Mozart in his own lifetime, that of a greatly talented composer who wrote very difficult music.


Performers: Beaux Arts Trio


Mozart - K. 478 - Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor (1785):
00:00 I. Allegro, in G minor
14:25 II. Andante, in B-flat major
21:21 III. Rondo (Allegro), in G major