Quatuor Mosaiques
period instruments

The String Quartet No. 19 in C Major, KV. 465 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, nicknamed "Dissonance" on account of its unusual slow introduction, is perhaps the most famous of his quartets. It is the last in the set of six quartets composed between 1782-1785 that he dedicated to Joseph Haydn.

According to the catalog of works Mozart began early the preceding year, the quartet was completed on January 14, 1785.

As is normal with Mozart's later quartets, it is in four movements: 1. Adagio-Allegro
2. Andante cantabile - in F major
3. Menuetto. Allegro. (C major, trio in C minor)
4. Allegro molto

The first movement opens with ominous quiet Cs in the cello, joined successively by the viola (on A♭ moving to a G), the second violin (on E♭) and the first violin (on A), thus creating the "dissonance" itself and narrowly avoiding a greater one. This lack of harmony and fixed key continues throughout the slow introduction before resolving into the bright C major of the Allegro section of the first movement, which is in sonata form.

The second movement is in condensed sonata form, i.e. lacking the development section. Alfred Einstein writes of the coda of this movement that "the first violin openly expresses what seemed hidden beneath the conversational play of the subordinate theme."[1]

The third movement is a minuet and trio, with the exuberant mood of the minuet darkening into the C minor of the trio.

The last movement is also in sonata form. (less info)