Mozart String Quartet 15 (3/5) in Re Mineur

Quatuor Mosaiques
period instruments


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's String Quartet No. 15 in D minor K. 421/417b, the second of the Quartets dedicated to Haydn and the only one of the set in a minor key, is believed to have been completed in 1783.[1] The quartet is, however, undated in the autograph.[2]

It is in four movements: 1. Allegro moderato
2. Andante (F major)
3. Menuetto and Trio (the latter in D major). Allegretto
4. Allegretto ma non troppo

The first movement is characterized by a sharp contrast between the aperiodicity of the first subject group, characterized by Arnold Schoenberg as "prose-like," and the "wholly periodic" second subject group.[3] In the Andante and the Minuet, "normal expectations of phraseology are confounded."[4] The main part of the Minuet is in minuet sonata form,[5] while "the contrasting major-mode Trio ... is ... almost embarrassingly lightweight on its own ... [but] makes a wonderful foil to the darker character of the Minuet."[6] The trio's melody, however, is used in the Suzuki method for violin, Volume 7. The last movement is a set of variations.

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