String Quintet No. 6 (Mozart)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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[edit]

The work is in standard four movement form:

Reception[edit]

This quintet, along with the contemporary string quintet K593, are often 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.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Eisen, Cliff, ed. (2008). The Cambridge Mozart encyclopedia (Repr ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-521-85659-1.
  • Melvin Berger, "Guide to Chamber Music", 2001, Dover

External links[edit]