In June of 1789, the 33-year-old Mozart began writing a set of six string quartets for Friedrich Wilhelm II, the King of Prussia, a passionate music lover and a fine amateur cellist. Mozart had played at the King’s Potsdam court during a tour the previous spring.
Ultimately, Mozart was unable to fulfill the commission. After completing the first Quartet (K. 575), he became occupied with the opera, Così fan tutte. He returned to the project, completing only two additional quartets. Illness and financial desperation prompted Mozart to sell the three “Prussian” Quartets, the last of the genre that he would write, to a publisher. He complained bitterly to a friend, “I have now been forced to give away my quartets (that exhausting labor) for a mere song, simply in order to have cash in hand merely to meet my present difficulties.”
When it came to writing string quartets, Mozart was profoundly influenced by the innovations of his older contemporary, Franz Joseph Haydn. The six quartets which Mozart dedicated to Haydn (Nos. 14-19) are filled with dazzling counterpoint and harmonic innovation, as if to say, “look what I can do!” In contrast, as musicologist Kai Christiansen points out, the “Prussian” Quartets enter a quieter world of “refinement, grace, contrapuntal finesse and rarefied textures featuring melody more than motive, sublime nuance more than dramatic gesture.”
In a nod to the Prussian King, whom Mozart might have imagined performing the part, the cello rises to prominence throughout String Quartet No. 21 in D Major, K. 575. In the first movement (Allegretto), the cello introduces the second theme, spins a beautiful song without words in the trio section of the Minuet, and presents the main theme of finale (Allegretto) in its opening bars.
The first movement begins with a radiant, singing melody, introduced by the first violin, which is brushed off by a carefree, flippant musical “answer.” This interjection is heard in octaves with a motif made up of a falling five-note scale. Immediately, we are drawn into an operatic conversation in which one character is heartfelt, while the other is joking. The entire movement develops effortlessly and organically from these initial motivic seeds. Later, the quirky descending scale is transformed into a bold, rising scale, which forms the transition from the development section into the recapitulation, and also concludes the movement.
The second movement (Andante) is a serene aria without words. A sublime dialogue unfolds, and the instruments interact as concertante soloists. Some listeners hear similarities with a song, “The Violet,” which Mozart wrote in 1785.
The final movement, set in rondo form, begins with a thematic variation on the first movement’s opening theme. This initial statement opens the door to vibrant variations and contrapuntal conversations. The movement’s first six notes are tossed, turned, and developed in thrilling ways, right up to the final cadence.
This recording features the Alban Berg Quartet:
Recordings
- Mozart: String Quartet No. 21 in D Major, K. 575, Alban Berg Quartet Amazon
Featured Image: portrait of Friedrich Wilhelm II as Crown Prince of Prussia (c.1770), Anton Friedrich König