The Mozart Quintets: One and Six
with Schumann Quartett, Adrien la Marca
17:00 / Wed 2 Febr / Muziekgebouw Main Hall / € 28
Core Repertoire Mozart Quintets String Quartet + Viola
Schumann Quartett
Erik Schumann (viool)
Ken Schumann (viool)
Liisa Randalu (altviool)
Mark Schumann (cello)
Adrien la Marca
Viola
Mozart
String Quintet no. 1 in B flat, KV.174
Mozart
String Quintet no. 6 in E flat, KV.614
Mozart’s first and last quintets – he wrote them when he was just 17 and in the last year of his life respectively. He started writing his first viola quintet while Haydn was writing his first serious string quartets, the opus 20 series: chamber music as a genre was still in its infancy at the time. But when Mozart wrote his last viola quintet, it was very different: he alone had composed sixteen string quartets and seven piano trios. Together, these two quintets are a monument to the enormous leap forward that chamber music had made in a short amount of time.
It may seem strange, a focus on quintets at a string quartet festival. But it is precisely the perfection of the string quartet – that balanced core of two violins, a viola and a cello – that gave Mozart the basis and inspiration to experiment beyond its boundaries. He added a viola. Ideally, the symbiosis between quartet and violist offers the ultimate chamber music experience.