Mozart: Piano Quartets (badura-skoda)

Quartets for Piano and Strings are a relatively rare genre in the History of Music. Few composers attempted to write any after Mozart who seems to have at once exhausted all the possibilities this problematic framework gave him and whose pioneer he was to become. It is significant that the Romantic era, during which the concert grand reached its zenith, had a predilection for the Piano Trio treated in a clearly concertante way and for the Piano Quintet treated often in a symphonic way. Whereas, the more intimate and subdued Piano Quartet inspired only a limited number of compositions, though in the long run, these Quartets are closer to the spirit of true chamber music for which four performers, whatever they happen to be, seem to be the ideal number. One can well understand how Mozart, at the end of 1785, having reached a certain point in his career, became interested in the new genre. Jean and Brigitte Massin have defined the problem in one lucid sentence: “a merging of Quartet and Concerto.” These are in fact, the two forms which, during the three previous years, Mozart had taken to the summit of perfection, all other genres of instrumental music, including the symphony, fading into a background. The two Piano Quartets achieve a complete synthesis of two intrinsically opposite worlds: that of dramatic or virtuoso dialogue with that of intense introspection.

Price: $23.98