Mozart, WA :: Quartette [Quartets] fur Flote, Violine, Viola und Violoncello - KV 285, 285a, Anh. 171 (285b), KV 298 - Score

Quartette [Quartets] fur Flote, Violine, Viola und Violoncello - KV 285, 285a, Anh. 171 (285b), KV 298 - Score

Mozart, WA

In Mozart s compositions in the area of chamber music, the quartets with one wind instrument (flute or oboe, violin, viola and violoncello) certainly occupy the most modest place. This is perhaps because these quartets were all lightly and often enough unwillingly composed for a commission, for a specific occasion or for amusement.

The first three flute quartets (K. 285, K. 285a and K. App. 171/285b) were produced during Mozart s stay in Mannheim 30 October 1777 to 14 March 1778. Johann Baptist Wendling, a flautist and a member of the Mannheim court orchestra and someone whose house Mozart frequented, passed on to Mozart, probably at the beginning of December 1777, the commission of the rich but otherwise unknown Dutch music lover De Jean (Dechamps or Deschamps?) to compose for him for a fee of 200 Gulden three small, light and short concerti and two quartets for the flute (cf. Mozart s letter to his father of 10 December 1777). De Jean was staying in Mannheim at this time and his offer was certainly most welcome. The extremely generous payment proposed by De Jean would no doubt help to prolong the costly stay of Mozart and his mother in Mannheim, as Leopold Mozart suggested in a letter to his son of 18 December 1777. Mozart seems to have started quickly on the composition of these works, for on 18 December 1777 he writes to his father: One quartet for the Indian Dutchman, for that true friend of mankind, is almost ready too . This must refer to the flute quartet in D major, K. 285, whose autograph manuscript (at present lost) according to Kochel-Einstein (Kochel, 3rd edn., p. 356) bears the dating Mannheim il 25 decre. 1777.

Barenreiter Urtext presents these four quartets after thorough research of all manuscripts and publications available. The new edition of K. 298 follows the autograph manuscript without exception. K. 285 used two copies as primary sources; one available from the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe (NMA VIII/20/2), and the other, preferential copy from the Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz Berline/West. K. 285a the first edition printed by Artaria, Vienna, 1292 was used. Finally, K. App. 171 (285b) has been edited as a conflated text from all the relevant sources, as neither Bossler s first edition (1788) nor any of the other sources could alone be considered sufficiently reliable.

Barenreiter Urtext presents the parts and scores separately - the parts in full-size, the score in small study-size. The present item is the study score.

Contents

• Quartet in D KV 285
• Quartet in G KV 285a
• Quartet in C KV Anh. 171 (285b)
• Quartet in A KV 298