Mozart Piano Quartet in G minor K478

In 1785 Mozart was commissioned by his publisher friend Franz Anton Hoffmeister to write 3 quartets for piano and strings. In itself the form was unusal, the piano trio being the preferred chamber music idiom in Vienna at the time. Also unusal, was Mozart's treatment of the piano as an equal partner in the music. Other works of that period, with similar instrumentation, were generally constructed like miniature concerti, with the keyboard in an accompaniing role.

The G minor quartet K478 was completed in that same year of 1785. It did not sell well, perhaps because of it's revolutionary style but more probably because of the challenging nature of its piano part. It is likely that the amateur musicians of the day found it entirely too difficult. According to Nissen, an early biographer of Mozart, Hoffmeister allowed Mozart to keep the cash advance on the commission of the 3 quartets on the understanding that he not write another. Luckily for us, he wrote a second quartet in Eb major K493 and it was published by Artaria.

The G minor quartet opens with a dramatic statement, all of the instruments in unison. G minor was the key of drama and passion for Mozart, consider his symphonies No. 25 and No. 40. The earnest, agitated feeling flows through the virtuosic piano writing, soaring over the cantabile melody, and pushing through to the unison ending of the coda. In contrast, the elegant Andante second movement is in the key of Bb. The solo piano begins and is soon taken over by the strings. A singing melody appears, only to become the subject of exquisite contrapunctal "working out" in a stately mood. The finale, third movement is in the brilliant key of G major. Characterised by syncopation, the main theme breezes along with leaps of a fifth. The piano and strings alternate, chasing each other with a colourful play of textures. Despite some excursions into the darker keys of G minor and E flat Minor, the movement maintains its brilliance and sparkle until the end.

Taken from notes by Roger Smith, 2001