Wolfgang Amadé Mozart (1756-1791)
String Quintet no. 5, in D major, K. 593 (1790)
Mozart’s String Quintet no. 5 in D major dates from the end of 1790. Its commission marked a sudden uptick in Mozart’s fortunes – his income had suffered a precipitous decline after about 1788, one that wasn’t reflected in Mozart’s corresponding expenditures – and that culminated, about a year later, in the Requiem. Of course Mozart didn’t know he had only a year to live when he began this Quintet, which, like the other five, includes a second viola. But, if any of his chamber music demonstrates a maturity and technical skill far beyond the powers of a normal thirty-four-year old, surely it’s the D-major String Quintet.
The first of its four movements opens with a noble introduction marked by a call-and-response between the cello’s rising arpeggios and the upper strings’ lyrical reply. It leads into a pert first theme in the movement’s next section, marked by scales, some gentle syncopations, and bravura triplet displays from the first violin. After this comes a march-like figure filled with dotted rhythms that is passed about the ensemble, leading, eventually, to a slightly more relaxed and lyrical second theme, first heard in the cello, then taken up by the first violin.
The first movement consistently shows the influence of Haydn, Mozart’s close friend and occasional chamber music partner. The part-writing is highly involved for all five instruments, including the second viola. Throughout, keen attention is paid to rhythm: the development includes a lengthy section that manipulates the first theme’s syncopated beats, in the process totally obscuring the barline. And the movement’s abrupt closing phrase – a series of call-and-responses between the first violin and the rest of the ensemble offers a combination of Haydn-esque wit as well as a directness we associate more closely with Beethoven than with Mozart.
Mozart’s writing in the slow second movement is equally forceful. This is one of the loveliest movements in his catalogue, marked by expansive lyricism and a series of motives closely related to material heard in the previous movement.
There are three primary musical ideas at work here. The first is a chorale-like figure that corresponds to the violin/viola melody in the first movement’s introduction. A descending scale-like motive comprises the second half of this theme, itself recalling the traits of several similar gestures heard in the first movement.
The next theme draws on the cello’s arpeggio motive from the first movement’s introduction. It’s first heard underneath a restless accompaniment of sixteenth notes in the second violin and violas, but becomes more of a foreground presence once it’s passed to the first violin.
After this comes a bravura statement from the first violin, in interval and rhythmic content almost identical to the flashy display heard in the previous movement. Together, these three themes combine to form one of Mozart’s most eloquent musical statements.
Following the rigorous compositional complexity of the first two movements, the third-movement minuet comes as a welcome relief. It basically focuses on two related gestures: going up (over the two “minuet” sections) and coming back down (in the middle “trio” passages). Again, the spirit of Haydn – in rhythm, phrasing, contrapuntal manipulations – is never far off.
That last is also to be found throughout the brilliant finale, with its dazzling counterpoint and freewheeling high spirits. Here, Mozart took the first violin’s explosive triplet figure from the first movement and applied its shape and mood to an entire movement. The writing is rhythmically vigorous, technically astonishing – both from an instrumental and compositional standpoint – and totally assured; it even includes a tune that hints at the Jupiter Symphony’s finale, which, given the circumstances, is a more-than-apt reference.
In its tight construction, expressive directness, technical mastery, and musical invention, the D-major String Quintet suggests directions Mozart’s music might have taken had he been given another decade or so to live. Alas, that wasn’t to be, but the glimpse this music gives of a fertile mind at the height of its creative powers is a glorious one, indeed.
© Jonathan Blumhofer
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