PACM003:
Quartet No. 18 in A, "Drum",
K.464 - Mozart
MP3
price
The
Roth String Quartet
Released 1934.
Issued as 4 UK Columbia 78s, LX 8231-LX 8234
(Duration 30'26")
Play
sample movement:
Mozart
is not particularly
well-known as a writer of string quartets - a number of his early compostions
in this genre are at best undistinguished. However, following the careful
study of quartets by Haydn, Mozart went on to write a number of excellent
works, six of which are known as the Haydn Quartets - this is the fifth,
written in Vienna in January, 1785.
It
was after hearing the latter three of the six that Haydn turned to Mozart's
father, Leopold, and famously remarked: "Before God, and as an
honest man I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to
me either in person or by name. He has taste and, what it more, the most
profound knowledge of composition." The music you'll hear by
clicking on the play button demonstrates the drum-like rhythm used in
the third movement from which the quartet gets its name.
The
Roth String Quartet (Roth, Antal, Molnar and Scholz) recorded 7
quartets for Columbia in the mid-1930's, of which this was the only work
by Mozart, issued in the Columbia Masterworks series. We can find no evidence
of it ever having been reissued.
