The Incredible Finale of Mozart's K. 590 Quartet in F Major
Vložit
- čas přidán 20. 06. 2024
- Please support this channel on Patreon:
/ richardatkinson
Richard Atkinson analyzes the incredible finale of Mozart's K. 590 Quartet. This is a fair use commentary that uses excerpts from a recording by the Quartetto Italiano.
00:00 - Exposition section
05:29 - Development section
06:54 - Recapitulation section - Hudba
How one could wish Mozart had lived longer! Where might he have gone? Playing this quartet was always a joy and this exposition reveals just why it was so.
I think this is an underrated masterpiece. It is bizarre but genius, I found this looking for his most synesthetic moments and this is one of them. Happy listening!
It's not comedy, it's sarcastic despair and anger. Excellent analysis, great work.
Wonderful music, and what an incredible economy of thematic material.
This is the last string quartet composed by Mozart (1791) and it's a great hint for what's to come in the Romantic music...so does Symphony 41 and other late works. Thank you so much, Richard! Thanks for your work and for making these videos!
I think that the last 10 measures of the development might be one of my favorite moments of Mozart's music.
5:18
I wasn't expecting to laugh at this moment, but it's just really strange and funny! The first violin sounds like she desperately want the theme to go down but is just restricted, so meanders around, while the second violin and the viola laugh at her. It's brilliant musical comedy, almost like something out of "Ein musikalischer Spaß"!
I love these, Richard. Thanks for all your work.
I find the commentary in your videos to be explosively illuminating. Please don't stop!
Mr. Atkinson, you really have a gift. In the space of just a few minutes, you've honed in on some of the most interesting and enriching things to say about this music. I'm really getting hooked on your analyses. Thank you so much.
Lucid presentation. Thank you.
Your voice is great, perfect for music written for eternity.
4:31 the first time i heard this passage i could not stop to laugh.I was crying with laughter
Fantastic analysis, Richard!
I particularly love how Mozart ramps up the syncopated elements in the 2nd part - how each time they reappear he adds another layer to the music to further disorientate the listener 🙂
Love your videos. Reminds me of my days studying quartets at New England Conservatory.
You yourself have presented a masterly exposition! Thank you!
Great! Thanks a lot Richard
5:12-6:50 crafty Mozart. His wife and sister said that he did much of composing while sitting up in bed after waking up and eating. He probably had much of it worked out in his head already, his memory being stout, and it was just a matter of writing it down. A gem of transcendence here. Something which Bach achieved around his mid thirties and simply stayed there. Too bad Mozart didn't live very long.
These passages contain harmonic figures rarely heard in Bach, that's true. But mozart never approaches the contrapuntal sophistication of Bach.
Mozart was more talented than Bach. Mozart started writing fugues at 12. Bach didn't even write his first composition at 20.
MOZART'S FUGUES (number inside brackets indicate the age he wrote them)
Missa solemnis in C minor "Waisenhausmesse" KV 139 Gloria (12): czcams.com/video/vnxH8M31F3g/video.html
Missa solemnis in C minor "Waisenhausmesse" KV 139 Credo (12): czcams.com/video/vnxH8M31F3g/video.html
Mass in C major "Dominicus Messe" K66 Gloria (13): czcams.com/video/rlQJ2bgK3RQ/video.html
Mass in C major "Dominicus Messe" K66 Credo (13): czcams.com/video/rlQJ2bgK3RQ/video.html
Miserere in A minor, [4-part contrapuntal study] K.85 (14) czcams.com/video/_PxqQOUn1v0/video.html
KV125 - Pignus Futuræ Gloriæ (16): czcams.com/video/dQ77xyyffjA/video.html
Missa in honorem Sanctissimae Trinitatis in C major KV 167 Gloria (17): czcams.com/video/X9T_URjVl5I/video.html
Missa in honorem Sanctissimae Trinitatis in C major KV 167 Credo (17): czcams.com/video/YvCnr15hh78/video.html
Missa in honorem Sanctissimae Trinitatis in C major KV 167 Agnus Dei* (17): czcams.com/video/g2teM5WckzA/video.html
String Quartet No. 8 in F major K. 168 (17): czcams.com/video/3JDrlCG-y_E/video.html
String Quartet No. 14 in D minor K. 173 (17): czcams.com/video/q5MVDsqIqCY/video.html
Litaniae de venerabili altaris sacramento K243 [double fugue] : VIII Pignus (19): czcams.com/video/U-PDJozhBLI/video.html
Misericordias Domini in D minor K.222* (19): czcams.com/video/lEBYufTXJQk/video.html
Missa Longa in C K262 Gloria (19): czcams.com/video/yCDFfN7g_Bk/video.html
Missa Longa in C K262 Credo (19): czcams.com/video/yCDFfN7g_Bk/video.html
Vesperae solennes de confessore in C, K.339 - 4. Laudate pueri Dominum (24): czcams.com/video/c3rDwFFQ6bQ/video.html
Missa solemnis in C, K.337 - 5. Benedictus (26): czcams.com/video/ghAa3BJ4b5I/video.html
Praeludium and Fugue KV 394 (26): czcams.com/video/m9vVu8rNON4/video.html
Suite in C K.399 - I. Overture K399 (26): czcams.com/video/UHgs7-u7wGQ/video.html
Sonata for Keyboard and Violin No. 29 in A Major, K. 402: II. Fuga (26): czcams.com/video/mMe4MCsH2WY/video.html
Trio (Fuga a 3) in G Major, K. 443 (27): czcams.com/video/UtLOtTDk848/video.html
Fugue In G Minor KV 401 (27): czcams.com/video/tXpV-gpgkQw/video.html
Fugue In E Flat Major KV 153 (27): czcams.com/video/_2rpWr3etWo/video.html
Fugue In G Minor KV 154 (27): czcams.com/video/2t42ZCeLxlk/video.html
Grosse Messe in C minor KV 427 Jesu Christe - Cum Sancto Spiritu [double fugue] (27): czcams.com/video/97Twh_q8lQs/video.html
Grosse Messe in C minor KV 427 Sanctus - Osanna [double fugue] (27): czcams.com/video/97Twh_q8lQs/video.html
Adagio and Fugue for String Orchestra in C Minor, K. 546 (32): czcams.com/video/PFXF0Aysh4w/video.html
Fantasia for mechanical organ in F minor K594 (34): czcams.com/video/Qka_HMc2ajc/video.html
Fantasia for mechanical organ in F minor K608 (35): czcams.com/video/Jkh8Re4JUCw/video.html
Overture to Die Zauberflote K620: czcams.com/video/c2TGbfzTx2A/video.html
Der, welcher wandert diese StraBe voll Beschwerden (35): czcams.com/video/kB56nw1zx-o/video.html
Requiem in D minor K626 Kyrie [arguably the greatest double choral fugue not written by Bach]
(35) czcams.com/video/8ybTabIfLgY/video.html
Requiem in D minor K626 Domine Jesu (35): czcams.com/video/i4DyyUvZws4/video.html
there's more
+ tons of classical counterpoint in string quartets, quintets, symphonies, concertos
+ tons of choral, vocal, instrumental canons and canonic minuets
Magnificent Counterpoint in the Finale of Mozart's Jupiter Symphony: czcams.com/video/YTxYykhQZbI/video.html
The Ingenious Fugal Finale of Mozart's G Major Quartet, K. 387: czcams.com/video/uoXDHOyfJ-k/video.html
The Incredible Finale of Mozart's K. 590 Quartet in F Major: czcams.com/video/nkbdUjjfRTQ/video.html
Invertible Counterpoint in the Finale of Mozart's D Major String Quintet, K. 593: czcams.com/video/IQbxsGtyc2g/video.html
Mozart: Canon for four voices, in C major, Anh. 191, K 562c: czcams.com/video/YC9bKfzXC18/video.html
*Beethoven wrote his 9th symohony choral parts from studying these two choral works of Mozart
@@timothyser9967 "As for the predecessors of these two (Mozart and Beethoven), what I would say is that I like playing Bach because it is entertaining to play a good fugue, but I do not acknowledge in him (as others do) a great genius." -P. I. Tchaikovsky
@@2009xellos I was composing music at 16, does that make me more talented than Bach? Besides, J.S. likely did compose much music before his 'debut' as we know it. Bwv 131 is his earliest extant work, and it is a masterpiece; if that were truly his first, surpassing genius is implied. If it weren't, we can assume a series of preceding works of equal or marginally lesser quality. PS. Are we really impressed by the music of preteen mozart?
@@2009xellos You cite Tchaikovsky's indifference to Bach, yet Brahms, Beethoven, Chopin, Schoenberg, etc, lauded and admired Bach before all others.
Bravo Richard!
Bravo! When will we have another Mozart?
Excellent. Thanks.
Brilliant commentary & analysis, without fault. 100% correct.
well... that certainly puts me on Mozart's trail... still some Schubert's quartets are also interesting!
This development section sounds so "modern" and dissonant/
this motive will work any time you have quarter notes ascending or descending in scale... because that's all the motive really is, straight quarter notes converted into repeating 4 note contours. you can even reverse the contour of the 16ths and still have them be nothing more than ascending or descending quarter notes.
True. Some contrapuntal feats are not as difficult to produce as others.
beautiful piece though! thanks so much for all your great videos and analyses
Perhaps Mozart was taking some inspiration from Bach's B-flat minor fugue of WTC II for the contrapuntal ingenuity here? The same figure (based on a simple scale) is present in the 3rd measure of the fugue. The contrapuntal techniques used throughout the fugue are quite similar - inversion, canonic imitation, and a combination of the two. Just a thought ^^ Great videos!
Yeah, it is the same configuration - I hadn't made that connection before. We know Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven were all well-acquainted with the WTC, despite the big deal everyone makes about Mendelssohn's Bach revival.
Mozart actually made a fragmentary arrangement for string quartet of that very fugue in 1782. Out of the several Bach fugue arrangements that mozart made, the B flat minor seems to be the only one that he left incomplete, breaking off after 39 bars.
@@Richard.Atkinson thanks to the Viennese baron Gottfried van Swieten.....
I really enjoy your videos. Do you have anything on Mozart’s “Dissonance” quartet (K 465)? I can’t wrap my head around it.
Very interesting !
Great!! Thanks!!
I love this video
Great vid as always! Any chance you would also do the finale of k. 465?
I would love to do one on that amazing finale. I'm adding it to the queue, but I'm working on many others first.
That's great, thanks! Looking forward to it as well as the other vids of yours.
I did this on accident in mvt. 1 accidentally when I composed my Symphony in A! Make a falling piano note video to Steve Reich’s Piano Phase.
Will you do the second movement- perhaps the most sublime ever written!
It's gorgeous!
@@Richard.Atkinson 1st theme: alternately C major-D minor: I think that's modal modulation? Also find it in Wagner (the magical fire music in the 3rd act of Valkyrie: E major-D minor, if I remember correctly))
That grace noted second violin section at the ending actually sounds like in alla turca style.
Magnificent
OK, Now I get the concept of musical humour. Mozart really made me laugh :)
Listened again today. The off kilter version of the main theme sounds and feels the same way laughter does. Brilliant.
Does the cello line at 1:21 reach C5 or C6? I think the clef written there sounds an octave lower than written
It's an old form of notation where the cello plays an octave lower than written in certain treble clef passages. Cellists pretty much hate it. Passages like this are more commonly rendered in tenor clef in modern editions, but you still see it in 19th century editions (CF Peters, eg) - especially in Dvorak, Schumann, and sometimes Brahms. The big problem with this system is that it's never evident whether you are to play an octave lower than written or at pitch. The loose rule is that if the treble clef appears without a passage in tenor clef before it, you play it an octave down. If the passage comes after one in tenor clef, you play it at pitch; but even this is not a hard and fast rule. It presents some confusion if you are encountering an obscure piece for the first time. I think (but am not certain) the tradition comes out of Rococo Italian music where this indicated the cello had the melody, even though, oddly, you most often see the practice in German editions. This happened about the same time that the more exotic c clefs (soprano, mezzo, baritone) started disappearing from instrumental music.
@@jimp4170 Thats very interesting - I never knew that - how very odd.
Alternatively you could interpret that clef as "the Tenor Clef" - that is - the clef for the tenor voice which is one octave below the treble clef. So in this edition the cello is going up to tenor "high C".
Grazie. Bravissimo.
.....ma, SOPRATUTTO, MUSICA STUPEFACENTE!!
Nessun altro Compositore lo ha poi raggiunto!!!
Btw I wonder why do some Haydn and Mozart works (mainly string works) also, like Baroque works, sound one semitone lower than the score? For example, this video sounds in D flat major, which is a torture for people having absolute pitch feelings such as me
This finale is really laugh-out-loud funny, which takes some effort when in a concert hall. On the other hand it's just too poignant that this piece of divine comedy wound up being the last Mozart wrote for string quartet.
I always laugh when I hear the pink closing theme.
I'm curious about the achievements of other brilliant composers (Bach, Beethoven etc.) it you simulate their death at the age when Mozart died
Beethoven composed eroica, Bach composed wtc 1.
Im more interested in what would happen if Bach or Beethoven had Leopold Mozart as a father instead of mad drunks.
Did I just see the Cello reach C2?
While the main theme of this movement is certainly simple and essentially an elaboration upon a quarter note descending theme, simplicity is not an issue when it’s as charming and beautiful as this, and the four note descending theme contrasting with it’s odd three note non-descending cousin produces a sort of complexity that can only be achieved by pitting the two themes against each other. Certainly no monkey composed this.
My old piano teaching book (John Thompson's modern course for the paino) stated: all great things are simple (referring to Beethoven's second movement of the 5th symphony)
Wow. I never heard this piece before - really complex and almost abstract and at the same time its a joke. Go show this to anyone who says Mozart is simplistic and overrated. This is the „late“ Mozart but he was in his mid thirties and who knows what he would have written if he had lived for another 30 years.
Mozart took to such nerdy flights, whereas Beethoven always imbues an earthiness, his music always has emotional meaning
I haven't recently, thanks for the referral. And just to be clear - I'm not saying Mozart's music does not have emotional meaning, I'm saying there are occasions when the intellectual outweighs the emotional ...
I would like to coin the term 'analysis ratio': real analysis in relation to observations on the score that are there for anyone to see. For me, this video, as do many others in the genre, does not exceed 50%. Of course, 'real analysis' is also subjective, but to me, it is more than a summary of the motives and techniques Mozart uses. For example, the outcome of the analysis of a Bach fugue can be the same as that of a much lesser contemporary. But why is the Bach fugue so much greater? Does a summary of the kinds of material and techniques used in a building tell something about its architectural value?
I will be shoving this movement in the faces of those stupid people who doubt Mozart's genius at every moment. And, like the Jupiter, it's great that it's in a Major key. Not every great work in the minor.