String Quartet No. 17 (Mozart)

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's String Quartet No. 17 in B-flat major K. 458, nicknamed "The Hunt," is the fourth of the Quartets dedicated to Haydn. It was completed in 1784^[1] It is in four movements:

Allegro vivace assai
Menuetto and Trio. Moderato
Adagio, in E-flat major
Allegro assai

Neither Mozart nor Artaria called this piece "The Hunt." "For Mozart's contemporaries, the first movement of K.458 evidently evoked the 'chasse' topic, the main components of which were 6/8 tempo (sometimes featuring a strong upbeat) and triadic melodies based largely around tonic and dominant chords (doubtless stemming from the physical limitations of the actual hunting horns to notes of the harmonic series)."^[2]

Musicologist Reginald Barrett-Ayres agrees "with Hans Keller when he pronounces K.458 in B♭, the Hunt, the weakest of the six quartets dedicated to Haydn. It is by far the most popular quartet of the six, and in some ways it is the one which is nearest in style to the earlier quartets of Haydn."^[3] Owing to its popularity, this quartet has been used in various films, such The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mystery Date and Star Trek: Insurrection.

[edit] Discography

It is easiest to find this piece recorded on sets of Mozart's Haydn Quartets, or of all his string quartets. Because of its popularity, individual movements (especially the first) can be found on "Greatest Hits" compilations, such as those from Naxos Records and Platinum Disc.

[edit] References

^ John Irving, Mozart: The 'Haydn' Quartets. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1998): 13. "K. 458 was entered in Mozart's own handwritten thematic catalogue on 9 November 1784."
^ Irving (1998): 69
^ Reginald Barrett-Ayres, Joseph Haydn and the String Quartet. London: Barrie & Jenkins (1974): 196