String Quartet in D, K. 155

Mozart’s 23 string quartets range from the sunny K. 80 (1770) to the third Prussian quartet, K. 590, written the summer before he died. His second quartet, K. 155 in D major, breathes deeply of the Italian style which he absorbed during his teenage travels. Written in the autumn of 1772 at Bolzano, K. 155 reveals Mozart in his first maturity: at age 16, no longer a child prodigy, but not yet engaged in the stirring compositional dialogue with Haydn that would dramatically shape his later works. Haydn would soon achieve greater independence for the lower string parts in his quartets. In K. 155 Mozart has not yet moved away from the hegemony of the first violin. Interestingly, while avoiding the sectional repeats so typical of sonata-allegro form, he increases the extent of small-scale repetition, as in the opening four measures. Mozart’s favored multi-octave leaps and striking deceptive cadences are already in evidence, giving even this modest movement a prescient quality. The slow movement features doubling between the violins (usually at the octave or tenth), which brings to mind similar textures from the early concertos. The finale is a clear-cut rondo, lithe and spirited and infused with a touch of rustic charm. It is also motivically streamlined, culminating in Mozart’s use of the rondo theme played unisono to close the entire movement.

(c) Jason Stell