Portrait of Mozart Photo: Barbara Krafft, Public Domain
Bridget Douglas (flute), Donald Armstrong (violin), Lyndsay Mountfort (viola), Ken Ichinose (cello)
From 1777–1778 Mozart spent nearly 5 months in Mannheim where he was offered a commission from a wealthy Dutch merchant and amateur flautist Ferdinand De Jong, which Mozart wrote as ‘DeJean’. The commission included two flute quartets, including this one. Despite having said that the flute was ‘an instrument I can’t abide’ Mozart fulfilled his commission. He was on a journey to Paris and the money would help pay his travel bills.
‘Of course, I could merely scratch away at it all day long,’ wrote Mozart to his father Leopold, ‘but such a thing as this goes out into the world, so it is my wish that I need not be ashamed that it carries my name.’
This quartet is in three movements and sees the flute in a solo ‘concertante’ role, with the strings accompanying. Critic Alfred Einstein described the second movement as ‘perhaps the most beautiful accompanied flute solo that has even been written.’
This quartet took Mozart only a week to write. It is charming, light and entertaining rather than overly profound.
Recorded at a Wellington Chamber Music Trust concert, 16 September 2018 at St. Andrew's on The Terrace, Wellington by RNZ Concert
Producer: David McCaw
Engineer: Darryl Stack
