Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor

In 1785, Mozart was commissioned by the publisher Franz Anton Hoffmeister to compose three quartets for piano, violin, viola and cello that were intended to be accessible to amateur chamber music players. The commission was revoked, however, after the publisher received the score to the Piano Quartet No. 1 on the grounds that Mozart had ignored Hoffmeister’s directives, opting instead to compose a work whose musical and technical complexities were way beyond the capabilities of amateur performers. Hoffmeister may also have been disconcerted by the unusually turbulent nature of the first-movement “Allegro”, cast in the hugely significant key of G minor, which Mozart reserved for equally stormy works such as the Symphony No. 25 and Symphony No. 40. Yet, after attaining a level of vehemence that was rarely explored in Mozart’s other chamber works, the First Piano Quartet’s emotional trajectory unexpectedly changes course with a soothing and delicate “Andante” second movement followed by a bright and breezy “Rondo Finale”.