String Quartet No. 17 in B‑Flat Major

Quartet composition apparently didn’t come as naturally to Mozart as other forms and he often found himself challenged by innovations in the works of Haydn, the creator of the string quartet. Even the masterly set of six he composed in Vienna during the 1780s—and which he dedicated to Haydn—took two and a half years to complete and were, as he admitted, “the fruit of a long and laborious endeavour”. Mozart was a master of the art that conceals art, however, and none of these works shows the slightest sign of the struggle that went into their protracted creation. String Quartet No. 17 is the fourth and perhaps the best known of the set, and it owes its nickname, the Hunt, to the galloping gait of its opening movement. A stately “Menuetto” then transports us to an elegant ballroom and is followed by a rapt, hymnlike “Adagio”, before high spirits return in the playful finale.