String Quartet No. 14 in G Major

K. 387 is the first of six string quartets Mozart dedicated to Haydn—commending them as “the fruits of a long and arduous labour”. The older man’s response was effusive, and he declared Mozart to be the greatest composer known to him. The quartet was completed at the end of 1782, Mozart’s “arduous labour” rewarded with a work that conceals an almost obscene fecundity behind its often affable façade. Teeming with ideas, the first movement includes two seemingly incidental features destined to pervade the quartet as a whole: a sinewy figure derived from adjacent notes resurfaces in the “Menuetto”, as does the striking alternation of loud and soft. A glowing, richly textured C major “Andante” follows, paving the way to K. 387’s crowning glory: a fugally minded “Molto Allegro” that seems to look forward to the last movement of the Jupiter Symphony. Is it a coincidence that the themes that launch the finales are so uncannily similar?