String Quartets K. 387 & 458 (Dedicated to Joseph Haydn)

Featuring

Lukas Hagen
Rainer Schmidt
Veronika Hagen
Clemens Hagen
Hagen Quartett
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

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Performer Biography

The Hagen Quartett, whose career began in 1981, has collaborated with notable artists such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt and György Kurtág.

Instruments

The Hagen Quartett performs on instruments made by Antonio Stradivari, known as the 'Paganini' Quartet, which are on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.

Composition History

Mozart initially offered these six quartets to a Parisian publisher for 50 Louis d'or, a price considered incredibly high for quartet compositions at the time.

Composition History

Mozart composed these two quartets, K. 387 and K. 458, as part of a group of six known as the 'Haydn Quartets' between 1782 and 1785 in Vienna.

Compositional Technique

These quartets, like Haydn's Op. 33, marked a shift from a contrapuntal approach to a freer connection of musical themes, with the lower three parts becoming equal partners to the first violin.

Composer Biography

Mozart dedicated these quartets to his 'fatherly friend' Joseph Haydn, who was also a great model for him.

Critical Reception

After a private performance of these quartets, Joseph Haydn told Mozart's father, Leopold Mozart, that his son was the greatest composer he knew, possessing taste and profound knowledge of composition.