Quartet in D major, K.285 for flute and strings
Allegro
Adagio
Rondeau: Allegretto
Mozart spent much of his early twenties on the move. He was reluctant to accept the poor conditions and disappointing pay offered to him in his native Salzburg, and toured various south German courts in search of more rewarding opportunities. They were less readily available than he’d hoped, and so he found himself, in the winter of 1777-8, in Mannheim, relying on teaching jobs and whatever freelance commissions he could obtain to make ends meet. The most lucrative of these was from one "Monsieur De Jean", a wealthy amateur flautist from Holland, for "three short, simple concertos and a couple of quartets for the flute". Mozart was despondent - "You know that I become quite powerless whenever I am obliged to write for an instrument which I cannot bear", he complained in a letter to his father – but he was in no position to turn down the 200 gulden fee. The commission did not work out well, and by February 15th 1778, when De Jean left Mannheim for Paris, Mozart had completed only two concertos and two quartets. De Jean paid less than half the agreed fee and the third concerto was never written.
It is absolutely typical of the mature Mozart that the completed Flute Quartets give not the smallest hint of their troubled origins. The D major Quartet, K.285, bursts into life with a sonata Allegro in Mozart’s sunniest and most spontaneous style. The B minor Adagio gives the flute a poignant aria over pizzicato strings, and the closing Rondeau has all the wit and lively interplay one expects from so natural a chamber-composer. It seems remarkable that Mozart could write so beautifully for an instrument he (at least) affected to despise. It has been suggested that he did not dislike the flute so much as its "appalling popularity"; it was the preferred instrument of amateurs and dilettantes in late 18th Century Europe and the struggling composer must have heard more than his share of mediocre flute playing. But his innate musicianship always overcame any superficial feelings. "I could, to be sure, scribble off things the whole day long, but a composition of this kind goes out into the world, and naturally I do not want to have cause to be ashamed of my name on the title page".
R.G.Bratby, 2000
Copyright Classical Notes.co.uk 2000
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