String Quintet No. 6 (Mozart)

The String Quintet No. 6 in E-flat major, K. 614, was completed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on April 12, 1791. It is Mozart's last major chamber work. Like all of Mozart's string quintets, it is a "viola quintet" in that it is scored for string quartet and an extra viola (two violins, two violas and cello.)

The work is in standard four movement form:

• I. Allegro di molto ⁶
  ₈ in E-flat major
• II. Andante in B-flat major
• III. Menuetto: Allegretto ³
  ₄ in E-flat major, with trio in E-flat major
• IV. Allegro ²
  ₄ in E-flat major

This quintet, along with the contemporary string quintet K593, are often dismissed as second-rate works reflecting the composer's straightened circumstances towards the end of his life. However, Eisen makes the point that rather than reflecting the "Classical" ideal, they are a new path for Mozart, one which eschews surface variety for the exploration of a single motivating idea that determines both the surface and structure of the work.^[1] While the slow movement is apparently a theme and variations, Eisen points out that it also takes on the characteristics of a rondo and of a sonata.

• Melvin Berger, "Guide to Chamber Music", 2001, Dover

•  Quintett in Es: Score and critical report (in German) in the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe
• String Quintet No. 6: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• Performance of String Quintet No. 6 by the Musicians from Marlboro from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in MP3 format

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