Mozart's String Quartets dedicated to Haydn

The string quartet with two violins, one viola and one cello is one of the greatest vehicles for great music. From around 1770 until 1828 the medium served as one where Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert often composed the kind of intimate and personal music that made a change from the music they wrote for the gallery, the opera house, or for the court. Not until Shostakovich in the mid twentieth century did the string quartet reach such personal and intimate heights. (As always, there were, however, exceptions to this including Janacek's two string quartets, and Mendelssohn's quartet in F minor Opus 80.)

I have been re-listening to the six quartets Mozart dedicated to Haydn; along with Mozart's five string quintets, they are among the greatest music he ever wrote and underline his absolute right to one of the places on the podium of supreme composers of all time. I chose the recordings made in 1962 by the old Juilliard Quartet, full-throated performances lovingly played from an era before the more anaemic sounds of the “period pratice” string quartets began to take over. Mozart would have loved the recording, I suspect. These CD transfers are from the French Diapason company. Published in 1785, the quartets show Mozart revelling in his compositional skills; 235 years after their first publication, the six works still amaze and enthral every time I listen to them.