Chamber music with piano was the most recent of all branches of chamber music in Mozart's time. It was not until the mid-eighteenth century that this type of chamber music was vigorously taken up. Thus it was not until his later years that Mozart wrot...
Chamber music with piano was the most recent of all branches of chamber music in Mozart's time. It was not until the mid-eighteenth century that this type of chamber music was vigorously taken up. Thus it was not until his later years that Mozart wrote chamber music with piano. Mozart left us six Piano Trios K. 254 in B major; K. 496 in G major; K. 502 in B major, K. 542 in E major; K. 548 in C major; K. 564 in G major. Two Piano quartets, K. 487 in G minor (1785) and K. 493 in E Major (1786), and one Piano quintet, K. 452 in E major (1784). In addition, there are two more trios, K. 442 in D minor and Clarinet Trio, K. 498 in E major(1786). The unfinished Piano Trio, K. 442 was later finished and published by Mozart's pupil, Stadler, which has regarded as an uneven in both style and quality, thus excluded in this study. The K. 498 Trio is also excluded because of the unusual conbination in instrumentation, piano, clarinet, viola.
He starts in the traditional way, allowing limited independence to the violin and hardly any to the cello. The first piano trio, K. 254 in B-flat major(1776) was still bears the title, Divertimento. The work shows a prolonged vacillation between the modern style of the trio and certain of its earlier stages. the cello is still bound to the piano part. The decisive step forward was taken only with the G major Trio(K. 496) of 1786, which came out ten years later. The first movement of this trio presents in the development, a dramatic dialogue between cello and piano bass which may have seemed revolutionary to contemporary listeners. The two string instruments carry on a conversation joined at times by the piano. In Finale, there is an Allegro with variations. In the fourth variation in G minor, is one of the most emotional of Mozart's movements. This is obvious from the independent treatment of the cello part alone. But the grouping of piano and strings as separate masses hardly exists, though piano and violin both have their say, as in a violin sonata, while cello again doubles the bass.
The third trio in Bb^b Major, K. 502 was also written in 1786. Here the realization of the new quartet-style, alloting two parts to the string instruments and two to the piano, made further progress. Also one finds the monothematic treatment, that is unusual in the works by Mozart. The whole of the first movement is based on the main theme; only the beginning of the development does a new idea assert itself, but vanishes with equal suddenness. The last movement is again a mixture of sonata and rondo form. The trio displays the same concertato features of brilliance and elegance. Transparency of texture, contrapuntal virtuosity and a melodic idiom imbued with lightness and grace distinguished this work. In 1788, he composed three trios, K. 542 in E Major, K. 548 in C major, and K. 564 in G major. Here the antiphonal writing is far more advanced, though it still sometimes happens that the strings are filled in by an extra voice given to the piano. The doubling of the bass by the cello has almost disappeared.
In conclusion, all of them recall the concerto by the three-movement standard the rondo-finale, and the virtuoso role of the piano. Toward the later period, the significant features of Mozart's instrumental style at that time stand out clearly, particularly in the counterpoint, and in the working-out of themes of secondary importance in the development.