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INTÉGRALE DES QUATUORS À CORDES 33
His sequences of quartets would be
separated from each other by long
interruptions. This explains why their
developments are so striking.
A decade passed. In 1785, his new sequence of quartets was completed (K387,
K421, K428, K458, K464 and K465). Mozart dedicated them to the master at
Eszterháza, confessing in Italian in the accompanying letter that they were
the fruit of a long and laborious effort: “I beg you to look with indulgence
on the defects that the biased eye of a father may have overlooked” (Mozart
speaks of his quartets as his children). Intellectual play had taken over from
adolescent self-entertainment. The last quartet in the sequence, in C major,
“Dissonance”, did not spare the audience some harmonic scraping, thereby
distracting them from the astounding quality of the melodies.
From this date, the quartet was no longer merely an extension of the
cassations and divertimenti commissioned by the rich and powerful for
their private receptions. It had become a condensation of the sounds and
expression of the orchestra.
The string quartet combined all the virtues
from the double bass to the piccolo without
the inconvenience of the cost.