<<  -- 2 --  Robert Anderson    TWO VIOLAS

It was in many ways a difficult period for Mozart, not only for financial reasons. At the beginning of April 1787, the month of the C major quintet, his father was seriously ill. In May, while Mozart was at work on the G minor quintet, he died, and the work became a sombre pendant to its companion. The C major, whether one thinks of the opening dialogue between cello and violin, a pressing invitation to the king of Prussia to take part, or the impassioned violin-viola exchanges of the Andante, is expansive and planned on the largest scale. Indeed the first movement hints at the sort of discursiveness that has earned Schubert many a wigging. Yet the development is all concentration [listen -- track 5, 8:09-9:33]. The playing demonstrates the lovely range of tone colours the team can so readily deploy. Perhaps their subtlest playing comes in the Trio section of the Minuetto, but again it is the development of the finale that proves irresistible [listen -- track 8, 4:00-5:00].

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