When he moved to Vienna in 1781, Mozart learnt Haydn’s Quartets Op. 33, and everything changed. He then composed a quartet that became known as the Spring Quartet, due to the jovial serenity that runs through it. It was a clear demonstration of competence on the part of a young adult who wanted to assert himself beyond the reputation of a child prodigy that still haunted him. After spring and another century on the other side of the Atlantic, it was in a mild summer surrounded by nature that Dvořák composed the American Quartet. He had settled in New York in 1892 and was enjoying a holiday in Iowa, where he visited a community of immigrants who were his compatriots. Beyond the music of Bohemia, black spirituals and the song of the red sandpiper, a bird native to the region, resound.
Mozart & Dvořák
Metropolitana’s Soloists
W. A. Mozart String Quartet No. 14, (A Haydn) Springtime
A. Dvořák String Quartet No. 12, Americano
Mariana Moita, Luis Tonicher violins, Leonel Andrade viola, Alessio Cunha cello
[Students from the Advanced Orchestral Performance Internship/Postgraduate Programme]
