To finish we return to the string quintet in its Mozartian format of two violins, two violas and cello.
In 1787 Mozart produced two string quintets, K.515 in C and K.516 in g. We started out with the sometime dark and troubled world of the g minor work. Its (slightly) elder sibling in C is a more serene affair – a contrast that was to reoccur three years later in the composer’s two last symphonies, No. 40 in g and 41 in C.
0:00 Allegro
13:30 Andante
18:52 Minuetto, Allegretto
27:17 Allegro
This quintet is the result of Dvořák spending his Summer holiday of 1893 with his family in the Czech community of Spillville, Iowa. It was an idyllic setting to which Dvořák responded with two major works, a string quartet in F – now known as ‘The American’ – and this quintet in E-flat. Both works meld Czech with native and African American musical influences with felicitous results.
0:06 Allegro ma non tanto
10:04 Allegro vivo
16:17 Larghetto
27:56 Allegro giusto
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Iaago
The Art of Listening 