Quartet No. 16 in E-flat, K. 428/421b: one of the six quartets Mozart dedicated to his friend and mentor, Josef Haydn.

Unusually for Mozart, whose facility in composition was legendary, he, himself, described these six works as ‘the fruit of a long and laborious endeavour’ a claim borne out by their being three years in the making and autograph scores which show obvious signs of the aforesaid ‘laborious endeavour’. The music itself, however, doesn’t:

1. Allegro non troppo
2. Andante con moto
3. Menuet : Allegro et trio
4. Allegro vivace

Score