String Quintet No. 4 in G Minor, K. 516

The viola may be the punch line for many musical jokes today, but Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart loved the viola. In addition to his famous Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola and several duos for the same combination of instruments, all six of his extant string quintets were written for two violins, two violas, and a cello. Why might he have favored the instrument? Due to its acoustic imperfection, its muted tone provides a warm sound that balances the sharpness of the violin and the resonance of the cello, and with two on hand, this is even more evident. Second, he was an accomplished violist and often preferred taking the instrument when playing chamber music with friends. The String Quintet No. 4 in G Minor, K. 516, is one of two he completed in spring 1787—fourteen years after his previous effort in the genre. (It is thought that he composed K. 516 and its companion, K. 515 in C Major, as a contrasting pair, much like his Symphonies Nos. 40 in G Minor and 41 in C Major.)

Throughout the String Quintet No. 4, Mozart uses violas to bridge the sonic gap between the cello and the violin. The Allegro opens in the expected dramatic key of G Minor but quickly retreats to the major, setting up a contrast between dark and light. Interestingly, the opening movement ends more unsettled than it began, foreshadowing the unusual minuet that ensues. Far from courtly elegance, Mozart throws out stabbing accents that flirt with restrained anguish—and the trio section offers only a brief moment of repose from the disquietude. The Allegro ma non troppo almost becomes a story unto its own, complete with a remarkable duet for violin and viola. But Mozart reserves his heights of genius for the concluding Adagio—Allegro, which begins with a much more conventional slow movement that paves the way for a highly unorthodox conclusion in G Major, the music’s lively, carefree, and exhilarating mood banishing the darkness that has come before.