Hoffmeister Quartet and Prussian Quartets-Over the next few years all 26 of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's String Quartets will be published by Henle in an Urtext Edition of both score and parts. All previous editions have left much to be desired for example asconcerns the correct placement of dynamic markings.Henle's edition made with the artistic collaboration of the Armida Quartet draws upon the large body of modern knowledge concerning Mozart philology andperformance practice. We begin with what are chronologically speaking the final four quartets: the so-called 'Hoffmeister' Quartet K. 499 and the three 'Prussian' Quartets K. 575 589 and590.

Three arrangements including Ave Verum Corpus and the Lacrimosa from the Requiem.During the year 1771 when Mozart was 15 years old he and his father Leopold were touring Italy which was at that time the most formidable citadel of the music world. In the following four years the young Mozart was received at the homes and villas of Italy's aristocracy. He met the most famous musicians of the time including Niccolo Piccinni operatic rival to Gluck and Padre Martini from whom he was to benefit from studies in counterpoint. He also met many noted male soprano singers and for one the celebrated Venanzio Rauzzini he wrote in 1773 the motet Exsultate Jubilate from whichcomes the well known Alleluia.At the end of his life only 19 years later in Vienna 1791 Mozart was very ill and working on a number of massive works such as the operas The Magic Flute and Titus also the Requiem. Titus was completed in 18 nerve-shattering days as it had to be performed in Prague in September 1791. At its premiere it was a complete flop. This affected the now overworked almost penniless composer's spirit and he returned to Vienna suffering from mental and physical exhaustion. Rest was denied him. The Magic Flute had to be finished for its premier on September 30th 1791. The task of the Requiem still faced him. In this weakened state Mozart thought that he was in fact writing his own requiem reading evil omens into the commissioning of the work. He thought someone had calculated the precise time of his death and was thus troubled with sombre thoughts. He completed the first two of the twelve parts. The next six parts were in an unfinished state and his manuscript ceased at the Lacrimosa. Süssmayer who was working closely with Mozart at the time was given the task of finishing the Requiem.Ave Verum Corpus is also one of his final works. It is a setting of an anonymous hymn written as a motet for Anton Stoll the choirmaster at Baden in June 1791.Mozart was a composer of great genius who

After Volumes IV and III of the series with Mozartâ??s complete string quartets appeared as Henle Urtext editions in early 2017 and 2019 respectively Mozart expert Wolf-Dieter Seiffert now presents Volume II â?? in full score and individual parts. Included are the â??Early Viennese Quartetsâ? from 1773 K. 168â??173. Entries in the autograph manuscript by the composerâ??s father Leopold however suggest that the ordering of the six works into a unified series of quartets was his doing. In his preface Wolf-Dieter Seiffert shares brand-new findings on the actual chronology of the genesis of these quartets. Moreover he succeeds in correcting what in prior editions were occasionalinaccuracies in dynamics and articulation thereby producing a new assured musical text. With artistic input from the Armida Quartet Volume II of the String Quartets also sets the benchmark in the Mozart Edition! After Volumes IV and III of the series with Mozartâ??s complete string quartets appeared as Henle Urtext editions in early 2017 and 2019 respectively Mozart expert Wolf-Dieter Seiffert now presents Volume II â?? in full score and individual parts. Included are the â??Early Viennese Quartetsâ? from 1773 K. 168â??173. Entries in the autograph manuscript by the composerâ??s father Leopold however suggest that the ordering of the six works into a unified series of quartets was his doing. In his preface Wolf-Dieter Seiffert shares brand-new findings on the actual chronology of the genesis of these quartets. Moreover he succeeds in correcting what in prior editions were occasionalinaccuracies in dynamics and articulation thereby producing a new assured musical text. With artistic input from the Armida Quartet Volume II of the String Quartets also sets the benchmark in the Mozart Edition!

Italian Quartets Salzburg Divertimenti. This volume brings together Mozart?s youthful attempts at this later so central genre of the string quartet: the astonishing ?Lodi Quartet? K. 80 by the only fourteen-year-old composer, the three ?Quartet-Divertimenti? K. 136?138 which are also readily played by chamber orchestras, and Mozart?s first true string-quartet cycle K. 155?160 which was composed during his third (north-)Italian journey in 1772/73. Mozart?s cleanly written scores of all the compositions have been preserved so that the edition stands on a secure foundation. In his informative commentary, Wolf-Dieter Seiffert, the experienced Mozart editor at G. Henle Publishers, devotes a separate, comprehensive explanatory section to the well-known articulation problem ?dot or wedge?. The Armida Quartet provided artistic input for this edition.

In his youth Mozart produced two authentic cycles of six string quartets: K.155 160 (Nos.2 7) and K.168 173 (Nos.8 13). Together with their forerunner the so-called ?Lodi? Quartet K.80 (No.1) this adds up to a total of thirteen juvenile quartets all of which may be regarded as early prototypes of their genre.- Urtext of the New Mozart Edition- Parts Books 1-4 BA4847-BA4850 & study score format 16.5 x 22.5cm TP318 available for sale