String Duo No. 1 (Mozart)
Encyclopedia
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

's String Duo No. 1 in G major for violin and viola, K. 423, the first of the two Mozart wrote to complete Michael Haydn
Michael Haydn
Johann Michael Haydn was an Austrian composer of the classical period, the younger brother of Joseph Haydn.-Life:...

's set of six for the Archbishop Colloredo
Count Hieronymus von Colloredo
Count Hieronymus Joseph Franz de Paula Graf Colloredo von Wallsee und Melz was Prince-Bishop of Gurk from 1761 and Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg from 1771 until 1803, when the Archbishopric was secularized.-Life:He was the second son of Count Rudolf Wenzel Joseph Colloredo von Wallsee und Melz , a...

, was written in the summer of 1783. It is in three movements:
  1. Allegro, common time
  2. Adagio, C major
    C major
    C major is a musical major scale based on C, with pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature has no flats/sharps.Its relative minor is A minor, and its parallel minor is C minor....

    , 3/4
  3. Rondeau: Allegro, cut time


While both Mozart's and Haydn's duos give the viola lots of double stops, Mozart's duos differ in that the viola also gets many passages in sixteenths, almost in equal proportion to the violin. H. C. Robbins Landon
H. C. Robbins Landon
Howard Chandler Robbins Landon was an American musicologist.He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and studied music at Swarthmore College and Boston University. He subsequently moved to Europe where he worked as a music critic. From 1947 he undertook research in Vienna on Joseph Haydn, a composer...

 notes in particular of K. 423 that Mozart had retained the knowledge he gained in writing the String Quartet in G major
String Quartet No. 14 (Mozart)
The String Quartet No. 14 in G major, K. 387, nicknamed the "Spring" quartet, was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1782 while in Vienna. In the composer's inscription on the title page of the autograph score is stated: "li 31 di decembre 1782 in vienna". The work was perhaps edited in 1783...

, K. 387 (the finale of which was in turn influenced by Haydn's Symphony No. 23
Symphony No. 23 (Michael Haydn)
Michael Haydn's Symphony No. 23 in D major, Perger 43, Sherman 22, Sherman-adjusted 23, MH 287, is believed to have been written in Salzburg around 1779. It was attributed to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Ludwig von Köchel's original catalog as K. 291....

).

The set of six was presented as all Haydn's, and Colloredo was unable to "detect in them Mozart's obvious workmanship."

By transposing the viola part an octave down and changing to bass clef, the piece is readily playable on cello. Werner Rainer edited such a transcription for Verlag Doblinger.

The G major Duo is almost always paired with the B-flat major Duo
String Duo No. 2 (Mozart)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's String Duo No. 2 in B-flat major for violin and viola, K. 424, the second of the two Mozart wrote to complete Michael Haydn's set of six for the Archbishop Colloredo, was written in the summer of 1783...

, K. 424. The Hungaroton label has a 2-CD set of the Mozart and Haydn duos with Barnabas Kelemen and Katalin Kokas. The Avie label prefers to put Mozart's duos (played by Phillipe Graffin and Nobuko Imai) on a 2-CD set with other pieces by Mozart, such as the Violin Concerto in G, K. 216
Violin Concerto No. 3 (Mozart)
The Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K. 216, was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Salzburg in 1775. Mozart was only 19 at the time.- Movements :The piece is in three movements:AllegroAdagioRondeau. Allegro- I. Allegro :...

, and the Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat major, K. 364
Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra
The Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra in E-flat major, K. 364 , was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.At the time of its composition in 1779, Mozart was on a tour of Europe that included Mannheim and Paris...

. The Odeum Guitar Duo has recorded a transcription of K. 423 for two guitars, available as an MP3 download for Pepsi points.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK