“The simpler is the more difficult,” says Danish composer Carl Nielsen. In music, writing in a simple way requires extraordinary skills. The greatest composers in history agree on the need, rather than to add, to remove notes and useless virtuosity, to finally arrive at a work that expresses his message in purity and simplicity.
In this sense, Mozart's work is truly an admirable example: very few like him have managed to recreate atmospheres with a handful of notes and very simple materials.
An example of this are the six string quartets dedicated to Haydn, the spiritual “father” of Viennese classicism, of which the one presented this evening is the last. The curious subtitle "Le dissonanze" is not by Mozart, but was later attributed to the quartet, in reference to the slow introduction of the first movement, which contains some incredible harmonic boldness. The quartet initially seems contradictory and mysterious, until the various melodic searches of the instruments lead with surprising simplicity to the main theme, which shines for its linearity. Precisely the skilful fusion of complexity and lightness makes this quartet one of the most beautiful of Mozart's entire production.
The Quintet for clarinet and strings is one of the happiest chamber music creations for an ensemble that will experience great fame in the future. Mozart is a forerunner in this sense, since he chooses an instrument, the clarinet, which has been used for a few decades and therefore still lacking in significant literature. The dialogue that Mozart creates between strings and clarinet is skilfully calibrated: the string quartet often works independently, creating a sound carpet for the evolution of the wind instrument. However, it is not a concert but chamber music, and in fact these "solo" zones are contrasted with sections in which all five instruments dialogue on an equal footing, creating an unpredictable and rich texture.
