Mozart died in Vienna on December 5, 1791. He completed his String Quintet KV 614 on 12 April 1791. At that time he was also composing his Opera, “The Magic Flute”.
One of the fascinating things about this work is its balance between a frankly popular manner (the first movement is seemingly a chase, with the violas imitating hunting horns at the outset) and a natural Mozartian grace and refinement.
The opening Allegro di molto contrasts a prevailing tone of jocular banter with a second theme, proposed by the first violin and repeated by the cello against veiled chromatic counterpoints in the violas.
For his slow movement, Mozart writes a popular-style Romance in gavotte rhythm, of a type familiar elsewhere in Mozart (most famously in Eine kleine Nachtmusik) and also in Haydn.
The fun-filled minuet works its descending scale motif in ever-changing instrumental combinations before the violas finally turn it upside down—a nice witty touch.
The final movement echoes a Haydn work, the E flat String Quartet, No 6, from the set published as Op 64. Brilliant themes for the first violin and brief references to gypsy sounds interact with fugal writing.
Then, near the close, Mozart plays the Haydn trick of casually turning the melody on its head, before the quintet ends in great laughter.
Here is the Quintet KV 614 by Mozart, as performed by the Stradivari Quartet:
