The Emerson Quartet and Kim Kashkashian perform Mozart (II/II)

After over four decades of international success and nine Grammy Awards, the Emerson Quartet—who scheduled their final concerts in October 2023—are known as one of the greatest ensembles of their generation. In 1989, they joined American violist Kim Kashkashian, a fellow Grammy winner known for the lyrical beauty of her interpretations, in a performance of Mozart’s String Quartets Nos. 3 and 4, often viewed as the pinnacle of his chamber music output and written in the same year as Don Giovanni.

In May 1787, less than a month after composing the joyful Quintet No. 3 in C Major, Mozart completed this haunting counterpart: the Quintet No. 4 in G Minor, a marked contrast to its predecessor. From the beginning of the piece, dissonances create a despairing atmosphere, as if the fear of death—cast aside as he composed the C major quintet—had returned in full force. The quintet's deeply personal, almost confessional nature, coupled with the ingenuity of its structure and composition, make it a particularly poignant work, one of Mozart's most tragic and indelible masterpieces.