Bernard Chasan wrote:

>Ron Chaplin writes:
>
>>It seems to me that Schubert put much more into his quartet than Mozart,
>>which seem facile, almost knock-offs compared to the Schubert.
>>
>>Soooooo, I was wondering if it would be a useful exercise to discuss which
>>genre (orchestral, instrumental, chamber, vocal, opera, etc.) a composer
>>excelled in.  Which form should I listen to begin to really experience the
>>essence of the composers work?
>
>No comment on the Mozart evaluation - with which I do not at all agree.
>On Schubert, Death and the Maiden and the very different driving, almost
>relentless opus 161 are indeed magnificent.\

To which I'd add the Quartet No. 13 in a minor, Op. 29, D. 804 (Rosamonde),
the Quartetsatz in c minor, D. 703 and the sublime Quintet in C, Op. 163,
D. 956.

As to the Mozart "Haydn" Quartets, I've given up rising to Mozart's defense
on this list.  I probably wouldn't argue the virtues of antibiotics to a
Christian Scientist either.  Mozart needs no champions but has always had
them from Wagner and Tchaikowsky in the last century to almost every
composer of prominence in this.

Walter Meyer