Wolfgang Amadé Mozart, String Quartet K 499 in D major - Professor Roger Parker and the Badke Quartet

Franz Anton Hoffmeister was in Vienna during Mozart's time in the city, and was a personal friend of the composer; hence the attachment of his name to this quartet, which comes directly after the six "Haydn" quartets and was composed in 1786. Mozart's quartet vision was ever-expanding, in particular into further explorations of counterpoint (in the second, minuet movement) and into the detailed filigree of the Haydn-influenced slow movement. This is a part of a series of lectures in which Professor Roger Parker resumes his collaboration with the award-winning Badke Quartet. Each of the six lectures is dedicated to a major work in the string quartet repertory. The focus this year will be on works written in Vienna in the years around 1800; three by Joseph Haydn, two by Wolfgang Amadé Mozart and one by Beethoven. Each session will begin with a lecture introducing the historical background and discussing the special nature of the quartet in question, and conclude with a complete performance of the work by the Badke Quartet. All our lectures are available for free download from the Gresham College website, in video, audio or text formats: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Gresham College professors and guest speakers have been giving free public lectures in central London since 1597. This tradition continues today and you can attend any of our lectures, or watch or listen to them on our website. Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gresham-College/14011689941