View source for Divertimento for String Trio (Mozart)

{{Short description|1788 composition by W. A. Mozart}}
{{use dmy dates|date=September 2024}}
[[File:Mozart drawing Doris Stock 1789.jpg|thumb|Stock's 1789 miniature of Mozart]]
The '''Divertimento in E{{music|flat}} major''', [[Köchel catalogue|K.]] 563, is a [[string trio]], written by [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]] in [[1788 in music|1788]], the year in which he completed his [[List of symphonies by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|last three symphonies]] (nos. 39–41) and his [[Piano Concerto No. 26 (Mozart)|"Coronation" Piano Concerto]]. It is his last [[divertimento]] and different from [[List of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart#Divertimenti|his other divertimenti]] not only in its instrumentation but also in its compositorial ambition and scope.<ref name=Freed /><ref name=Einstein />

The work was completed in Vienna on 27 September 1788 and is dedicated to [[Michael von Puchberg]], a friend and fellow [[Mozart and Freemasonry|Freemason]], who lent money to Mozart.<ref name=Freed>{{cite web|url=https://www.kennedy-center.org/artist/composition/3208|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190930101740/https://www.kennedy-center.org/artist/composition/3208|archive-date=30 September 2019|title=Divertimento in E-flat major for String Trio, K. 563 – About the Work|type=program note|publisher=[[Kennedy Center]]|author=[[Richard Freed]]}}</ref> The premiere was in Dresden on April 13, 1789, with [[Anton Teyber]] taking the violin part, Mozart playing viola and [[Antonín Kraft]] playing cello.<ref>{{cite book|last=Berger|first=Melvin|title=Guide to Chamber Music|edition=3rd, corrected|pages=310–312|publisher=Dover|location=Mineola, New York|year=2001|isbn=9780486418797}}</ref> At the time Mozart was conducting a tour of German cities, on his way to Berlin (see [[Mozart's Berlin journey]]).

==Movements==

The work is in six [[Movement (music)|movements]]:

{{Ordered list|type=upper-roman
|[[Tempo#Italian tempo markings|Allegro]] ([[E-flat major|E{{music|flat}} major]], [[sonata form]], {{music|time|4|4}})
|[[Tempo#Italian tempo markings|Adagio]] ([[A-flat major|A{{music|flat}} major]], sonata form, {{music|time|3|4}})
|[[Minuet|Menuetto]] ([[Tempo#Italian tempo markings|Allegretto]]) – Trio (E{{music|flat}} major, [[ternary form]], {{music|time|3|4}})
|[[Tempo#Italian tempo markings|Andante]] ([[B-flat major|B{{music|flat}} major]], theme and 7 [[Variation (music)|variations]] "intertwined", {{music|time|2|4}}) The first 8 measures are the first phrase of the theme; the next 8 are first phrase of Variation 1; {{Abbr|mm.|measures}} 17–32 give the conclusion of the theme; and mm. 33–48 the conclusion of Variation 1. This pattern of treating the Variations in pairs continues with Variations 2 and 3 in mm. 49–96 and Variations 4 and 5 in mm. 97–144. The 6th variation, in [[B-flat minor|B{{music|flat}} minor]], is contrapuntal and chromatic, and the 7th returns us triumphantly to B{{music|flat}} major, with the skeleton of the theme in the viola. This last variation melts seamlessly into a very brief coda which concludes the movement.
|Menuetto (Allegretto) – Trio I – Trio II (E{{music|flat}} major, [[rondo form]], with the first trio in A{{music|flat}} major and the second trio in B{{music|flat}} major, {{music|time|3|4}})
|Allegro (E{{music|flat}} major, [[sonata rondo form]], {{music|time|6|8}})
}}

Recorded performances of the Divertimento range from 41 to 50 minutes.

==Critical reception==
As [[Alfred Einstein]] wrote in ''Mozart: His Character, His Work'' (and as excerpted in the notes to a [[John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts|Kennedy Center]] performance), Mozart's only completed string trio shares with most divertimenti this six-movement format, but from that no lightness of tone should be understood – rather, "it is a true chamber-music work, and grew to such large proportions only because it was intended to offer ... something special in the way of art, invention, and good spirits. ... Each instrument is ''[[primus inter pares]]'', every note is significant, every note is a contribution to spiritual and sensuous fulfilment in sound." Einstein called it "one of his noblest works".<ref name=Einstein>{{Cite book|last=Einstein|first=Alfred|author-link=Alfred Einstein|oclc=511324|title=Mozart: His Character, His Work|date=1962|publisher=Oxford University Press|translator1=[[Arthur Mendel]]|translator2=Nathan Broder|isbn=0-19-500732-8|location=New York|page=139}}</ref>

Early performances of the work, however, were greeted with less enthusiasm. Tully Potter, in his notes to a recording, reports that when the Philharmonic String Trio of London performed the work in 1936, "that pompous old Wagnerian [[Ernest Newman]] reported that 'the work is over-long, and some of it mere music-spinning of the conventional eighteenth-century type'. He did, however, concede that 'the Adagio is an impressive piece of work'&thinsp;".<ref>Tully Potter's liner notes to {{Discogs release|27306507|name=Mozart: Duos for Violin and Viola, Divertimento in E flat, KV 563}}, Decca 480 704 (2014)</ref> However, Potter also reports that when members of the [[Busch Quartet]] performed it in Basel in 1931, the painter [[Alfred Heinrich Pellegrini]] was so impressed that he made a painting of the performance.

Mozart's Divertimento in E[[E-flat major|{{music|flat}}]] major is "one of a kind", according to the notes to an [[Emerson String Quartet]] performance.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20061001041904/http://www.ums.org/pdfs/programs/Emerson_Programbook.pdf Notes to a concert] of the [[Emerson String Quartet]] by Peter Laki</ref> However, it is not the first work written for string trio; for example [[Wenzel Pichl]] published six trios for violin, viola and cello written at least five years earlier.<ref>{{IMSLP|cname=6 String Trios (Pichl, Vaclav)|work=6 String Trios (Pichl, Vaclav)}}</ref>{{Relevance inline|date=September 2024}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{NMA|181|121|182|63|{{noitalic|Divertimento (Streichtrio) in Es für Violine, Viola und Violoncello KV 563}}}}
*{{IMSLP|work=Divertimento in E-flat major, K.563 (Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus)|cname=Divertimento in E-flat major, K. 563}}
* [https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb11155545?page=3/ Divertimento for String Trio, K. 563]: [[Artaria]] edition (ca. 1792) at the [[Bavarian State Library]]
*{{YouTube|id=AqWaW0-5wYA|title=Mozart: Divertimento for string trio E-flat major, K.563}}, performed by members of the Takeuchi String Quartet.

{{Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart}}
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[[Category:Serenades and divertimenti by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]]
[[Category:Compositions for string trio]]
[[Category:1788 compositions]]
[[Category:Compositions in E-flat major]]
[[Category:Music dedicated to benefactors or patrons]]