Cast
Orford String Quartet
Program notes
An invitation to plunge into the Age of Enlightenment to experience the unbridled world of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Far from pieces of convenience composed for an aristocratic audience or easy works intended to an amateur public, the genre of the string quartet has always been for Mozart the privileged mean to express his personal feelings. Intended to the "happy few" – to use Stendhal's expression – the six quartets dedicated to Haydn rest on an dense polyphonic composition, an elaborated form, and an outstanding dramatic intensity.
Among these six string quartets, the String Quartet No. 15 in D Minor, K. 421 holds however an unusual position. Firstly, it is Mozart's only string quartet composed in a Minor mode. Secondly, a biographical detail given by Mozart's wife, Constanze, sheds a special light on this work. According to her, the String Quartet No. 15 in D Minor, K. 421 was composed during the night she gave birth to their first child, Raimund Leopold.
Through the story of this outstanding quartet, the movie director Raymond Saint-Jean unveils key aspects of the composer's intimate life.