String Quintet No. 2 (Mozart)

Having completed the two string quintets K. 515 and K. 516, Mozart created a third by arranging his Serenade No.

The arrangement is so successful that Richard Wigmore asserts, in his sleeve notes to the recording by the Nash Ensemble that "without prior knowledge few would guess that the work was not conceived for string quintet, even if the textures (except in the minuet) are generally simpler, less polyphonic than in K515 and 516".

[3] The work is in standard four movement form: Mozart contrasts the stark opening theme with a lyrical second subject in the relative major – E flat.

In the string quintet version, he inserts a chromatic note into the descending scale motif, and adjusts the rhythm to accommodate it.

The last movement is a set of variations which, Wigmore [3] points out, often treats the theme quite freely.