The presenter of a Mozart string quartet this lunchtime(*) announced it breathlessy - and almost with a crescendo roll on drums - as "Mozart's only quartet masterpiece in the key of D minor".
May we now expect to hear his "only quartet masterpieces" in the keys of G major, E flat major, A major, C major and F major too?
It would be quicker of course to say that there are only two duplicated keys in the regular list of WAM's quartet masterpieces (if you allow all ten mature quartets to so rank): B flat K458 (Hunt) and K 589; D major K499 and its immediate neighbour K575.
And if anyone starts adding "masterpieces" from the juvenilia I shall call Hans Keller as my first witness to the contrary. "Is there an ouija board in court yer honour??" For example, "K173 will best be played once and then discarded for good" (The Mozart Companion p101).
(*) The anonymity of the presenter will of course be strictly preserved. Suffice it to say that his initials go rather well after the word "Gibbs"...
EDIT It seems that Keller didn't rate the Hunt quartet as anywhere near a masterpiece. That would leave only one duplicated key and seven 'onlys'...
May we now expect to hear his "only quartet masterpieces" in the keys of G major, E flat major, A major, C major and F major too?
It would be quicker of course to say that there are only two duplicated keys in the regular list of WAM's quartet masterpieces (if you allow all ten mature quartets to so rank): B flat K458 (Hunt) and K 589; D major K499 and its immediate neighbour K575.
And if anyone starts adding "masterpieces" from the juvenilia I shall call Hans Keller as my first witness to the contrary. "Is there an ouija board in court yer honour??" For example, "K173 will best be played once and then discarded for good" (The Mozart Companion p101).
(*) The anonymity of the presenter will of course be strictly preserved. Suffice it to say that his initials go rather well after the word "Gibbs"...
EDIT It seems that Keller didn't rate the Hunt quartet as anywhere near a masterpiece. That would leave only one duplicated key and seven 'onlys'...