Played by The International String Quartet
Mozart wrote his first String Quartet in 1770, at the age of fourteen. He and his father were in the midst of a triumphantly successful tour in Italy, and the lad had already appeared in many countries of Europe as a child prodigy pianist and composer. He had played in most of the big towns in Germany and Austria, in Paris, here in London, in Holland, and in Switzerland, and everywhere the public astonishment at the feats of the youngster and his not much older sister found vent in all manner of enthusiastic tributes. Here in London they had not only given concerts at which many of the pieces were the young Mozart's own, but had advertised in the Press that the public might come and hear the two prodigies in their own rooms 'every day from 12 to 3, admittance two-and-sixpence each person.' Their success in Italy was of the same order; it had already grown to be such a matter of course that the father, writing home, said, 'It is the same here as everywhere, so there is no need to describe it.'
The Quartets of the next group date from 1772 or 1773, and the volume of music which the young man was pouring out may be gauged by the numbers allotted to them in the complete edition of his works. The first Quartet was his eightieth piece, and the thirteenth is number 173, though produced only two or three years later.