Pieces › Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

String Quartet No. 23 in F major, K. 590

4 movements

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart · 1789–90 · F major · 711 bars · 581 chords analysed

One of the three “Prussian” quartets written for King Friedrich Wilhelm II, a keen cellist — which is why the cello gets so many tunes.

Mozart's 23 quartets include the six he dedicated to Haydn in 1785 — the fruit, he wrote, of “long and laborious effort” — and the three “Prussian” quartets written for a cello-playing king.

Keys visited: F major, C major, G minor, D minor, C minor, G major, E minor.