Földvári Books

First edition of Mozart’s Piano Quartet No. 2

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus

[Piano Quartet No. 2] Quartetto [Es] Per il Clavicembalo o Forte Piano con l’Accompagnamento d’un Violino, Viola, e Violoncello. Composto dal Sig.r W. A. Mozart Opera 13. [Lower left:] C. P. S. C. M. [Lower right:] 1 fl. 40 kr. [KV 493.]

In Vienna: presso Artaria Compagni, Mercanti ed Editori di Stampe, Musica e Carte Geografiche [PN 111], [1787]. First edition, third issue. Engraved title page forming the cover of the cembalo part; the other parts without covers, as issued. pp. [cemb:] 14; [vl:] [1 (blank)] 2–7 [1 (blank)]; [vla:] [1 (blank)] 2–4 [2 (blank)]; [vlc:] [1 (blank)] 2–4 [2 (blank)]. Spine of cembalo part privately reinforced; faint ownership note in pencil on title; a few early annotations in pencil. Viola part inscribed “Viola” in red pencil on the first (blank) page. All parts lightly foxed, with minor dust-soiling at edges and creased corners. Overall in very good condition.

First edition, lifetime printing of Mozart’s Piano Quartet in E-flat major, KV 493, issued by Artaria in 1787.

This first edition of Mozart’s Quartet in E-flat major was based directly on the now-lost autograph that Mozart entered in his own catalogue on 3 June 1786. The violin part had already been engraved by Franz Anton Hoffmeister, who had planned to issue a series of three piano quartets but abandoned the project following poor sales of the first (KV 478). Artaria acquired this plate and engraved the remaining parts—keyboard, viola, and cello—publishing the complete work under his own imprint. Haberkamp distinguishes four issues of the edition, differing in engraving and paper stock. The mixed origin of the plates accounts for the divergent engraving styles and notational details noted by Haberkamp and Federhofer. The work was first advertised in the Wiener Zeitung on 21 July 1787 (price 1 fl. 30 kr) and again on 19 December 1787 (1 fl. 40 kr).

Composed as a companion to KV 478, this was Mozart’s second and final piano quartet. While conceived within the same formal framework, KV 493 represents a more lyrical counterpart, emphasizing balance of texture and clarity of instrumental dialogue. The Larghetto in A-flat major, remarkable for its chromatic warmth and harmonic fluidity, is among Mozart’s most refined slow movements, while the concluding Rondo extends the concerto-like interplay between piano and strings that would shape the later Viennese piano-quartet tradition.

Extremely scarce: only two copies are recorded in Rare Book Hub (Sotheby’s 2012 and 1959), and institutional examples are few.

References: Haberkamp I, pp. 262–263; NMA VIII/22/Abt. 1 (Kritischer Bericht, H. Federhofer, 1958); RISM MM 6325.

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Price: €15,000.00