It’s been nearly twenty years since the Emerson String Quartet last recorded music by Mozart, so this new recording of the three “Prussian” quartets (works that the Emersons used to play in their early days) is most welcome.
A 1789 visit to the court of King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia (an amateur cellist) resulted in the King offering Mozart a job at court. Mozart turned down the gig in deference to the Emperor in Vienna, but did (according to his own account) leave with a commission for a set of six quartets for the King.
