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Mozart once remarked, "I have learned from Haydn how to write quartets." Inspired by Haydn's six quartets Op. 33 ("Russian"), between 1782 and 1785 Mozart composed six quartets, which he dedicated to his friend. He followed Haydn's lead in conceiving the string quartet as a four-part discourse, shared by all the instruments; however, as Alfred Einstein notes, "Mozart did not allow himself to be overcome. This time he learned as a master from a master; he did not imitate, he yielded nothing of his own personality."

The "Hunt" (Jagd in the original German) is the fourth, and perhaps the most popular, of Mozart's "Haydn" quartets. Not original with Mozart, the nickname refers to the first movement's opening fanfare, which some listeners identify with the sound of hunting horns. Robert Greenberg points out that some musical nicknames, the "Jupiter," for example, strike exactly the right note to identify the music, but not the "Hunt." This nickname, he explains, "has not the faintest connection with hunting ... draws the listener away from the many distinct merits of the quartet." Melvin Berger agrees: "The sound of the two violins which introduce the quartet" is "a far cry from the ringing tones of a brace of hunting horns."

Playful and good-humored, the first movement offers surprises in Mozart's creative use of sonata form. A well-worked-out first theme is followed by second theme that Berger describes as little more than "a shake -- a slow, measured back-and-forth trill ... tossed about from player to player in a game of musical catch." The development section typically plays with the themes of the exposition, but this one, unusually short, begins with a new singing melody; only fragments of the exposition appear. In a final surprise, the movement ends with a long coda; based on themes from the exposition, it functions more as a second development than a coda.

The first movement appears almost as a prelude to the two middle movements, which Greenberg believes are "the most striking in the quartet" (Greenberg). Mozart reverses the expected order, placing the minuet before the slow movement. Minuets often are pleasant interludes between more serious movements; however, here "Mozart suffuses this minuet with rare expressive power." For Berger the minuet's "carefully measured phrases" conjure "visions of nobles carefully working their way through the intricate moves of this poised, dignified dance." In the light airy trio, a "perfect foil for the heavier Menuetto," he envisions the dancers "sur les pointes."

The Adagio begins simply, after which the first violin "spins a long grieving melodic line that grows more ornate as it develops." Although the movement belongs mostly to the first violin, the other "voices shade and merge with the leading voice, sometimes murmuring in the background, sometimes deftly trading parts of the melodic line." Following the Adagio, the Allegro assai returns to the cheerful mood of the first movement. Its three themes are mixed, matched, and modified in the development, and a concentrated recap brings the quartet to a bright close (Greenberg).

Shostakovich's late string quartets are known for their dark, brooding nature, often reflecting a preoccupation with death. Sigrid Neef tells us that by the time Shostakovich came to write the fourteenth string quartet in 1973 he was sixty-seven years old and lived between two extremes. On the one hand his health was failing; a degenerative muscular disorder and his incomplete recovery from a 1966 heart attack resulted in long stays in the hospital. Many of his oldest and dearest friends had died, been deported, or emigrated. As the epigraph suggests, he was well aware of the transitory nature of human life. On the other hand, his problems were balanced by his popularity as a composer, leading to numerous trips abroad.

Shostakovich dedicated a string quartet to each of the members of the Beethoven Quartet, which had premiered all of quartets except the first; he dedicated the fourteenth quartet to cellist Sergei Shirinsky (1903-1974). The cello is featured throughout: in the droll opening theme, numerous solo passages, and duets for cello and first violin. Structurally the quartet consists of three movements of similar duration; two Allegrettos frame a central Adagio. Its musical style is unusual, one critic observes: although "the typical lamenting and angry Shostakovich styles are never far away, there are moments of peace and striking beauty." Another unusual feature is the number of solo passages for all the players.

The opening Allegretto begins with a wandering motive in the cello. Robert Matthews-Walker observes that the entire material for the quartet derives from the first six bars in which a repeated F-sharp in the first violin accompanies the "quirky, almost child-like theme" in the cello. The second thematic group begins in the first violin. The unusual development consists of what Walker-Matthews describes as four workings out of the opening themes in duets, trios, and "textural spatial effects." After a long cadenza-like cello solo, the movement dances into silence.

The mood changes sharply in the romantic Adagio; in ternary form, it is much leaner than the preceding movement. The bleak, somber opening theme, which contains all the twelve notes of the chromatic scale, belongs to the solo first violin. Then, all four instruments play, followed by another first violin solo, which is joined by the cello playing the first theme. The movement grows denser as Shostakovich freely employs the passacaglia technique in which a single melody (a "ground") migrates unchanged through all the voices. The music grows to an intense climax then returns to the lonely music and texture of the opening bars to close the movement.

Shostakovich proceeds without pause into the final Allegretto in which he quotes music from his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (1934), a work which Joseph Way explains was denounced in Pravda in 1936, precipitating the first of Shostakovich's difficulties with the Stalinist regime. The musical quotation is a romantic theme associated with the title character's love for Serezha, an affectionate name for Sergei; the vocal text, "Serezha, my dear! My dear!" is a message from Shostakovich to the dedicatee. The opening gives way to a highly energetic sequence in which, one critic says, "thematic bits ricochet between the instruments." A series of episodes follow, some harsh and strident, some lyrical and tender. Near the end, the cello sings the opening theme of the Adagio, and the music fades into silence.

Although he devoted his early years as a composer to other genres, Schumann always intended to write chamber music. He affirmed his intentions in a letter to Clara in 1838: "The piano is getting too narrow for me. In composing now I often hear a lot of things I can barely suggest" on the piano.

A well-known music critic, Schumann made two demands of the composer of string quartets: "First, the proper quartet should avoid symphonic furore and aim rather for a conversational tone in which everyone has something to say. Second the composer must possess an intimate knowledge of the genre's history, but should strive to produce more than mere imitations of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven" (Grove's Musical Dictionary). In Op. 41 Schumann follows his own demands; critics and composers received them favorably. While the first two are more technical, the third is more lyrical and emotionally intense.

Following a slow and dreamy preamble, the first movement's tender, plaintive theme appears, set against a syncopated accompaniment and sounding "as though it was inspired by Beethoven in one of his sunnier moments" (Myers). This theme is characterized by the interval of a descending fifth, as is the lyrical second theme, first heard in the cello. After a succinct development section devoted almost entirely to the first theme, the recapitulation begins atypically with the second theme. The coda returns to the first theme, the last two notes on the cello echoing the descending fifth to bring the movement full circle.

Berger describes the scherzo as "one of the most imaginative and ingenious movements in the chamber music repertoire." It is a theme, four variations, and a coda but with a twist: the theme is not presented at the beginning of the movement. Schumann presents three variations, after which the tempo slows, and the simple theme appears in canon between the first violin and viola. A final variation and coda complete the movement.

Both the long aria-like first theme of the Adagio and the second theme are reminiscent of Schumann's songs. During the movement each player is given a solo role. A beautiful moment occurs in the return of the first theme when the melody is set against a plucked accompaniment in the lower strings. The representation of musical ideas in the Adagio are rhapsodic, Berger explains; they are "shaped more by content than any prescribed formal construct."

The Finale is a rondo, its jocular theme interrupted with a wealth of melody in the alternating sections (Myers). The rondo theme is sharp and restless with characteristically Schumannesque dotted rhythms. Its thirteen separate and clearly delineated sections may be mapped this way: ABACAD- ABACAD-Coda. In the coda, Berger says, Schumann "whips the original tune up into a furious climactic finish."